Step Work Is Only One Part of the Recovery — Cease C.

Thank you very much Diana. My name is Cease Cornigal and I'm an alcoholic and I noticed over in the downtowners group where I was from Lethbridge, Alberta. Now someone just told me that there's a certain fella in this town that is in Oklahoma this weekend apparently that he hasn't got a very good memory but he phoned me several times in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and then he just wrote down Lethbridge and that's pretty close about 600 miles out that's all but I'm glad to be in Billings, Montana. Matter of fact, I'm glad to be anywhere. I came to Alcoholics Anonymous when I was 27 years of age and that's 37 years ago and it doesn't take very much to figure out how old I am. And it's okay to be sober 37 years but you also have to remember that you have to be 37 years older to get there and then I'm not too sure whether I want to get to be 38 years sober or not but however I've had a great 37 years in Alcoholics Anonymous I've had my ups and downs I didn't just waking up one morning and say by golly I wonder what I'll do today I think I'll join Alcoholics that's not the way to happen at all. I came to Alcoholics Anonymous the same as the rest of you came, because I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. And when I came at 27 years of age back in 1952 it was a great deal because there wasn't a whole lot of young people around at that time. There were a lot of old biddies around about 40 and 50 years old my god it was just awful looking at those old people and there's no big deal today to be in come down colleagues not I'm said 27 but at that time it was it was a big deal because they weren't a whole lot of people well I was the youngest member in my city and I was young this member in the province of Saskatchewan as far as I know and it took a little while for some other younger members to come in and I would like to congratulate you for what you're doing because I'm it seems to me that you're trying to find out a little bit more about Alcoholics Anonymous and that's a big deal because I'm going to tell you a whole bad, bad thing right now. I'm privileged to do this almost every Saturday somewhere. And I find that probably 85% of the people in Al-Qaeda don't know what they belong to. It's a sad thing. But they keep going to those meetings thinking that someday someone's going to tel them and then they'll know. And, you know, the only thing that can destroy us is ignorance and apathy. Ignorance of what we belong to and not complacency but real apathy and when the gang met me at the plane last night Dale was driving me down and I asked Dale what he thought of that and he said he didn't know and he didn' t care so I'm not quite sure I was a little concerned about him getting me to my hotel and there's a lot of problems in alcoholics anonymous probably the biggest problem as I can see it is his sponsorship now I don't want you to go around and saying that some speaker from Canada says that's what's wrong with our colleagues anonymous because I don t I'm just telling you what I, and I'm not judgmental. It's just what I've observed. But when you see things happening in Alcoholics Anonymous, and people who don't like the changes that happen, none of us like change. I mean, wouldn't it be really nice to come to Alcoholics anonymous. Stay sober and get happy and get contented and all of those things without having to change that would be just great but when I came they told me that I'd have to make a 180 degree turn and that I had to change. Talking about change I heard a story about a little granddaughter that was going to cook the roast one day the ham and she said to her mother mom why do we cut the end off the ham before putting a roaster and her mom said well golly I don't know but my mom did that and so I did it and and mom is here and I'll ask her why she did it so She says, Mom, why do we cut the end off the ham before we put it in the roaster? And her mother says, well, gee, I don't know, but the great-grandmother's here. And she used to do that, and I'll ask her. And she said, Grandma, why did they cut the hand off the lamb before they put it into the rooster? And she says, Well, I didn't do it. I don' t know why you girls do it, but I did it because I had a small roaster. and you see sometimes we're that way we'll just go through life because we have a small roaster and that's a sad thing but I found out that I had to make a lot of changes in my life and this afternoon tonight I'll be talking about the steps we're just going a little backwards but that's all right in Alcoholics Anonymous. We do that a lot. And I would like to tell you this afternoon that I'm going to talk about traditions. I can remember back about 15 years ago, I was privileged to talk about traditions at our provincial conference. A friend that I sponsored was in the other auditorium speaking about the steps. He had 872 people and I had 12. So, I decided then that it wasn't really a popular subject. But I took it upon myself to probably make it a little more interesting because I realized that there were a lot of people who weren't taking the time to find out about traditions and they would say well that's for the bosses in the group wherever they are and I've been every kind of a deal in alcoholics anonymous I've being privileged to serve in every capacity I got into service not because I knew too much but because I had a car And belonged to the company I worked for and the meeting, when I became a General Service Representative, the meeting was 160 miles away and I had a car with an expense accountant so they made me the General Service Representative. And then I was there for a couple of years and I found out that all the other groups were paying the expenses of their General Service Representatives. I went back and told my group about this, and it was their responsibility, not my