Step 2 and the Two Powers Needed to Overcome Powerlessness – Joe C.

And in this chapter, there is a solution. We're going to talk about two powers. We're gonna talk about the power of the fellowship, and we're gonna to talk abut the power or the vital spiritual experience. And if we who are powerless could get both of these powers in our lives, then maybe we could overcome alcoholism also. On page 17, for those who are powerless, he writes the prescription. Here he talks about the two powers. Ebby presented Bill with a solution, and now Bill's going to present us with a solution in the same way. He said there is a solution. And as a friend of mine back home says, there's many different types of solutions as there are people in AA. And I say if you look at the chapter heading on page 17, it'll tell you how many solutions there are. There is a Solution 1. He said we, and there's that big word again, we of Alcoholics Anonymous know thousands of men and women who were just as hopeless as Bill. Nearly all have recovered. They have solved the drink problem, said we're average Americans. Today we can say that we're averaged citizens of the world because by last count there was AAs in 154 countries around the world. So all sections of this country and its occupations are represented, as well as many political, economic, social, and religious backgrounds. We are people who normally would not mix. And I think that we'RE probably the most mixed-up group of alcoholics in the world here this morning, here in Laughlin, Nevada. You know, if we didn't have Alcoholics Anonymous to talk about or drinking and recovery therefrom, I wonder what we would drink about, talk about. There's hardly anything. Told you I had a good memory. It's just short. We wouldn't have anything to talk abut. But it says that we are people who normally would not mix. But there exists among us a fellowship and a friendliness which is indescribably wonderful. And I hear that this morning and before the meeting, all the talk and the laughter and the going on. That's the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous, the spirit of Alcoholic Anonymous. And I got sober on the spirit about AlcoholicsAnonymous. That was the only thing keeping me here. So it's a powerful thing. The fellowship of alcoholics anonymous kept me sober for quite some time. Now he's going to describe this fellowship of alcoholic synonymous by talking about something he already assumes that we know about it or he thinks we already know about it and all great teachers have always done this when i wanted to teach you something new they would talk to you first about something you already know and use that as an example to teach you something knew you know we had a great teacher that lived two thousand years ago and he was really good at this when he wanted to do something the shepherd he told he would tell him a story about sheep but if you want to teach the same thing to the fisherman he would change his story this time it would be about fish then when he went to the farmer he talked about cattle and grains all good teachers do this Bill is going to use the example of the great passenger ship he said we are like the passengers of a great liner the moment after rescue from shipwreck when camaraderie, joyousness and democracy pervade the vessel from steerage to captain's table Bill is referring to a time in the 30s when your mode of transportation from one continent to another was by the great ocean liners. And on those great ocean liners, they had what they called the steerage section. And people who were immigrants that didn't have very much money, they usually booked passage in the steer age section way down in the bowels of the ship, very little fresh air, dormitory style living. I call it the cheese sandwich section, not very good down there. Now if you had a little more money though and you wanted better accommodations, you could pay for fourth class and come up a deck or two. Then you could go third class and come up another deck or 2. Then you could go second class and come up another decker to in each time the accommodations in the food were better if you had enough money you could go in what they call first class and first class they have big fine state rooms they had great dining rooms they had good food fine waiters access to fresh air all the time. But that still wasn't the most elite place on the ship. If you had the right kind of money... Old, old money. Old money. If you had the right religion, the right ethnic background, the right everything, you might be invited to dine at the captain's table. Just a few select people could do that. And at the captain's stable, you had the best of everything. The best service, the best food, the best everything. Now it's a long, long ways from the captain's table to the steerage section. And in the journey across the ocean, those two people should never have met each other. In fact, most of those ocean liners even had separate stairwells. So the first class people never even had to see those who rode in the steer age section. They had nothing whatsoever in common. Then I think about the Titanic and the night it hit the iceberg. And these two guys are standing there at the rail of the ship. And one of them got his tuxedo on, his shiny shoes and his little bow tie and everything that goes with it. Standing next to him is the guy from the steerage section. Got his old work overalls on, his old brogans, never wore a tie in his life. These guys had nothing whatsoever in common with each other until they jumped overboard. And when they jumped cardboard and their butts hit that cold water, They had something in common. How in the hell do we save ourselves? And they grabbed on to each other and held on to each other, and I doubt very seriously if the man from the captain's table asked for a financial statement from the man in the steerage