Austin, Freethinkers and Memories of Charlie
By Dorothy H.
I just got back to Nick H.’s house after a wonderful potluck dinner that Nick’s group, The Children of Chaos, hosted for the Yellow Appleseed Road Trip, and to bring awareness about it to the local WAAFT groups in the Austin metropolitan area.
Dinner was at the Galano club in Austin. The food was yummy and Nick worked so hard to coordinate everything which included running for supplies, making flyers for the International in Atlanta, and to keep me out of his way.
The bulk of the people I met saw themselves as freethinkers. When I asked them how they defined that, the frequent answer was “free, free to believe, not to believe or just not give a damn.” All just wanted to be free of the absolutes and dogma and simply get to the core of recovery, whatever that may mean to the individual.
Jesse S. got back to Austin at 3:00 pm, and his sponsee came a few hours later with some friends. It was literally the first time they would be in a room full of freethinkers and nonbelievers, and to hear their experiences.
The plan was to have Nick address the dinner and introduce me and Jessie. Before the time came I realized that I was not going to be able to talk to everybody and that I wanted to understand people and the group to which they belonged. I really wanted to get to know the group, and learn what they would like to see at the convention, to find out what type of workshop, panels and speakers they’d like to have. On the other hand, I could use my time to make an announcement and go completely off script, turning it into a meeting, to ask the questions of what they wanted to see, and how the board could help the host committee. Ideas such as what to do when you’re the only one in your community who is a freethinker or nonbeliever were discussed. People talked about wanting a meditation workshop, and how to relate to the Big Book as a WAAFT.
I didn’t have much sleep the night before so the meeting bounced around a bit on topic because of my inability to focus all the time, but in the end the message was carried, and people were eager to take flyers and posters to various parts of their community. Afterward, Jesse, Nick, and I went to the We Agnostics meeting at 8 PM. It was one of the meetings that the founder of my home group in Hollywood, Charlie Polachek, founded when he moved to Austin in his 90s.
I love the synchronicity of how Charlie’s Hollywood meeting would create WAAFT IAAC, and that the second IAAC would be in the very city where he started more meetings. The meeting was small, but well-grounded in old timers. They were happy to see us and were very impressed with all the hard work Nick has been doing for the convention.
The last few days it has been made clear to me how well respected Nick is in his community and how lucky IAAC is to have him dedicated to making the convention possible.
Jesse S. and I leave earlier than worms will want to be awake tomorrow. We are off for Louisiana to visit with people over coffee and breaking bread. We will spend the night in Biloxi Mississippi where we are hoping to have some time to play in the Third Coast. Hopefully, we will have the tide and I can send beach pictures to everyone. Until next time, good night.
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