Jimmy A. at the December to Remember Spiritual Banquet Conference – 2023

About This Speaker Tape

December to Remember Spiritual Banquet Conference -

A 1963 powder blue Volkswagen bug and a job cleaning ashtrays serve as the early anchors for Jimmy A. who spent decades learning that sobriety is a gift that must be given away to be kept. He navigates the wreckage of a double life and a near-relapse at 13 years only to be pulled back by a bartender who happened to be in the rooms. From the grit of 1980s New Jersey—where 12-step calls meant driving to a drunk's house at 1 AM and checking for weapons—to the high-level bureaucracy of the General Service Conference Jimmy A. argues that the only way to avoid the 'night of the living dead' atmosphere in meetings is through active service. He frames the recovery process not as a linear climb but as a series of walls hit and surrenders made eventually finding a purpose that transcends his own survival.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Introduction and a joke about giraffe snot.
• 3:15 Jimmy A. discusses the non-linear nature of the 12 Steps.
• 7:40 Discussion of the 'delusion of spiritual disqualification' and childhood religious trauma.
• 12:10 Detailed account of 1980s 12-step calls and the 'magic' of old-timers sharing stories.
• 17:50 The story of being assigned as the ashtray cleaner on Day 7 of sobriety.
• 22:30 Laughter: Story about 12-stepping a police officer over his dead father's body.
• 31:10 The 'double life' and the moment a bartender stops him from drinking at 13 years sober.
• 38:40 Reflection on the 'language of the heart' and AA etiquette.
• 45:10 Discussion of the General Service structure and the responsibility to the alcoholic who still suffers.
• 52:20 The metaphor of the gold triangle: keeping one hand on a Higher Power and one on AA.