High Praise for the Charm
of Recovering Alcoholics
There are times when I wish I were an alcoholic.
I mean I wish I were a member of Alcoholics
Anonymous. 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 privilege to meet many people
who are considered charming. I number among my
friends stars and lesser lights on stage and
cinema; writers are my daily diet; I know
ladies and gentlemen of both political parties;
I have been entertained in the White House;
I've broken bread with kings, ambassadors and
ministers; and I say that I would prefer an
evening with my AA friends to any person I've
indicated.
I asked myself why I considered so charming
these alcoholic caterpillars who have found
their butterfly wings in AA. There are more
reasons than one, but I can name a few. The
AA people are what they are, and they are
what they were, because they are sensitive,
imaginative, possessed of a sense of humor,
an awareness of the universal truth. They are
sensitive, which means they are hurt easily,
and that helped them become alcoholics. But
when they found their restoration they are as
sensitive as ever; responsive to the beauty
and the truth and eager about the intangible
glories of this life. That makes them
charming companions.
They are possessed of a sense of universal
truth that is often new in their heart. This
fact that this at-one moment with God's universe
had never been awakened within them is the
reason they drink. They have found a power
greater than themselves, which they diligently
serve. And that gives them a charm that never
was elsewhere on the land and sea; it makes
you know that God is charming, because the AA
people reflect his mercy and forgiveness.
They are imaginative, and that helped make them
alcoholics. Some of them drank to flog their
imaginations onto greater efforts. Others
guzzled only to block out unendurable visions
that arose in their imaginations. But when
they found their restorations, their imagina-
tion is responsive to new incantations and
their talk abounds with color and might, and
that makes them charming companions, too.
They are possessed a sense of humor. Even in
their cups they have known to be damnably
funny. Often it was being forced to take
seriously the little and mean things of life
that made them seek their escape in the bottle.
But when they found their restoration, their
sense of humor finds a blessed freedom and they
are able to laugh at themselves, the very height
of self-conquest. Go to their meetings and
listen to their 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.
by Fulton Oursler
(Fulton Oursler was a magazine editor, religious
author, and Hollywood screenwriter, and was an
early Oxford Group member and friend to AA. He
passed away in the year 1952. His official
relationship with AA is as follows: Sept. 30,
1939, the very popular weekly Liberty Magazine,
headed by Fulton Oursler, carried a piece
titled "Alcoholics and God" by Morris Markey
(who was influenced to write the article by
Charles Towns ). It generated about 800
inquiries from around the nation. Oursler
(author of The Greatest Story Ever Told) became
good friends with Bill W and later served as a
Trustee and member of the Grapevine editorial
board. In Oct. 1949, Dr. William D. Silkworth
and Fulton Oursler joined the Alcoholic
Foundation Board) |