A Mixed Lot

There is a lot of prejudice, and dis-ease about being with people "not like us."  There is skin color, economic status, language, ethnicity, and sexuality to keep people separated and wary of one another. So there can be a lot of discomfort and fear in one another's presence, that can be avoided by staying "with your own kind" as the song says in the musical, "West Side Story."  But there is one place where none of this exists.  It is a recovery meeting such as AA.  Here, members are bonded by their common addiction and story of how they got there.  All these outside social pressures lose their energy to affect the members.  Not only do they accept one another.  They try to help one another to attain sobriety on a daily basis.  There are meetings for gays/lesbians, and meeting for women and for men only, but no one is rejected because they happen to walk in needing a meeting and help at that moment to stay sober.  It is in these meetings that people make lasting friendships with persons their upbringing would not have allowed.  We all need some recovery from something.