Sobriety and Recovery – 12 Step Workshop – Part 5 of 5 – Debbie D.

Okay, so in your handout, what we begin with, this is one of the reasons that something that's been on my mind at the last while and I shared in here with you that, I was listening to this CD and Scott L. from Nashville asked his mentor, Don P., who'd been a former Class B trustee, he said, what's the biggest change you've seen in AA? And now he did that time being sober, late 30s years, maybe early 40s when he asked that question. And without hesitation, bam, his comment was the focus used to be on recovery and now it's on sobriety. Do you understand what we're saying when we say that kind of language? The point is that are we, what are we passing on really? Are we passing On just don't drink and go to meetings? That might work for just today, but if I'm still passing that on month after month and I've given him no fuel of the recovery program, that alone, while it needs to be in place, that alone will have an expiration date. Without the recovery programme, not much will change and probably eventually, because nothing's changed, you're going to reach that point of relief and you'll either do what you used to do which was drink or you'll submit to the recovery program so that's one of the things why I'm focusing so much on it's not about just don't drink and go to meetings that needs to be there but it's about the recovery in our 12 and 12 it states, AA's 12 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. So we're going to be working out of the book and this is where we find our recovery program as it says in there over and over and again. So let's just look at a few of the references in our big book as to what its purpose is. And so we're going to do some of this to be interactive and we want to make time and availability for questions, but I don't want it to be just I'm talking, yakking all the time and I want you to participate as well. So what I'd like to do is starting with Ann, if you'd each read a paragraph, we'll go around the room and read a photograph here about the purpose of the big book in the recovery program and you want me to read forward yeah each person read a paragraph fine forward to the first edition is that first first edition to show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book forward to the second edition it is our great hope that all those who have as yet found no answer may begin to find one in the pages of this book and will presently join us on the high road to new freedom. To Doctor's opinion, we at Alcoholics Anonymous believe that the reader will be interested in the medical estimate of a plan of recovery described in this book. I earnestly advise every alcoholic to read this book through and though perhaps he came to scoff, he may remain to pray. There is a solution. The tremendous fact for every one of us is that we have discovered a common solution. We have a way out on which we can absolutely agree on which you can join in brotherly and harmonious action. This is the great news this book carries for those who suffer from alcoholism. If you are an alcoholic who wants to get over it, you may already be asking, what do I have to do? It is the purpose of this book to answer such questions just so we can tell you what we have to ask. We have not that was our dilemma. We had to find a power that we could live and we had to be a power greater than ourselves. Obviously. But where and how were we to find this power? Well, that's exactly what this book is about. Its main object is to enable you to find the power greater than yourselves and to resolve your problems. That means we have written a book for food and women to be spiritual as well as moral. Two wines. For years we have been working with alcoholics committed to institutions. Since this book was first published, AA has released thousands of alcoholics and asylums in hospitals of every kind. The majority have never returned. The power of God goes deep. Thank you for this. As our work spreads and our numbers increase, we hope your employers may be put in virtual contact with some of us. Meanwhile, we are sure a big deal can be accomplished by the use of the book alone. a vision for you our hope is that when this chip of the book is launched on the world tide of alcoholism defeated drinkers will seize upon it to follow its suggestions many we are sure will rise to their feet and march on they will approach still other sick ones and fellowships of alcoholic synonymous will spring up in each city of Hamlet havens for those who must find a way out Kelly thus be grown and so can you, though you may be but one man with this book in your hand. We believe and hope it contains all you will need to begin. Our book is meant to be suggestive only. You realize we know only a little. God will constantly disclose more to you than to us. Ask Him in your morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who is still sick. The answers will come if your own house is in order. But obviously you cannot transmit something you have in God. If you see to it that your relationship with God is right, a great event will come to pass for you and countless others. This is the great fact for us. Great. So you see, the book was designed to present the program of recovery. It doesn't teach you how to quit drinking. It doesn'T teach you a new place to hide bottles. It doesn'T teach you How to Cure a Hangover. It's assuming you would like to live a different way of life, and that's what the recovery program is our first legacy which is the 12 steps is called recovery it's not sobriety it says recovery and I didn't get that for my first 10 months of visiting AA it was only on this last time 36 years ago that I got finally that this is about a different way of life it wasn't a short term shortcut type of thing it's a way of live And this book was all they had until they came out with the 12 and 12, which they call