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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.
I simply didn't know.
2.
Hence we are at pains to tell why we think our present faith is reasonable, why we think it more sane and logical to believe than not
to believe, why we say our former thinking was soft and mushy when we threw up our hands in doubt and said, "We don't know."
3.
In this prodigy of service, he was well assisted by Sister Ignatia at St. Thomas Hospital in Akron, Ohio, one of the greatest friends our Fellowship will ever know.
4.
That's what I want to know."
5.
6.
Perhaps we shall need to share with this person facts about ourselves which no others ought to know.
7.
First, we take a look backward and try to discover where we have
been at fault; next we make a vigorous attempt to repair the damage we have done; and third, having thus cleaned away the debris of the past, we consider how, with our newfound knowledge of ourselves, we may develop
the best possible relations with every human being we know.
8.
Sacks of letters on every conceivable A.A. problem ranging from a lonely-heart Eskimo to the growing pains of thousands of groups must be answered by people who know.
9.
10.
It was as if we were actors on a stage, suddenly realizing that we did not know
a single line of our parts.
11.
Then, for good measure, we add dramatic descriptions of that part
of our drinking behavior
which our friends probably know about anyhow.
12.
13.
They wrote the Foundation(*), A.A.'s headquarters in New York, wanting to know about this sort of streamlining.
14.
15.
We shall at once think of a few people who know all about our drinking, and who have been most affected by it.
16.
17.
We'd have to have outside help if we were surely to know and admit the truth about ourselves -- the
help of God and another human being.
18.
19.
20.
In fact, he may say almost anything if he has accepted our solution
which, as you know, demands
rigorous honesty.
21.
Nowadays, when oldtimers who know Ed foregather, they exclaim, "What if we had actually succeeded in throwing Ed out for blasphemy?
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.
24.
I was to know happiness, peace, and usefulness, in a
way of life that is incredibly more wonderful as time passes.
25.
26.
27.
We know how he feels.
28.
29.
But what about his responsibilities -- his
family and the men who would die because they would not know how to get well, ah -- yes, those other alcoholics?
30.
31.
32.
If we have swept the searchlight of Step Four back and forth over our careers, and it has revealed
in stark relief those experiences we'd rather not remember, if we
have come to know how wrong thinking and action have hurt us and others, then the need to quit living by ourselves with those tormenting ghosts of yesterday gets more urgent than ever.
33.
Even though your protégé may not have entirely admitted his condition, he has become very curious to know how you got well.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
If the Creator gave us our lives in the first place, then He must know in every detail where we have since gone
wrong.
39.
I know, in my own particular case, that nothing my company could have
done would have stopped me
for, so long as I was able to hold my position, I could not
possibly realize how serious my situation was.
40.
41.
Telling them what we are trying to do, we make no bones about our drinking; they usually know it anyway, whether we think so or not.
42.
So far as we know, it is nowhere on the record that God has completely removed from any human being all his natural drives.
43.
This is the baffling feature of alcoholism as
we know it -- this utter inability to leave it alone, no matter how great the necessity or the wish.
44.
If nobody does the group's chores, if the area's telephone rings unanswered, if we do not reply to our mail, then A.A. as we know it would stop.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
New acquaintances who
know nothing of alcoholism might be made and
thoughtful considerations given
their needs.
51.
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.
The key words "entirely ready" underline the fact that we want to aim at the very best we know or can learn.
57.
58.
59.
60.
I personally know scores of cases who were of the
type with whom other methods had failed completely.
61.
62.
63.
64.
"I know that," he said.
65.
The expression on the faces of the women, that indefinable something
in the eyes of the men, the stimulating and electric
atmosphere of the place,
conspired to let him know that here was haven at last.
66.
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.
67.
68.
In this respect, we do not enter into public controversy, because we
know that our Society will perish if it does.
69.
How heartily we A.A.'s can agree with him, for we know that
the pains of drinking had
to come before sobriety, and emotional turmoil before serenity.
70.
The prospective partners need to be solid A.A.'s and long enough acquainted to know that their
compatibility at spiritual, mental, and emotional levels is a fact and not wishful thinking.
71.
72.
How could we know that thousands of these sometimes frightening
people were to make astonishing recoveries
and become our greatest workers and intimate friends?
73.
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.
74.
75.
We know that while the alcoholic keeps away from drink, as he may do for
months or years, he reacts much like other men.
76.
God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, Courage to change the things we can, And wisdom to
know the difference.
77.
In all times of emotional
disturbance or indecision, we can pause, ask for quiet, and in the stillness simply say: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. Thy will, not mine, be done."
78.
While you need not discuss your husband at length, you can quietly let your friends know the nature of his illness.
79.
80.
81.
You think he ought to know the subject better, as everyone should
have a clear understanding of the risk
he takes if he drinks too much.
82.
The unselfishness of these men as we have come to know them, the entire absence of profit motive, and their community
spirit, is indeed inspiring to one who has labored long and wearily in this alcoholic
field.
83.
Under these compulsions
of self-preservation, duty, and love, it is not strange that our Society has
concluded that it has but one high mission -- to carry the A.A. message to those who don't know there's a way out.
84.
We know there are difficult
wives and families, but the
man who is getting over alcoholism must remember he did much to make them so.
85.
We know these suggestions
are sometimes difficult to follow, but you
will save many a heartbreak if you can
succeed in observing
them.
86.
87.
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.
88.
We, of Alcoholics Anonymous, know thousands of men and women who were once just as hopeless as Bill.
89.
90.
91.
It is the great paradox of
A.A. that we know we can seldom keep the precious gift of sobriety unless we give it away.
92.
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.
93.
94.
95.
But from what you've told me about yourself and your problems
and how you propose to lick
them, I think I know what's wrong.'
96.
We know what you are thinking.
97.
Your desire to protect him
should not cause you to lie to
people when they have a right
to know where he is and what he is doing.
98.
99.
100.
101.
102.
Let him know you are available if he wishes to make a decision and tell his story, but do not insist upon it if he prefers to consult someone else.
103.
104.
105.
106.
The 164 and More™ Book, eBook, and Web Site
are all CONCORDANCES which display passages from the Big Book
Alcoholics Anonymous, the
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Grapevine Inc. have no objection to the use of this material in the
164 and More concordance.
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