Bill Lived at Our House Three Months and We Talked Till Two Every Night — That’s How the Twelve Steps Got Written – Dr. B.
About This Speaker Tape
Dr. Bob tells the founding story of Alcoholics Anonymous from his firsthand perspective. He describes Bill W.'s arrival in Akron in 1935 after five months of unsuccessful efforts to help other alcoholics in New York. Through Henrietta S., Bill was connected to Bob and Anne, and despite Bob's terrible condition that day — he extracted a promise the visit would last only fifteen minutes — the two men talked from 5 PM until 11:15 PM. Bob stopped drinking immediately, slipped once at a medical convention in Atlantic City, and had his last drink on June 10, 1935.
Bob explains that the critical missing piece in his own recovery was the spirit of service. He had been affiliated with the Oxford Group for two and a half years, attending meetings, reading scripture, and praying regularly, yet he got drunk nearly every night. What Bill brought from New York — the idea of being helpful to another alcoholic — was the ingredient that made sobriety possible. Together they found their first prospect, and the early fellowship grew slowly from there, meeting in homes until outgrowing them around 1940-41 and moving to the King School auditorium in Akron.
Bob reflects on the four absolutes — honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love — as the early yardsticks before the Twelve Steps were written in 1939. He speaks candidly about his own struggles with absolute love, admitting he was often indifferent toward others unless helping them kept him sober. He discusses humility not as weakness but as recognition that all strength comes from Higher Power, and warns against the cockiness that creeps in when sobriety feels secure.
He closes by noting that AA's continued growth depends on its members avoiding entangling alliances, controversial issues, and political or religious disputes, while remembering the simplicity of the program: get sober, stay sober, and help the less fortunate brother do the same. With membership at roughly 70,000, the future rests on whether each member keeps practicing these principles.
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Timestamps
Full Transcript
Well, I don't know if many of you have heard or have read articles written about the inception
of AA.
There are probably some who haven't.
And from that brief story, there are some things to be learned.
So, even at risk of repetition, I...
of AA.
There are probably some who haven't.
And from that brief story, there are some things to be learned.
So, even at risk of repetition, I...
Well, I don't know if many of you have heard or have read articles written about the inception
of AA.
There are probably some who haven't.
And from that brief story, there are some things to be learned.
So, even at risk of repetition, I would like to relate just exactly what did happen in
those very early days.
And I feel there is a lesson to be learned and one that we must never forget if we wish
to maintain paid-up insurance policies against our drinking.
You recall a story about Bill having been, having had some spiritual experiences.
Having been sold on the idea of attempting to be helpful to others.
You undoubtedly recall the fact that he had been working quite hard at it for around five
months or so, almost incessantly, and still had not created, if you please, a single convert.
Not one.
As we express it now.
No one had gelled.
But he had worked tirelessly, with no thought of saving his own strength or time or anything.
But nothing seemed to register.
When he came out to Akron on this business mission, which perhaps for the good of all
of us, turned out to be quite a success.
And really I didn't know this before becoming a young man andổi thinking that I might just
as well just go to the
place that had me locked inside that they had Guardhouse for a little bit.
But I never thought it would happen that day.
Why, whattelgger, oh-oh me lomby, jack.
Like a collector should do it.
I found myself in a print-dieter every morning, eating half a bottle of the publy.
And I never thought I might As such have been 최
him to believe that he possibly might avoid getting into difficulties if he found some
alcoholic on home to work.
Inspiring the name of our good friend Reverend Walter Thumb, the bulletin board in the lobby
of the Mayflower, he called up the good doctor and asked him the names of some of the group
of people with whom he had been affiliated and through whose instrumentality he had acquired
sobriety.
The good doctor said he wasn't one, but he knew of quite a number and he gave him quite
a little list, I guess about nine or ten of them.
So Bill stopped to call them up without very much success.
They had either just left town or they were just leaving town.
They were having a party or they had a thought or something.
Anyway, he came down to the end or at least very nearly the end and his eye lights on
the name of Mrs. Thumb and happened to get our good friend Henrietta.
But he called up our good Henry and told her what he wanted and she said, come right out
and have lunch with us.
So out he went.
And went into his story in considerable detail and she said, I have just the man for you.
So she rushes to the farm and calls up Anne and tells her that she has just the power
to be helpful to Bob and we should come over.
And he said, well, I guess we'd better not go with the day.
But Henry is there.
He's there.
He's there.
He's there.
He's there.
He's there.
Very determined individual.
He said, oh, yes, come on over.
I know I'll be helpful to Bob.
Well, Anne didn't think this quite wise for us to come over today.
And finally, Henry bore in to such an extent that she had to tell her that I was very much
in the sack and had, in fact, surpassed all capabilities for listening to any conversation
and it would just possibly have to be postponed.
So she talked to him the next day, having invited being Sunday and Mother's Day.
And we said that Anne said we would be over.
Well, I don't ever remember feeling much worse.
But being very fond of Henry and having said we'd go over, we started over and I extracted
the solemn promise man on the way over that 15 minutes of this stuff was top.
But I didn't want to talk to this mug or anybody else and we'd really make it snappy.
Now, these are actual facts.
We got there at 5 o'clock and it was 11.15 when we left.
Now, you know, or possibly your memories are good enough to carry you back to certain times
when you haven't felt too good and you can easily visualize the fact that you wouldn't
have listened to anybody unless that individual had really had something to tell you.
And that's the way I felt about Bill.
And I recognized the fact that he did have something and so I listened those many hours.
And I stopped drinking immediately.
But very shortly after that there was a medical meeting and
uh...
Atlantic City.
And I developed a terrific thirst for knowledge.
I had to have knowledge.
So we would go to, I would go to Atlantic City and absorb lots of knowledge.
I usually mention the fact that I incidentally had acquired a thirst for scotch, but I didn't
mention that.
But anyway, I went to Atlantic City and really hung one on.
And...
When I came to, I was in the home of a friend of ours in Cargill Falls, one of our suburbs.
And Bill came over and got me and got me home, gave me a hooker or two of scotch that night
and a bottle of beer the next morning.
And that was on the 10th of June of 35 and I had had no alcohol in any form that I know
of since.
Now...
Well...
Well...
Well...
Well...
Well...
Well, it was interesting.
And the interesting part of all this, and not all these sort of details, but the condition
that we two fellas were in...
We had both been associated with the same uh... bunch of people.
He in New York and I in Akron.
I had been associated with him in fact for two years and a half.