essays, in 1953. This is what carried the message all over the world and still does today. So I've given you a little on the first edition. It came out April of 1939, 16 printings. We hear often in the history of AA about Works Publishing. well they were the publishing company it was owned by AA but they did the first 14 printings and then it went into Alcoholics Anonymous publishing the second edition I could not determine what month it came out but the first three printings were still produced by AlcoholicsAnonymous publishing and then from the fourth printing of the second addition till today is our publishing arm of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., or AAWS. And March of 76 came the third edition and November 2001 the fourth. So now we're going to just, again, we're going to move through this. Some of it will be notes that I've indicated for you here. So you don't have to write them down as we go. And others will be something that I just kind of highlight. so beginning with the preface of the fourth edition some of you may not have that if you're working out of a third edition book but some ofyou might have is there anybody here who doesn't have a fourth edition with them ok, so the notes here you can just put into your book it's just a couple of notes that I like to mention first of all on that first page of the preifice you'll see at the bottom of the first paragraph some numbers your book will either say on the number of big books the third edition some will say 11,698,000 some printings will say 19,550,000 they have two different numbers because I was thinking how could you miss about 7-8 million books that's a big number 50 books maybe but several million it's because the 19 million includes all the formats of the English big book soft cover braille large print, mini print pocket, it includes all of the formats of it The next paragraph, there's a line that starts, the AA recovery program has been left, some books will say largely untouched, some will just say left untouched. In the later printings of the preface it would add the word largely and I'm glad they did because there are places in the first 164 pages which I'll show you, that have been touched. So I'm glad they inserted the word largely. Okay, then a few paragraphs down, the fourth, let's see, one, two, three, yeah, I said the third paragraph on the next page of the preface. It starts, this fourth edition includes the 12 concepts for world service. And I love the fact that they've included the concepts because it's almost like it now legitimizes our third legacy. First legacy, recovery, our steps. Second legacy is the traditions, which is unity. And third legacy, which the traditions have been in since the second edition came out. But now they've legitimized it's not some red-headed stepchild anymore that, oh, that's for those people. well, the concepts are now a part of the three legacies of our fellowship. So I like to point that out. Everybody with me so far? I know we're going to kind of move fast, but again, the notes are in here just kind of showing you a little bit. Okay, so now let's move on to the forward to the first edition. I know everybody's got that. In your first paragraph, like I said, what I'm going to share, I'm not going to detail it gosh we'd be here all night on just a little bit so we're just punching some of the stuff when I take someone through the big book I start at the preface because I think it's important, we know people have been developing this and they it started somewhere we reap the benefits of all the hard work, all the people who've died proving they were right. We reap the benefits and the easiness of the recovery program laid out. And so this is why I think it's important that we know where we have come from, especially how it's evolved over the years. And so the first edition, this was their forward. And where we have in italics today precisely how we have recovered, in all of the first editions, that was in capitals. Those were in capital letters. Beginning with the second edition, that then went to italics and has remained that way ever since. Many traditions before we even knew they would be traditions are starting to be noted here. Now, these I did not number for you, so we'll go through those right now because I think it's worth pointing out. So in that second paragraph at the end, well, first of all, we would like it understood that our alcoholic work is an avocation. So that is number eight, where we are not a professional class, but we have special workers. The next paragraph is all about Tradition 11. It says, When writing or speaking publicly about alcoholism, we urge each of our fellowship to omit his personal name, designating himself as a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. Also this next paragraph is about Tradion 11. Very earnestly we ask the press also to observe this request for otherwise we should be greatly handicapped the next sentence we are not an organization in the conventional sense of the word tradition 9 tradition 9 talks about we're not organized in like a corporate type structure but we have an organization the next sentence there are no dues or fees whatsoever sounds like Tradition 7 the only requirement for membership is an honest desire to stop drinking Tradition 3 now again I've noted here a little bit of a myth we often hear sometimes misinformation is so catchy we start to take it as gospel so this is one of them the myth that tradition 3 had the word honest and then it was removed to become sincere and then It was removed altogether tradition 3 in the original form presented in April of 46 in the grapevine or in the long or short form has never had the word honest in it. This is where the word honest was, but because it's almost identical in wording, my mind automatically thinks and carries it through all the way. It was never in our traditions. It was in here. And when the