Standing on Shoulders: Ancestral Experience Guides Our Single Focus – John W.

John Williams, how are y'all doing? It's certainly great to be in Sarasota this morning. It's great to be alive. It's great to be sober. I'm sober today only through and by the grace of God and the 12 steps of recovery that I found in this program called Alcoholics Anonymous and real good sponsorship. I was recently in a part of the country where sponsorship is always identified in the introduction. They always acknowledge the sponsor. Sober because of da-da-da-da-da and good sponsorship. And that was in Nebraska. And I think that's rather important. In Nebraska, when you get sober, your first meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, you have a sponsor. It's just a done deal. And there's no arguing about it. There's no discussion about it. You don't have much choice in the matter. And I'm not so sure that that's not a bad way to be. Remembering how when I came into Alcoholics Anonymous, how naive and gullible I was. You could have told me anything. You usually did. And I'd have believed it. So in Nebraska, sponsorship is just as important to them as 12 steps. And it's always an honor and a privilege to have anything to do with a program of Alcoholics Anonymous such as this. And I feel very honored and privileged that Dick had enough confidence in me and asked me to come over and participate in this manner and to give me a subject. Primary purpose. What is the primary purpose of Alcoholics Anonymous? Why is it that we in Sarasota are sitting here this morning? Is really the subject matter. And I always like to remember that you and I, and I know this to be true because I know the age of Alcoholics Anonymous, and I know there's nobody here that was one of the original members. So we're all standing on the shoulders of those folks who preceded us. And as long as I can remember those things, and as long as somebody jolted my mind about that in the past, I remember those things so that I always develop and can maintain. a sense of gratitude for what's happened prior to my getting here. And you and I are here for that reason. We have this sense of enthusiasm and gratitude for Alcoholics Anonymous, or we would probably rather be watching the Bugs Bunny Hour on television this morning rather than being here to hear about this. Because there's a lot of other people who had an option and a choice about being here. They chose out. We chose in. Thank God you did, and I know I'm glad that I did. So to speak about the primary purpose, and I was in to hear Pete in the first session this morning, and I know Pete was talking about the wonderful talk he gave at 6 o'clock this morning about his subject matter. And I know that I have had rolling around in my head in the last few days lots of wonderful things to say about primary purpose. It was all just tremendous. As a matter of fact, I developed a sense of smile on my own face about how much I thought I knew about it. But the test of it all is here. These are the results that we are, and that's this morning at 1045. And let me just say this, that I certainly don't stand as any expert on anything. I'm like any other member of Alcoholics Anonymous who comes through the doors for the very first time. I knew nothing about the things that we're going to talk about this morning. I knew nothing about anything. All I really knew how to do was to drink, get drunk, get in trouble. And yet I thought I was as American as an all-American boy could be. So that coming in to Alcoholics Anonymous, I had a sponsor who loved me enough to tell me that I needed to get stupid. And so I did. And so the things that I talk about and the things that I know today, beyond just going to a meeting and not drinking. I mean, you know, a lot of times we think, if we go to the meeting, we're going to get drunk. And I think that's the thing. I think if we go to the right meetings or go to those meetings, we think that that's all there is to it. Don't drink, go to meetings. Don't drink, go to meetings. Well, thank God I had major interruption in my life about that. And so the things that I know about primary purpose, traditions, and service have come as a result of good sponsorship. I hadn't figured it out. I couldn't figure it out. I knew nothing about it. So I had to be led and guided. In the beginning, before we had a book, sponsorship came from the way and the technique that they used to use. I'm an alcoholic and I'm having a tough time and I know that Tommer got sober, so I called Tommer up. Or my wife calls Tommer up or somebody calls Tommer up. Because I've expressed a desire not to live this way anymore, so Tommer would come to see me. And Tommer would say, listen, I've got myself associated with some of these people who are recovering and I haven't had a drink in whatever period of time it was. And Tommer would begin to tell me about his drinking. And he'd tell me enough and I could assimilate some information about that. And then he'd finally say, well, you know, based on that, do you think you're powerless over alcohol? I said, well, yeah, because I did those things. If you are, maybe I am. He said, well, do you believe a power greater than yourself can restore you to sanity, break this obsession? Based on the information that Tommer's got given to me, I'll probably agree to that. Then he says, okay, then fine, I'll take you to a meeting. Now, this is before the book. And so Tommer would be my sponsor. He would take me to the first meeting of six or seven guys at that time because they didn't have women in AA. And he'd say, all right, I got a new one who says he's ready to go along with us. And at the very first meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, they'd say, well, we'll see if he's ready, get him on his knees, and we'll do the third step prayer. And then we'd all do that, and then they'd take a vote to see if I did it good enough. And now that's really how they did it in those early days before the book came out. When they were struggling with one another, that's how a new member got here. He was brought in by somebody, and he declared he's ready to go along with us. I made my third step decision prior to coming to my first meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous. But it wasn't that way in 1972 when I came to Alcoholics Anonymous the first time. And my sobriety date today is February the 1st, 1975. I'll be there in a minute. I always like to say that because in Texas they say if you don't give your sobriety date, chances are you don't have one. So I always like to remember that. I take all of that. I mean, I use it all. I don't want to take any chances. But that's probably how the word sponsorship came about. That's the way it always was. And, of course, coming into Alcoholics Anonymous, most of us have belonged to some outfit or some organization in which sponsorship is rather important. You almost have to be sponsored in a lot of outfits. Somebody has to declare they'll stand for you. You know, I can attest to this person as being da-da-da-da. Well, in Alcoholics Anonymous, it's not quite that way, but I can see how it developed. And when you study the history of Alcoholics Anonymous and find out about those things. Now, I would not have heard about that just going to an AA meeting, would I? If I go to an AA meeting on a regular basis and at 8.30 somebody says, hey, I'm going to an AA meeting, I'm going to an AA meeting. And at 8.30 somebody says, what kind of problem you got? Who's got a problem? Or what kind of week did you have? Well, I'm not going to hear about that kind of stuff at those kinds of meetings. So I needed a sponsor to introduce me to other things like the history of Alcoholics Anonymous, AA comes of age, Pass It On, Dr. Bob and the Good Old-Timers, Lois Remembers, the Tradition Book. All of those things. Because I sense that I've got a hold of something that's a life-saving thing. I need to know as much about it as I possibly can. And besides that, I had a sponsor who I thought knew everything about all that stuff. And I always had my vision. I said, when I get sober, I want to be just like this guy. This was my vision of sobriety. And he knew all these things. And I said, well, I want to know those things too. Because in knowing these things, not only am I able to help myself stay sober. But I'm able to transmit information about how to stay sober. And I think we're all conduits in Alcoholics Anonymous. It's sort of like this thing that constantly rolls. There's always those of us who are very new. There's always those of us who are somewhere beyond that. And then there are the old-timers who are just trudging along. And who are full of knowledge and information. And too many times, a lot of those people who are so full of wealth, they settle in that corner. And you wouldn't know they knew anything. So those who know need to share. And my sponsor was one of those who was willing to share all he knew. And he told me where he got that information. And he inspired me to get into the program of Alcoholics Anonymous beyond recovery. And he said, you can only recover for so long. He said, now, John, this is a three-part program. This is not just recovery. That's the beginning. None of it makes any sense unless you're sober. So that's got to be the first thing you do is get sober. And then you find out, as you read the history of Alcoholics Anonymous, that I evolved the same way the program of Alcoholics Anonymous and the fellowship evolved. The first thing we had to do as a fellowship was get sober. We had to have sober members. And that's what occurred June the 10th, 1935. When Dr. Bob Smith had his last drink after having his last drunk before he performed that operation that day. And he got sober June the 10th. Now, I'm sure that that morning they didn't get up and say congratulations to one another. We had just founded Alcoholics Anonymous. It just didn't happen that way. As a matter of fact, Ebby was sober at that time. And Ebby was Bill's sponsor. Bill always claimed Ebby as his sponsor. And Ebby was the guy, the Oxford member who brought the message to Bill W. And the Oxford movement was the moving force for sobriety at that time. And the Oxford movement was the moving force for sobriety at that time. But they were high-end people in the Oxford movement. They weren't a society for drunks. As a matter of fact, are the Oxford groups around today? No. Who's around today? Alcoholics Anonymous is still here. As a matter of fact, Carl Sandburg said one time that in any society or civilization that has come and perished, there's been one common denominator in all of them. And that common denominator is that they have forgotten from whence they come. And the same thing can happen to me if I as an individual forget from where I came. If I forget my roots. If I forgot what got me here. I might become complacent. I might want to rest on my laurels if I were to develop a mindset like that. And Alcoholics Anonymous found this out too. They got sober in 1935. Decided that they needed to do some wonderful things. They thought they had the answer to the world. Now you gotta... I want to say this because this tells you the direction that we started and what we ultimately wound up with through experience. Is that they thought that they had the vanguard to peace on earth when they started Alcoholics Anonymous. They were gonna solve all the problems of the world. They thought they had such a hold on the spiritual bonding one to another. That they could do these wonderful and magnificent things. And I know this. Because if you will look at the 12... The original big book of Alcoholics Anonymous. The 12th step in the big book at that time said, Having had a spiritual experience which was changed. We tried to carry this message to others especially alcoholics. So that tells me that they weren't just gonna focus on alcoholics. But especially alcoholics they were gonna carry this message to. But anybody else we were gonna help those folks out too. So you see we came from thinking that we could be all things to all things. To finding out through experience. To finding out through experience that if we weren't careful we'd wind up being nothing to nobody. And so what happened? How did we get that set? How is it we can sit here today and protect ourselves in terms of making sure that we stay single minded in purpose. That we know that the only reason that we gather together in a so called meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous. We have one agenda and that's sobriety. Nothing else. And you see if we could all agree on that we wouldn't have anything to argue about would we? And aren't we here to make sure to do whatever we can do to make sure that when that new person that walks through that door has the same opportunity that you and I have. That we're not coming in they're not coming into a room of Alcoholics Anonymous and hearing about how Gorbachev and Yeltsin are getting along in Russia. Although I was in a meeting this past Wednesday night and a member brought that up. Wonderful information and so on and so forth. But has no, nothing to do with why we meet. This is probably a good member of Alcoholics Anonymous. And unless somebody interrupts his thinking about that he will think that it's okay to bring those subject matters up. Because it's good and it's wonderful and it's compassionate and it's newsworthy. But it has nothing to do with our small little agenda of recovery from alcoholism. Fifth chapter says remember that we deal with alcohol. That's very clear to me. I don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out. That we deal with alcohol. But so, so, so Alcoholics Anonymous got sober wrote a book. And had a hard time selling them books. Now of course you can't buy one to tell you how things change. You just have to buy one. You can't find one of the original big books at a time when they couldn't give them away. Now you can't buy one. But and they were slowing, slowing and starting up. And sometime in the, after we did get off the ground. Especially with the Jack Alexander article in 1941. Where we had a 400% increase in population in one year's time. You just almost have to close your eyes and envision what we were like. And you got to know this. I mean I've got very clear about this. The original members of Alcoholics Anonymous, you and I could have been them. They were no different. They were not hallowed people. Great thinkers. Benevolent and so on and so forth. You know Bill Wilson said sometimes the way that those originals were described. You'd think well they walked around in robes and sandals. And it just wasn't that way. So when you can just understand that they were just like you and I. Thought the same way. Had the same stuff. Then you won't think of them as being extra special people. Although what they did was extraordinary as it turns out. But they were just like you and I. You can see that the universe was operating. The forces were at work for you and I. Obviously based on results. And so they had that 400% increase in population. And then as I say if you can just close your mind and envision the way we were. Then let's say for example. There was no sobriety. No AA in Sarasota in 1941. Chances are. I mean there wasn't much of Sarasota here at that time. But there were always a few drunks around. And then through word of mouth somebody says hey there's this outfit. Or you know that's going on to sober people up. Or somebody will come into town from New York visiting for the summer. He's an alcoholic. He brings one of them books with him. He gathers some alcoholics around him. Goes to the police station or the hospital or something. Finds a few prospects. Gets a little meeting going. Well not having any guidelines and any structure and any experience on it. They're just a bunch of guys that they think they're there to get sober. And then as they get a little bit. Then there's somebody that might start saying well listen. I'm running for an office next month. I want all you guys to vote on me. And then they get into a debate about whether they're going to vote for him or his opponent. Or some guy's selling his car. Or he's buying insurance and he wants all of you to buy the insurance from him. Or some guy's peddling this or peddling that. And then somebody decides that well what they need is a bingo night or whatever. And all of those problems and complexities that groups and small groups of people began to raise. Were began to be raised. And then they found out that they began to get in arguments about that kind of stuff. About who was in charge. And Tom brought the. He brought AA here. But how long is he going to keep telling us what to do. I'm getting tired of that guy telling me what to do. And so let's you know. So they would begin to have those kinds of problems. And they started having those kinds of problems all across this country. And then because they had a book there. They looked in the back of the book. And they says ah here's an address called the alcoholic foundation. Here's an address. Let's write them. And they'll tell us how to take care of this guy. We'll get him squared away. They'll send a dictate down here. They'll send a ruling down. And then we'll be able to kick his butt out. And excommunicate him. So they write up to this address. And about ten days later they get this letter back. And say well we appreciate your sharing this problem with so and so with us. However it is not our policy to tell anybody what to do. But we can share with you that in Kansas City, Missouri. They had a same or similar problem. This is what they did. Why don't you try that. And then let us know if it works. And here you're sitting there. You're sitting there and say well hell they didn't tell me what to do here. I want some clear cut answers here. We got to get rid of this guy. And so it was through that kind of correspondence that they began to see in New York. That whole groups of people called AA groups were getting drunk. Having problems. Living problems. Groups were having just as many problems as individuals were having. And so somebody. As the story goes. Wrote Bill W. a letter advising him. Wasn't it wonderful the way AA was going like the Washingtonian movement had over a hundred years ago. Or about a hundred years ago. And so Bill Wilson didn't know anything about the Washingtonians. And so he began to investigate. And very few people outside of the halls of Alcoholics Anonymous have ever heard of the Washingtonians. And a lot of people in Alcoholics Anonymous have never heard of the Washingtonians. And so you have to go a little bit beyond. You have to have a little bit at stake in your