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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.
2.
3.
On that basis we are almost
always in collision with
something or somebody,
even though our motives are good.
4.
5.
This is all to the good.
6.
But be sure you are on solid spiritual ground before you start and that your
motive in going is thoroughly good.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
If you have developed a high confidence in him, and
his temperament and problems are close to your own, then such a choice will be good.
15.
There will be those to whom we
can make only partial restitution, lest complete disclosures do
them or others more harm than good.
16.
17.
In consternation, we saw
ourselves getting married to all kinds of enterprises, some good and
some not so good.
18.
These adventures implanted a deep-rooted conviction that in
no circumstances could we
endorse any related enterprise, no matter how good.
19.
20.
21.
22.
Such prayers, of course, are fundamentally good acts, but often they are based upon a supposition that we know God's will for the person for whom we pray.
23.
But if you really and truly
want to quit drinking liquor for good and all, and sincerely feel that you must have some help, we know that we have an answer for you.
24.
When ready, we say something like this: "My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad.
25.
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.
26.
27.
Then let his family or a friend ask him if he wants to quit for good and if he would go to any extreme to do so.
28.
In consternation, we saw
ourselves getting married to all kinds of enterprises, some good and
some not so good.
29.
So we think that unless some
good and useful purpose is to be served, past occurrences should not
be discussed.
30.
31.
32.
33.
If you have already made a decision, and an inventory
of your grosser handicaps, you have made a
good beginning.
34.
There is a good bit of travel between East and West and we foresee a great increase in this helpful interchange.
35.
36.
37.
38.
But in the longer run we clearly realize that these
are only the pains of growing up, and nothing but good can come from them if we turn more and more to the entire Twelve Steps for the answers.
39.
We know that little good can come to any alcoholic who joins A.A. unless he has first accepted his devastating
weakness and all its consequences.
40.
For this reason, some very
good causes and all connected with them suffered unjust criticism from A.A. groups.
41.
True, most of us thought
good character was desirable, but obviously
good character was something one needed to get on with the business of being self-satisfied.
42.
True, most of us thought
good character was desirable, but obviously
good character was something one needed to get on with the business of being self-satisfied.
43.
44.
We have seen A.A.'s suffer lingering and fatal illness with little complaint, and often in good cheer.
45.
Suppose, for instance,
that we have drunk up a good chunk of our firm's money, whether by "borrowing" or
on a heavily padded expense account.
46.
Upon hearing this, our friend was somewhat relieved, for he reflected
that, after all, he was a good
church member.
47.
Having so considered our day, not omitting to take due note
of things well done, and having searched our
hearts with neither fear nor favor, we can truly thank God for the blessings we have received
and sleep in good conscience.
48.
49.
Try to remember that though God has wrought miracles among us, we should never belittle a good doctor or psychiatrist.
50.
51.
When they become too dangerous, we think the kind thing is to lock them up, but of course a good doctor should always be consulted.
52.
Doesn't sound too good, does
it?
53.
In late 1934 I attended a patient who, though he had been a competent businessman
of good earning capacity, was an alcoholic
of a type I had come to regard as hopeless.
54.
But it was by no means sure that such great numbers of yet erratic people could live and work together with harmony and good effect.
55.
And with such good effect that the doctor agreed to a test among his patients and certain other alcoholics from a clinic
which he attends.
56.
57.
58.
Everybody nowadays, believes in scores of assumptions for which there is good evidence, but no perfect visual proof.
59.
Either we were shy, and dared not draw near others, or we were apt to be noisy good fellows craving attention and companionship, but never
getting it -- at least to
our way of thinking.
60.
61.
The basic principles of
the A.A. program, it appears, hold good for individuals with many different lifestyles, just as the program has brought recovery to those of many different nationalities.
62.
We would not even do the cause
of temperate drinking
any good, for not one drinker in a thousand likes to be told anything about alcohol by one who hates it.
63.
Let it be noted, too, that they
were almost always concerned with ways to make A.A. more
effective, how to do the most good for the most alcoholics.
64.
65.
66.
When temporary good fortune came our way, we indulged ourselves in fantasies of
still greater victories over people and circumstances.
67.
Good generalship may decide that the problem be attacked on the flank rather than risk a face-to-face combat.
68.
His income is good, he has a
fine home, is happily married and the father of promising children of college age.
69.
70.
They say to one another, "Perhaps it would be
a good idea if we continue to keep a firm hand on A.A. in this town.
71.
Most good ideas are simple, and this concept was
the keystone of the new and
triumphant arch through which we passed to freedom.
72.
73.
This hope, however, was destroyed by the doctor's telling him that while his religious convictions
were very good, in his case they did not spell the necessary vital spiritual experience.
74.
75.
76.
This brave philosophy, wherein each man plays God, sounds good in the speaking, but it still has to meet the acid test: how well does it actually work?
77.
More sobriety brought about by the admission of alcoholism
and by attendance at a few
meetings is very good indeed, but it is bound to be a far cry from permanent sobriety and a contented,
useful life.
78.
With perfectly good intent, these folks declared that the principle of anonymity
was horse-and-buggy stuff, something appropriate to A.A.'s pioneering days.
79.
80.
81.
'Bill, haven't you often said right here in this meeting that sometimes the good is the enemy of the best?
82.
83.
84.
85.
86.
Good judgment, a careful sense of timing, courage, and prudence -- these are the qualities we shall need when we take Step Nine.
87.
88.
Nearly anyone could submit a good list of such defects as these, and few of us
would seriously think of
giving them up, at least until they cause us excessive misery.
89.
No doubt we shall point with pride to the good lives we thought we led before the bottle cut us down.
90.
91.
Learning daily to spot, admit, and correct these flaws is the essence of character-building and good living.
