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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.
Though the aggregate of
recoveries resulting
from psychiatric effort
is considerable, we physicians must admit we have made little impression upon the problem as a whole.
2.
Four -- Each group should be autonomous
except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole.
3.
4.
All such representatives are to be guided in the spirit of service, for true leaders in A.A. are but trusted and experienced
servants of the whole.
5.
Tradition Four -- "Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole."
6.
A.A.'s Twelve Steps are a group of principles, spiritual in
their nature, which, if practiced as a way of life, can expel the obsession to drink and enable the sufferer to become happily and usefully whole.
7.
8.
Whoever pays the piper is apt to call the tune, and if the A.A. Foundation obtained money from outside sources, its trustees might be tempted to run things without reference to the wishes of
A.A. as a whole.
9.
It is in this spirit of service that we elect the A.A. group's informal rotating committee, the intergroup association
for the area, and the General
Service Conferences of
Alcoholics Anonymous
for A.A. as a whole.
10.
11.
All such representatives are to be guided in the spirit of service, for true leaders in A.A. are but trusted and experienced
servants of the whole.
12.
In fact, the effectiveness of the whole
A.A. program will rest upon how well and earnestly we have tried to come to "a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him."
13.
The "12 Traditions" of Alcoholics Anonymous
are, we A.A.'s believe, the best answers that our experience has yet given to those ever-urgent questions, "How can A.A. best function?" and, "How can
A.A. best stay whole and so survive?"
14.
While our literature has
preserved the integrity of the A.A. message, sweeping changes in society as a whole are reflected in new customs and practices within the Fellowship.
15.
Having carefully surveyed this whole area of human relations, and having decided exactly what personality traits in us
injured and disturbed others, we can now commence to ransack memory for the people to whom
we have given offense.
16.
To save whole areas from turmoil, small offices had to be set up, telephones installed,
and a few full-time secretaries hired.
17.
18.
The great fact is just this, and nothing less: That we have had deep and effective spiritual experiences(*) which have revolutionized our whole
attitude toward life, toward our fellows and toward God's universe.
19.
There is the manic-depressive type, who is, perhaps, the least understood by his friends,
and about whom a whole chapter could be written.
20.
As we discovered the principles by which the individual alcoholic
could live, so we had to evolve principles by which
the A.A. groups and A.A. as a whole could survive and function effectively.
21.
One unkind tirade or one willful snap judgment can ruin our relation with another person for a whole day, or maybe a whole year.
22.
That the man who is making the
approach has had the same difficulty, that he obviously knows what he is talking about, that his whole deportment shouts at the new prospect that he is a man with a real answer, that he has no attitude of Holier Than Thou, nothing whatever except the sincere desire to be helpful; that there are no fees to pay, no
axes to grind, no people to please, no lectures to be endured --
these are the conditions we have found most effective.
23.
24.
25.
To watch the eyes of men and women open with wonder as they move from darkness into light, to see their lives quickly fill with new purpose and meaning, to see whole families reassembled, to
see the alcoholic outcast received back into his community in full citizenship, and above all to watch these people awaken to the presence of a loving God in their lives -- these things are the substance of
what we receive as we carry
A.A.'s message to the next alcoholic.
26.
What happens when we try to dominate the whole family, either by a rule of iron or by a constant outpouring of minute directions for just how their lives should be lived from hour to hour?
27.
I. Final responsibility and ultimate authority for A.A. world services should always reside in the collective conscience of our whole Fellowship.
28.
29.
30.
But in relation to us, it means very simply that every A.A. group can manage its affairs exactly as it pleases, except when A.A. as a whole is threatened.
31.
My whole life seemed to be centered around doing what I wanted to do, without regard for the rights, wishes, or privileges of anyone else; a state of mind which became more and more predominant as the years passed.
32.
33.
Two storm signals -- a group ought not do anything which
would injure A.A. as a whole, nor affiliate itself with outside interests.
34.
In charting this enormous expanse of freedom, we found it necessary to post only two storm signals: A group ought not do anything which
would greatly injure A.A. as a whole, nor ought it affiliate itself with anything or anybody else.
35.
36.
Can we love the whole pattern of living as eagerly as we do the small segment of it we discover
when we try to help other alcoholics achieve sobriety?
37.
We can go far beyond those things which were superficially wrong with
us, to see those flaws which were basic, flaws which sometimes were responsible for the whole pattern of our lives.
38.
39.
40.
We simply couldn't afford to
take the chance of letting self-appointed members present themselves as messiahs representing
A.A. before the whole public.
41.
And we think that the whole range of our needs is well defined by that part of Step Eleven which says: "...knowledge of His will for us
and the power to carry that out."
42.
Today, we are able to say with assurance that Alcoholics Anonymous --
A.A. as a whole -- should never be organized at all.
43.
44.
Each person is like an actor who wants to run the whole show; is forever trying to arrange the lights, the ballet, the scenery and the rest of the players in his own way.
45.
46.
As we lay aside these very human aspirations, we believe
that each of us takes part in the weaving of a protective mantle which covers our whole Society and under which we may
grow and work in unity.
47.
The principle that we shall find no
enduring strength until we first admit complete defeat is the main taproot from which our whole Society has sprung and flowered.
48.
II. The General Service Conference of A.A. has become, for nearly every practical purpose, the active voice and the effective conscience of
our whole Society in its world affairs.
49.
But that wasn't the whole story, for in this case not only
was an A.A. member to break his anonymity at a public level, he was to link the name Alcoholics Anonymous to
this particular educational project in
the minds of millions.
50.
Doctors are rightly loath to tell alcoholic patients the
whole story unless it will serve some good purpose.
51.
Realization dawns that
he is but a small part of a great whole; that no personal sacrifice is too great for preservation of the Fellowship.
52.
53.
54.
Could we still say the whole thing was nothing but a mass of electrons, created out of nothing, meaning nothing, whirling on to a destiny of
nothingness?
55.
56.
57.
58.
We thought, on the whole, we
were pretty good women, capable of being nicer if our husbands stopped drinking.
59.
In fact, we felt duty-bound to throw the whole weight of the A.A. name behind any meritorious cause.
60.
And no group, regional committee, or individual should ever take any action that might greatly affect A.A. as a whole without conferring with the trustees of the General Service Board.
61.
And no group, regional committee, or individual should ever take any action that might greatly affect A.A. as a whole without conferring with the trustees of the General Service Board.
62.
Of course the depressive
and the power-driver are personality extremes, types with which A.A. and the whole world abound.
63.
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.
64.
One unkind tirade or one willful snap judgment can ruin our relation with another person for a whole day, or maybe a whole year.
The 164 and More™ Book, eBook, and Web Site
are all CONCORDANCES which display passages from the Big Book
Alcoholics Anonymous, the
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions,
and the A.A. Grapevine (A.A. Preamble only).
Sorting and rendering passages in the proprietary format of the
164 and More concordance does not in any way imply
affiliation with or endorsement by either Alcoholics Anonymous World Services
Inc., or the A.A. Grapevine, Inc. Further A.A.W.S. Inc. and the A.A.
Grapevine Inc. have no objection to the use of this material in the
164 and More concordance.
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