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From the books ... Alcoholics Anonymous (Big Book) and Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (12 & 12)
Click the page number or the book cover icon
to view that page in the literature.1.
When the broker returned
to New York in the fall of 1935, the first A.A. group had actually been formed, though no one realized it at the time.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
They grinned, which I didn't like so much, and then asked me if I thought myself alcoholic and if I
were really licked this
time.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
But when he gets over the spree, he begins to think once more how he can drink moderately next time.
16.
17.
18.
He may tell mother, who has
been religious all her life, that she doesn't know what
it's all about, and that she had better get his brand of spirituality while there
is yet time.
19.
Now and then a serious drinker, being dry at the moment says, "I don't miss it at all. Feel better. Work better. Having a better time."
20.
Most of our experiences are what the psychologist William James calls the "educational variety" because they develop slowly over a period of time.
21.
22.
23.
24.
To get completely away from our aversion to the
idea of being humble, to gain a vision of humility as the avenue to true freedom of the human spirit, to be willing to work for humility as something to be desired for
itself, takes most of us a long, long time.
25.
26.
Then there are those occasions when alone, or in
the company of our sponsor
or spiritual adviser, we
make a careful review of our progress since
the last time.
27.
28.
The idea that we can be possessively loving of a
few, can ignore the many, and can continue to fear or hate anybody, has to be abandoned, if only a little
at a time.
29.
30.
If the founder and his friends have served well, they may -- to their surprise -- be reinstated
for a time.
31.
32.
Nor does it mean that the members of Alcoholics Anonymous, now restored as citizens of the
world, are going to back away from their individual responsibilities to act
as they see the right upon issues of our time.
33.
34.
The news stories of Mr. Rockefeller's dinner for Alcoholics Anonymous helped double our total membership in a year's time.
35.
About this time a lady called up my wife one Saturday afternoon saying she wanted me to come over that evening to meet a friend of hers who might help me.
36.
37.
Time after time, my instructors held up to me the basic principle of all scientific progress: search and research, again and again, always with the open mind.
38.
39.
What sort of thinking dominates an alcoholic
who repeats time after time the desperate experiment of
the first drink?
40.
41.
Time after time, this apparent calamity has been a boon to us,
for it opened up a path which led to the discovery of God.
42.
To certain newcomers and
to those one-time agnostics who still cling to the A.A. group as their higher power, claims for the power of prayer may, despite all the logic and experience in proof of it, still be unconvincing or quite objectionable.
43.
44.
45.
46.
It is not to be expected that an alcoholic employee will receive a disproportionate amount of time and attention.
47.
48.
49.
Aside from fellowship and
sociability, the prime
object was to provide a
time and place where new people might bring their problems.
50.
I now remembered what my alcoholic friends had told me, how they prophesied
that if I had an alcoholic mind, the time and place would come -- I would drink again.
51.
I gave the matter much time and study for the next two and a half years, but I still got tight every night nevertheless.
52.
53.
54.
That may be true of certain
nonalcoholic people
who, though drinking foolishly and heavily at
the present time, are able to stop or moderate, because their brains and bodies have not been
damaged as ours were.
55.
56.
57.
58.
By this time, at Step Ten, we had begun to get a basis for daily living, and we keenly realized that we would
need to continue taking personal inventory, and that when we were in the wrong we ought to admit it promptly.
59.
This practice enables us
to lend a hand, at the same time avoiding certain alluring distractions
of the road, about which any traveling man can inform you.(*)
60.
By late 1937, the number of members having substantial sobriety
time behind them was sufficient to convince
the membership that a new
light had entered the dark world of the alcoholic.
61.
For the time being, we who were
atheist or agnostic discovered that our own group, or A.A. as a whole, would suffice as a higher power.
62.
63.
If the alcoholic tries to
shield himself he may succeed for a time, but he usually winds up with a bigger explosion then ever.
64.
As the whisky rose to my head I told myself I would manage better next time, but I might as well get good and drunk then.
65.
I talked with him for some time, but was not able to bring myself to feel that I had known him before.
66.
These will appear as big setbacks at the time, but will be seen later as stepping-stones to better things.
67.
68.
69.
70.
71.
The sensation is so elusive that, while they admit it is injurious, they
cannot after a time differentiate the true
from the false.
72.
73.
