The Greatest Speech I Ever Heard: Why Christmas Can Be a Killer for Alcoholics
December 31, 2008
On a forum, a question came up about Christmas for the bereaved. Holidays are regarded as festival days. The festivities are depressing when someone close has died.
One way to handle this is to ignore Christmas.
The best speech I ever heard was by Clancy I., a recovering alcoholic. He heads of the Midnight Mission. His story is here.
I heard this speech the first time at an AA meeting open to the public. Clancy gives it every Christmas to one or more AA meetings in Southern California.
He stressed the fact that for people with an alcohol problem, Christmas is a high-risk holiday. People invest a lot of hope in it. When it does not deliver, they can go off the deep end. He gave examples of bad Christmases from his life as a non-recovering alcoholic.
He ended that speech with a call to celebrate July 12th. "Merry July 12th," he said. Anything but Christmas.
Accompanying him were half a dozen men from the mission. They wanted to hear it again.
If you have some money to give away before midnight tonight, the Midnight Mission is a good choice.
Get a receipt from the Post Office to prove you sent a check today. You can do this least expensively with a stamped receipt. Or use your credit card.