When John H. attended his first A.A. meeting in 1957, he was the youngest person in the room, and the speaker that night was a man in a suit, talking about the business he lost. John’s drinking got bad fast and he was never able to put much together, let alone a business. He just couldn’t relate, so he left that meeting and drank for another eight years.
Finally, hitting bottom, John returned to A.A. in 1965, and he’s been sober ever since. John was never able to buy into the God business and has been an agnostic throughout his fifty years of sobriety.
The old-timers at the meetings used to tell John that he could use a door knob as his higher power, a suggestion that John found ridiculous. In defiance, he wore a doorknob around his neck at meetings. Defiance became John’s greatest asset, giving him the courage of his convictions. He believes that AA is an honest program,, and he knew if he was going to stay sober, he had to be honest about his agnosticism.
John helped start an agnostic AA meeting in Orange County several years ago that he hopes to revive in the next few months. He is grateful to Alcoholics Anonymous for his sobriety, and he is happy to see more A.A. meetings starting up for agnostics, atheists and freethinkers.
Thank you John for allowing us to record your story. You are a pioneer and we are grateful to you for all you have done.
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