Pay it forward

Helping another alcoholic is one of the basic tenets of AA. I know that I can't help anyone else until I help myself (get a sponsor, Anne....), but I was able to spread a little AA cheer today, and it makes me feel really good, and really good about the program.

I have a friend of a friend who just decided to get clean and sober. He's got 52 days, and asked me to go to a meeting with him on Sunday. We ended up going to 2, and then 3 yesterday, and one today. We stayed for the marathon yesterday because we both realized we needed a little AA in the day, and each meeting seemed to be on step one or sponsorship.

Anyway, we were talking in between meetings and I asked if he'd read Living Sober yet (remember my good friend the "pamphlet?"). He said, "No. I don't even have any of the books, yet." Well, we had to remedy that. There's a bookstore at the club and we got the woman to open after hours so I could find him a copy. "I don't even have a Big Book." Jesus. What are they teaching at rehab?

So we went through and I got him the Big Book, Living Sober, and a 12x12. He didn't have the money to get them, so I got them for him. Later on, I thought about it: I got all my books for free when I started. I suppose I'm just paying it forward, huh? Anyway, it felt really good to be able to do that for him. I like that now he's at least got the literature.