life before you're able to digest and read and say you know I need to know about this outfit. Because they tell me that they preceded us. But yet they didn't last ten years. So what happened? Let's investigate this outfit that was sobering up hundreds of thousands of alcoholics. And find out why they didn't last. And so they did. And much to their surprise they saw a lot of similarities between the Washingtonians and Alcoholics Anonymous. But they saw a lot of the red flags and the warning signs about why they failed. And they said well we sure as hell don't want to do that. And the Washingtonians was a movement that started in 1840. Six drunks met in the tavern. They'd been drinking there every night. And then they heard about this temperance movement speaker that was going to be in town. And so they chose four of their own to go down and hear what he had to say. Whatever they said or whatever this man said at that meeting that night moved those four to come back and say you know what? Maybe we ought to. Maybe we ought to stop drinking. See if we can resist the temptation to drink. And so they started this little outfit. They named it after President Washington. And they decided on a pledge. They decided what the membership fee would be and what the dues would be. And then of course I always wondered in the beginning how they populated so fast. And then I found out that part of their deal was that they in order to come to a meeting you had to bring somebody. So every meeting they doubled their population didn't they? So I began to understand. I thought maybe they had more magic and thunder than we did. But that was how they did it. If we all had to double ourselves every time we had a meeting we wouldn't have room to have seats in these meeting rooms anyway. And at the second meeting of the Washingtonians, the second anniversary, Abe Lincoln was the speaker. And it was a predominant movement up and down the east coast of the United States. But within five or six years they were on the decline. And within ten years nobody, you couldn't find mention of the Washingtonians. And so, but what Bill Wilson was able to do was take a look at that movement through that which was written about it. And found out that the Washingtonians although they did some of the same things. They had sharing sessions. An alcoholic would get up and tell them what he used to be like and what happened to him and what it's like now that he doesn't drink. And they'd have sharing sessions and speakers. But then they'd begin to have a conversation. And they'd have arguments about who did the best job of speaking. And who got the most press in the New York Times for speaking. And I did a better job than you but I only got two columns. And da, da, da, da, da. And then they started getting involved in the slave issue. They started taking sides about that. And then they started getting involved in the wet dry issue. And they started getting involved in things which diverted them from the reason that they started to begin with. And that was to stop drinking. And so we saw that. And then we saw in the 40s as we started to grow in population that we were having some of those same or similar problems. And we knew that that was a very, very possibility. Because in the big book, the original big book, it said in the preface that the only requirement for membership was an honest desire to stop drinking. And yet they were having problems with membership. So a lot of the correspondence going into the general service office at that time had to do with that. In the beginning we had the stringent. We had the stringent protective regulations, as it were, about who could and who could not come in here. I mean, can you imagine us being concerned about our reputation? That's amazing to me. But such as the way it was, Dr. Bob didn't want women in AA. Had a resistance to that. In the South we had a resistance to the black people coming into AA for a long time. And then we had a resistance to the black people coming into AA for a long time. And then we had a resistance to the black people coming into AA for a long time. And then, then any other problems? And all of those things, our general service office, our foundation office, through correspondence knew that we were having a problem in that area. As a matter of fact, they wrote to all the existing groups that they were corresponding with and said, please send us in your list of protective regulations or membership requirements. And they did, those who were corresponding. And then they noticed one thing when they got the correspondents back. They laid out all these regulations for us. out all these regulations and protective regulations and membership requirements out on the table, and they discovered one thing, that if they were all put into force at one time, nobody could be a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. So they knew that they were in trouble. And so it was about the mid-1940s that Bill Wilson knew that unity was paramount if we were to survive. We knew we could get sober, but we weren't so sure that we could live with each other. And so he began in the 1945 era in the Grapevine, which was a publication, started to put out some information, some list of guidelines for our survival. And they turned out ultimately to be our traditions. And, of course, the main one, the one five that I'm talking about, is singleness of purpose, our primary purpose. In order to put primary purpose in perspective, I think I need to say this about that. Unity is a problem. Powerlessness over alcohol is a problem. The answer to unity is a loving God as he expresses himself in a group conscious. The answer to powerlessness is a power. Powerlessness is a power. Powerlessness is a power. Powerlessness is a power. Powerlessness is a power. Powerlessness is a power. What I'm saying here is there seems to be some sort of a rhythm to the steps and traditions in Bill's way of writing. And I want to put them out to you this way. The twelve steps are written such that the first step is a statement of the problem. The second step is a statement of the solution. Steps three through eleven are a planned program of action which, if followed, bring about a result. And the result