After twenty-eight years of mind-obliterating alcoholism, I finally attended my
first AA meeting. Within a few weeks, I became capable of memorizing the
Third Step Prayer that I had positioned on my refrigerator door. I would repeat
it quite often throughout the day. My idea was that in so doing, I was turning
my will, and my life, over to God . . . then, He would remove my problem—and
that would be that!

This erroneous notion was justified by an overwhelming new happiness—
please spell that (A. A. h-o-n-e-y-m-o-o-n). After all, my phone was ringing off
the hook and I had new AA friends galore! Of course, I was surviving on the
fellowship by keeping my telephone real hot and attending meetings every
chance I had (I believe that was necessary because, otherwise, I would have
headed right back to the bar room).