responsibility. And they elected a new general service representative to start to pay his expenses. That was really the first big resentment I had in Alcoholics Anonymous. And so after that session in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, that time when I talked about the traditions, I realized that the traditions were pretty, pretty important. The traditions were to talking about unity, how we stick together and you see I had learned through the steps and I'll tell you about that tonight, how to get along with me and how to understand me and like me and properly instead of exclusively because when I came to Alcoholics Anonymous I was in love with Cease Corrigal I had an exclusive love affair with him but you people taught me through the steps how to love myself properly instead of exclusively and then I had to learn how to live my life how to be able to love you people and that was difficult because you were just mixed up as I was and it seemed that lots of times we had opinions that were different and we had arguments and sometimes we had to take our argument and our resentment and coffee pot and go somewhere else and start another group but that's alright because that's how Alcoholics Anonymous grows but I found out that I could apply the traditions of AlcoholicsAnonymous to myself to myself personally and I found that if I was to take those traditions of alcoholics anonymous and apply them to me, and then help the people that I sponsor apply them to them, and they in turn did the same thing, great things would happen. If you've ever been to an Amway meeting or some of those other meetings that sell merchandise that way, that's exactly how they do it. And they make a fortune. And we've had the thing all the time and Alcoholics Anonymous never used it. All All we have to do is start with self. The conference in Denver, the International Conference of 75, that was the theme, let it begin with me. So I decided that I would let it began with me and I'm going to show you something that I wrote back probably in the late 60s and today it doesn't mean much it means the same thing to me and I'm real happy about that. For you see, I found that I needed further spiritual growth in Alkalics Nautilus. I found out that I had recovered and you can only recover so much. You just can't keep recovering. You have to go on and there's three other things to do, two other things. There's unity and there is service and this is what I wrote and I want to share it with you. it seems to me that all our problems are inherent in our 12 traditions many of us talk about spiritual growth through our steps i found out that this is only one part the recovery part i think our traditions give us a greater spiritual growth as far as who god is what the spiritual side is, and a better definition of the word anonymity. As I study these traditions, I can't help but feel as if a whisper is saying to me or to you or to the member of Al-Anon or Alateen, this is the way and the path towards humility. We say our common welfare comes first. Personal recovery depends upon AA unity. Why? So that my alcoholic or Al-Anon or Alateen recovery can be complete. In this tradition, one recovers by maintaining a respect for a group. So I personally find as I go over the tradition that I have been cut down to size, and this I like. Because it was real cold up so high. Or hadn't you noticed? Then we say for our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority. A loving God as he may express himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants they do not govern. CEASE has but one authority. AA has but One Authority. Each AA member has one authority, a loving something known as God but located where? In my conscience I am aware that God is there. I know that it is a loving something. Then I am told that I may become a leader but in that capacity I am a trusted servant and this applies to Al-Anon or to AA. I am told that the only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. I am told not so much about drinking, but that I can stop something. I find that as I stop something I'm cut a little more down to life size. So far I've been told that my group is the most important thing. I've been told where God is, that I can be a leader but as a trusted servant only and that I could get a lot by simply stopping something. This is great news to me. I'm also told in the next tradition that each group is autonomous except in matters affecting a lot of people. And I find that this gives me even a greater feeling because of the over 18,000 groups, and this was written many years ago, each striving for the same goal that my group and I can be autonomous. Then in the next tradition, I am reminded that each group should have but one primary purpose to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers. I as a member of my group have but on purpose, and that is to carry the message of giving and receiving of tenderness, the simple acceptance of human emotions, comfortable or uncomfortable, and to help the members of my group the best I can. This is the way we become members of this group, by giving and receiving the tenderness which we all so much long for. Then it says that each group should be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions. This is a great surprise to me as I'd always wanted others to live my life, to be kind to me and to show their love but I didn't want to give it back. Now I am told that I can be fully self supporting whether it be financially, spiritually or emotionally. So now I have found that the group comes first and that my own recovery as a human being, alcoholic or not depends upon paying attention to this. I have a God who is a loving something located in my conscience. As a leader I can be a trusted servant providing I give up something. I can autonomous if I don't hurt somebody and my primary purpose is to help the other guy. An extradition