Since that time, editors and
rewrite men have repeatedly deleted names and pictures of members from A.A. copy; frequently, they have
reminded ambitious individuals of A.A.'s anonymity policy.
74.
75.
76.
77.
78.
The moment we saw that we had
an answer for alcoholism, it was reasonable (or so it seemed
at the time) for us to feel that
we might have the answer to a lot of other things.
79.
80.
At no time had we asked what God's will was for us; instead we had
been telling Him what it ought to be.
81.
82.
To a degree, he has already
done this when taking moral inventory, but now the time has come when he ought to redouble his efforts to see how many people he has hurt, and in what
ways.
83.
84.
85.
There is the type who always
believes that after being entirely free from alcohol for a period of time he can take a drink without danger.
86.
87.
88.
89.
90.
91.
92.
93.
94.
4. Because every time I do it I take out a little more insurance for myself against a possible slip.
95.
96.
97.
Before then, I had written
lots of sweet promises, but my wife happily observed that this
time I meant business.
98.
99.
100.
By this time I was beginning to pay very dearly physically and, in hope of relief, voluntarily incarcerated myself at least a dozen times in one of the local sanitariums.
101.
At that time I was not aware of
the almost unlimited supply the government made it possible for us doctors to obtain, neither had I any knowledge of the bootlegger who soon appeared on the horizon.
102.
By this time in all probability we have gained
some measure of release
from our more devastating
handicaps.
103.
Nearly every sound human being experiences, at some
time in life, a compelling desire to find a mate of the opposite sex with whom the fullest possible union can be made -- spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical.
104.
105.
We A.A.'s are active folk, enjoying the satisfactions of dealing with the realities
of life, usually for the first time in our lives, and strenuously trying to help the next alcoholic who comes along.
106.
When we reached A.A., and for
the first time in our lives stood among people who seemed to understand, the
sense of belonging was tremendously exciting.
107.
Sometimes they hurt us, seemingly without provocation, but we invariably find that at some
time in the past we have made decisions based on self which later placed us in a position to be hurt.
108.
109.
In it alcoholism was described from the alcoholic's point of view, the spiritual ideas of the Society were codified for the first time in the Twelve Steps, and the application
of these Steps to the alcoholic's dilemma was made clear.
110.
111.
Those of us who have spent much time in the world of spiritual make-believe have eventually seen the childishness of it.
112.
113.
Or we may just procrastinate, telling
ourselves the time is not
yet, when in reality we have
already passed up many a fine
chance to right a serious wrong.
114.
This being so, we think it logically follows that sobriety -- first, last, and all the time -- is the
only thing we need to work for.
115.
For the readiness to take
the full consequences of
our past acts, and to take responsibility for
the well-being of others at the same time, is the very spirit of Step Nine.
116.
A.A. has to function, but at
the same time it must avoid those dangers of great wealth, prestige, and entrenched
power which necessarily
tempt other societies.
117.
Once this healthy practice has become grooved, it will be so interesting and profitable that the time it
takes won't be missed.
118.
Only a few knew of it at first but, within a short time, it was billboarded throughout
the entire company.
119.
Some time later, and just as he thought he was getting control of his liquor situation, he went on a roaring bender.
120.
121.
122.
Alcoholism may be causing your organization considerable damage in its waste of time, men and reputation.
123.
I was self conscious and ill at ease most of the time, my health was at the breaking point, and I was thoroughly miserable.
124.
Time after time, my instructors held up to me the basic principle of all scientific progress: search and research, again and again, always with the open mind.
125.
126.
127.
In A.A.'s pioneering time, none but the most desperate cases could swallow and digest this unpalatable truth.
128.
129.
To be gravely affected,
one does not necessarily
have to drink a long time nor take
the quantities some of us have.
130.
In that time nothing could be
seen but two struggling, nameless groups of alcoholics trying to hold their faces up to the light.
131.
132.
133.
About the time of the beer experiment I was thrown in
with a crowd of people who attracted me because of
their seeming poise, health, and happiness.
134.
135.
There's the spot-check inventory, taken at any time of the day, whenever we find ourselves getting tangled up.
136.
At the time of these occurrences, they may actually have given our emotions violent twists which have since discolored our personalities and altered our lives for the worse.
137.