is this, a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps. Okay. Let's take a look at the traditions from that point of view. The first tradition talks about our common welfare, unity. That is a statement of the problem. This is why we need traditions, because we see that if we don't stay unified, there will not be a place for the alcoholic to come to get sober. What is the answer to that? It's a loving God as he expresses himself in a group conscious for our group purposes. That is the answer to unity. And then. The third tradition is that the first two traditions are planned programs of non-action which bring about a solution. Spiritual anonymity. That is my willingness to give of self expecting absolutely nothing in return. And that is the essence of all of the traditions. And such as it is with the primary purpose. And of course, the third tradition was that first area. It says, now let's take a look at these areas where we have our biggest problems and let's take a position. Okay. And so on. And so on. And sort of say to each other. Now, if we could agree with this proposition, we won't have anything to fight about. We will stay in harmony. We will stay in unity. And we will be here for the alcoholic who comes to get sober. We won't be sitting here talking about who can and who can't come in that room. If we just say this, the only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. Now, doesn't that just remove us from the. From the. Place of having to stand in judgment of somebody else. It certainly does. We don't care what else you have wrong with you when you come in alcoholics anonymous, as long as you have a desire to stop drinking. Now that implies this. Remember that we deal with alcohol. That that implies that I come in alcoholics anonymous and if I'm here, I'm my name is John Williams and I am an alcoholic. And I'm not an alcoholic. And. And. And anything. You ain't got time to listen to all my and. And I ain't got time to listen to all yours and I'm not special and I'm not unique. So don't tell me about yours. If you think about it, a person who comes to alcoholics anonymous for recovery, if he comes in here and he hears these and. And he ain't got them and as he might think, well, I'm not in the right place. So that's why the essence of sacrifice is here. So they don't make no difference what else you got wrong with you because they ain't no human being. I know that ain't got some other problems wrong with them. Well, we just don't bring them into alcoholics anonymous. And if we could agree about that, we wouldn't have to be sitting around cringing every time somebody says he's an alcoholic and the and the and the and. And if you'll notice old timers, people who've been around the program five, six, seven, eight, ten years, they don't say I'm an alcoholic and anything. Why? Because they've had major interruptions about that from somebody. Oh, excuse me. Excuse me. Thank you. Something special, don't you? Unique. Got to get some attention. Why don't you wear a sound around here, John? And I could see it was my arrogance wanting to be different, wanting to be special. And that's all it is. And and and in the in the loving and compassionate way that it was explained to me, I got I got real. I got real clear about I'm just in in a I'm a I'm an alcoholic and that and thank God that that's all you require from me. So if we could agree on that tradition, we wouldn't have anything to fight about. And so it is with the next one. Autonomy, the ability for a group to decide its own direction. Where are you going? What do you want to do? You don't have to send to the General Service office and say, we're going to start a group on Wednesday, 98 30. What's open? They don't do that. The group can decide. It's own direction. As long as it doesn't interfere with other groups or a as a whole, they can do anything they want to. They can be wrong. A lot of us don't like from to be wrong. All of a sudden, sometimes we get into Alcoholics Anonymous. Think we know something and me a member of my group trying to interfere with the operation of another group instead of saying, well, they got a right to be wrong. They can do that. It won't. It'll either stand on its merits or it'll go by the wayside. But I'm impatient. I want it done now. I want to go over and tell them how wrong they are. They can't do this. You ever have them feelings. Yeah, you did. Here. I am a member of my group and trying to be the a police for everybody. And my and I tell you how I got clear about that loving and compassionate sponsor said to me one time says John, did you know that Alcoholics Anonymous is doing real well before you got here? And if you left right now, it would still do. Okay. So don't take yourself. Too seriously. Now, I tell you where I got that information is when I started getting involved in service. Service was a wonderful teacher for me and I got involved because my sponsor evolved me into sponsorship. I mean into service. There were just two. I just surrendered when I came to Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor was that person who was in and I'm talking about February 75. Now, I'm not talking about the first two years first two years with our story. I ain't listening to nobody. Heller ain't nothing wrong with me. Anyway, I just develop bad drinking habits. I ain't as bad as you and I started setting myself up for the next drunk probably within the first week of being there. But that's a whole other story. But anyway, this sponsor just by the time I surrendered and came into Alcoholics Anonymous. He just led me there was no there was no questions and no debating the issue. I suddenly realized that I did not know. I just did not know what to do. And so therefore I I found out of this you as a human being even beyond sponsor. But these principles that I live by today, I look I need guidance in my life. I need some guidance in my life. And I need some major interruptions in my life. I need somebody to stand in front of me who can see me beyond this mindset that I have about stuff. Somebody who's not emotionally involved with my mind who can tell me the truth of the matter. I'm and I give my sponsor absolute permission. To do that. And sometimes maybe we