says that a group ought never endorse, finance or lend the AA name to any related facility or outside enterprise. Less problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose. And then I get the key. My primary aim is to carry the message to the drunk or the uncomfortable disturbed person And often that is me, so I can carry it to myself as well as to somebody else. In the next traditions, I am told that Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers. Any professional person can forever remain forever not professional when it comes to AA. I am in the retail business and love, but occasionally loathe my business life. But in the capacity of a human being, I am not the one that knows all the answers because I need other people with whom to share my emotions. And then it says that AA ought never to organize, but we may set up service boards and committees directly responsible to those whom they serve. So CEASE never has to organize. This has been a problem for many, many years. To become organized, to say everything just right, just perfectly, as it's supposed to be said, this somehow ended in emptiness and loneliness inside. As a member of AA, I can afford to give up some of this empty organization and become a kind of a sloppy, benevolent human being. Then it says Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues. Hence the AA name ought never be drawn into public controversy. This is a good lesson for me, because while I can have all kinds of opinions of me, I at best not have opinions of you. If I stick to this, I'm not going to get myself into controversy. This might then be a happy thought for each and every one of us. Anyone can have opinions, opinions of himself, but we should let the other person exist as he is, as a human being. I am told that AA public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion. Now this is a great relief to me because no one can attract another individual unless the individual first of all feels within himself that he has the right to be himself, no matter how cock-eyed he may be as I am myself at this minute and myself changes every minute throughout the day. I may not attract anyone, but it is for sure I'm not going to promote anyone. And this is a thing I need to learn as a member of a group. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of our traditions, every reminding us to place principles before personalities. I review these traditions as I search for the great gift of giving and receiving of tenderness, which I so desperately need, I find that my group comes first because my recovery depends upon it, whether it be recovery from a drunk or from a human turmoil. And I find it. I have a God, a loving something inside of me. I can be a leader as a trusted servant, providing I stop something drinking in my case. I could be autonomous if I don't step on somebody's toes. And my message is to help the other guy whether he's a drunk or not. I find that prestige is empty. I must not lend my name to other facilities, but I should keep myself at home in AA where I belong and let the AA influence spread. I can be fully self-supporting financially, emotionally, or spiritually. and I'm not a professional person who knows all the answers. I'm no longer an alcoholic. I'm now a person who is organized because I don't know that much. I don' t need to be organized. I can be disorganized and change a little bit as each day goes by. I can have opinions about me but not about other people. My public relations can be attraction rather than by trying to promote the rest of the still-suffering alcoholics. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all these traditions And other people's principles are greater than personalities As I listen to these traditions, each one seems to whisper to me As it cuts me slowly, but definitely down to life's size This is what we mean by humility Then I say, what does anonymity really mean? Does it mean that when I get up in an AA meeting and say my name is Cease and don't say my last name, that I am ashamed of my last name? No, it doesn't mean that at all. Because when I look in the mirror each morning, progressively I become a little more proud of the individual I see. But I also see that I have a long ways to go. Next I say to myself, am I ashamed of being an alcoholic or a member of AA? I say no, I am not. But while I wouldn't want to go through it all over again if I had my life to live over, I would do it precisely the same way for one reason The worst minute that I spent has brought me here to the very very best What then does anonymity mean? It must mean that a human being whether he is a it drunk or not for we are all simply guys and gals no matter no greater no less than the person next to us like other human beings is like a grain of sand on the great beach of life without the beach we could not exist in reverse the beach could not exist without each grain of sound what then is our responsibility let us therefore pray every night for the strength and guidance to inspire in others the gratitude, the love, and the dedication that we owe to Alcoholics Anonymous for our new way of life. Then and only then can we say when the candle of life burns low, thank God I've given my best to what has given me so much, and I feel that this is our responsibility. So let's ask ourselves tonight, are we really carrying out our responsibility? I hope that that makes a little bit more sense to you about the traditions because so many people do not pay too much attention to the traditions. And I find in order to walk in unity with you and with me and with my fellow man and with the loving God as our understanding that I have to, first of all, apply those traditions to my personal life. And when I try to apply those traditions to My personal life and when I can be in unity with Myself, it's very simple to be in Unity with You. But if I am wrong with Myself then it's not