I've only thought that way in the last 10 or 15 years, as a result of my experience in AA. One must understand a bit of history before that comment can make any sense. One doesn't need to agree with the history, just our interpretation.

When AA was founded the prospects for recovery from alcoholism were almost nil. Those who started to recover in AA were profoundly grateful, and had learned a spiritual principle. If you want something, give it away. If you want respect, respect others. If you want a friend, be a friend, if you want love, love someone. You may not get it directly from the one you are pestering, but you will get it. That's a law, really. The opposite of materialism.

Recovery was rare and very precious. People who got up in the morning and didn't have to drink that day were grateful beyond the belief of normal drinkers. If one stayed sober, made sobriety the most important thing in their life, they could have that and everything else they wanted. If they didn't make it number one, they lost not only sobriety but everything else. It's that big of a deal. Even now, about 1 out of 35 addicts dies sober. Those are long odds.

Now, they realized if they wanted recovery they would have to give it away, work with others to help them. If it didn't work with one, go to the next. Nothing was more important than being of service, not your job, not your family. Because if you couldn't be of service you would get drunk and lose those things anyway.

Now, let's use some sense. No one is going to get fired to talk to someone, but they may take the time to find someone who does have the time, they will tell a person what to do until they get off work, common sense comes into play.

Anniversaries are a big deal in AA. They are demonstrations that the program can and does work. I was not going to celebrate my first anniversary, told my sponsor that I should never have been drinking in the first place.

He exploded. "Do you think God got you sober for you? That you are so good He was going to do that? Where did you get such a thought! You aren't any better than anyone else. God got you sober to carry a message, to help other people, and that's the only reason. You have been loaned sobriety, and if you use it correctly you can hang onto it. And that means carrying a message, the message. As long as you regard yourself as a tool who has been loaned recovery you'll be OK."

This is too long. Anyway, with that mindset, for us, money and time is to be used judiciously, to promote recovery in others and ourselves. Clearly I spend money on myself, I have toys and spend time on selfish activities. And if someone came to me and said "I need help" there isn't anything I wouldn't do as long as they were helping themselves, too.

I don't think I made that very clear. Everyone needs to provide for themselves and their families. Alcoholics, too. And some of us need to offer strength to those who are short at the moment, emotional and spiritual strength, and we must be in a financial position to be able to spend the time. Our sobriety, our spiritual condition, or obligation to our community is the most important thing in our lives. And if we take care of those, the rest flows.