The 12 Steps in Wee Bitty Pieces – Tom B.

About This Speaker Tape

Havana, Cuba: cutting sugar cane in a stockade while a Puerto Rican guard strikes him in the back with an M1 rifle. For Tom B., the crash was long and loud. A former star athlete and Pittsburgh Steeler, Tom lived as a "big shot," relying on a lifelong habit of being bailed out of jams by others. He flew planes with a cocky disregard for ground school and ran from debt across state lines, always looking for an easy way out.

The bottom came as a nightmare of broken things and crying children, ending with his wife, Betty, telling him she was leaving. Forced into the rooms by Betty's ultimatum, Tom describes getting the program in "wee bitty pieces" because he couldn't handle a lump sum of truth. He moved from counting ceiling tiles in meetings to a life of "bonus days." He credits his Higher Power and a 12-step home for the wreckage being cleared, culminating in the image of his daughter as homecoming queen.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:45 Tom B. establishes his sobriety date: April 21, 1963.
• 2:15 Discussion of ego and the lifelong habit of being bailed out by others.
• 5:10 Tom B. describes his time as a star athlete and his brief career with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• 8:30 The 'premature celebration' that led to him being washed out of cadet training.
• 11:20 Laughter: The insanity of stealing a Jeep and a cap to enter Havana.
• 13:45 The low point: hard labor in the Cuban sugar cane fields.
• 18:10 The 'greatest phone call' of his life to Dick P. to enter the program.
• 21:00 The first contact: meeting the 'professor' and Cree.
• 25:30 The role of Betty B. and Al-Anon in accelerating his recovery.
• 28:45 The importance of practicing the program, mirrored in his daughter Debbie B.'s baton twirling.
• 31:15 Emotional climax: Debbie B. being crowned homecoming queen on the 50-yard line.
• 33:00 Final reflections on the bonus days of sobriety and the 33rd convention.