Andrew W. resumes Church Basements, his tales from the world of Alcoholics Anonymous:
After some Alcoholics Anonymous meetings you hesitate to drive home.
Drunken driving, arrests, jail, home incarceration, injury, death and long prison terms are commonly shared by recovering alcoholics at meetings. (Seventy percent of all serious automobile accidents are caused by drunken driving.)
Take Stanley. When he first stumbled down the steps into church basements he was beaten, splotchy faced, jerky, shaky, fidgety. Like most beginners he was sick with fear and shame. After a year sober he was much improved
Then a few weeks ago he disappeared. Now he’s back after spending three days in a Duluth jail. “My court troubles aren’t over,” he whispered. His DUI arrest there was his seventh. After his sixth Stan had taken a leave of absence from his high school teaching job and joined our group. Earlier this summer he was looking forward to teaching again.
Now his three-day bender may earn him a three-year stretch in a Michigan prison. For now he is back with us — a wreck again. Ankle bracket on, and registering with the leader after each meeting. The judge won’t allow a skip, or he’ll toss Stanley back into jail to await sentencing.
His license revoked long before he joined us, Stan nevertheless continued to drive. Then after his year of sobriety he suddenly relapsed, proving once more that the only certain way to keep active drunks off the road is to keep them in jail.
Judy, another member of the group, told us that for 25 years she had never driven sober until at last, driving drunk, she killed a neighbor’s kid. She’s never driven again.
There are several truck drivers in my meeting. They all have driven drunk. One guy said he drove a concrete truck drunk. Another is an operating engineer who told us he operated a construction crane in the city for many years. Drunk. A longtime member said he was always drunk and high when he captained a tug boat.
So it’s no surprise that several recovering alcoholics ride their bikes to meetings each day.
The struggle back to sobriety is hard. There is so much damage — broken homes, angry spouses, grown children who won’t talk to you, homelessness, divorce, jail sentences to be served. The recovering alcoholic must heal not just the body, but his or her soul and life.
When any of these goes wrong, an alcoholic may use it as an excuse to relapse. But other AA members know that drill, and they always step in to help the beleaguered recovering alcoholic. Having been through it all themselves, they are the last, best hope.