section. And when these two guys were rescued and got back on another ship or back on land, there was a feeling amongst them which was indescribably wonderful. This has always been true. When people escape from a common peril. There is a feeling that ties them together, and it's one of the greatest feelings in the world, and that's what we got in the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. We don't care who you are. We Don't Care Where You Came From. We Dont Care How Much Money You Got. We Dont Care What Your Education Is. We Doncare What Your Ethnic Background Is, What Your Religion Is or Anything Else. All We Want To Know Is Are You An Alcoholic? And If You Are, There Is A Feeling Amongst Us Which Is Indescribably Wonderful. Even Though We Are So Different From Each Other, We are still bound together. Now watch him. He's going to give us a warning. Unlike the feeling of the ship's passengers, however, our joy and escape from disaster does not subside as we go our individual ways. These two guys, when they finally got back on shore, they looked at each other, they said, well, we really don't belong together, and they separated, probably never to meet again. But we will always be alcoholic. And this feeling we have for each other never goes away, and we find it again in city after city after city and country after country one of the greatest things I've been able to experience in my lifetime is to go to an AA meeting in a foreign country and feel just exactly as good as I did at home even though I don't know those people we are bound together because we're alcoholics the feeling of having shared in a common peril is one element of the powerful semen which binds us but that in itself would never have held us together as we are now joined. In other words, this feeling we have for each other in the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous is one of the things that bind us together. But then he said that itself is not enough. The tremendous fact for every one of us is that we have discovered a common solution. We have a way out on which we can absolutely agree and upon which we may be free. Upon which we join in brotherly and harmonious action. This is the great news this book carries to those who suffer from alcoholism, not the news of the fellowship. but the news of the common solution. And later on, we're going to see where the common solution is the spiritual experience brought about through the program of action. Now, if we could get the power of the fellowship which supports us and helps us, and if we can get the powerful power of God's power of this spiritual experience which changes us and add the two together, then that will be enough power to overcome our powerlessness over alcohol and we can recover from that condition. I think one of the greatest tragedies that I see in the world today, and there's lots of tragedies going on in the World Today. One of the Greatest that I See is We People Who Are In The Fellowship Of Alcoholics Anonymous Are Spending Literally Hundreds And Hundreds Of Thousands Of Dollars, Hundreds And Hundred And Thousands Of Men And Women Work Hours Trying To Attract Other Alcoholics To The FellowshiP Of Alcoholic Anonymous when we've got thousands and thousands who are already members of Alcoholics Anonymous who are sitting around dying from untreated alcoholism because they're doing nothing about the common solution. And the reason they'redoing nothing aboutthe common solution is nobody's telling them about it. Nobody's talking about it, nobody's saying, look, here's the program of action. Nobody's saying let me take you by the hand and walk with you so you can have a spiritual experience. and their fellowship only, and after a while they go back to drinking. And they said, well, AA don't work for us. No, they didn't work für AA. They didn't do the program. And again, it's not their fault. It's our fault because we're not insisting that new people work the program of Alcoholics Anonymous and we're letting them die around us. Thousands of us are dying every day who are already members of the fellowship of Alcoholic Anonymous. I think it's our responsibility to see that every newcomer knows about page 17 and knows there's two powers, the power of the fellowship and the power of the spiritual experience. And we're not going to recover without both of them. Now, we might stay sober for a while, but we're no longer We're not gonna recover from alcoholism without bothof them. No more preaching today. Guarantee you that. Preached a little last night. Preached just a little bit this morning. We'll try not to preach anymore. A good textbook never tells you anything, but what it doesn't back it up and prove it. The first half of this chapter is designed to show you and I why fellowship alone is not sufficient. The last half of the chapter is used to show us the solution to alcoholism, the vital spiritual experience. Let's look for just a few minutes at why fellowship along is not efficient, and then we'll take a break. Let's go to page 20. he said you may already have asked yourself why it is so all of us became so very ill from drinking doubtless you are curious to discover how and why in the face of expert opinion to the contrary we have recovered from a hopeless condition of mind and body now if you're an alcoholic who wants to get over it you may always be asking well what do i have to do it's the purpose of this book to answer such questions specifically remember last night we talked about precisely specifically with clear-cut directions. Well, here's one of those words. We shall tell you what we've done. Before going into detailed discussion, may it be well to summarize some points as we see them. Now how many times people have said to us, I can take it or leave it alone, why can't he? Why don't you drink like a gentleman and quit? That fellow can't handle his liquor. Why