grapevine the first editor of the grapevine is the one who wrote the preamble took a lot of that information from the forward to the first edition used the word honest desire and as we would learn as we'll learn in 1958 the general service conference asked that that word honest be removed from the preamble but this was sort of like protected as our first forward so they didn't touch that but just so you know it never was in the traditions as we know them. It was in the forward to the first edition and this is years before we're even going to talk or codify traditions. So the ominous of it is so interesting to me. Okay, the next sentence we are not allied with any particular faith, sect, or denomination nor do we oppose anyone tradition 10. we simply wish to be helpful to those who are afflicted is five ok forward to the first edition and this is the paragraph starting at the very bottom called we are not an organization last sentence and then we flipped over to the next page ok so those there's several traditions right there that we would find in the forward years before they would ever be codified so I'm sorry to have lost you Richard is everybody else following with me am I going too fast again we're just kind of bullet pointing some of the making this 3D is what I'm trying to do make it a 3D for you I lost after tradition 3 Okay. The next tradition would be 10, which is that sentence, and then 5. There's what sentences? Okay, there's two more sentences. We are not allied. That's 10. Okay, got it. And we simply wish is 5. Got it. Okay. All right. So that's a little bit on the forward to the first edition. Okay, everybody ready? Mm-hmm. All right, we'll go to the second, forward to the second. A couple of little tidbits on who's and what's. We're going to go tothe bottom paragraph. Again, this is written down for you. It says New York stockbroker and an Akron physician. That's our co-founders. Bill Wilson was the stockbrooker and Dr. Bob Smith was the Akron physician. Okay. Then we're going to go to the top of XVII which is actually 17 in Roman numerals. Now again we'll do some bullet points but these are some of the things that I point out when I'm taking people through the steps and through this is over and over and over we're going to read something similar to this first sentence it says it also indicated that strenuous work one alcoholic with another was vital to permanent recovery these are the things that I try to stress over andover is that me working with you is simply an opportunity for you learn so you're going to be able to work with others. I don't expect anyone to do it like I do. Every one of you will do it how you are. You'll have your own way of conveying it, your own experiences to share it's not intended to be duplicates or cookie cutters of me. It's to whatever I can give you to incorporate into your own way because you're gonna attract people and be able to help people I couldn't touch. Every one of us is needed in sponsorship with our own experiences. And so however we work one alcoholic with another, it's vital to our permanent recovery. Another little trivia piece in the next paragraph. It says, hence the two men set out to work almost frantically upon alcoholics arriving. their very first case, a desperate one is going to become AA number 3 let me just insert a little something in there we don't often hear about AA number three was actually Bill Dotson but they actually tried their method working with someone else before Bill Dotsons and in your handout that first case was actually a guy named Eddie Riley And from the grapevine of this month, in the tribute from Bill to Dr. Bob, which was originally in the January 51 issue, he said, so this is from Bill, this is not me making something up. Our first prospect appeared a neighboring person sent him over because the newcomer faced eviction and being Ann Smith, Dr. Bobs' wife, took in his whole family, wife and two children. The new one was a puzzler. When drinking, he'd go clean out of his mind. One afternoon, Ann sat at her kitchen table, calmly regarding him as he was touching a carving knife. Under her steady gaze, his hand dropped, but he did not stay sober then. His wife despairingly betook herself to her own parents and he disappeared, although he would come back and Bill would see him one day sober. the point on this story is that Bill Dotson wasn't their first case they were learning as they went there was actually a guy named Eddie Riley but the first successful case was Bill Datson often we've seen that picture the man on the bed that's what that comes from his sobriety date was June 26, 1935 and his story is Alcoholics Anonymous number 3 it's in editions 2, 3, and 4 I talked to a good historian just the other day and I said wouldn't his story be in the first edition is it under a different name or something he said no, Bill Dotson didn't really believe in putting a book together so he refused to have his story in there but apparently when they were getting ready to do the second edition and Bill Wilson knew Bill Datson was dying he asked him, can I interview you and put your story in the book? And that's what he did. So when we see it, it's actually Wilson's interview of Bill Dotson. Okay, so that's kind of about it. I wanted to highlight on that page. On the next page, second paragraph, in the spring of 1940, John D. Rockefeller Jr. gave a dinner. again in your notes that is that dinner was actually on February 8th 1940 at the Union League Club in New York this is actually the second time of three John D. Rockefeller will come into our world but most of us are familiar just with the dinner or that was a big turning point but this was the second time he'd come into her life a little farther down in that same paragraph by March 1940 the one the membership had shot up to 2000 then Jack Alexander wrote a feature article in the Saturday Evening Post again a note on that is that that