92.
Understanding is the key
to right principles and
attitudes, and right action is the key to good living; therefore the joy of good living is the theme of A.A.'s Twelfth Step.
93.
Understanding is the key
to right principles and
attitudes, and right action is the key to good living; therefore the joy of good living is the theme of A.A.'s Twelfth Step.
94.
It ought to be followed by
a good look at where we stand now, and a further look at what might happen in our lives were we able to move closer to the ideal we have been
trying to glimpse.
95.
96.
97.
Those who did would sometimes assure us that, after all, a lively bender was only a good man's fault.
98.
Then, for good measure, we add dramatic descriptions of that part
of our drinking behavior
which our friends probably know about anyhow.
99.
100.
How we loved to shout the damaging fact that millions of the 'good men of religion' were still killing one another off in the name of God.
101.
102.
103.
I could almost hear the sound of the preacher's voice as I sat, on still Sundays, way over there on the hillside; there was that proffered temperance pledge I never signed; my grandfather's
good natured contempt of some church folk and their doings; his insistence that the spheres really had their music; but his denial of the preacher's right to tell him how he must listen; his fearlessness
as he spoke of these things
just before he died; these recollections
welled up from the past.
104.
As he gets older and sees the impossibility of
this, he can smile good-naturedly at his childhood dream.
105.
We remembered always
that our sex powers were God-given and therefore good, neither to be used lightly or selfishly nor to be despised and loathed.
106.
107.
108.
109.
110.
He and all like him who "view
with alarm for the good of A.A." meet the most stubborn resistance or,
worse still, laughter.
111.
112.
113.
This odd trait of mind and emotion, this perverse wish to hide a bad motive underneath a good one, permeates human affairs from top to bottom.
114.
115.
As this tide offering top public approval swept in, we realized that it could do us incalculable good or great harm.
116.
117.
118.
119.
120.
121.
122.
Doctors are rightly loath to tell alcoholic patients the whole story unless it will serve some good purpose.
123.
Then comes the acid test: can we stay sober, keep in emotional balance, and live to good purpose under all conditions?
124.
For we can neither think nor act to good purpose until the habit of self-restraint has become automatic.
125.
When it will serve any good purpose, we are willing to announce our convictions
with tact and common sense.
126.
127.
128.
129.
We will be more reconciled to discussing ourselves
with another person when we
see good reasons why we should do so.
130.
131.
He is a good salesman.
132.
133.
134.
135.
It may be that both will decide that the way of good sense and loving kindness is to let by-gones be by-gones.
136.
... Good service
leadership at all levels is ...
BB
Appendix VII, Twelve Concepts (Short Form), p.575
IX. Good service leadership at all
levels is indispensable for our future functioning and safety. Primary world service leadership, once exercised by the founders,
must necessarily be assumed by the trustees.
137.
When A.A. was quite young, a number of eminent psychologists
and doctors made an exhaustive study of a good-sized group of so-called problem drinkers.
138.
Therefore, ask yourself on each occasion, "Have I any good social, business, or personal reason for going to this place?
139.
"Here lies a Hampshire Grenadier Who
caught his death Drinking cold small beer. A good soldier is ne'er forgot Whether he dieth by musket Or by pot."
140.
141.
142.
143.
If there is any indication
that he wants to stop, have a
good talk with the person most interested in
him -- usually his wife.
144.
145.
146.
What with our ultra-modern standards, our scientific approach to everything, we are perhaps
not well equipped to apply the powers of good that lie outside our synthetic knowledge.
147.
148.
It would be a good thing, they
believed, for the liquor
trade to show a sense of public responsibility.
149.
Sometimes it's because
God has not delivered us the
good things of life which we specified, as a
greedy child makes an impossible list for Santa Claus.
150.
151.
152.
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.
153.
154.
155.
156.
But he is yet a long way from making good to the wife or parents whom for years he has
so shockingly treated.
157.
Men who had liquor shipped in from Boston or New York by express were looked upon with great distrust and disfavor by
most of the good townspeople.
158.
We can be the ones who take on
the unspectacular but important tasks that make good Twelfth Step work possible, perhaps arranging for the
coffee and cake after the meetings, where so
many skeptical, suspicious newcomers
have found confidence and
comfort in the laughter
and talk.
159.
160.
We know this because we see monotony, pain, and even calamity turned to good use by those who keep on trying to practice A.A.'s Twelve Steps.
161.
Suppose we tell you some of
the obstacles a family will meet; suppose we suggest how they
may be avoided -- even converted to good use for others.
162.
If our circumstances happened to be good, we no longer dreaded a change for the worse, for we had learned that
these troubles could be turned into great values.
163.
Because A.A.'s Twelve Traditions repeatedly ask us to give up personal desires for the common good, we realize that the sacrificial spirit -- well symbolized by anonymity -- is the foundation of them all.
164.
They understood that the elders, just to nail things down good, were about to apply to the Foundation for
a charter.
165.
166.
Then we had been told that so far
as alcohol is concerned,
self-confidence was no good whatever; in fact, it was a total liability.
167.
168.
If we keep on the way we are going there is little doubt that much good will result, but the surface of the
problem would hardly be scratched.
169.
He is going to be more interested in a demonstration of good will than in our talk of spiritual discoveries.
170.
Each day my friend's simple talk in our kitchen multiplies itself in a widening circle of peace on earth and good will to men.
171.
We have begun to learn tolerance, patience and
good will toward all men, even our enemies, for we look on them as sick people.
172.
The pressure of that fat treasury would surely tempt the board to invent all kinds of schemes to do good with such funds, and so divert A.A. from its primary purpose.
173.
We thought, on the whole, we
were pretty good women, capable of being nicer if our husbands stopped drinking.
174.
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