possible to be In Unity with you. And you see we are a privileged bunch of people for we have a program that allows us to do this. I can run my business on the traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous. I could have a staff that I can have work with me and not for me, because I know the traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous and I've applied them in my own personal life. This may seem ridiculous, but just try it. Go out there in that old cruel world when you go back to work Monday morning and take a look around at the people who aren't so fortunate to have become an alcoholic and they're not so fortunate enough to have a program and just watch them when they come to work. It's pretty difficult for them to walk in unity because they don't even want to be there. Because, you see, we are privileged to learn about gratitude. And when we talk about gratitude, I once heard somebody say, you've got to grow or you've Got to go. And I believe that to be true. And I like to take that word grow and I like to break it down. And I like to take the G for gratitude. And gratitude is not something that we talk about. Gratitude is something, it's the price we pay for what we're grateful for. You know, you've all seen the person that comes to Alcoholics Anonymous. They're always talking about gratitude. I'm so grateful. Phone them sometime at 2 o'clock in the morning, ask them to go see some drunk. You'll find out how grateful they are. They find many excuses not to be grateful. And it's a sad thing. But they just don't want to pay the price. And that's the price that we have to pay for what we're grateful for. I take the R for responsibility. I hate the word, never did like it still don't like it you know they tell us we have to be responsible people I find out the only way I can be a responsible person is if I'm a grateful person I find that gratitude will force me into responsibility and allow me to be a irresponsible person I take the O for open mindedness open minded enough to accept you or they or whoever they are whether it be in the workforce or whether it be in my family or whether it be here or wherever it may be. No matter how cockeyed they are you know that's their problem it's not mine that I can accept them and I can try to understand them and maybe even pray a bit for them and you see alcoholics will never, Alcoholics Anonymous will never change or Al-Anon will never change If it did, we wouldn't need it because we're going to get sick people in all the time and you're going to get old geezers like me that get sicker sometimes. You know, it's possible for me to get sickness too just because I'm in Alcoholics Anonymous. You know there's a saying in Alcoholic Anonymous that I don't agree with and that's the first one up this morning is the oldest member of Alcoholics anonymous. But let some old geezer like me do something wrong about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and wouldn't care whether I got up at 6 in the morning or 2 in the afternoon, you'd say, look at that old geezers, 37 years sober, and look at him. All of a sudden it switches around, you see. But we have to be open-minded because we're always going to have sick people. And that's what Alcoholics Anonymous is all about, you see, because we have a code in the big book of Alcoholics' Anonymous and step 10. Our code is love and service. A lot of people don't even know we have a code because we refuse to love each other sometimes and we certainly refuse to be tolerant of each other lots of times. And I believe it's because of total lack of traditions within our personal life. And I take the W for willingness. Willing to be grateful and willing to be responsible and willing be open-minded, and last but not least, willing to be willing which is probably the most important one. So you see, you've got to grow or you've gotta go and I've been privileged in Alcoholics Anonymous to have the opportunity because I belong to a group that makes sure that I keep growing they make sure that i have something to do at all times and I make sure that I know what these traditions are all about because I find that it is so much simpler to walk hand in hand with my fellow man and with the loving God as I understand him in unity. You know they talk about stress today. I mean it's just a bad thing. No matter where you're working, there's stress. And you know, I don't think we have to have that much stress. I just don't think we have to if we can walk in unity because usually what we get the stress from is somebody that is superior to us or somebody that's inferior to us. We just get the stress from other people and we go home from work completely played out. we go to work completely played out. Because we hate to go to work because we're going to be with these people. Because we haven't learned how to walk in unity with them. So you see, the traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous are something that we can have and we can learn to live with the entire world through the traditions of Alcoholic Anonymous if we apply them to ourselves. And there's a story I like to tell about walking hand in hand. It's a history about a young couple that had a little boy. And in a great wheat field back in Saskatchewan that we have, they went out one night. They were farmers and they went up and they looked at their great wheat fields. And while they were looking at it, their little boy crawled away and became lost. and they searched in every direction. They went in all directions and they couldn't find the little boy. They went and called in the neighbours and the neighbours came out and they did the same thing. They went into all different directions and couldn't found the little Boy. And they called the army in and the next morning the army sergeant said let's join hands and walk across this wheat field and that way we can't miss the little boy. And they