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Post Info TOPIC: Proud of my home group!!


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Proud of my home group!!
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Wilmington, NC has a big film recording studio, and the film industry produces a lot of movies and TV series here and in the surrounding area.  These are huge  box office movies, like Iron Man with Robert Dowey Jr., and such.

Well, its not really uncommon to see super stars in our area.  They are flying in and out of Wilmington everyday.

A few weeks ago I was at a meeting and a mega star showed up at it.  This person is noted as the highest paid movie star in the industry.  This group usually has 150 - 200 meeting attendees.  Well, right before the meeting and immediately after the meeting this person was swamped with request for photos and autographs by attendees at the meeting.  Their entourage had to pretty much whisk them out of the meeting, away from the crowd and off they went.  Several times this star stated, "please, when I am in a meeting, I'm just a drunk like everyone else, please don't do this to me here!"  "This is not where I do photos or autographs".  The group of AA's were so disrespectful of this persons request that I was absolutely embarrassed for how they handled themselves.  And I felt truly sorry that the star/alcoholic could not just fellowship with us at the "meeting after the meeting" without their high profile personality becoming the centerpiece of why members were so eager to approach this person, and make photo and autograph request.  

Well, last night I was at my home group.  We split into two groups in this meeting.  One is a beginners meeting and the other is a Step Study.  After the readings, everyone went to their perspective room for the meeting they wanted to be in.  I stayed in the beginners meeting.  I was sitting at one of the front tables, with a bunch of people sitting behind us in the room.  The shares on Step One started, and we kind of just rotated around the room and shared our es&h.  A woman sitting directly behind me shared.  She was crying about a relapse she was just coming back from after 7 years of continuous sobriety.  I turned around to acknowledge the pain she was expressing, and to my surprise it was a mega super star.   She had gotten awards for Academy Award, Golden Globe and Best Supporting Actress, for movies she has done, and she has been nominated for two Emmy nominations for her work in television shows.  She is such a great performer she has worked with Brad Pitt, Johnny Dip, and many other big wigs in the industry.  I have literally watched her grow up in the movies and on tv over the years. 

Members of my home group, acknowledged quietly who she was as they spoke during the short meeting after the meeting with each other, but not one person approached her for a photo or autograph.  The woman in the group, actually embraced her and treated her like they would any other alcoholic.  She actually approached me and Violet, my gf after the meeting, outside where we were smoking a cig, and stated she really got a lot out of what I shared, and then exchanged phone numbers with Violet.  She told us she had never felt so comfortable at a meeting as she did at ours and would be coming back to join us often.  She has a home in the area and stays here when she is not filming in other areas of the country or over seas.  By the time she walked to her car, with her very friendly, personal assistant by her side who goes every where with her, she was smiling and her eyes were lite up with hope again.  She said, "Violet, I'll call you soon I promise!"

This morning, Violet got a phone call.  It was this woman.  They talked about sobriety, the history of AA, their spiritual journey's, etc, for almost 2 hours.  And... Violet got her to agree to come to our home for a dinner sometime next week.  

She knows that with us, she will be just another garden variety drunk, with two other garden variety drunks... trying to stay sober one day at a time together.

What a blessing, and yes, I am very proud of how my home group handled themselves and didn't bombard this woman with request for photos or autographs, or even talk about her fame with her... they just loved on her like I have seen them do many, many other alcoholics on this journey.   With love and respect.

John

 

 



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Great, great story John. So glad you shared this. Principles before personalities in action.

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Much applause to you and the folks in your home group, John.  You all acted in a very un-self serving way.  We should allow anyone to be anonymous in Alcoholics Anonymous.

Blessings, Mike D.



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