Another word from around the country is that many have come off their S.A. “honeymoons” and are facing the realities of living sober (or not living sober). We’re finding out what the alkies discovered: we can’t stay sober, joyous and free without doing the things that make us sober, joyous and free. And those things are no big mystery. We don’t have to “reinvent the wheel,” thank God; the 12 Steps are the distilled essence of what it has always taken anyone to live sober, joyous and free. But we’re rediscovering them for ourselves through experience.

When we are new, when we could care less what those blasted 12 Steps are all about, when we don’t even know which end is up, and when we’re not even sober yet, all we have is Step 0: “We participate in the Fellowship of the Program.” In whatever way we can: going to meetings, phoning other members, writing, getting our own meetings going, going to other types of meetings, reading the literature…