It was just...
He, for five months, he had acquired this idea of service, and I had not.
But I had done an immense amount of reading, which they recommended.
I had refreshed my memory on the good book, and I'd had an excellent training in that as a youngster.
Well, they told me that I should go to their meetings regularly, and I did every week.
They said I should affiliate myself with some church, and we did that.
And they also said that I should cultivate the habit of prayer, and I did that, at least to quite a considerable extent for me.
Well...
But I got tight every night.
And I mean that.
They told me once in a while, it was practically every night, and I couldn't understand what was wrong.
I had done all these things that these good people told me to do, every one of them.
And I thought very faithfully and sincerely, but I still continued to overindulge.
But the one thing that they hadn't told me was the one thing that Bill had.
The instruction to attempt to be helpful to somebody else.
So we immediately started to look around for prospects, and it wasn't long before one appeared in the form of a man whom you all know.
At least a great many of you know, a good friend of Akron.
Now, I knew that this Bill was a Sunday school superintendent.
And I also thought that he'd probably forgotten more about the good book every night than I ever knew.
And who was I to be trying to tell him about it?
And so it made me feel somewhat hypocritical.
It was quite a job for me to talk to him on that sort of subject.
But anyway, we both did, and I'm very glad to say...
The conversation fell on fertile ground.
Then in October, we had three dumped in our laps, almost simultaneously.
But the point I wanted to bring out was the fact that...
Uh...
Uh...
Uh...
Uh...
In my mind, the spirit of service is of prime importance.
Although it has to be backed up with some knowledge of the subject.
And I used to go to the hospital, and I'd stand there and talk.
I talked many a time to a chap in a bed for four or five or six hours.
I don't know how he ever stood me for five or six hours, but he did.
Probably with his clothes or something.
But anyway, it came to my mind that I probably didn't know too much about what I was talking.
Therefore, we've been stewards of what we have, and that includes our time.
I was not giving a good account of my stewardship of time.
Now, if it took me six hours to say something to this man that I could have said in an hour,
I will say, if I'd known what I was talking about.
I said there was not a very efficient individual.
And incidentally, I'm somewhat allergic to work anyway.
So, uh...
I felt that I should, uh...
continue to...
increase my familiarity not only with the good book,
but, uh, read a good deal of good standard literature
and possibly something of, uh, scientific interest along with it.
So I did tolerate this habit of reading, and I think I've...
I think I'm not exaggerating when I say that I have probably averaged to read an hour a day for the last 15 years.
Now, I don't say that to try to sell you on the...
idea that you've got to cultivate that habit of reading an hour a day.
Because there are plenty of people in fine AAs that don't read very much.
You see, back in those days, we were groping in the dark entirely.
We did not, uh, know much about it.
We knew practically nothing of alcoholism.
I, a physician, knew nothing about it to speak of.
Oh, I'd read about it, but there wasn't...
there wasn't anything worth reading in any of the textbooks.
And, uh, usually the information about it consisted on, uh,
some clear treatment for DTs if you'd gone that far,
and if you hadn't, why, you'd prescribe a few bromides and, uh,
give the fellow a good lecture.
None of which, of course, amounted very much.
And in early, uh, AA days, we became quite convinced that, uh,
uh, the spiritual program was fine, but it, uh,
we could help the Lord out a little with some supplementary diet.
So, uh, in the early days,
Bill, having a lot of stomach trouble, had stumbled across the fact that, uh,
he got along much better on sauerkraut and cold tomatoes.
And so...
Well, we thought that in as much as Bill had to have that experience,
that, uh, probably everyone else would share the same.
But, of course, we discovered later that the, uh,
most any dietary restriction had very little to do with a acquisition
and maintenance of ten minutes a Friday.
We, uh, in our own stories, didn't amount to anything to speak of.
When I, we started in on Bill, we had no 12 tests, we had no traditions,
we had, uh, nothing.
Nothing of that kind.
But we were convinced that the answer to our problem was in the good book.
And it, uh, became somewhat evident, we thought, to some of us older ones,
that it was contained, the part that we found absolutely essential,
to a rather limited section of the good book.
In other words, the Sermon on the Mount,
the 15th chapter of Corinthians, and the book of James.
I think we got those ideas pretty firmly implanted in our minds very early.
And we had in those days, our membership got to five and seven and ten and still small.
Why, we used to have daily meetings in somebody's house.
Uh...
Um...
It was probably providentially arranged that, uh,
that all this happened at a time when everybody was broke.
And awfully broke, too.
It was probably much easier for us to be successful when broke
than it would have been to have been successful if we'd had, uh, a good checking account of peace.
But I know that we were, we were, every one of us, just so painfully broke that,
uh, we were, we were, we were, you know,
well, it wasn't a pleasant thought.
But nothing could be done about it.
And everybody else was broke, too.
And, well, we didn't take it too much at heart.
But I do think that that was providentially arranged.
But anyway, we kept on having these meetings and having these discussions
and attending the meetings of the, these good people
with whom we had been associated.
And did continue to have them with them until,
in Akron I'm talking about, of course,
until about 40.
Or maybe early in 41.
Might have been January of 41.
I don't recall the exact date.
When we outgrew the residents of this good friend
who had allowed us to bang up the plaster and the, uh,
door jams, the counting chairs
up and down the stairs.
And he had a very beautiful home.
Uh, we had outgrown that.
And so we stepped out.
And, uh, in a short time,
acquired the rental of the auditorium in the King's School.
And we have, we, I mean, I'm talking about, uh,
the group that I attend personally,
has been there ever since.
We attempt to have a good meeting.
And I think we're hugely successful.
But it wasn't until 39 that the, uh,
teachings and efforts and studies
that, uh, had been going on
were crystallized in the form of the 12 steps.
I didn't write the 12 steps.
They had nothing to do with the writing of them.
I think probably I had something to do with, uh,
them indirectly.
Because after
this June 10th episode,
Bill came to live at our house
and stayed for about,
what is it,
about three months.
And there was hardly a night in that three months
that we didn't sit up till 2 or 3 o'clock
discussing these things.
And it'd be hard for me to conceive that
something wasn't said during those nightly discussions
around our kitchen table
that influenced the actual writing of the 12 steps.
They're much more handy to have in that form, of course.
We had the ideas, uh,
pretty much basically,
but not in, uh,
terse and, uh, tangible form.
We got them, as I said,
as a result of our study
and therefore out the good book.