To spend too much time on any one
situation is to deny some
other alcoholic an opportunity to live and be
happy.
138.
139.
140.
141.
142.
But as time passed we found that with the help of A.A.'s Twelve Steps we could lose those fears, no matter what our material prospects were.
143.
I was to know happiness, peace, and usefulness, in a
way of life that is incredibly more wonderful as time passes.
144.
Nevertheless, we find
that our thinking will, as
time passes, be more and more on the plane of inspiration.
145.
146.
These things will come to pass naturally and in good time provided, however, the alcoholic continues to demonstrate that he can be sober, considerate, and helpful, regardless of
what anyone says or does.
147.
148.
To save whole areas from turmoil, small offices had to be set up, telephones installed,
and a few full-time secretaries hired.
149.
The small group may elect its secretary, the large group its rotating committee, and
the groups of a large metropolitan area their central or intergroup committee, which often employs a full-time secretary.
150.
The small group may elect its secretary, the large group its rotating committee, and
the groups of a large metropolitan area their central or intergroup committee, which often employs a full-time secretary.
151.
Had he been successful in his enterprise, he would have been set on his feet financially which, at the time, seemed vitally important.
152.
My wife became deeply interested, and it
was her interest that sustained mine, though I at no time sensed that it might be an answer to my liquor problem.
153.
154.
The alcoholic may say to himself in the most casual way, "It won't burn me this time, so here's how!"
155.
I soon discovered that a
couple of drinks would alleviate my gastric distress, at least for a few hours at a time, so it was not at all difficult for me to return
to my former excessive indulgence.
156.
157.
We doctors have realized
for a long time that some form of moral psychology was of urgent importance to alcoholics, but its application presented
difficulties beyond
our conception.
158.
What sort of thinking dominates an alcoholic
who repeats time after time the desperate experiment of
the first drink?
159.
160.
161.
It was now time, the struggling groups thought, to place their message and unique experience before the world.
162.
163.
Most of the time, therefore, I did not take the
morning drink which I craved so badly, but instead would fill up on large doses of sedatives to quiet the jitters, which distressed me terribly.
164.
165.
Time after time, this apparent calamity has been a boon to us,
for it opened up a path which led to the discovery of God.
166.
167.
168.
169.
I drank with moderation
at first, but it took me only a
relatively short time to drift back into the old habits which had wound up so disastrously before.
170.
171.
172.
173.
All of us felt at times that we
were regaining control,
but such intervals -- usually brief -- were inevitably followed by still less control, which led in time to pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization.
174.
175.
176.
177.
Husbands and wives have sometimes been obliged to
separate for a time until new perspective, new victory over hurt pride could be rewon.
178.
So did a friend of mine who
was a one-time vice-president of the American Atheist Society, but he got through with room to spare."
179.
In our drinking time, we acted as if the money supply was inexhaustible, though between binges we'd sometimes go to the other extreme and become almost miserly.
180.
It is a spiritual axiom
that every time we are disturbed, no matter what the cause, there is
something wrong with us.
181.
182.
183.
Every time we have tried to professionalize our Twelfth Step, the result has been exactly the same: Our single purpose has been defeated.
184.
185.
186.
187.
If these thoughts occur,
they are hazy and readily supplanted with the old threadbare idea that this
time we shall handle ourselves like other people.
188.
189.
190.
Nine of the stories in Part II ("They Stopped in Time") were carried over from the second edition; eight new stories were added.
191.
There was actually a time
when the press of America thought the anonymity of A.A. was better for us than some of
our own members did.
192.
It marked the time when we
could commence to see the full implication of Step Seven: "Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings."
193.
The experiment of quitting for a period of
time will be helpful, but we think we can render an even greater service to alcoholic sufferers and
perhaps to the medical fraternity.
194.
Else why would we consume such great amounts of time wishing for what we have not,
rather than working for it,
or angrily looking for attributes we shall never have, instead of adjusting to the fact, and accepting it?
195.
196.
Father will necessarily spend much time with other alcoholics, but this
activity should be balanced.
197.
198.
Next time you and he have a heated discussion, no matter what the subject, it should be the privilege of either to smile and say, "This is getting serious.
199.
200.
201.
202.
He browbeat everybody,
and everybody expected
that he'd soon get drunk -- for at the time, you see, A.A. was on the pious side.
203.
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