Oh man, Uhhuh35, recovering drunks can be worse than drunks.
I believe the term's "dry alcoholic;" someone who quits drinking but retains the same attitudes, the same values, one had while drinking.
I had no idea we could be such rectal apertures, but it's true.
When I was active in AA twenty years ago, I was also the editor of the local AA newsletter. I must say the newsletter improved under my editorship, going from two 11x17 sheets folded in half to six or eight 11x17 sheets folded in half.
And subscriptions from several score up to the low one-thousands.
One time, near the end of my tenure--it was getting to be a hassle, dealing with the petty bitching-and-moaning--I reprinted an article from the Reader's Digest (with consent of course) about the perils of drinking and driving. The article was from 1935, although I disremember the exact month; the title was "And sudden death....."
Geezuz.
I got acquainted with primitives long before Skins's island existed.
There was so much bitchery-and-moanery, because the piece wasn't "AA Conference-Approved" literature. (I'm sure it would've been conference approved if someone had asked the conference, but nobody ever seemed to have.)
Damn, that caused an uproar.
The uproar was inspired by former editors of the newsletter, and the elitists among the local AA; it would be superfluous to add that I was dealing with a whole lot of neurotics here, those leaning or heavily Democrat, liberal, and primitive.
The general ordinary run-of-the-mill everyday average AA members liked what I was doing, and said so often. But there's people who count, and people who don't count.
The furor eventually died down, but there remained, and remains, some hard feelings among those on the other side. I quit doing the newsletter a couple of years after that, after which it considerably diminished, in both size and circulation.
I was always given a sort of "pass" on some things, because others understand that deafness gives one a perception utterly unlike perceptions held by hearing people, and the chasm can't be bridged. If I had been somebody else, the former editors and the elitists probably would've dumped me long before my tenure was up.
And of course I controlled the printing press.
I haven't been active in AA since my first five years there, 1987-1992, but that had nothing to do with AA itself. It's just that not being able to hear, just as with school and college classes, conferences and meetings, all I could ever do was be physically present, but sitting there like a bump on a log.
It was okay, but not great.
AA of course is a fine institution, but like many institutions, it doesn't fit in perfectly, or even somewhat perfectly, with the needs of all. AA gave me the basic ideas, the basic principles, after which I did the same thing I've done with all other things in life; I took those basic ideas and principles, and moved on, going my own way, listening to my own drummer.