joined hands and they walked across the wheat field they found the little boy he had died during the night from exposure and his daddy picked him up in his arms and he said why didn't we join hands before? And I think that that's what we've got to consider whether we're in Al-Anon or Al-Calix, Anonymous, whatever we may be why didn't we join hands before and walk hand in hand in unity with each other and that way we can be happy we can find the full fulfillment of what Alkalics Anonymous or Al-Anon has to offer and we don't jip ourselves you see we have jipped ourselves in Alkalix Anonymous if you have just taken the recovery part if you haven't taken the unity. You have really gypped yourselves because you'll find yourself being in disagreement not only with your group but with your family or with your co-workers, with the guy that's driving a car in front of you and when that light changes you want them to move right then you'll just go through life that way but we are so fortunate and I know I'm talking to the wrong people I know you've all done this but supposing you should sponsor somebody and they're having a difficult time just say them I heard some old geezer that came down from Canada and he talked about the traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous and he had talked about applying them to himself and he talked about walking hand-in-hand with each other. And so I want you people this afternoon, and I hope that if you're in Al-Anon, if you are an Alcoholics anonymous or Alateen, whatever the program may be, I certainly hope that you apply these traditions to yourself and learn to walk Walk hand in hand with yourself, your fellow man, and a loving God as you understand him. Thank you. God bless you. I'm sure I explained it well enough that there aren't any questions. But I'm here. And if it's a workshop, I'm sure that everybody is supposed to participate. It's got to be somebody that has a question about the traditions. Yes? I heard you many, many years ago when your parents were not in, and I've never ever forgotten you. I hope tonight you tell your football with Joe. I'll tell it just for you. One of the things I have a hard time explaining to people, and it's when Charlie and Joe were here. Do you know who Charlie is? Yep. time explaining to people um and it's when charlie and joe were here yeah yeah is the difference between recovery meetings and discussion meetings because when i when you said you know right away that a lot of people don't know what aaa is about and i agree with that and what they said is that so many times people get hung up in quote discussion meetings and forget about Well, I would say, and this is my opinion, but, and I was discussing this with Dave before coming here, about AA activity and AA action. You know, sometimes you meet people and they tell you they're going to 12 meetings a week. And that's really good. But, you know, eventually you'll have to go to work. You can't get to 12 meets a week And you see, there's activity and there's action. I stayed sober the first three years, not the first three years. The first maybe six, seven months on pats on the back because I was the youngest member in the group. And I was going to these deals and going to those deals and all I was gone for was someone to pat me on the butt. I just wanted to make sure that I was there in case I missed something. And then a dear old fellow by the name of Tommy got a hold of me and he said, Cease, are you doing anything about Cease? And he sat till 5 o'clock in the morning and talked to me about the program of Alcoholics Anonymous. And you see, we can go to AA meetings and they're good. I'm not saying to people, don't go to 10 meetings a week if you want to go to 10 meetings week. That's not what I'm saying. But sometimes maybe we should start doing something about ourselves because there is a program. You see that the real, real sad thing about Alcoholics Anonymous today when Peter read how it it works. Can you imagine how many places that's going to be read today in Alcoholics Anonymous throughout the world? Thousands upon thousands. It's the most read piece of literature in the world and the least listened to. And then you hear people say, I don't know how it works, but it works. Every meeting they read to us how it works. And we say we don't know how it works and you know it's really sad but there it says here are the steps we took. It doesn't say that we're going to take, it says those first hundred people that wrote that book or built a big part of it, the people that helped them says here are the steps we took then it says which are suggested and people stopped reading right there but right behind it says as a program of recovery you know they say and that a lot of people get in their in their head that you know these these just suggested because they haven't read the rest of the book. The rest of the line, rather, not even the book, the rest of sentence. And so recovery meetings and discussion meetings, you see, step meetings, I'm privileged in the city I come from where we have step meetings where we do the steps, not where we talk about We have a session of 14 weeks where we do the meetings. I'll talk about that in the next portion of this program. And so there's a difference between having a step meeting and having a Step Meeting where you do the steps, and I think that's recovery. And I don't think there's... I think we could go to meetings, 10 meetings a week, whatever, meetings we go to, it doesn't matter. And I don't think that we will ever, ever recover unless we do what it tells us to do in the book. And you see there's a lot of cliches around in Alcoholics Nautilus. Take what you want, the rest will fall. You know throw some of it out the window or something and I don't know, I do it cafeteria style. You know there's no musts in Alcoholics Anonymous. They tell us that. That's been going on for years. Right