There are no free memberships in AA.
The MasterCard commercials of past years had a series of items with a price for each articulated. Supper, $150, flowers $35, a great movie $16; then it wraps up with a summation “great memories with someone special… priceless.” The parts can be priced, but the experience is priceless.
An alcoholic life is much like that. You can see the MasterCard commercial in newcomers. You listen to their story, and you can hear the announcer intoning a narrative like:
“The price of a DUI, $5,000 including legal fees. The price of a custody fight and divorce, $10,000. The price of a job loss, $50,000 in lost income. The price of membership in Alcoholics Anonymous… priceless.”
All the lead-up to membership in our Fellowship has a price. We can see it and calculate it.
But the membership itself, priceless. No value can be put on it for a couple of reasons. First, the value is infinite. You can keep growing in the Program for the rest of your life. There is no price for the growth you can experience because there is no limit. You can take as much as you want. Second, the value is spiritual, not material. A trivial observation, but true. And spiritual things have no price, they are priceless. Third, the benefit of membership is the restoration of your authentic and true self, if you want it. And that cannot be priced in any human manner.
So while there are no free memberships to AA, there is an awful price to be paid for membership. And what you get there has no price; it is priceless.
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