We must have had them because, uh,
we have learned from experience
that they are very important in maintaining sobriety
and we were maintaining sobriety
therefore we had them but not in exactly the written form
as you know them now.
But that is the way that
things started off in Akron.
And, uh,
as we grew, I thought, uh,
we began to get offshoots.
First one was in Cleveland
and
I don't remember the next one
but, uh, anyway, they were
started in Akron not too long after that
and, uh, have been continuing ever since.
It is a great source of satisfaction to me
to feel that I may have played some part in
seeking in my two bits work toward
getting this thing started.
I like to think that I have done that.
Maybe I'm taking too much for granted.
I don't know.
But I, I feel that
I was simply used as God's agent.
I feel that I'm no different from any of you fellows,
uh, girls, except that I was a little more fortunate
that I got this message fifteen and a half years ago.
And some of you had to wait till a little later.
In fact, I got a little peeved that, uh,
I haven't been followed because he was a little slow on the trigger
because I thought I would have been ready to receive it
quite a while before he got around to present it.
And, uh, that is to irritate me no end, but, uh,
after all, maybe he knows better than I.
But I felt sure that I would have been glad
to have anything presented that would have been
workable and produce the sobriety which I thought, at least,
that I wanted so badly.
I used to even doubt that at times.
I, I would go to my good friend Henry and say,
Henry, uh, do you think that I want to start drinking with you?
Henry, being very charitable, said,
Yes, Bob, I'm sure you want to start.
And, uh, I would say,
Well, I can't conceive of any living human
who want, really wanted to do something
as badly as I think I want to do it
who could be so total a failure.
But, Henry, I think I'm just one of, uh,
one of these wonder-wonder guys.
He said,
No, Bob, I think you want to.
We just haven't found, uh, just the way to work it yet.
But, anyway, that was the way I felt about it.
And the fact that my sobriety has been maintained
continuously for 13 and a half years
doesn't, uh, allow me to think
that I'm necessarily any farther away
from my next drink than any of you people here.
I'm still very human,
and I still think that a double of scotch
would taste awful good.
And if it didn't produce disastrous results,
I might do it.
I don't know.
I really love scotch.
But I have no reason to think that the...
it would taste any differently.
I have no legitimate reason to believe
that the results would be any different.
They were always the same.
They were always the same in that I always wound up
back in the dear old April somewhere.
And I have no precedent or anything
to, uh, make it feel legitimate for me to believe
that the results today would be any different
than they were 14 and 20 and 25 and 30 years ago
when I did the same thing.
I just don't want to pay that bill,
because that's a big bill.
It always was,
and I think it would be even louder today
because of what has gone on in the last 15 years.
I'm naturally being a bit out of practice.
I don't believe I've really laughed very long,
and I'm having a not-so-nice time.
And I just don't want to bump myself off,
even by the, uh,
by the pleasures of the outpouring.
Well, I'm not going to do it.
And I'm never going to do it.
As long as I do the things that I'm supposed to do.
And I know what those things are.
So if I should ever get high,
I certainly never would have anyone
to blame for it.
It would be done,
perhaps not with malice aforethought,
but it certainly would be done with
as a result at least of
extreme carelessness and indifference.
I said I was quite human.
And I get to thinking
every once in a while,
well, here's this Smith guy,
he's a fairly smart individual.
He's got this liquor situation
right for the tail.
Proved it.
Demonstrated it.
And had a drink for fifteen years.
Probably could knock off a couple,
and no one would be the wisest.
Now I tell you,
I'm not trying to be funny at all,
because those thoughts actually enter my mind.
And I know just the minute they do
exactly what has happened.
You see there in Akron,
we have the extreme good fortune,
as a great many of you people know,
of having a very nice hospital set up
at St. Thomas Hospital.
There's a ward that theoretically
accommodates seven,
but the history tells us
that it's stretched a little bit
and we usually,
she usually has about two or three more
parked around somewhere.
And I,
almost invariably,
I find that I hadn't
been paying quite so much attention
to the boys in the ward as I should.
Just to show you that idea
that I could probably,
probably polish off a couple,
entered my mind,
I think,
about the boys in the ward.
You've been giving them the semi-brush off
here for a few days.
You'd better get back on the job,
big boy,
before you get into trouble.
And I cut her right back,
and,
uh,
I'm much more attentive
than I had been in the days preceding
the time that I got this funny idea.
But I get it,
and I get it every once in a while,
and I'll probably continue to get it
as long,
uh,
than ever
I get callous about
that one thing.
You know,
back in,
uh,
those early days
about which I spoke
before we had the Klaus test,
we did have some other things,
besides the actual,
uh,
the biblical,
uh,
verses
of the ward.
I was getting to thinking more of Smith
than I was the ward,
otherwise I wouldn't have neglected them.
And I wasn't being especially loving
when these fellows had come there,
indicating their desire for help,
and I was just a little too busy
to give them any,
or at least very much,
of my time.
So I ought to be bothered with the burden.
Ten cents to get rid of him,
why, that's easy.
He could even stand two beds.
But not because you love the power,
but just to be relieved of,
uh,
the nuisance of his,
uh,
hanging on your coat sleeve
or what have you.
No unselfishness,
no,
uh,
love indicated in the transaction at all.
But I think that
the thing that really counts
is really giving a service
of yourself,
and that almost invariably,
not always,
but almost invariably,
uh,
requires some effort
and some time of your own.
Uh,
it isn't a matter of putting a little quiet money
in the dish.
That helps,
and possibly that's indicated too.
But that isn't giving much.
That is,
uh,
giving to an individual
in days like this
when most people get along,
at least,
entirely well.
That type of giving,
I don't believe would ever
keep anyone sober
or anywhere in the earth.
But giving of his own effort
and strength
and time
is quite a different matter.
And I think that's what
is meant by
and what was meant by
what Bill learned
in New York
that I didn't get
in acting.
And I think that's what
is meant by
and what was meant
by
what Bill learned
in New York
that I didn't get
in acting.
And I think that's what
he learned
in acting.
Now there are
there are four
absolute
absolute
we call them
Turn that tape over now,
please.
... absolute we call them
the only yardsticks
we had
had in the early days, I think they still hold good, and I still think that they can
be extremely helpful. I have found at times that questions arise, and I want to do the
right thing, but the answers are not obvious. You don't know what the right thing is. But
almost always, if you check into it carefully, by the optics of absolute honesty, purity,
unselfishness, and love, and whatever your decision is, checks up pretty well with those
four, your answer can't be very far out of the way. If, however, you do that, as I have
done at times, and still are not too satisfied.
