Uptight before Christmas, and all through these rooms > Alcoholics were stricken with holiday gloom. > They prayed, "Santa, please make us happy, joyous & free > Bring us candy and presents and serenity." > > Greed filled their minds and envy their hearts > And then someone said, "It's time for the meeting to start! > Does anyone have a topic for discussion tonight?" > Every face in the place turned wintery white! > > They lost all self-seeking, self-pity and self-will > When down through the chimney came the ghost of St. Bill! > He chuckled and said as he sat himself down > "Call the White House and tell 'em there's a new Dubya > in town." > > Then he looked through a Big Book and said with a tear, > "Wow! No one rewrote this after all these years! > Clean house, help your neighbor, be loving and kind, > And don't take the first drink one day at a time." > > "How could a message as simple as this > Be realized, analyzed and intellectually dismissed? > There lies the reason this ghost has arrived: > to re-give a gift that has saved all your lives!" > > Then he set up a big screen and a DVD > So every lost soul in the meeting could see. > He played a movie of drunks at their best and their worst, > What is and what was when blessed and cursed. > > There were scenes of a housewife passed out at a bar, > A respectable businessman wrecking his car, > A fight in a kitchen, a fight in bed, > A fight at a reception between two newlyweds. > > An empty bottle, a desperate man > Alone in a motel with a gun in his hands. > He puts down the gun and picks up the phone > And whimpers and blubbers, "Honey, let me come home." > > She hangs up as she tells him, "Don't call here anymore." > He reaches for the phone book and falls to the floor. > Somehow that phone book seems to capture his gaze: > It's open to a number under the "A"'s. > > Then all of the people in the movie converged > On the poor side of town ! in the basement of a church. > Driven together in a willing herd > To hear of hope and deliver the word. > > The ghost of Bill W. turned off the TV > And said, "The first word of the first step is 'we'. > I suggest you start there and see where you go. > Be thorough and fearless, and please - take it slow! > > "Let faith set the tone, let love make the mood > And as for a topic...how about 'gratitude? > Just don't drink, go to meetings and pray > And be glad you're alive and sober today. > > "Be a good woman, be a good man > And be of service whenever you can. > Be a good mother, be a good dad > And try to be good to your kids when they're bad. > > "Be a good husband, be a good wife... > Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good life!" > > God bless
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"LOVE" devoid of self-gratification, is in essence, the will, to the greatest good...of another.
