the Gift of Desperation: nobody Comes In because things were going well — "this initial hopelessness unites every soul…"
this initial hopelessness unites every soul in this broad cold salad-bar’d hall. They are like Hindenburg-survivors. Every meeting is a reunion, once you’ve been in for a while.
Context
The precondition of recovery stated as a paradox: the only qualification for AA is total desperation, "The Gift of Desperation," because no one surrenders their will until their will has nearly killed them. The unifying fact of the room is not sobriety but a shared catastrophe survived — "Hindenburg-survivors" for whom every meeting is a reunion of people who each individually reached the same jumping-off place. Hopelessness is not the obstacle to the program; it is the admission ticket.