article we have in pamphlet form you can get that through the general service office or your service center or whatever that article is in pamphet form that article back in that day everybody got the Saturday Evening Post. That was a monthly publication. In March, we were 2,000. By December, we Were 8,000 His article blew the doors off wide open of hope for the alcoholic. There's a great back story on him but we'll just kind of keep going for right now. Okay. So let's turn to our next page in your handout But on page XIX, I just want to show you that in that second paragraph is primarily what would also be our preamble. So much of our preamble outlining many of our traditions is in that 2nd paragraph. It was thought that no alcoholic man or woman could be excluded from our society. That was kind of the substance, as it says in the next paragraph, of our preamble. Okay, and then turning the page in your book to XX, this is also noted in your handout. About midway down it says, of alcoholics who came to AA and really tried, 50% got sober at once. Many times the really tried part has been forgotten. So just a question. How many of you have stayed sober either before your first meeting or since your first meet? How many have stayed sober? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Just about half. About 50%. Yeah. Yeah. I mean it's always interesting when I go to the book study up where I live. We always ask that question when we get here and it's about half, about half but don't forget the really tried part. It's not just came in here and just got struck sober and stuff like that. It's you did something. You might have been goofy, you might have had a little foggy, but you stayed. But you stayed." Okay, at the very bottom, another little trivia thing here. It says, At present, our membership is... Some books will say increasing, some will say pyramiding. At the rate of about, some will say 7%, some will say 20%. Now, that always bothered me because get it straight. Be consistent. And so I did some research. So what I found, the use of pyramiding at 20%, again I've written this down for you, is in the second edition printings 1, 2, 3 and 4 then they went to increasing and then they stayed at increasing and then we switched back to pyramiding. I have no idea why. So you can see the printings that have which one and then what I would see is that when the third edition first came out the first three printings didn't have either phrase. They didn't even have a paragraph in there. you know what gives so this has been some of the fun that I've had is researching this stuff for you okay so that's all some of the little trivia notes and stuff I wanted to share with you on the second edition forward any questions or okay let's move on to the third edition couple little notes on this one is in the second paragraph in your handout out, it'll tell you this. It says women now make up more than one-fourth of the membership and it also says that 7% of the AAs surveyed are less than 30 years of age. According to the most recent is 2007 membership survey, those numbers currently are women now make up, they went from 1 4th or 25% to 33% now as of the 2007 survey and the under 30, this says 7% it's now 13.6% so again all these notes that I'm sharing right with you are in your handout so if you miss something don't worry you can always go back to it and then once again the very last paragraph just a friendly mention that in spite of the great increase in the size and the span of the fellowship at its core it remains simple and personal each day somewhere in the world recovery begins when one alcoholic talks with another alcoholic sharing experience, strength and hope this will always be the foundation and the basis and how our fellowship and program of recovery started Bill didn't wait for someone to come to him he went to them he went for his own sobriety in hopes that someone else would benefit and when he changed his ways and carried the message to Dr. Bob everything shifted ok everybody ok with forward to the third alright we'll move on to the fourth forward to the fourth okay so let's update some of those numbers again for you in the first paragraph the two million or more of our population that is still pretty much correct although it should be growing much more than it is it seems to be the same two million coming in and out but maybe we this room can do something about that in the first paragraph In 2001, which is when this came out, the numbers of groups, it says 100,800 groups. Again, this is in your handout. That's now as of 2011 year end, 114,070 groups. So we have grown a little bit there. It says 150 countries as of 2011. It's 180 countries out of 193 that are recognized around the world. So we're just about every country. And what that says to me is that Alcoholics Anonymous doesn't have boundaries because the disease of alcohol, the illness of alcoholism has no boundaries. It doesn't affect culture. This doesn't afect religious beliefs, whether you have them or don't have them. Alcoholism exudes everywhere. So does a program of recovery. Daniel? Can we ask questions at all? yes out of the 13 countries that don't have it are any of those major countries I don't know I don t know which ones don t have it like there was what South Sudan was the most recent country acknowledged last year Russia had a problem yeah definitely Russia has AA I don T know I don't know which countries don't have it yet but we could plan road trips that's a great idea there you go yes there you go yes, that's a good point, these are groups that have registered with the, there are 58 general service offices around the world so there could even be meetings here in Bellflower that we don't know about that aren't on the directory that arenít registered with the General Service Office so thatís very possible. We donít have hard numbers all we can go by with this information thatís been