take the position that well, you understand. I assumed you knew that. No, sometimes I have to verbally say you have permission to stand in my face. And tell me the truth of the matter. I can take it my life's at stake. It's important to me. This is not fun and games. This is life and death. And I come at it from that point. And you know, I'm not. And you know, I'm not. And you know, when you get clear about life and death and sobriety, then I believe that your level of participation moves up a little bit. And I'll give you a good example of how that works. I love to tell this little story. Of some of us fly a lot. I'm sure I do. I get a chance to fly a few times every year. And I noticed that every time I get in an airplane to fly. That during the taxiing out to the runway to take off the attendance always go through there a little. And some procedures tell you about where the exit doors are. And if you're not strong enough if you're a kid. You move away from that seat. Somebody will do it. Lights tell you where the exit doors are the the oxygen mask will drop. If we lose pressure of the floatation seat and all that stuff. And there's a card behind the seat. But at you next time. You fly. Take a note. Look around. See what's happening during that time. I know what I'm usually doing reading USA or talking to someone say well, it's not paying any attention. Well, about three years ago on the way to Sacramento. I was in a taxi. I first arrived. Sacramento, California, something had happened a few weeks before that made flying was really on my mind, and I wasn't so sure I wanted to be in that plane, but anyway, we did that, and then about an hour later, we were cruising at 37,000 feet, and by that time, the attendants had started the drink serving, and they were moving them carts up that aisle, and somehow or another, one of them dropped something and made a loud pop, you know, and I was dozing, and so I woke up with a startle. Then I got to thinking, what if that pilot came over that speaker at that time and says, folks, we've just blown an engine, and we're going to have to make a crash landing. Do not be concerned. We can fly on one engine, but we're going to have to make a crash landing, and in preparation for that landing, folks, the attendants are going to go through the safety procedures. Now, you tell me that if during this time, that these attendants are going through that safety procedure, am I going to be participating a little bit more than I was down on that ground? You bet. I'm going to be listening intently to what's being said. I mean, I'm going to plan it in my mind. I mean, I've already picked my exit door. I already know how many people I've got to go over to get to it. You see, now that's a level of participation that's possible here in Alcoholics Anonymous, and if you think about 100 percent, 100 percent of the time, possibility and that's the level I think that we need to be in Alcoholics Anonymous I think that we need to take that position and I guarantee that if we do and we see a new person walk in that door we won't wait for them those and that to take care of it we'll say I am responsible that person I know is new this is my home group I'm here every week I know who comes and who goes and who hasn't been here before go grab them now if they're a visitor make them feel at home but if you find that they're new then by God you make sure they get a sponsor before they go home that night love them enough to do that this is life and death and if you understand and if you operate from that level of participation like man this kid this matters this is important let's do it then I will guarantee you will show up and those folks will get the best opportunity and you will just sort of say I want them to have the same opportunity that I have I want I I I want them to have the same opportunity that I have I want I I didn't they didn't do that for me when I got here but I'm gonna do it for them because they matter see and and in doing so we we then can take on that responsibility of telling them the things so that they don't get that misinformation because you just got to know that we're stupid and gullible when we get here and this is not a reflection on you and I but I know we're all alike you didn't walk in these doors knowing anything about 12 steps spirituality inventory and primary purpose and you know that's what I'm talking about that's what I'm talking about that's what I'm talking about you didn't know about that I didn't either none of us did you know we come crawling in here desperate to hear anything to give us a sense of relief and the guy that was here before I got here was the most he was the expert even if you'd only been here 24 hours before me whatever he said was gospel so that's why I say we need to take note of that and be sure that we give out the best information possible we need to learn that this was our problems because we're going to be the main και We need to make sure that that person has a wonderful opportunity to change and redesign his life. And we need to take that responsibility. But do we? Some of us do. I would say that this room is full of people who care because you're here. You're willing to sit and listen once again to that which you already know, but I want to hear it through another set of communications. I know primary purpose is good. Tell it to me one more time. Plant it in my head. Let me through repetition understand and know that. And that's why we're here. Now I sat there and I hear it. I want to hear it again. I want to hear that it's important that we stick to our primary purpose. That we only have one agenda in Alcoholics Anonymous and that is recovery from alcoholism. How? That's laid out too. We don't have to reinvent the wheel every time we come to Asia. We just don't have to do that. All we have to know is that we're standing on the shoulders of those who preceded us. The experience has already been experienced. Let us listen to the experience. Let us communicate with the experience. Let us know that that's important that we know. And so the other traditions evolved. Keeping in keeping with the primary purpose. Everything was in the past. Everything we do is aimed and focused on one thing. That is to