Strange Places

I travel a lot, and go to AA in a lot of different places. I've been to meetings in South Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Budapest, and Paris. Most recently, I went to an AA meeting in Altoona. They are all the same, following AA principles and the basic meeting guideline, but are also different in odd ways. Today's topic in AA was the Daily Reading about how all alcoholics are equal in our weakness and difficulty, and that we don't worry about things that make us different like income, social status, prison records, etc... This really came home in Altoona where we meeting in a tiny room in a rickety building that seems to have been built by Amateurs. Sitting at the table in uncomfortable chairs was a pretty rough looking group, including me. Yet, at this meeting I heard some of the best insights I've heard anywhere. Alcoholics are a very strange group and very difficult to judge.