provided so yeah thatís a good question Is one of those countries Iran and Iraq I donít know which does not have a lady came here and was in the program Yeah, there are a few that really you have to go underground. Absolutely. And then here's now some... Oh, and then the next paragraph, it talks about at the very end that we've been translated into 43 languages. As of 2011, that's 62. When the General Service Report comes out every year, That's one of the things I look for is how many languages are we in. We'll never be in all of them. Translation is very expensive, and some things just don't translate. But I recently read that they're going to start translation in an old Inca, an ancient Inca language because more than 2 million people still speak it in South America. So, I mean, that just gets me excited that more people will have an opportunity to live a different way of life. The other thing on this fourth edition, fourth forward, okay, again I've got this in the handbook. In your fourth paragraph, some of you will have this sentence and some of vous will not. About midway through, you'll see the end of the wording fellow alcoholics across the country or around the world. Okay, everybody there? Your next sentence will either start with the word fundamentally or it will start with in any meeting. How many have fundamentally? Okay, so you're in the first six printings. Okay, this is XXIV. forward to the 4th edition do you have a forward to the 4rd edition if you don't have one you won't know this so forward to the 4nd edition so some of you will start with fundamentally some of you will start with in any meeting those that started with fundamentally was in the first six printings of this edition. When the book came out in November of 2001, the sentence starting with fundamentally, which I'll read you while it's actually printed here for you, but was such an uproar that it was on the conference agenda by the end of January. It was unanimously voted out in the conference in April of 2001. and so then the next printing would have that sentence removed. I've never seen anything move so fast in a fellowship like ours that can take forever to make a decision. But clearly this decision was not even up for much debate. The sentence that was removed, I put in your handbook. It was fundamentally though, The difference between an electronic meeting and the home group around the corner is only one of format. There's a lot bigger difference than one of format. When you walk into your home group meeting, you don't see eyeballs on a computer, unless you're Skyping, but still. You don't get that warm welcome and a handshake. You do not see that shaking deer in the headlight newcomer. There's an electricity and a magic about coming into a room where there's laughter and the smell of coffee. This is more than just format. This Is where I refuel, this is where I plug in to regenerate, where I reconnect with you and with a power greater than myself and this fellowship. So that was removed. The good news that came out of that was that as the result of that they realized it wasn't one person that wrote the foreword, it was a committee and they realized that when they have in the future something like this that even though the committee has the right of decision, they'll have another unrelated pair of eyes committee look at it because like any of us, when we're involved in it we're connected to it we can't see it as objectively as someone else and so again Nobody ran out and got drunk, but the fellowship spoke and they heard it and they followed the group conscience. So that's a fun little bit of trivia. Any questions on the forward to the fourth edition? I don't know the old ones. I don' t know what that is. All right, now we move into the doctor's opinion. Doctor's Opinion was written by Dr. William Duncan Silkworth, and I have that at the top of your handout on the next page. Bill called him Silky, and he also called him the little doctor that loved drunks, and he did. He worked with us for years before Bill came along. He understood us like no non-alcoholic could. he understood alcoholism and he was the one who gave it the illness the allergy concept something very new because prior to that it was a moral issue it was weak willed it was no backbone it was straightened up he saw the illness like no one else really had and this was a new concept for us again anybody who has a hard time accepting their alcoholism am I an alcoholic this is a great place to get them to start to read looking at the physical and this is also what Dr. Silkworth told Bill because Bill was preaching about his own spiritual experience that you've got to have that and Silkworth said to him before he went to Akron not knowing the plight Bill, you've gotta back that off people aren't gonna have that That was a pretty phenomenon that happened to you. Start with the medical, the physical. Start there with them. When he did that with his first prospect after that, it was a doctor, Dr. Bob. He could begin to understand that because he had tried all these spiritual remedies to no avail. But he began to get the physical concepts. This is where a good place to start someone who, I don't know if I'm an alcoholic or not. If they find some relationship in here, probably on the right track. So a couple of things here. Again, just trivia or informational type things. On this first page, in the paragraph that starts in late 1934, he says, was an alcoholic of a type I had come to regard as hopeless. that patient was Bill, our co-founder Bill. Okay. Again, I'm going to move through these. You can do your writing and notes afterwards. On the next page we have one third paragraph down, The Doctor's Theory That We Have an Allergy to Alcohol Interests Us. I didn't understand what allergy meant. I kind of knew it, but didn't know it. This allergy is what differentiates Dr. Silkworth from so many of the others. So the definition