here I have a little deal. Here are 57 examples and references pages in the book of AlcoholicsAnonymous where the word must is used. 57. And you'll hear people say that there aren't any musts. And it says, must surely come, must believe, must have depth, must be grounded in a power greater than, you know, must stop drinking, must help, must feel, must admit, must be no reservations, must come from a higher power, must find spiritual basis of life. I mean, they're just a whole bunch of musts, but you'll here people yet today say, There's no musts in Alcoholics Anonymous. And that's not their fault. Somebody told them that at those ten meetings a week they went to. Told them there's no muss in Alcoholic Anonymous and you get people and there's people who tell you not to worry about the traditions, not to worry about the steps you know easy does it that's all okay but but what you're really doing is killing people if you want to be that way it's okay but don't go around telling that to other people because you may kill them anything else okay what what we do in a step meeting is when we have a staff meeting we wait we have the names of the people that are going through the step meeting and we have their phone numbers we have their sponsor and we the whole deal. This is the group I belong to and we just don't discuss the steps, we discuss them but then we have each person do that step that week. Have them do them. I mean find out, read the first 57 pages of the big book if you want to find out where step one and step two is. You'll get right into the like you can discuss those steps from here until long ways and nothing's going to happen to us discussing or discussing the traditions is the same thing just discussing them I mean it's good to discuss them but by God try to get them into your life and I find I I find that that's a problem almost worldwide in Alcoholics Anonymous, is just exactly the question you ask. You know, we go to discussion meetings and like this may sound a little tough but I'm doing a step meeting right now and when we come to step four last week week on Thursday night. Well, everybody had done their Step 4—12 of them. I mean they came back and they had done there Step 4. And they had a piece of paper to prove it. Some of them wanted to show it to me. And you don't find that—and that's not their fault. That's the fault of sponsorship. That is the fault of group leaders. And that's the fault of people who haven't taken a step forward, who will say to the people that are trying to take a step forward, don't worry about it. I haven't done it and look at me, I'm still sober. I'm so sober by I'm still sober, you know, by friction. But it's difficult to find out what's difficult to get fixed if you don't know what's wrong with you. And then when it comes to step five, we have a list of people. We have, now, and I'm sure, I'm true, we haven't got an exclusive rights on this. We have 12 fifth-step schools for the ministers and the preachers and the priests and the people that we take fifth steps with. And we have an all-day workshop like this telling them what we expect out of a fifth step so that then we have them study the book of Alcoholics Anonymous to know what we're trying to do. And when somebody wants to take a fifth step, their sponsor, like the best time to take the fifth step is right after step four and so we have a list of people that the sponsor makes the appointments if they're not capable make an appointment themselves and so a lot of people say to me they say well I sure could have done it that way how do they know I mean that's that's him that's a ridiculous statement isn't it but I know that in our group and and we have a big group we just don't have people at our we have people are coming there to get to find recovery we have from other groups we have one guy that drives 118 miles this this particular session to go through the steps because he belongs to a group away out of the country that is not hasn't got a step me. Does that make sense? It's like anything else, you know, you can discuss it. You can discuss anything and for hours but if you don't do it nothing has really happened. You can say to yourself they could do that someday at your funeral we'll say well I guess they didn't do that yeah we do the tradition same way you see it says to carry a message and what message are they talking about? They're talking about the message that you have. So some people say, well I can't do that because I haven't got a message. Well, find the drunk and carry them to the message. You know, somebody has got to have a message in that group you belong to, I'm sure. And I may seem a little bit, and I know that there's going to be people when you leave here that don't agree with what I'm saying. But I'll say this, that it's probably somebody that hasn't done the steps. It's probably someone that's discussed them. And I'm not running for anything anymore. See, I can say what I want. I've been everything there is to be. And I found out the highest I can get is sober. I want you all to make me a promise. You don't have to say it out loud, but just say to yourself that you're going to insist that your group starts to study and do the traditions on a personal level and by a personal level I mean it's where you apply them to yourself the same way as you did the steps because you're just jipping yourself or you don't because it's so much further spiritual growth and the trouble is with people that are not talking about the traditions is because a lot of people don't know anything about the traditions And we're not going to know anything about the traditions unless some of us just decide that we're going to help other people with their traditions. And the only way we're gonna help other peoples' traditions is if we find out about them ourselves. Because, you see, the biggest problem with traditions today, and you've all heard it, is that no