Bobby came to detox with everything he owned in a dirty white leather tennis bag. A woman washed his clothes, he began doing the same for other alcoholics, and five years later he was running that detox center. His AA story puts service into very practical terms.
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Approaching 25 years of sobriety, Bobby looks back on growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, during segregation, graduating from high school at 16, and watching the promise of his early life give way to drinking. He describes military service in Germany, anger that grew more destructive under the influence, caring for his mother while she was dying of cancer, and eventually living on the streets of Cleveland. An AA television announcement prompts a call to central office, bringing a sponsor who begins introducing him to the fellowship. But meetings and treatment do not immediately end his drinking. After a night at the city mission, he asks a priest for help and describes finally surrendering the fight with alcohol. He enters the Salvation Army's Harbor Light program carrying all his possessions in a white leather bag. A woman who remembers him from better days takes the dirty clothes he is embarrassed to show her and washes them. After detox, Bobby starts returning downstairs to help the next alcoholic, including offering to wash their clothes. He recalls becoming that center's first Black director five years later. The work of recovery continues when he loses the job and resents people in AA: his sponsor tells him to keep attending meetings and shake their hands, even when he does not want to. Bobby also describes refusing to say God for his first five years, praying instead to whatever was watching over his sponsor, and gradually finding a faith expressed through how he treats people. He returns to sponsorship, the Big Book, the Twelve Steps, home groups, and the many ways to carry the message beyond the podium, from sending cards to visiting people in hospitals and nursing homes. Caring for his father becomes possible without the hatred he once carried, and his daughter knows a loving father rather than the man in his drinking stories. At the 30th Gopher State Roundup, Bobby's message is that sobriety can change what he does today, how he loves, and what he gives to the next person.
Bobby M. from Cleveland, OH speaking at the 30th Gopher State Roundup in Bloomington, MN - 2003
Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