I usually consult some friend whose judgment, perhaps, I think in this particular case would
be very much better than mine. But usually you can do it yourself without bothering your
friends about your own personal decisions. In overcoming the first step, you can't quite
get honest enough to admit that John Valicon really has bested us.
The matter of absolute purity is somewhat like it. It's purity of ideas and purity of
motives and what have you. Unselfishness includes those things that I've just been talking about,
not the dime or the two bits to the bump, but actually giving of yourself. And as you
well know, the absolute love is probably a big word incorporating all three with a little
bit more along with it.
I think that that is a very difficult thing to have absolute love. I don't think any of
us will ever get it. But that doesn't mean that we can't try to get it. It was extremely
difficult for me, and I feel that I never have been very successful at it. It's very
difficult for me to love my former man. I didn't dislike him, but I didn't love him.
Unless there was some special reason, he was just, I was just indifferent toward him.
I wouldn't do him any harm. I would be willing to give him a little lift if it didn't require
too much effort. I never would injure him at all. But to love him, I just couldn't do
it for a long time. And I think that I overcame it to some extent.
When I was forced to do it, because I was either going to love this bird or not, to
attempt to be helpful to him, I would probably get drunk at the time.
You could say, well, largely, you were just, that's just a manifestation of selfishness.
Which is quite correct. I was selfish to the extent of not wanting Smith hurt. So to keep
from getting Smith hurt, I would attempt to go through the motions of being helpful.
You can debate it any way you want to, but the fact still remains, for the average individual,
absolute love is a thing that he will never acquire. I suspect there are a few people
who do. I think maybe I know some that come pretty close to it. But I think I could count
them on the fingers of one hand.
I don't say that in a discouraging manner, because I have some wonderful friends, but
I'm talking about it in its finer aspects, and particularly as it applies to AA.
I don't think we do anything well, very much, in this world, unless we practice it. And
I don't believe we do AA work too well, unless we practice it.
I don't think we do anything well, very much, in this world, unless we practice it. And I don't believe we do AA work too well, unless we practice it.
These fellows that win . . . break world records
in athletic events are people who . . . who win titles in the boxing arena . . . are people
who practice it. They've been practicing it for years. Even though they may necessarily
be endowed with a lot of physical ability and skill, they still have to practice it.
and we have to practice to do a good job in the age and there are a number of
things that we should practice we should practice as I say acquiring this spirit
of service we should attempt to acquire some faith which isn't always easily
done especially for the person who's always been very materialistically
minded and those are the standards of society today beyond all doubt and
adventure you have a million bucks and your neighbor has 900 grand you're a
much better man than your neighbor to the extent of a hundred thousand dollars
and so forth and so on that not there that
I think that it can be acquired it can be acquired slowly I don't believe I
think that is something that has to be cultivated also that was not easy for me
I just assume it's difficult for others another thing that is difficult for me
and I probably don't do too well yet and that is the matter of power we're all in time to have closed minds
they're pretty tightly closed now and that's one reason that some people
find our spiritual teachings difficult they they they don't want to
find out too much about it some various personal reasons one reason is the
affair of being a considered determinant just for illustration
but anyway the matter of the talents toward the other individuals
those ideas. It's quite important that we do acquire it. I think I've acquired it. I
have much more of it than I did have. Well, not enough to hurt me any yet. Because if
somebody crossed me, that's why I would have to make at least a rather caustic remark about
it, which I've done many times, much to my regret. And later on, I find that the man
knew much more about it than I, and I'd been instantly better off if I'd just kept my big
mouth shut. Another thing with which most of us are not overly blessed, and that is
the feeling of humility. I don't mean the humility in the sense of Dickens, Uriah,
or Heap at all. I don't mean me storming at variety. I don't think we're necessarily
called on to be shoved around and stepped on by anyone, and we have a right to stand
up for our rights. I'm talking about the attitude of each and every one of us toward
our Heavenly Father. Christ said of myself, I am nothing. My strength cometh from my Father
in Heaven. And if he had to say, I am nothing, I am nothing. I am nothing. I am nothing.
I am nothing. I am nothing. I am nothing. I am nothing. I am nothing. I am nothing. I am
nothing. I am nothing. I am nothing. I am nothing. I am nothing. I am nothing. I am nothing.
Did I say that? How about you and me? But did you say it? Did I say it? No. That's exactly
what we didn't say. We were inclined to say, well, look us over, boys. Pretty good, huh?
That type of attitude. But there's no humility, no sense of having received anything through
the grace of our Heavenly Father. So if I accomplish something,
either in AA activity, or socially, or in my profession.
I don't believe I have any right to get cocky about it.
It's only through God's grace that I did it.
I can feel very thankful that I was privileged to do it,
to have the recognition which I may have received for some activity.
But basically, it was only through his kindness.
And if my strength does come from him,
and these things come as a result of his kindness,
who am I to get cocky about it?
I should have a very, very humble attitude toward the source of my strength.
And I should also never cease to be grateful for whatever feelings come my way.
Blessings come my way.
And I have been blessed, and I've been blessed in very large measure.
You know, it doesn't make much difference whether a person is drinking,
or whether they're sober, as far as their ultimate aim is concerned.
Whether they're drinking liquor, or whether they're not,
they're still after the same thing, and that's happiness and peace of mind.
I am.
And I've talked about that a great deal,
because that's what we're all after, and we're all after all the time.
We want those two things.
We want happiness, and we want peace of mind.
The trouble with us fellows was that we thought we could demand
that the world give us happiness in just the particular way in which we wanted to get it,
which happened to be by the alcohol route.
And we weren't overly successful.
But when we take time to find out,
ahem,
and familiarize ourselves with and put into practice
some of the spiritual laws which it is necessary to follow to acquire those things,
then we find that we get them.
And I think I've had them in very large measure.
Those two things, happiness and peace of mind.
And I feel most extremely fortunate,
and I feel very grateful and thankful
that our Heavenly Father has seen fit that I enjoy them.
They're there.
Anybody can get them who wishes to.
But there do seem to be some rules of the game that we have to follow.
But they're here and open and free to everyone who wishes to take advantage of them.
And by taking advantage of them means their familiarity,
their familiarization,
and putting them in practice and incorporating them in our own thinking and action.
And we're bound and determined to get certain results if we do.
As I said, it is a very great source of pleasure and gratitude to me
to feel that maybe I kicked in my two-fifths of a trot of siding there.