matter what you do in alcoholics don't miss there's always some old geezer say you're breaking traditions next time they say that say which one and they won't be able to tell you because we've been getting away with with that for years, running around telling people they're breaking traditions. That beautiful roundup that you were at last weekend, we have probably one of the finest roundups in the country and there's a guy that's been sober 30 years and he's talked his whole group out of Cumberland's thing because we're breaking traditions. But he's never, ever, ever told his group what traditions were breaking. And they've never thought about asking him. And he'll go at least 40 years and he'll keep saying that, you know, pounding the table. But the next time anybody says to you well, don't get screaming at them. I do just say gee, do you have a moment? Sit down and tell me about what tradition are they breaking, you know? And they'll talk in riddles and it'd be worse than a beer parlor talk. They just go round and round and around because they don't know, but they've got away with that for years. You've all heard it. We had a picnic once, an AA picnic, and a guy come to me and he said, I want Bill to play ball, And I said, why? He said, my sponsor said I'm breaking traditions. And I says, well, what tradition are you breaking? And he said, I don't know, but he said that. You know? And the little guy didn't come to the picnic. Because he, I didn't know whether he can't play ball or whether he can't go to a picnic. I don' t know. But what tradition it was, I have no idea. But people get away with this. And it's really sad. but if you when you get into those traditions and find out what they're about you know like anonymity that is the most kicked around things in the world anonymity, you know what the real spiritual meaning of anonymity is is the ability to forget do something good, forget about it and go and do something else. That's really what anonymity really means. If you read in the good book, there is a good book beyond ours, you know. It's called the Bible. I think that a lot of things were done in there and just done and good things and went on and, you don't know. Nobody ever knew the last names of the disciples, I don't think, but nobody ever cared either. and I think that we get carried away with this last name right within the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous and anonymity is a very very spiritual thing it's the fact that that I won't get on television and I do a television show with fashions once a week and you know I'd be real dangerous if I started talking about Alcoholics Anonymous on that television show. But that's really what anonymity means is to prevent donkeys like me going out and breaking your anonymity at the level of press, radio, TV and films. But my God, let's not have it at the group level. I'd like to know some of you people because if I come down here again and I look in the phone book and see Dale looking for Dale, I'm sure I won't find it. Don't be afraid to tell your last name. And we hide behind anonymity. That is a great one. I had a friend one time came into Alkalis Nambis with a doctor, a chiropractor, and I asked him to go to the hospital before we had treatment centers you probably remember some of you we if we put somebody in the hospital we had to go and sit with them and we didn't have any place else put them and so I phoned this fella up and I said we have so-and-so in the Hospital and we're going to break up and shifts I'd like you to take a shift of two hours what shift do you want and he said oh I can't do that. And I said, why? And he said, well, I know all the nurses. He said, I'll be breaking my anonymity. And hung the phone up and didn't say too much, but I said a few things. Just weren't too many people around, just me. Two days later, I got a phone call from the bank manager. The bank manager asked me if so-and-so, this same guy that I'd called to go to the hospital, went to the same group as I went to. And I said, well, what group are you talking about? He says, Alcoholics Anonymous. And he said, I can't tell you that. Well, he said he told me he does. He goes to your meeting. And, you know, he'd break his anonymity and mine too to borrow $500. But he wouldn't break his anonymity to go and save a life, you know? So we hide behind it sometimes. We just use it when it's convenient. And that happens a lot. I'm privileged to know a lot, a lot of people who I see on television who are in government and everything. I've been privileged to meet them and lots of times I'm sitting there with my family or with other people around and I'm watching Dallas or I'm watching something and I see a member of AA that I personally met spent some time with. And I'm going to tell you, that is when you don't break anonymity. I'd like to mention sometime, you know, I had dinner with him when I was in the States the last time, you know, and you know you sort of impress people if you do that, but that's when you don't break anonymity but I don't think that you break your anonymity if you go and get somebody from it from your group to go and help at somebody's house where there's a poor drunk so that's the things about about the traditions that so many people don't understand is the anonymity tradition, and I'm sure that lots of people probably write in Billings that people don t know some of your, some of the people in Billings last name because they think it's in the group I m talking about because they they think it's an anonymity break. And that's not their fault, somebody's told them that. How did you get started with the commission right then? Did you start sobering through your sponsor or just starting it all? Well, my sponsor has only been sober 10 days longer than me. And when we went to AA almost together, Well, he became my sponsor and then his sponsor died and I became his sponsor as