carry the message. To practice the principle. To stay sober and help others to recover. That's the only reason we exist. That's the briefest explanation of what Alcoholics Anonymous is I can ever think of. In a word, we're here to stay sober and help others to get the same thing we got. And that takes energy, effort, understanding, action. And that's it. And that's what we do. And it doesn't take poofing. And no poofing. You know, you don't get poofed in AA. Nobody's not gonna poof you or sprinkle you with sobriety dust. It just doesn't happen. But if you'll listen to the language of some of us, you'll think that that happens. Sometimes you'll think that you're even a spiritual victim. If I'm not careful, I can get into the mindset that God's out to get me again. And if I don't get my way, God must not want me to have it. And I don't want to be taken away. I'm not even careful. I'm not careful. I'm not. I'm not careful. I can get into the mindset that God's out to get me again. And if I don't get my way, God must not want me to have it. my way, instead of taking responsibility for my actions. I'm a creator today. I found out in the chapter to the agnostic that the great reality is deep within. And then the 11th step of the big book, it says, after all, God gave me brains to use. So I'm not a victim. I've been a victim all my life. And before I came to Alcoholics Anonymous, I was a consummate victim. I am responsible. I am accountable today because you gave me a way to live. And because of all that, I'm absolutely more than willing to stick with that which we do and do well. Because if we don't stick to our primary purpose, we're going to wind up being nothing to nobody. But didn't we begin in the beginning thinking that we could be all things to all things? But thank God somebody reminded Bill Wilson of the Washingtonian movement. And so we understood that those guidelines came out. And Bill wrote about the points of survival so that we could hang together. They were accepted by our fellowship in 1950 at the first international convention held in Cleveland, Ohio. And so that rhythm is there. You see that? And if you wanted to carry it further, you'd find the same rhythm in Bill's writings of the concept. Statement of the problem, the solution, what you do, bring in about results. And when I – somebody pointed that out to me, I can see why we have a primary purpose and why we make that statement. And why I need – you know what the story that's in the first tradition tells it all. And Bill was aware of the importance of unity, because Eddie Rickenbacker was a well-known flyer at that time in the early part of World War II. He had a plane crash, and he was missing, and it was headlines. Eddie Rickenbacker, plane down the Indian Ocean somewhere, crew of nine. And nobody heard from him. But the story ultimately came out that they crashed. And they all survived the crash. And don't we survive the crash? I mean, we come to Alcoholics Anonymous, but aren't we still floating on a perilous sea, so to speak? And so they found the same thing happening there, that they knew that those nine of those who had survived, that they all had to pitch in together and collectively so that they could survive their mishap. And so that's really what the traditions are all about. That's really what we're all about in Alcoholics Anonymous. That we give. This is why it says in the 12th tradition that anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all of our traditions. Anonymity that is my ability to give of myself so that I don't stand on the membership committee to tell who can and who can't come. I'm not in control, and I'm not the authority on what kind of a meeting we are going to have or not going to have, or you're not going to have. That we only have one agenda, and that's alcoholism and recovery therefrom. That we don't have a single agenda. We don't get messed up and affiliated with anybody, and so on and so forth. And we don't take issues on the, we don't have anything to say about outside issues. An outside issue is anything that's not the primary purpose. That is recovery. So, I mean, it doesn't take, here again, a rocket scientist to figure out what an outside issue is. It's anything that has nothing to do with recovery from alcoholism. And you just put one question on the board. Does it have anything to do with recovery from alcoholism? If the answer is no. Then we have nothing to say about it. We can do all we want to as individuals outside of these rooms. But in here, I'm asked to give and to sacrifice and to have spiritual anonymity. The willingness to give of myself expecting absolutely nothing in return. And I know that because of the sum total of all the information that I've been given since I got to Alcoholics Anonymous. I think, and I think Clancy talks an awful lot about the differences that we think we are. Part of our uniqueness is that we think we're different. We're always saying, well, that might work for you, but you don't understand. I'm different. And here's the way it was put to me. That if I believe what I said about the deep reality being here, that deep down inside every man, woman, and child is the fundamental idea of God. I sort of think that perhaps when I was born. I was born. I was born. And when you were born, it was there. We all have it. We have this natural God-given instinct for survival, for sex, and for security. It's just there. And when we were born, in essence, we all start out equal. We don't know nothing. That's equal. Zero. Zilch. But from that moment forward to whatever period of time in your life you want to look at it, you are and I am the sum total of all the information. I'm the sum total of all the information. And the interpretations that I am about those things at any given moment. When I came to Alcoholics Anonymous, I was a set of belief systems which were killing me. When I got to Alcoholics Anonymous, I developed a belief system which would have killed me. Because I believed even in Alcoholics Anonymous that as I saw those steps on the wall that it said to me, John, if you don't drink, you can manage your life. That's what I thought the first step said. I believe that. I believe it. I believe that. I believe that. Such