But as I said, also, I feel that I was simply used as God's agent.
The question might arise,
well, we know what Eddie's done in the last 13 years,
but how about it from here on?
Where do we go from here?
Our membership, I think, is conservatively estimated to present around 70,000.
Whether or not it will be
in the increase from here on,
well, that'll depend on every member of AA.
It is possible for us to do so or not as we elect.
If we fight shy of what the politicos call entangling alliances,
if we avoid getting messed up with controversial issues,
but to
get rid of religious and political issues,
wet and dry problems, and so forth,
if there's no unity
to our central office,
if we remember the simplicity of our program,
if we continue to remember that our job is to get sober,
if we continue to remember that our job is to get sober,
and to stay sober,
and to help our less fortunate brother in doing the same thing,
I doubt very much if we shall have any trouble,
and we shall continue to grow and thrive and prosper.
And I hope we all bear those little things in mind.
Maybe there shall be some additions to the list,
but that roughly covers it fairly well.
And I hope none of us will ever forget
what I just said about helping our less fortunate brother.
Thank you.
of AA.
There are probably some who haven't.
And from that brief story, there are some things to be learned.
So, even at risk of repetition, I would like to relate just exactly what did happen in
those very early days.
And I feel there is a lesson to be learned and one that we must never forget if we wish
to maintain paid-up insurance policies against our drinking.
You recall a story about Bill having been, having had some spiritual experiences.
Having been sold on the idea of attempting to be helpful to others.
You undoubtedly recall the fact that he had been working quite hard at it for around five
months or so, almost incessantly, and still had not created, if you please, a single convert.
Not one.
As we express it now.
No one had gelled.
But he had worked tirelessly, with no thought of saving his own strength or time or anything.
But nothing seemed to register.
When he came out to Akron on this business mission, which perhaps for the good of all
of us, turned out to be quite a success.
And really I didn't know this before becoming a young man andổi thinking that I might just
as well just go to the
place that had me locked inside that they had Guardhouse for a little bit.
But I never thought it would happen that day.
Why, whattelgger, oh-oh me lomby, jack.
Like a collector should do it.
I found myself in a print-dieter every morning, eating half a bottle of the publy.
And I never thought I might As such have been 최
him to believe that he possibly might avoid getting into difficulties if he found some
alcoholic on home to work.
Inspiring the name of our good friend Reverend Walter Thumb, the bulletin board in the lobby
of the Mayflower, he called up the good doctor and asked him the names of some of the group
of people with whom he had been affiliated and through whose instrumentality he had acquired
sobriety.
The good doctor said he wasn't one, but he knew of quite a number and he gave him quite
a little list, I guess about nine or ten of them.
So Bill stopped to call them up without very much success.
They had either just left town or they were just leaving town.
They were having a party or they had a thought or something.
Anyway, he came down to the end or at least very nearly the end and his eye lights on
the name of Mrs. Thumb and happened to get our good friend Henrietta.
But he called up our good Henry and told her what he wanted and she said, come right out
and have lunch with us.
So out he went.
And went into his story in considerable detail and she said, I have just the man for you.
So she rushes to the farm and calls up Anne and tells her that she has just the power
to be helpful to Bob and we should come over.
And he said, well, I guess we'd better not go with the day.
But Henry is there.
He's there.
He's there.
He's there.
He's there.
He's there.
Very determined individual.
He said, oh, yes, come on over.
I know I'll be helpful to Bob.
Well, Anne didn't think this quite wise for us to come over today.
And finally, Henry bore in to such an extent that she had to tell her that I was very much
in the sack and had, in fact, surpassed all capabilities for listening to any conversation
and it would just possibly have to be postponed.
So she talked to him the next day, having invited being Sunday and Mother's Day.
And we said that Anne said we would be over.
Well, I don't ever remember feeling much worse.
But being very fond of Henry and having said we'd go over, we started over and I extracted
the solemn promise man on the way over that 15 minutes of this stuff was top.
But I didn't want to talk to this mug or anybody else and we'd really make it snappy.
Now, these are actual facts.
We got there at 5 o'clock and it was 11.15 when we left.
Now, you know, or possibly your memories are good enough to carry you back to certain times
when you haven't felt too good and you can easily visualize the fact that you wouldn't
have listened to anybody unless that individual had really had something to tell you.
And that's the way I felt about Bill.
And I recognized the fact that he did have something and so I listened those many hours.
And I stopped drinking immediately.
But very shortly after that there was a medical meeting and
uh...
Atlantic City.
And I developed a terrific thirst for knowledge.
I had to have knowledge.
So we would go to, I would go to Atlantic City and absorb lots of knowledge.
I usually mention the fact that I incidentally had acquired a thirst for scotch, but I didn't
mention that.
But anyway, I went to Atlantic City and really hung one on.
And...
When I came to, I was in the home of a friend of ours in Cargill Falls, one of our suburbs.
And Bill came over and got me and got me home, gave me a hooker or two of scotch that night
and a bottle of beer the next morning.
And that was on the 10th of June of 35 and I had had no alcohol in any form that I know
of since.
Now...
Well...
Well...
Well...
Well...
Well...
Well, it was interesting.
And the interesting part of all this, and not all these sort of details, but the condition
that we two fellas were in...
We had both been associated with the same uh... bunch of people.
He in New York and I in Akron.
I had been associated with him in fact for two years and a half.
It was just...
He, for five months, he had acquired this idea of service, and I had not.
But I had done an immense amount of reading, which they recommended.
I had refreshed my memory on the good book, and I'd had an excellent training in that as a youngster.
Well, they told me that I should go to their meetings regularly, and I did every week.
They said I should affiliate myself with some church, and we did that.
And they also said that I should cultivate the habit of prayer, and I did that, at least to quite a considerable extent for me.
Well...
But I got tight every night.
And I mean that.
They told me once in a while, it was practically every night, and I couldn't understand what was wrong.
I had done all these things that these good people told me to do, every one of them.
And I thought very faithfully and sincerely, but I still continued to overindulge.
But the one thing that they hadn't told me was the one thing that Bill had.
The instruction to attempt to be helpful to somebody else.
So we immediately started to look around for prospects, and it wasn't long before one appeared in the form of a man whom you all know.
At least a great many of you know, a good friend of Akron.
Now, I knew that this Bill was a Sunday school superintendent.
And I also thought that he'd probably forgotten more about the good book every night than I ever knew.
And who was I to be trying to tell him about it?
