At a recent meeting I saw the beauty of the 12-step program at work. This happened when a newcomer, whose turn it was to share, rambled on for five minutes without alluding to the topic – which was “what God is doing in my life today.”

The fellow, who obviously had emotional issues beyond substance abuse, quoted articles he’d read during his daily meditation, interspersed with random observations about his thoughts and feelings. But nothing that came from his mouth related to the topic selected by the speaker.

Finally the chair person intervened and asked the man to pass to someone else, which he did. His last face-saving comment was “I was just planning on wrapping it up anyway.”

The sixty some participants at the meeting didn’t say a thing. One of the wonderful things about 12-step meetings is participants are mostly forgiving when it comes to the behavior of newcomers. It’s normal for newcomers to say dumb things at their early meetings. And no one is surprised when they do so.

After the meeting I heard someone tell the man as he passed through the front door to “keep coming back.”