In the spring of 1994 while attending an early morning AA meeting I was looking up at the wall and cramming in the steps from the huge poster of The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous found on the walls of most all AA meeting halls. I would start at the top and read from the first one and if it applied to me I would fit that one in and with a nod off to the next one I would go. I would basically do this each time I went to a meeting so needless to say as I worked the steps I would skip each of the ones I didn't think applied to me. I did this at each and every meeting I attended. I found myself completely all over the steps not applying even near enough of them to my life nor coming close to having them in any type of order. On this particular day while I was doing my usual ignoring of people sharing their blah blah stories around the room that I couldn't stand to hear because they only made me want a drink this one fellow said loudly. "You know. I have been coming in these rooms a long time now and I have found out one thing.
"If you work the steps off the wall, You get off the wall results."
Now I stopped for a second and I actually did hear this fellow say this. I think he had been watching me. Nah.  What he said did sink in for the moment. How long did it sink in you ask? I was back drinking that next day. I had been in the program for 2 1/2 years using that same method of working the steps.

A few years later when I was back in the program I was working the steps (correctly I might add) and I mentioned this story of the steps in a meeting one night while sharing. I pointed across the room at the man who was at this meeting who had said it some years back. This man was at that time my sponsor. I have since lost contact with Carl but I do intend to re-connect with him on a visit back to my home state. He is one great man, a great sponsor, and one man who can tell you what you need to hear about this program.

Signed...
                   Tom Sumner