And so it made me feel somewhat hypocritical.
It was quite a job for me to talk to him on that sort of subject.
But anyway, we both did, and I'm very glad to say...
The conversation fell on fertile ground.
Then in October, we had three dumped in our laps, almost simultaneously.
But the point I wanted to bring out was the fact that...
Uh...
Uh...
Uh...
Uh...
In my mind, the spirit of service is of prime importance.
Although it has to be backed up with some knowledge of the subject.
And I used to go to the hospital, and I'd stand there and talk.
I talked many a time to a chap in a bed for four or five or six hours.
I don't know how he ever stood me for five or six hours, but he did.
Probably with his clothes or something.
But anyway, it came to my mind that I probably didn't know too much about what I was talking.
Therefore, we've been stewards of what we have, and that includes our time.
I was not giving a good account of my stewardship of time.
Now, if it took me six hours to say something to this man that I could have said in an hour,
I will say, if I'd known what I was talking about.
I said there was not a very efficient individual.
And incidentally, I'm somewhat allergic to work anyway.
So, uh...
I felt that I should, uh...
continue to...
increase my familiarity not only with the good book,
but, uh, read a good deal of good standard literature
and possibly something of, uh, scientific interest along with it.
So I did tolerate this habit of reading, and I think I've...
I think I'm not exaggerating when I say that I have probably averaged to read an hour a day for the last 15 years.
Now, I don't say that to try to sell you on the...
idea that you've got to cultivate that habit of reading an hour a day.
Because there are plenty of people in fine AAs that don't read very much.
You see, back in those days, we were groping in the dark entirely.
We did not, uh, know much about it.
We knew practically nothing of alcoholism.
I, a physician, knew nothing about it to speak of.
Oh, I'd read about it, but there wasn't...
there wasn't anything worth reading in any of the textbooks.
And, uh, usually the information about it consisted on, uh,
some clear treatment for DTs if you'd gone that far,
and if you hadn't, why, you'd prescribe a few bromides and, uh,
give the fellow a good lecture.
None of which, of course, amounted very much.
And in early, uh, AA days, we became quite convinced that, uh,
uh, the spiritual program was fine, but it, uh,
we could help the Lord out a little with some supplementary diet.
So, uh, in the early days,
Bill, having a lot of stomach trouble, had stumbled across the fact that, uh,
he got along much better on sauerkraut and cold tomatoes.
And so...
Well, we thought that in as much as Bill had to have that experience,
that, uh, probably everyone else would share the same.
But, of course, we discovered later that the, uh,
most any dietary restriction had very little to do with a acquisition
and maintenance of ten minutes a Friday.
We, uh, in our own stories, didn't amount to anything to speak of.
When I, we started in on Bill, we had no 12 tests, we had no traditions,
we had, uh, nothing.
Nothing of that kind.
But we were convinced that the answer to our problem was in the good book.
And it, uh, became somewhat evident, we thought, to some of us older ones,
that it was contained, the part that we found absolutely essential,
to a rather limited section of the good book.
In other words, the Sermon on the Mount,
the 15th chapter of Corinthians, and the book of James.
I think we got those ideas pretty firmly implanted in our minds very early.
And we had in those days, our membership got to five and seven and ten and still small.
Why, we used to have daily meetings in somebody's house.
Uh...
Um...
It was probably providentially arranged that, uh,
that all this happened at a time when everybody was broke.
And awfully broke, too.
It was probably much easier for us to be successful when broke
than it would have been to have been successful if we'd had, uh, a good checking account of peace.
But I know that we were, we were, every one of us, just so painfully broke that,
uh, we were, we were, we were, you know,
well, it wasn't a pleasant thought.
But nothing could be done about it.
And everybody else was broke, too.
And, well, we didn't take it too much at heart.
But I do think that that was providentially arranged.
But anyway, we kept on having these meetings and having these discussions
and attending the meetings of the, these good people
with whom we had been associated.
And did continue to have them with them until,
in Akron I'm talking about, of course,
until about 40.
Or maybe early in 41.
Might have been January of 41.
I don't recall the exact date.
When we outgrew the residents of this good friend
who had allowed us to bang up the plaster and the, uh,
door jams, the counting chairs
up and down the stairs.
And he had a very beautiful home.
Uh, we had outgrown that.
And so we stepped out.
And, uh, in a short time,
acquired the rental of the auditorium in the King's School.
And we have, we, I mean, I'm talking about, uh,
the group that I attend personally,
has been there ever since.
We attempt to have a good meeting.
And I think we're hugely successful.
But it wasn't until 39 that the, uh,
teachings and efforts and studies
that, uh, had been going on
were crystallized in the form of the 12 steps.
I didn't write the 12 steps.
They had nothing to do with the writing of them.
I think probably I had something to do with, uh,
them indirectly.
Because after
this June 10th episode,
Bill came to live at our house
and stayed for about,
what is it,
about three months.
And there was hardly a night in that three months
that we didn't sit up till 2 or 3 o'clock
discussing these things.
And it'd be hard for me to conceive that
something wasn't said during those nightly discussions
around our kitchen table
that influenced the actual writing of the 12 steps.
They're much more handy to have in that form, of course.
We had the ideas, uh,
pretty much basically,
but not in, uh,
terse and, uh, tangible form.
We got them, as I said,
as a result of our study
and therefore out the good book.
We must have had them because, uh,
we have learned from experience
that they are very important in maintaining sobriety
and we were maintaining sobriety
therefore we had them but not in exactly the written form
as you know them now.
But that is the way that
things started off in Akron.
And, uh,
as we grew, I thought, uh,
we began to get offshoots.
First one was in Cleveland
and
I don't remember the next one
but, uh, anyway, they were
started in Akron not too long after that
and, uh, have been continuing ever since.
It is a great source of satisfaction to me
to feel that I may have played some part in
seeking in my two bits work toward
getting this thing started.
I like to think that I have done that.
Maybe I'm taking too much for granted.
I don't know.
But I, I feel that
I was simply used as God's agent.
I feel that I'm no different from any of you fellows,
uh, girls, except that I was a little more fortunate
that I got this message fifteen and a half years ago.
And some of you had to wait till a little later.
In fact, I got a little peeved that, uh,
I haven't been followed because he was a little slow on the trigger
because I thought I would have been ready to receive it
quite a while before he got around to present it.
And, uh, that is to irritate me no end, but, uh,
after all, maybe he knows better than I.
