The Responsibility of Old Timers to Keep the Program from Being Watered Down – Charlie P.
About This Speaker Tape
A quart jar of moonshine in the trunk of a car. For Charlie P., a "short fat kid with glasses" who never fit in, that first drink was liquid fire that exploded like a bomb in his stomach. It didn't just kill the nerves; it made him feel taller, bolder, and capable of finally kissing a girl. Alcohol became a power greater than himself, an answer to the wreckage of his social anxiety.
Charlie describes the "abnormal reaction" of the alcoholic—the craving that demands more, unlike the social drinker who can simply shut it off. He traces the obsession of the mind, an idea that overcomes all other ideas, which blinded him to the warnings of his mother, father, and boss. He recounts the paradox of his sobriety: he was saved by Floyd, a man who introduced him to the program but could never stay sober himself. Now a "fundamentalist" of the Big Book, Charlie warns against watering down the program, clinging to the practical program of action and a Higher Power to avoid the insane asylum.
Discussion
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