that two years later from that point I did drink and I got back. But the whole point of the matter is that beginning in Alcoholics Anonymous, I saw how I could interrupt my belief system. I could investigate my belief system. I could hold on to that which worked. But I could dispel and disperse that which didn't work. Now on page 27, you'll see a statement like this as Dr. Young is describing a spiritual experience. He said, I'm in a state of deep emotional displacement and rearrangement. Whereas we get rid of old attitudes, ideas, and beliefs and they are replaced with a new set of attitudes, ideas, and beliefs. That's the trip in AA. That's the whole trip in AA is realizing that what you were when you walked in these doors was not working. And that sense of hope comes by coming to meetings. You look around and you say, I don't know what's in these rooms, but by God, I want some of it. And then that belief system that you were begins to get interrupted through new information. And that's what really sponsorship is about. That's why it's important that they get one the first meeting they're at, temporary or otherwise. Just somebody who's got, can just carry them through that period of time until they can select the sponsor of their own choice. The first sponsor, you got no choice. And it may work out, it may be a lifelong relationship, but the first time, just get them one. Make sure they got somebody to talk to when they're not at meetings. They have questions that come up. They need some source to lead them and direct them and guide them. And to begin to interrupt the belief system. That's why the big book is called a textbook. Information is being passed on about how to do that. That's what sponsorships are about. Passing on information. Passing on information. Passing on information. Passing on information. Passing on information. Those who know are passing on to those who do not know. And that's an educational process. I don't care how you cut it. And Bill Wilson said it in a pamphlet called Problems Other Than Alcohol. Sobriety, freedom from alcohol through the teachings, nice word, and applications of the 12 steps is the sole purpose of an AA group. Now I take a quick inventory of my group. Is that what we're doing? You bet. You bet. That's what my group does. We don't do anything but talk and teach about 12 steps. We go to the meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous and my group, the big book is open. That's the subject matter. Somewhere in those first 164 pages. That's the subject matter. We're always focused on recovery. Not problems de jour. Problems de jour. Some meetings that I go to and have gone to, don't go into them anymore, we could go out here on the main boulevard. We could go to the main boulevard and stop cars. Get about 30 people, bring them in their room and have the kind of an AA meeting that this turns out to be. Because somebody says, well, what kind of a week did you have? Well, everybody's had a week. They're going to talk about it. And it's usually about how bad it was. How sucky it was. How desperate it was. And how victimized they were. And I walk out of that room, my old shoulder's stuffed over. If that's what I hear, that's how I feel. So you have to ask yourself, is your group in keeping with the primary purpose? Staying sober and helping others to recover? I hope so. I hope so. And know this, that in order to be good sponsors and to know why this is important, we need to get to the history of Alcoholics Anonymous, to understand from whence we come. What are your roots? Your roots are not the first day you came into Alcoholics Anonymous. The roots of Alcoholics Anonymous are the roots of the history of Alcoholics Anonymous. The history of Alcoholics Anonymous started way before we got here. For over 4,000 years, people treated alcoholics. Nobody has done the job like Alcoholics Anonymous. Nobody. And we're part of that. And when you take a look at some of the other statistics and find out how many of us don't make it, and you look around after you've been here a few weeks or months, and you look around at those who came with you and say, where are they? Why did they turn their back on this life-giving process? And I guarantee you it was because they didn't get the right information. And I know that. I'm sure that we can all agree that this is an interesting story. But I want to make that clear. I want to make it clear that alcoholics and alcoholics are two different things. They come to Alcoholics Anonymous under due rest, and very few people come to Alcoholics Anonymous under due rest. They come because they sense that there's a problem, and they've had a major interruption, like a divorce or a lost job or DUI, that gets their attention and they come. And they come to Alcoholics Anonymous, and if given the right information, the right inspiration, if they see in us a reason for coming back, they'll be back. But if they don't get it, they don't know how to do it, they don't know how to do it, they don't know how to do it. They don't know how to do it. If they come into one of those meetings and see us sitting around and arguing about divorces and lost jobs and flat tires on I-95 and all sorts of stuff, there's no attraction in that kind of conversation in an AA meeting. That's nice conversation before and after, and maybe with your sponsor. I hear people referring to sometimes the AA meetings as a place to go dump. What do they think this is, a latrine? I mean, think about that. Have you heard that? I've heard that statement. Good place to dump. And so I know better than that, and I can interrupt that kind of thinking. Not that I'm holier than thou and I don't talk down, but I said, well, I heard that. Let's talk about that a minute. Where'd you get that idea? And they got it because they came to one of those meetings that 30 people off the street could have come in, and they've been talking about what kind of week they had. And they don't know any better. They're not going to talk about that. They don't know any better. They're in their first week and hours of AA. They think that that's it. That's why I say it's important to get a sponsor at the first meeting. Assign them. Appoint them. Make sure they've got somebo