don'T you try a beer and wine and lay off the hard stuff? His willpower must be weak. He could stop if he wanted to. She's such a sweet girl. I should think he'd stop for her sake. The doctor told him that if he ever drank again, it would kill him. But there he is all lit up again. Now these are commonplace observations on drinkers which we hear all the time. Back of them is a world of ignorance and misunderstanding. We see that these expressions refer to people whose reactions are very different from ours. And we're going to look at two kinds of drinkers that these impressions that Joe just read would refer to them. He said modern drinkers have little trouble in giving up liquor entirely if they have good reason for it. They can take it or leave it alone. Remember, we talked about them last night. They have a couple of drinks. They get a slightly tipsy, out-of-control beginnings of a nauseous feeling. Alcohol is no big deal for them. If they have any problems with it, they simply leave it alone. Those expressions that Joe read would certainly refer to the moderate drinker. Then we have a certain type of hard drinker He may have the habit badly enough to gradually impair him physically and mentally, and it may even cause him to die a few years before his time. Now, if a sufficiently strong reason, ill health, falling in love, change of environment, or the warnings of a doctor becomes operative, if they do, this man can stop all or moderate, although he may find it difficult and troublesome and may even need a little medical attention. We call this guy the heavy or the hard drinker. They drink like we alcoholics drink, but they are not alcoholic. If a good enough reason presents itself to them, they'll do one of two things. They may learn to moderate their drinking. They do not have the physical allergy. They may quit drinking entirely and stay quit. They do Not have the obsession of the mind. They drink like us, but they're not alcoholic, and you and I see them all the time. They're the guy that said when I was in the service, I was an alcoholic also. But when I got out of the service I got married, went to church, quit drinking. Don't see why in hell you can't. No, they're Not alcoholic. The expressions that Joe read in the beginning would refer to the heavy drinker. But what about the real alcoholic? Now, he may start off as a moderate drinker, which many of us did. He may or may not become a continuous hard drinker because some of us stayed periodic. But at some stage of his drinking career, he begins to lose all control of his liquor consumption once he starts to drink. Now then, we're going to describe the real alcoholic. And when you see a description in there that fits you, Would you please raise your hand? We'd like to see if we're in a room full of real alcoholics. He said, but at some stage of his drinking career, he begins to lose all control of his liquor consumption once he starts to drink. Charlie talked last night about crossing over that line. He talked last tonight about crossing OVER that line, but I don't know what line he was talking about, but I know one thing, I was drunk when I went over it. Okay, now here's the fellow who's been puzzling you, especially in his lack of control. He does absurd, incredible, tragic things while drinking. He's a real Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He's seldom mildly intoxicated. He's always more or less insanely drunk. Anybody like that in here? Yeah, I bet you. His disposition while drinking resembles his normal nature but little. I always get good looking and out of debt as soon as I start drinking. He may be one of the finest fellows in the world. You let him drink for a day and he frequently becomes disgustingly and even dangerously antisocial. We got any of those people in here? He has a positive genius for getting tied at exactly the wrong moment, particularly when some important decision must be made or engagement. Anybody like that in here always getting drunk at the wrong time? Now everybody holds their hand up on this one. He's often perfectly sensible and well-balanced concerning everything except liquor, but in that respect he's incredibly dishonest and selfish. He often possesses special ability skills and aptitudes and has a promising career ahead of him. Anybody like that in here? I've never heard anybody but an alcoholic say that, though. I've Never Heard an Al-Anon Say It Yet. He uses gifts to build up a bright outlook for his family and himself. Then he pulls the structure down on his head by a senseless series of sprees. Anybody like That In Here? He's a fellow who goes to bed so intoxicated he ought to sleep the clock around. Yet early the next morning he searches madly for the bottle he misplaced the night before. Any bottle hiders in here, If he can afford it, he may have liquor concealed all over his house to be certain no one gets his entire supply away from him to throw down the waste pipe. Anybody spread them around wherever you might be? Phyllis and I used to buy a lug of whiskey, which is three-fifths, one to share and one to hide from each other. As matters grow worse, he begins to use a combination of high-powered sedative and liquor to quiet his nerves so he can go to work. Anybody ever have to have a little something in the morning? Then comes a day when he simply cannot make it and gets drunk all over again. Perhaps he goes to a doctor who gives him morphine or some sedative he wished to taper off. Then he begins to appear at hospitals and treatments, excuse me, sanitariums. Never did taper off, I always tapered on for some reason. This is by no means a comprehensive picture of the true alcoholic as her behavior patterns vary but this description should identify him roughly. If our government has ever done anything right in the field of alcoholism, it's an education of the public as to what alcoholism is and what it