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CHARMING IS
THE WORD FOR ALCOHOLICS
BY
FULTON
OUSLER
Down at the
very bottom of the social scale of AA
society are the
pariahs, the
untouchables, and the outcasts, all
known by one
excoriating
epithet-relatives.
I am a
relative I know my place. I am not
complaining. But I hope no
one minds if
I venture the plaintive confession
that there are times, oh,
many, many,
times when I wish I had been an
alcoholic. By that I mean that
I wish I
were an AA. The reason is that I
consider the AA people the most
charming in
the world.
Such is my
considered opinion. As a journalist
it has been my fortune
to meet many
of the people who are considered
charming. I number among
my friends
stars, and lesser lights of stage and
cinema; writers are my
daily diet.
I know the ladies and gentleman of
both political parties; I
have been
entertained in the White House. I
have broken bread with kings
and
ministers and ambassadors and I say
after that catalog, which could be
extended,
that I would prefer an evening with
my AA friends to any person
or group of
persons I have indicated.
I ask myself
why I consider so charming these
alcoholic caterpillars
who have
found their butterfly wings in
Alcoholics Anonymous. There are
more reasons
than one, but I can name a few.
They are
imaginative, and that helps to make
them alcoholics. Some of
them drank
to flog their ambition on to greater
efforts. Others guzzled
only to
black out unendurable demons that
rose in their imagination. But
when they
have found their restoration, their
imagination is responsive
to new
incantations, and their talk abounds
with color and light, and that
makes them
charming companions too.
The AA
people are what they are, and they
were what they were, because
they are
sensitive, imaginative, possessed of
a sense of humor and
awareness of
universal truth. They are sensitive,
which means they are
hurt easily,
and that helped them to become
alcoholics. But when they
have found
their restoration, they are still as
sensitive as ever; responsive
to beauty
and to truth and eager about the
intangible glories of this life.
That makes
them charming companions.
They are
possessed with a sense of humor. Even
in their cups they have
been known
to say damnable funny things. Often
it was being forced to
take
seriously the little and mean things
of life that make them seek
escape in a
bottle. But when they have found
restoration, their sense
of humor
finds a blessed freedom, and they are
able to reach a godlike
state where
they can laugh at themselves, the
very height of self conquest.
Go to the
meetings and listen to the laughter.
At what are they laughing?
At ghoulish
memories over which weaker souls
would cringe in
useless
remorse. And that makes them
wonderful people to
be with by
candlelight.
And they are
possessed of a sense of universal
truth. That is often a
new thing in
their hearts. The fact that this
at-one-meant with God's
universe had
never been awakened in them is
sometimes the reason
why they
drank. The fact that it was at last
awakened is almost
always the
reason why they were restored to the
good and simple
ways of
life. Stand with them when the
meeting is over, and listen
while they
say the "Our Father." They
have found a power greater
than
themselves which they diligently
serve. And that gives them
a charm that
never was elsewhere on land or sea.
It makes you
know that
God, Himself, is really charming,
because the AA people
reflect His
mercy and His forgiveness.
Liberty
Magazine - 1940
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