Step 2 – Matt – New England Big Book Workshop Weekend – 2020

About This Speaker Tape

Matt and Donna tackle Step Two, framing it as the bridge from the hopeless diagnosis of Step One to a spiritual solution. Matt describes his search for masculinity and guidance, moving from a 'man's man' motorcycle sponsor who avoided the steps to a gay hotel concierge who saved his life. He recounts his 'Quentin T.' approach to sanity, realizing that his insanity was not just the drinking, but the decisions made while sober.

Donna shares her wreckage from the Midwest and her time in a Manhattan therapeutic community where rats crawled around in the daytime. She reflects on her childhood obsession with status—shaving stars off her Converse shoes to fit in—and how the 'spiritual kit of tools' finally replaced her reliance on human resources. Both emphasize that Step Two isn't about defining a Higher Power, but about laying aside prejudice and admitting that if Higher Power is nothing, they are doomed.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Administrative housekeeping and anonymity reminders.
• 5:15 Matt begins discussing Step Two and the physical/mental nature of the disease.
• 11:40 Matt describes his first sponsor, the motorcycle rider, and his second sponsor, the hotel concierge.
• 16:20 Discussion on Step Two and laying aside prejudice.
• 20:10 Matt defines insanity as a legal term: the inability to differentiate right from wrong or true from false.
• 26:40 Laughter: Matt's story about his CrossFit and Paleo diet phase.
• 31:10 Matt's 'If Higher Power is nothing' exercise for his sponsees.
• 36:40 Donna begins her share on Step Two and her 'journey' through the Midwest.
• 41:10 Donna describes her time in a Manhattan therapeutic community with rats in the backyard.
• 44:30 Donna's story about shaving the stars off her Converse shoes.
• 48:10 Donna's personal list of spiritual terms and her concept of a Higher Power.