isn't. Because of that, a lot of the stigma has been removed from alcoholism. Many, many people are getting to us today before they have to do everything here that describes the real alcoholic. But I'll guarantee you if you're a real alcoholic, you found yourself in there somewhere. At least one of them are going to fit you. In my case, practically every one of them. One in particular. Seven years after I got sober, I sold a 40-acre, 45,000 broiler chicken operation. For years after that, every once in a while I would run into the guy that bought it and sometimes he would wave and smile and say, Hey, Charlie, we have found another one. And he's referring to partially empty vodka bottles. Yeah. behind corner posts, under rocks, hollow trees, fallen out of feed bins. Hell, he found them for years in there. Now here's the question. Why does he behave like this? If hundreds of experiences have shown him that one drink means another debacle with all his attendant suffering and humiliation, why is it that he takes that one drank? Why can't he stay on the water wagon? The moderate drinker can. The heavy drinker kan. Why can't the alcoholic? What has become of the common sense and willpower that he still sometimes displays with respect to other matters? Perhaps there never will be a full answer to these questions. Opinions vary considerably as to why the alcoholic reacts differently from normal people. We're not sure why once a certain point is reached, little can be done for him, we cannot answer the riddle. We know that while the alcoholic keeps away from drink, as he may do for months or years, he reacts much like other men. We are equally positive that once he takes any alcohol, whatever, into his system, something happens both in a bodily and mental sense which makes it virtually impossible for him to stop. The experience of any alcoholic will abundantly confirm this. Now these observations would be academic and pointless if our friend never took the first drink, thereby setting the terrible cycle in motion. Therefore, the main problem of the alcoholic centers in his mind rather than in his body. Would you read that again, please? Therefore, the main problem of the alcoholic centers in his mind rather than his body Now we must remember that always just before we take the first drink we are stone cold sober or stark raving sober or stark raving sober, one of the two. And a real problem centers in our mind telling us we can drink while sober rather than in the body that ensures that we can't drink. Chances are you'll never go put your hand on a hot stove again to see if it will burn you the second time. You know, I remember as a kid growing up back in the Depression years, and there's a few of you in here old enough to remember that too. Back in the 1930s, we didn't have very much. We didn'thave hot and cold running water. We didn' t have forced air heat. Joe said his family was not so poor they had to live in a tent, but he said, by God, if we'd had the money, we'd have lived in a tent. That's about how bad it was. But I remember in those days, even though you didn't have anything, you were very poor people. Cleanliness was still next to godliness. And every Saturday night, everybody in the family had to take a bath. Now whether you needed a bath or not is beside the point. You still had to tak e one. And one night in the middle of the winter, Mother had heated the bath water on the old heating stove in the living room, put it in a number three zinc wash tub sitting behind that stove now every kid in the family takes a bath in the same water I'm the baby of the family by the time it got to me the crud would be about an inch thick on it mother said get in there and get yourself clean, I thought to myself how in the hell did I get clean there but I didn't dare say that to her you didn't talk to your parents that way in the 1930's I scraped the crUD back I got in the tub, began to wash myself heating stove standing here red hot Somehow I managed to lean over and stick my rear against that hot stove. Burned a blister on my rear end about as big as my hand. Hurt me worse than anything had ever hurt me before. And do you know I've never had an obsession of mine to stick my ass on a hot stove since then? I have never jerked my britches down, backed up to a stove, and said, burn me again. Now alcohol has burned me over and over and over and over and over just as bad as that stove ever burned me and for some strange reason my mind cannot remember that. Left on my own resources I start thinking about drinking and after a while I think about only what it's going to do for me. That great sense of ease and comfort that great exciting in control feeling that comes from the first couple of drinks, and my mind keys in on that. I forget about the jailhouse, the hospitals, and the divorce courts, and I don't see a thing in the world wrong with taking a drink, and I take a drink and I trigger the allergy and I end up drunk over and over and over again. Last paragraph, page 24. So now when this sort of thinking is fully established in an individual with alcoholic tendencies, he has probably placed himself beyond human aid and unless locked up may die go permanently insane if we've placed ourself beyond human aide then the fellowship of alcoholics anonymous will not bring about recovery because the fellowship is made up of a group of human beings who are just as powerless over alcohol as i am so there's got to be a solution to that condition that we've just talked about And page 25 gives it to us. There is a solution. Let's go to page 25. Let's begin to look at the solution. We could see that the fellowship gave us enough power to support us for a while. But we were told that fellowship alone is not sufficient. And then it explained why fellowship alone isn't sufficient. So now on page 25, we'll start looking at the real solution to alcoholism.