But I felt sure that I would have been glad
to have anything presented that would have been
workable and produce the sobriety which I thought, at least,
that I wanted so badly.
I used to even doubt that at times.
I, I would go to my good friend Henry and say,
Henry, uh, do you think that I want to start drinking with you?
Henry, being very charitable, said,
Yes, Bob, I'm sure you want to start.
And, uh, I would say,
Well, I can't conceive of any living human
who want, really wanted to do something
as badly as I think I want to do it
who could be so total a failure.
But, Henry, I think I'm just one of, uh,
one of these wonder-wonder guys.
He said,
No, Bob, I think you want to.
We just haven't found, uh, just the way to work it yet.
But, anyway, that was the way I felt about it.
And the fact that my sobriety has been maintained
continuously for 13 and a half years
doesn't, uh, allow me to think
that I'm necessarily any farther away
from my next drink than any of you people here.
I'm still very human,
and I still think that a double of scotch
would taste awful good.
And if it didn't produce disastrous results,
I might do it.
I don't know.
I really love scotch.
But I have no reason to think that the...
it would taste any differently.
I have no legitimate reason to believe
that the results would be any different.
They were always the same.
They were always the same in that I always wound up
back in the dear old April somewhere.
And I have no precedent or anything
to, uh, make it feel legitimate for me to believe
that the results today would be any different
than they were 14 and 20 and 25 and 30 years ago
when I did the same thing.
I just don't want to pay that bill,
because that's a big bill.
It always was,
and I think it would be even louder today
because of what has gone on in the last 15 years.
I'm naturally being a bit out of practice.
I don't believe I've really laughed very long,
and I'm having a not-so-nice time.
And I just don't want to bump myself off,
even by the, uh,
by the pleasures of the outpouring.
Well, I'm not going to do it.
And I'm never going to do it.
As long as I do the things that I'm supposed to do.
And I know what those things are.
So if I should ever get high,
I certainly never would have anyone
to blame for it.
It would be done,
perhaps not with malice aforethought,
but it certainly would be done with
as a result at least of
extreme carelessness and indifference.
I said I was quite human.
And I get to thinking
every once in a while,
well, here's this Smith guy,
he's a fairly smart individual.
He's got this liquor situation
right for the tail.
Proved it.
Demonstrated it.
And had a drink for fifteen years.
Probably could knock off a couple,
and no one would be the wisest.
Now I tell you,
I'm not trying to be funny at all,
because those thoughts actually enter my mind.
And I know just the minute they do
exactly what has happened.
You see there in Akron,
we have the extreme good fortune,
as a great many of you people know,
of having a very nice hospital set up
at St. Thomas Hospital.
There's a ward that theoretically
accommodates seven,
but the history tells us
that it's stretched a little bit
and we usually,
she usually has about two or three more
parked around somewhere.
And I,
almost invariably,
I find that I hadn't
been paying quite so much attention
to the boys in the ward as I should.
Just to show you that idea
that I could probably,
probably polish off a couple,
entered my mind,
I think,
about the boys in the ward.
You've been giving them the semi-brush off
here for a few days.
You'd better get back on the job,
big boy,
before you get into trouble.
And I cut her right back,
and,
uh,
I'm much more attentive
than I had been in the days preceding
the time that I got this funny idea.
But I get it,
and I get it every once in a while,
and I'll probably continue to get it
as long,
uh,
than ever
I get callous about
that one thing.
You know,
back in,
uh,
those early days
about which I spoke
before we had the Klaus test,
we did have some other things,
besides the actual,
uh,
the biblical,
uh,
verses
of the ward.
I was getting to thinking more of Smith
than I was the ward,
otherwise I wouldn't have neglected them.
And I wasn't being especially loving
when these fellows had come there,
indicating their desire for help,
and I was just a little too busy
to give them any,
or at least very much,
of my time.
So I ought to be bothered with the burden.
Ten cents to get rid of him,
why, that's easy.
He could even stand two beds.
But not because you love the power,
but just to be relieved of,
uh,
the nuisance of his,
uh,
hanging on your coat sleeve
or what have you.
No unselfishness,
no,
uh,
love indicated in the transaction at all.
But I think that
the thing that really counts
is really giving a service
of yourself,
and that almost invariably,
not always,
but almost invariably,
uh,
requires some effort
and some time of your own.
Uh,
it isn't a matter of putting a little quiet money
in the dish.
That helps,
and possibly that's indicated too.
But that isn't giving much.
That is,
uh,
giving to an individual
in days like this
when most people get along,
at least,
entirely well.
That type of giving,
I don't believe would ever
keep anyone sober
or anywhere in the earth.
But giving of his own effort
and strength
and time
is quite a different matter.
And I think that's what
is meant by
and what was meant by
what Bill learned
in New York
that I didn't get
in acting.
And I think that's what
is meant by
and what was meant
by
what Bill learned
in New York
that I didn't get
in acting.
And I think that's what
he learned
in acting.
Now there are
there are four
absolute
absolute
we call them
Turn that tape over now,
please.
... absolute we call them
the only yardsticks
we had
had in the early days, I think they still hold good, and I still think that they can
be extremely helpful. I have found at times that questions arise, and I want to do the
right thing, but the answers are not obvious. You don't know what the right thing is. But
almost always, if you check into it carefully, by the optics of absolute honesty, purity,
unselfishness, and love, and whatever your decision is, checks up pretty well with those
four, your answer can't be very far out of the way. If, however, you do that, as I have
done at times, and still are not too satisfied.
I usually consult some friend whose judgment, perhaps, I think in this particular case would
be very much better than mine. But usually you can do it yourself without bothering your
friends about your own personal decisions. In overcoming the first step, you can't quite
get honest enough to admit that John Valicon really has bested us.
The matter of absolute purity is somewhat like it. It's purity of ideas and purity of
motives and what have you. Unselfishness includes those things that I've just been talking about,
not the dime or the two bits to the bump, but actually giving of yourself. And as you
well know, the absolute love is probably a big word incorporating all three with a little
bit more along with it.
I think that that is a very difficult thing to have absolute love. I don't think any of
us will ever get it. But that doesn't mean that we can't try to get it. It was extremely
difficult for me, and I feel that I never have been very successful at it. It's very
difficult for me to love my former man. I didn't dislike him, but I didn't love him.
Unless there was some special reason, he was just, I was just indifferent toward him.
I wouldn't do him any harm. I would be willing to give him a little lift if it didn't require
too much effort. I never would injure him at all. But to love him, I just couldn't do
it for a long time. And I think that I overcame it to some extent.
