I write regarding the editorial in the October edition of Roundabout, which asks if we raged against the archaic language and Americanisms in the Big Book.
Well I did, for a while, but then again I raged about most things, from molehills to mountains, and still can.
I was told to keep an open mind and I did. My mind has opened a little more, though, having just returned from the USA, where some AA friends (Norman, Alex and our American host, Happy Bob), and I travelled thousands of miles across the country's huge expanse.
I was truly impressed by the fellowship and the unity, touched by the love and the compassion and amused by the diversity and the autonomy of the various meetings.
Along the way we met the glamorous and the gloom-and-doomers; the personalities and the principals; and the downright, down-to-earth. We also came across the "delighted to see ya" African Americans, who might just have been wondering who the four white dudes were going into that non-Caucasian meeting in Downtown Oakland that night. Well they would be until we stood up and said we were outsiders but we were all recovering alcoholics from Scotland.
All this for a guy who had never had time for Yanks or, for that matter, many other people, places and things. By staying away from the booze, for one day at a time, and attending AA meetings on a regular basis, we can all participate in the great spiritual force that is Alcoholics Anonymous, not only in the USA, not only in Bonnie Scotland, but all over the world. I am delighted to be a part of that.

John C
Isle of Skye