of allergy is susceptibility, an unnormal reaction to a substance not usually found in others. I don't know if any of you have any other allergies, but you'll understand that more. But the thing of it is, if you have an allergy to peanuts, you probably don't keep trying to eat peanuts. Yet we kept trying to drink. We just, well, we'll push through it. I'll learn how to fight this. You know, we didn't know of it as an allergy because of what it did for us. So he defined it as an allergy. We have an unnormal reaction when people like you and I take alcohol. Okay, another little point on the next page. The paragraph that starts I say this after many years' experience as medical director of one of the oldest hospitals. That hospital is Towns Hospital. He'd be there many, many years. A few paragraphs down later he requested, this is what I like, the privilege, the privilege of being allowed to tell a story to other patients. He asked for the privilege to do that. It wasn't a, I have to do it, He did it because he wanted to stay sober and maybe somebody else would be helped. It was a privilege to be able to do that and I'd like to remind myself that it is a privilege to share my story. On the next page a point that I always like to remind myself of is again the second paragraph the reminder of this manifestation of an allergy that it doesn't occur in the average temperate drinker and these allergic types can never safely use alcohol in any form at all that includes near beer my husband had a fellow who said to him you know it took 38 of those to get drunk yeah I mean oh my god so we can't safely use it all and for me that means all that means cooking with it, that means sauces, that mean all that stuff I don't want to wake up the tiger within me the bottom paragraph in my case would have been something they could have shown me the very first night I drank it would have be true and I wouldn't have had a clue what they were talking about I think this describes what happens to us that's different from the other person beautifully men and women drink essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol when you speak to a non-alcoholic they usually stop when they begin to feel it that's when we put it in overdrive and regardless we push it on on that next page I like to note that there are three places where he comments on a psychic change and that psychic change can only come about it did for me anyway in the sense of a surrender I couldn't have it until I surrendered and once I surrendered an amazing different world was presented and it was just flip to flop everybody with me so far? I know we're moving fast this is on page in the fourth edition XXIX there's three places in there one it's in there psychic change is there it's also in the second to the last line in the paragraph above and then the paragraph that starts faced with this problem 1, 2, 3, 4 5th line down essential psychic change a friend of mine once said if they have the same word or words a lot like that in the same page it must be relative depth and weight absolutely okay once again it's my reminder to the sponsor and to me that on the next page towards the bottom I like to point out that all these and many others have one symptom in common they cannot start drinking without developing the phenomenon of craving that whole paragraph is powerful to remind me that I have the illness of alcoholism on the bottom of that it says It has never been by any treatment with which we are familiar permanently eradicated. The only relief we have to suggest is complete abstinence. Again, no near beer, near pot, short, you know, we can't shortcut this. It's either or. Now for some trivia again on the next page. He refers, and again this is in your handout, second paragraph about one year prior to this experience a man was brought in to be treated for chronic alcoholism that man was Hank Parkhurst he would partner with Bill to help get the book underway he was a super promoter at the time he worked for Standard Oil of New Jersey and he would participate greatly in the writing of the two employers chapter His story is only in the first edition called The Unbeliever. In the next paragraph, the man who was in there, it says the patient had made his own diagnosis and deciding his situation hopeless had hidden in a deserted barn determined to die. That was a man named Fitz Mayo again in your handout and his story is Our Southern Friend. we're going to hear his experience again in We Agnostics and his story is in all four editions so that's some pieces on the doctor's opinion I'm sorry? he moved his story too like Tim and the Pioneers probably I didn't really notice it has moved around a bit as I look back looking at the different editions so yeah, but it is in there Our Southern Friend which section? I'm not sure I don't recall okay, that would make sense yeah, because he was in the first edition as well I don't know that I ended up in the wrong place with Marilyn All right, any questions on the doctor's opinion? Again, I'm not going to detail walk you through. This is some highlights that I like to point out. It is some trivia, some history, just to help make it come alive a little bit more. Everybody with me so far? Okay, let's move on to Bill's story. now if you turn the page there is the tombstone at Winchester Cathedral that Bill saw and I put it on its own page so if you wanted to cut it out, put it in your book whatever you want to do I made a smaller copy and I have it opposite the start of the book just so I've got that dog roll down but that is it. If you take a look at it, you'll see some of the F's are really S's kind of as the printing at that time, the stonework they were doing. So anyway, we're not going to detail that but there is the tombstone that he saw. Yeah, Nikki? What is small beer? Well, beer. Yeah, yeah. Small beer and I think a pot used to be like a pint. So, a stein. And so, but we