I'm Steve, and I'm an alcoholic.

I got a sponsor at 6 months dry as heck. I don't recommend that, by the way. He has 7 years, 1 month more sobriety than I. That isn't why I asked him, either. I asked him to sponsor me because I'd heard him speak at men's meetings about his god and AA, and he'd done something I was getting ready to do sober for the very first time: take a client to a business dinner and not drink with him. I didn't know how to do that, and I knew Bill A. did. When I asked Bill, he took me straight to the pamphlet rack and handed me the AA sponsorship one. "Here's what you do and what I do," he said, "I use the Big Book and the 12 and 12 . get a copy of both." We started at the beginning of the Big Book and went through the first 164 pages. I underlined what I didn't understand. He explained what it meant to me. So we did all 12 Steps together, and he saved my life at Step 5. And a couple times since then, too. If he has no experience, strength, or hope on a topic, he takes me to an AA who does. When we lost our son, my sponsor took me to a man with 23 years of sobriety who has lost his 18-year-old son just like me and HADN'T had a drink. My sponsor then left me with him. That's what a sponsor does ... 12 Steps, very few opinions, and leads. I asked my sponsor a question in November before my surgery. He said, "Pray about it." I laughed, and asked him why his answers were almost always the same? He said, "Because us old timers stay with what we know works, Steve." Amen.

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