Ken D. AA Male

**Ken** (0:03)
Hi, my name is Ken, I'm an alcoholic. Isn't this exciting, huh? Saturday night, we get to stay up, just like we're adults, you know, like this is good, this is good. They have the owner's manual up here, and if you don't have an owner's manual, you should get one. This is the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous, and as they say, if it's not in here, it's not AA, you know. Right now, there are people who tell you, well, it's like AA, it's somewhat like AA. If it's not in here, it's not AA. And people make up stuff sometimes that's not in here, and it becomes almost tradition, you know. Like some of the stuff you hear like, no sex in the first year.
You keep the average alcoholic away from sex for a year, by the time he gets back to it, he'll forget who gets tied up. You know, like this. So, you gotta, you know, you, none of that stuff, none of that stuff. I want to, before I get going, I want to thank Bill and Pat for, and all the folks at the committee for inviting me, and for Guy and Janet for picking me up. I sponsor Guy, so it was nice spending time with him. It's been a great weekend for me. I've got to see Pearl, I haven't seen her in a long while. I saw Peggy a couple of months ago, and Dick. I haven't seen Johnny in a while. It's really great to be part of AA and part of the people that belong to AA. You know, I love Pat. I mean, everybody's been picking on him, but he's become a hero of mine, you know.
The guy's been divorced five times.
And he still has a cell phone.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:59)
You talk about recovery.

**Ken** (2:04)
I got close to him tonight when he came over to say, hello, he's got rice scars, you know, like this is a...
And that happens sometimes at AA, you know, it's amazing, like keeps people coming back. It really is. I like, you know, a lot of conventions have a theme, and it's written up, and it's like, that's what you're supposed to mention and talk to, but you guys just had good speakers, and the fact is, is that the theme was developed over the weekend, and that is that there's the program of Alcoholics Anonymous, and there's the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous, and you really need both of them to stay sober. And that the other thing was about love, you know, this is really about learning to give love. You know, you can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. You know, it's just part of the deal here. And maintaining a good attitude, I think that's paramount, you know. It's like you got to have a good attitude. That's one of the things we do control, is our attitude and our time. What we're going to do with our time, how we're going to spend it. You know, it's like the guy who said, you know, my wife's cut me down to six once a month. He said, but I'm not even worried about it because some guys should cut out altogether.
So, it doesn't matter what's going on.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:26)
Just be happy about it, you know.

**Ken** (3:30)
This is about learning to live in the moment you're in. You know, if you're in this moment, the three things you don't want to do is you don't want to run away, you don't want to deny it, and you don't want to resist it. And if you can stay right where you're at doing what you're doing, you're going to find out that life works out pretty easy. Alcoholics, we tend to talk about so much about yesterday that you think it was today. And we're always worried about something, you know, and it always starts the same way with the same three words. I've been thinking, you know. Those three words usually leave people into chaos, you know, we scratch shit that don't itch, you know, like and you hear people get on to some of these problems, it's like watching a milk of mouse, you know. You don't know what I experienced. No, but I'm sure you're going to share it, you know. Starting now, right into the next millennium, you know, like. The deal is if you're an alcoholic and you're in this room tonight and you're in a seat and you're sober today, you are a winner. You are a winner. This is something that you've already got a good ticket. You're in a good seat. And if you think you got a problem, then chances are you'll manufacture it even bigger. By the time you get done with it, it will be amazing what it will be looking like. You know, like, and that's just the way alcoholics tend to be. We tend to take little things and turn them into big things. You know, it's like we just don't know how to leave it alone. Now, I liked people shared about their sponsors. You know, I had one of those sponsors too when I first got to Alcoholics Anonymous. He had me in a nine passenger station wagon. I got sober in July. My sobriety date is July 5th of 1970 And they had just come out with those nine passenger station wagons. And he had me and Fast Eddie in the seat facing out the back.