When I was forced to do it, because I was either going to love this bird or not, to
attempt to be helpful to him, I would probably get drunk at the time.
You could say, well, largely, you were just, that's just a manifestation of selfishness.
Which is quite correct. I was selfish to the extent of not wanting Smith hurt. So to keep
from getting Smith hurt, I would attempt to go through the motions of being helpful.
You can debate it any way you want to, but the fact still remains, for the average individual,
absolute love is a thing that he will never acquire. I suspect there are a few people
who do. I think maybe I know some that come pretty close to it. But I think I could count
them on the fingers of one hand.
I don't say that in a discouraging manner, because I have some wonderful friends, but
I'm talking about it in its finer aspects, and particularly as it applies to AA.
I don't think we do anything well, very much, in this world, unless we practice it. And
I don't believe we do AA work too well, unless we practice it.
I don't think we do anything well, very much, in this world, unless we practice it. And I don't believe we do AA work too well, unless we practice it.
These fellows that win . . . break world records
in athletic events are people who . . . who win titles in the boxing arena . . . are people
who practice it. They've been practicing it for years. Even though they may necessarily
be endowed with a lot of physical ability and skill, they still have to practice it.
and we have to practice to do a good job in the age and there are a number of
things that we should practice we should practice as I say acquiring this spirit
of service we should attempt to acquire some faith which isn't always easily
done especially for the person who's always been very materialistically
minded and those are the standards of society today beyond all doubt and
adventure you have a million bucks and your neighbor has 900 grand you're a
much better man than your neighbor to the extent of a hundred thousand dollars
and so forth and so on that not there that
I think that it can be acquired it can be acquired slowly I don't believe I
think that is something that has to be cultivated also that was not easy for me
I just assume it's difficult for others another thing that is difficult for me
and I probably don't do too well yet and that is the matter of power we're all in time to have closed minds
they're pretty tightly closed now and that's one reason that some people
find our spiritual teachings difficult they they they don't want to
find out too much about it some various personal reasons one reason is the
affair of being a considered determinant just for illustration
but anyway the matter of the talents toward the other individuals
those ideas. It's quite important that we do acquire it. I think I've acquired it. I
have much more of it than I did have. Well, not enough to hurt me any yet. Because if
somebody crossed me, that's why I would have to make at least a rather caustic remark about
it, which I've done many times, much to my regret. And later on, I find that the man
knew much more about it than I, and I'd been instantly better off if I'd just kept my big
mouth shut. Another thing with which most of us are not overly blessed, and that is
the feeling of humility. I don't mean the humility in the sense of Dickens, Uriah,
or Heap at all. I don't mean me storming at variety. I don't think we're necessarily
called on to be shoved around and stepped on by anyone, and we have a right to stand
up for our rights. I'm talking about the attitude of each and every one of us toward
our Heavenly Father. Christ said of myself, I am nothing. My strength cometh from my Father
in Heaven. And if he had to say, I am nothing, I am nothing. I am nothing. I am nothing.
I am nothing. I am nothing. I am nothing. I am nothing. I am nothing. I am nothing. I am
nothing. I am nothing. I am nothing. I am nothing. I am nothing. I am nothing. I am nothing.
Did I say that? How about you and me? But did you say it? Did I say it? No. That's exactly
what we didn't say. We were inclined to say, well, look us over, boys. Pretty good, huh?
That type of attitude. But there's no humility, no sense of having received anything through
the grace of our Heavenly Father. So if I accomplish something,
either in AA activity, or socially, or in my profession.
I don't believe I have any right to get cocky about it.
It's only through God's grace that I did it.
I can feel very thankful that I was privileged to do it,
to have the recognition which I may have received for some activity.
But basically, it was only through his kindness.
And if my strength does come from him,
and these things come as a result of his kindness,
who am I to get cocky about it?
I should have a very, very humble attitude toward the source of my strength.
And I should also never cease to be grateful for whatever feelings come my way.
Blessings come my way.
And I have been blessed, and I've been blessed in very large measure.
You know, it doesn't make much difference whether a person is drinking,
or whether they're sober, as far as their ultimate aim is concerned.
Whether they're drinking liquor, or whether they're not,
they're still after the same thing, and that's happiness and peace of mind.
I am.
And I've talked about that a great deal,
because that's what we're all after, and we're all after all the time.
We want those two things.
We want happiness, and we want peace of mind.
The trouble with us fellows was that we thought we could demand
that the world give us happiness in just the particular way in which we wanted to get it,
which happened to be by the alcohol route.
And we weren't overly successful.
But when we take time to find out,
ahem,
and familiarize ourselves with and put into practice
some of the spiritual laws which it is necessary to follow to acquire those things,
then we find that we get them.
And I think I've had them in very large measure.
Those two things, happiness and peace of mind.
And I feel most extremely fortunate,
and I feel very grateful and thankful
that our Heavenly Father has seen fit that I enjoy them.
They're there.
Anybody can get them who wishes to.
But there do seem to be some rules of the game that we have to follow.
But they're here and open and free to everyone who wishes to take advantage of them.
And by taking advantage of them means their familiarity,
their familiarization,
and putting them in practice and incorporating them in our own thinking and action.
And we're bound and determined to get certain results if we do.
As I said, it is a very great source of pleasure and gratitude to me
to feel that maybe I kicked in my two-fifths of a trot of siding there.
But as I said, also, I feel that I was simply used as God's agent.
The question might arise,
well, we know what Eddie's done in the last 13 years,
but how about it from here on?
Where do we go from here?
Our membership, I think, is conservatively estimated to present around 70,000.
Whether or not it will be
in the increase from here on,
well, that'll depend on every member of AA.
It is possible for us to do so or not as we elect.
If we fight shy of what the politicos call entangling alliances,
if we avoid getting messed up with controversial issues,
but to
get rid of religious and political issues,
wet and dry problems, and so forth,
if there's no unity
to our central office,
if we remember the simplicity of our program,
if we continue to remember that our job is to get sober,
if we continue to remember that our job is to get sober,
and to stay sober,
and to help our less fortunate brother in doing the same thing,
I doubt very much if we shall have any trouble,
and we shall continue to grow and thrive and prosper.
And I hope we all bear those little things in mind.
Maybe there shall be some additions to the list,
but that roughly covers it fairly well.
And I hope none of us will ever forget
what I just said about helping our less fortunate brother.
Thank you.
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