also like Clancy and Karen Garrison's story. He says, you know, if I could show you where, because she said I only smoked pot and all that, and that doesn't count. And he says, ifI can show you in the big book where it is, would you change your date? And he points at her, well, that doesn' t mean they should hate. Yeah, it says the word pot. So, you now, we'll use it any way we can. You know, in our book study one night there was a couple of people that had a little bit of time who thought that meant marijuana. Well, I think we can certainly use it by that in today's standards. I'm not going to split hairs on it. I'll use it. It certainly worked in my case. Now, Bill was our co-founder. He was the first one using the method of one alcoholic carrying in the message as the recipient of Ebi, his childhood friend. So I'm not going to go through Bill's drinking story very much. I'm just going to give you some highlights. This is something, again, you can go through with your sponsees. You can do the reading of the book with them. But I'm juste going to gie you some depth, gieyou some interest. And so it begins on page one. I mentioned to you about the dog roll. So you now have that. Okay, page two. First paragraph, it talks about the Knight Law Course. That was the Brooklyn Law School. In the next paragraph, again, it's going to take up time if you're writing now, so you might want to just wait and do your writing afterwards so we don't miss anything. In the third paragraph, we roared on a motorcycle. That was in April of 1925. Anna Harley and Lois did most of the driving. I want to make sure we give credit to Lois there. Yes. Yeah. On page three, it talks about on that fourth line, but we once worked on a farm. That was the Goldfoot Family Farm in Scotia, New York. In the bottom there, 1929 I contracted golf fever and he was going to take over Walter Hagen now Bill played at the Equinox golf course in Manchester Vermont during that time and Lois' father had been a founder and then here's a little information on Walter Hagan most of us maybe have never heard of him except through the big book but in his day Walter Hagon at that time was the most winning professional golfer so you can see why Bill was going to overtake Walter Hagen because he never settled for second man he only went for the first man and if you read any of the books of history on Bill you will see that to be true he did not go second fiddle to anything okay so there's some background on Walter Hagan if we go to the next page the second paragraph the inscription the stock market fell XYZ minus 32 that stock was Pinnock and Ford and PNF was a corn products company never knew what I don't know what relationship he had to that but that was the stock that he was referring to in that same paragraph excuse me, the next one he says he telephoned a friend in Montreal that was Richard O. Johnson of Green Shields and Company a brokerage house the next paragraph we went to live with my wife's parents that was Dr. Clark and Matilda Hoyt Burnham now this is kind of embarrassing because the Burnhams were a very socialite family and here's now they're having to come and live with her parents this was not cool this was an ego builder top of the next page liquor ceased to be a luxury became a necessity bathtub gin usually made in a large wash tub of raw alcohol water and spices next page again at the very bottom of page 6 somehow I managed to drag my mattress to a lower floor lest I suddenly leap Excuse me, Bill. Lois drug the mattress down so you wouldn't leap. Again, Lois is forgotten sometimes. On the next page, again in your handout, second paragraph, my brother-in-law is a physician. Brother-in‑law is Dr. Leonard V. Strong, Jr. He married Bill's sister, Dorothy. and he also would become our connection to Willard Richardson who would introduce us to the Rockefellers Dorothy actually was in love with Lois' brother originally he didn't have the same feeling for her so he went on to marry somebody else but again, if she hadn't married Dr. Strong with his connection of history who knows, maybe we would have met the Vanderbilts I don't know, or nobody but that was our route to the Rockefellers who again would play a big part in our life ok, couple little trivia things in that same paragraph the Belladonna treatment is explained there he says I met a kind doctor that was Dr. Silkworth in the next paragraph he says the goose hung high the evil spirits were gone was that expression on the next page is going to begin the change of our lives as we would come to know he says that my musing the very last paragraph my musings was interrupted by the telephone the cheery voice of an old school friend That was Ebi Thatcher. And there's a little info on him. He would always think of Ebi as his sponsor. Ebi would be the first person to bring to Bill this sharing of a message, carrying of the message of one alcoholic. And this is a beautiful 12-step call that Ebi made. Again, we're not going to detail it, but this is great. This is a great 12-stepp call. But again, some of the trivia I want to share with you. On page 9, it says that there was that time we charted an airplane to complete a JAG. Well, that is kind of a funny story. In your handout, that was in 1929. And there was a new airfield near the Equinox House in Manchester, Vermont. So Bill and Abby were drinking all night, and they decided to hire a plane piloted by Ted Burke. They radioed ahead that they'd be coming in. Now this was the first plane to land in this new airport. Little bitty airport, but it was going to be the first arrival. The band comes out, the high school, Mrs. Orvitz. I mean, we're going to have a great welcoming committee. And they land, and they are drunk off their butts. They fall out of the plane. I mean it is disappointing, needless to say. And when we went back to that area, we found through bramble and hiking and all this, we found the airstrip. It's