Maintaining a Fit Spiritual Condition to Stay Sober – Phil C.

About This Speaker Tape

November 13, 1978, in a hospital bed wearing pajamas, Phil C. first held the Big Book. He had spent a decade drifting through jailhouses and the "Knoxville Nuthouse," a "goddamn scumbag" who once laid a butcher knife on his mother's chair when she spoke of suicide. He grew up in a farmhouse where the music of his father's dance band ended in midnight screaming and coffee-sipping silence the next morning.

Phil describes his drinking as a cycle of filth and shame, from stealing pints at twelve to sitting in the middle of Main Street in Marshalltown with his back to traffic. He admits he was a "taker" all his life until he learned the "magic" of putting back into the stream of life. By taking daily inventories with his Higher Power and making amends to a brother he once tried to knife, he traded a life of hot checks and wreckage for a home found in the rooms of AA.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:45 Phil C. discusses his history of in-and-out treatment and the 'Knoxville Nuthouse'.
• 4:10 Phil describes the atmosphere of his childhood home and his family's dance band.
• 7:30 The story of stealing a pint of whiskey at age 12 to make the partying stop faster.
• 12:15 Phil describes his first drink at 15 and the subsequent guilt and shame.
• 16:40 The encounter with Dean E. and the 'version of a 12-step call' that led to treatment.
• 21:10 Laughter: Phil discusses the irony of being the 'expert' newcomer for months.
• 24:30 Phil's reflection on the 11th Step as a private inventory between him and his Higher Power.
• 28:50 The process of the 5th, 6th, and 7th Steps with his sponsor Richard P. by a pond in Missouri.
• 32:10 The emotional amends to his mother and the memory of the butcher knife.
• 37:40 Phil's story about the job application and his honesty regarding his criminal record.
• 42:10 Dick M. takes the floor to discuss the history of the Men's Big Book study.
• 48:20 Closing: The group recites the Lord's Prayer.