see a drunk who’s in hospital, go to a meeting and share honesty with other drunks, get the water at meetings, help with the newsletter, put the books out at meetings. I mean seriously, what is all this rubbish?

There was an old drunk from Boat Quay What a lazy old fecker was he He was the first one to swerve Every offer to serve And he ne’er found sobriety.

So imagine my surprise when it worked! When I saw my life getting better (and not just because I was sober). When I saw the same in those around me too. Including those I’d reached out to. When I do something for another, I feel less tired and more happy – what weird magic is this !?

There was an old drunk from the rooms On whose face many wide smiles would bloom And his soul he would nourish With his offers of service A long way from those seedy saloons.

Later, with a bit of happy sobriety under my belt, I could do more of this service thing- chair meetings, be treasurer or literature guy and take up other service positions in my home group or inter-group. And these commitments were the same – they took my time, energy and resources and yet I felt more full of goodness for doing the work, the service.

Service – yeah right!

If someone had told me that the way to sober up was to find a bunch of other drunks in the same shape as me, or worse, and then try and help them, I’d have said that person was madder than a cut snake – madder than me – and I was certifiable!

It didn’t make sense at all. I was often drunk, tired, depressed, low key Ill / hungover. My life was a mess of stuff I’m trying to fix or cover up. My every waking thought and all the ones after that revolved around what a shitty life I had, how others had a huge hand in my crappy situation, the bad hand that I’d been dealt etc. etc. And on top of all this I was a selfish fecker – always needing to know what was in it for me.

And behind all this is the gradual understanding that I obviously didn’t really know how I worked or what really made me tick, or how things worked, how the world worked – I mean I got this service thing all wrong. That was humbling but in a very good way. Only by shaking apart my theories of everything could the decks be cleared and a solid foundation laid. An AA foundation where service, doing things for others willingly and happily, became the magic ingredient that, over time, allowed peace and happiness to come into all aspects of my life.

And you AAs told this person, me, that by helping other drunks I would get and stay sober. No chance!

And look at the type of help being proposed here: call a drunk, meet a drunk for coffee,