all grassy, but the windsock is still up. So it was fun to see that. In a few paragraphs, Danny says, I pushed a drink across the table and he refused it. Bill was drinking pineapple juice and gin. I mean, even today that just sounds, ooh. That was what he was drinking. Ebi said towards the bottom there he said he told how two men had appeared in court persuading the judge to suspend his sentence actually there were three men that appeared this is in your hand Roland Housard Shep Cornell and Sebra Graves it's his father who Ebi was standing the judge Ebi was in front of these were members of the Oxford group and we're going to learn more about Roland Hazard because Roland is who spoke to Dr. Young and also found out about the psychic change that's sort of needed and so Ebi did no ranting he just shared his message now we often hear about Bill's spiritual experience and for so long I it's as if he just kind of had it come upon him like he was sitting in bed, he's got his little hospital gown on he's sort of swinging his feet back and forth and boom you know he just has this hit this is how it always sounded to me when people would describe it but if we read Bill's story he prepared himself for this experience in such a concentrated way most of us grow into it this is how he got it. And I think he probably needed to have that phenomenal experience, but it was he prepared himself for it. So again, as we look through this, we see, for example, let's turn to page 11. The third paragraph, midpoint, he says, Like myself, he had admitted complete defeat. And then we look at the next page. Bill had a real problem with some kind of higher power God, something like that. And in that third paragraph on 12, he goes, my friend suggested, why don't you choose your own conception of God? And then we look on page 13, the second paragraph. That hospital I appeared at for the last time, that was Towns Hospital. And then, we really begin to see a lot of the steps. To me, this is three. It says, there I humbly offered myself to God as I then understood him to do with me as he would. I placed myself unreservedly under his care and protection. And this is what I want to remember. It's without conditions. Skip a sentence, and then he says, I ruthlessly faced my sins and became willing to have my newfound friend take them away, root and branch. To me, that's four and five. in the next paragraph he talks about acquainting him with my problems and deficiencies 6 and 7 we made a list of people I had hurt or to whom I felt resentment and I expressed my entire willingness to approach these individuals sounds like 8 and 9 then he said next paragraph I was to test my thinking by the new found consciousness within common sense would thus become uncommon sounds like 10 the rest of that paragraph sounds like 11 to me and then I love this part the next paragraph my friend promised when these things were done I would enter upon a new relationship with my creator that I would have the elements of a way of living which answered all my problems and that's what these 12 steps guide us to do to create a relationship and find a way to continue that with a power greater than ourselves if we turn the next page the third paragraph he says these were revolutionary and drastic proposals and here's where he made himself ready but the moment I fully accepted them the effect was electric and then he goes on to describe the sense of victory peace and serenity as I'd never known utter confidence I felt lifted up as though the great clean wind of a mountaintop blew through and through God comes to most men gradually but he's impacted me with sudden and profound well he's through Evie's experience he knows this just can't kind of be all onto his own and so we look at the bottom paragraph my friend had emphasized the absolute necessity of demonstrating these principles in all my affairs the last sentence begins and this was one that came to me in pieces I used to see for if an alcoholic failed to perfect and enlarge his spiritual life, that's where it stopped in my head, so I know I've got to do that. Then I would, as time went on, I would see through work and self-sacrifice and then that's all I saw. And then finally some years later I saw the rest of it for others, through workandselfsacrificeforothers. by doing that I could and I like to read a lot of this in first person so if I do that it's not meant to be disrespectful just kind of a habit it says I could not survive the certain trials and low spots ahead because friends there will be trials and low spots I guarantee you and it said if I did not work I would surely drink again and if I drank I would truly die midpoint in the next paragraph is another favorite sentence he was talking about being depressed and not being able to find work this sometimes nearly drove me back to drink but I soon found that when all other measures failed work with another alcoholic would save the day not the week, not the month the day and I just saw that about six years ago the word day and it reminded me of Mighty Mouse remember Mighty Mouse to save the day that's what I think of is that it saves the day not the week, not the month, not the year, it's just this day and then just a couple other and then we're going to take a break next paragraph down he talks about in one western city, that's Cleveland, Ohio on the next page page 16 noted in the second paragraph note in your handout one poor chap committed suicide in my home that was a fellow named Bill C don't know his last name but as they would find he'd been selling off their dress clothes too so they didn't know that until he died and then at the very bottom we have a little blip on Bill's death and I put a note on here that he died on their 53rd wedding anniversary in Miami he was born and he died at age 75 he was sober 36 years so let's go ahead and take a few minute break a little stretch and we'll come back for