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Although I’ve got 22
years in the program, for some reason I never went to an
International Convention. Don’t ask me why, because I
really don’t know. All I can say is, if you haven’t been
to one yet, don’t wait 22 years!!
There aren’t words
that can justly describe what it was like to see 44,000
recovering alcoholics from all over the world gathered
in one place. Men, women, young, old – from every walk
of like – all there to share and celebrate what AA has
given them.
There were so many
touching moments – like the one where the old-timer
couldn’t get his thoughts together, but everyone in the
stadium gave him a standing ovation anyway. Or the man
who only spoke French and there was no translation, but
people would break into applause because deep in our
hearts, we knew what he was saying. And the man from
India who asked all the women in the audience to come to
India and help the women there get sober because woman
are not allowed in Alcoholics Anonymous in his country.
Everyone who spoke had a tremendous message.
The first night
started off with a “Party in the Park”, with thousands
of AAers listening to live music, dancing, munching on
hot dogs and hamburgers, and sharing the electrifying
fellowship of so many recovering drunks in one place.
Then it was on to the dance inside the Rogers Centre
with lots of Grapevine characters mingling with the
enthusiastic dancers and joining in on the “Conga line”.
What a blast!
The flag ceremony on
Friday night was one of the most inspiring events of the
convention. To see flags from countries who had never
been to the International Convention before proved that
it works – it really does! A native American AA member
from the Ojibawa tribe (of the First Nation in Canada)
led the procession of flags, followed by 91 countries,
including, for the first time, The Peoples’ Republic of
China and Cuba! One country after another came out and
stood side-by-side, smiling and proudly holding their
flag – what a memory and one that will be with me
forever. There is hope that some day we will have
world peace.
Saturday night’s
“Old-Timers’ Meeting” started off with a sobriety
countdown of the 44,000+ alcoholics who had filled the
stadium. One man, with 63 years of sobriety was left
standing. Wow – what a program – one day at a time for
63 years! The format of this meeting was to have 12
old-timers each give a short talk. In order to be
considered an “old-timer”, the person had to have at
least 40 years of sobriety and could then add their name
to a hat. The really nice thing about this process was
that there were 12 young people who randomly chose an
old-timer’s name from the hat. What a message that was –
bringing old and young together to share their
experience, strength and hope.
Although it seemed
to go by much too quickly, Sunday morning came and so
did the closing “Big Meeting”. During this meeting, the
25,000,000th (yes, that’s the 25 millionth!)
copy of the Big Book was presented to Jill Brown, Warden
of San Quentin prison. San Quentin was the first prison
to hold an AA meeting – in 1941! The three speakers
during this meeting had tremendous messages of hope and
gratitude, and we all left the meeting a little more
serene.
If you want to
recharge your AA batteries, this is the place to do it.
There were meetings going on every day, all day – Big
Book meetings, marathon meetings, discussion meetings,
12 & 12 meetings, speaker meetings – anything you could
want was there. In addition, there were hospitality
rooms from AA regions all over the world. Of course,
everyone wanted to see just what they were serving in
the Ireland hospitality room! And no badge was complete
unless it was covered with stickers and pins from all
the rooms – a little koala bear and boomerang from
Australia, a “Big Apple” from New York, the Mexican flag
from Mexico, a crab pin from Maryland, palm trees and
sunshines from Florida. One of the most common
conversations at the hospitality rooms was, “Where’d you
get that one?” “Over there – where’d you get that
one?”
We had a great time
during the convention and had some funny situations come
up as well, which would be expected from an Alcoholics
Anonymous convention. One woman, when she heard it was
the International Convention of Alcoholics Anonymous
said, “Wow – you guys must drink A LOT!!”. She couldn’t
understand when we tried to tell her we didn’t drink
at all.
Then there was the
sign in front of a bar that tried to lure recovering
drunks inside by stating, “Free counseling inside – Ask
for Brian.” Can’t blame a guy for trying to increase
business…
The best one was the
club with the marquee telling us:
“Welcome Alcoholics Anonymous – Hot girls
and cold soft drinks.”
It’s hard to believe
that the convention is behind us now. We started
planning for it in 2003 and everyone said we were crazy
for starting so early. After all, who knew where we were
going to be in June of 2005? Well, all I can say is
this: I know where I’m going to be in July of 2010 – SAN
ANTONIO, TEXAS for the 2010 INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION OF
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS!! Hope to see you all there.
Woodie S.
2005 International Conventioneer |