well. And incidentally, I've had the same sponsor for 37 years and I don't know anybody else in Alcoholics Anonymous who's had the sponsor for the same 37 years and I've said it in big crowds and nobody's come up and said that I'm wrong and I'm very proud about that Because, you know, there's people talk about sponsorship and they talk about this one is their financial sponsor and this one's their spiritual sponsor and this One's Their Service Sponsor. My God, they don't know that many people. I've just had old Elmer, and old Elmar has walked a lot of miles with me, good ones and bad ones, and I've done the same with him. But when you come back to what you're talking about, I got interested in traditions when I found out that just so many people didn't know what traditions were all about. And there was a fellow who's now passed away, Wesley Parrish, from Pompano Beach, Florida. And Wesley and I were delegates together in 1958 and 59 to the General Service Conference. and we realized that just a whole lot of people didn't know much about traditions and so Wesley started down in Pompano and I used to visit him in the wintertime he'd come up visit me in summer and we'd talk about traditions and and he put down on paper what he thought and I put down in paper what I thought and we start talking about traditions and we start sharing it with our groups and really that's how we get started and it's been it's probably been more beneficial to Wesley and I than it was to the rest of the people because we got so much out of it and it is really something yes if you were to have a tradition meeting on the first tradition how would you How would you present it to your students so that they can speak back to it and learn the traditions with you? Okay, we'll find the traditions. Personal recovery depends upon A-Unity. Well, I'm going to read the long form here. And the traditions in this new book? The long form says, Each member of Alkalics Anonymous is but a small part of a great whole. AA must continue to live or most of us will surely die. Hence our common welfare comes first. But individual welfare follows close after. so what I would do is we take the 12 steps and 12 traditions and we also read not only the long form here but then don't get confused because in the second tradition the long from is shorter than the regular from you see this alcoholism is a strange thing the long form in the tradition says for our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority loving God as may express himself to our group conscience that's the long term but in the short form for our Group Purpose there is with one ultimate Authority loving God as he may express Himself to our Group Conscience our leaders are but trusted servants they do not govern and you know sometimes no wonder it's confusing because even the book is a little confusing. But the 12 by 12 is what we use for the traditions. And look at what you're going to have to do sometimes is just struggle through it. And somebody in that group is going to figure out that, by God, that group was pretty important. You know, each member of Alcoholics Anonymous has been a small part of a great whole. It says our common welfare and should come first first rule recovery depends upon a unity which means that you know that we just have to be unified and Unified means unified Because there are people in Alcoholics Anonymous who are sick and they're going to You know, they'll see somebody who they think is running the group group, and all of a sudden it's their turn to run it. And they do everything, everything in their world. I mean, they start rumors. They say bad things. Do you ever see people who are trying to help somebody? Maybe six people and they're sitting in a restaurant try to help somebody that isn't there. And they say things like, have you heard? Did you know? Isn't it awful? I don't believe it. You know? And sometimes that can go on all afternoon. You go in right for the fourth cup of coffee. And that's not group unity. But what it is, is Dr. Bob had a favorite saying when this would happen. He always said, let's go and get the person and see what they have to say. You see, we have to work on group unity. And I tell you what, it is just a brand new experience. You can get so excited about those traditions because all of a sudden you start to feel it. You start to feel it the way you did the steps. And just try it. Get six people and have a tradition meeting every Tuesday night or whatever night, doesn't matter. And just take the 12 by 12 and say let's try to get these traditions into ourselves. And don't worry about the people that aren't coming. And then maybe when you sponsor somebody, you'll be able to tell them about the traditions. Because I doubt very much if anybody in this room was ever told about the traditions other than the fact that you're breaking them. And that was our fault because the old-timers, lack of a better name, didn't learn about them ourselves and didn't tell the people about them. And if you're going to be a good sponsor I think you should have the traditions in your life. Just not in a book, but in the life. Well, the third side, of course, which is what I'm going to talk about in the next session, is service. And service is really something else. And, and service is something that will, well, if you don't think it's important, get a stool when you go home. And a three-legged stool would cut two legs off. And one leg it's recovery and try to sit on it comfortably and you can't unless you've got those other the unity in service and it's just as simple as that and you see we've been but don't blame yourselves we've be chipping ourselves but the sponsors and the older timers blame it on us because we didn't tell you how important it was We just told you, go to meetings. Don't drink and read the book. You know? That was it. But we didn't ask you if you're reading a book. Isn't it time for coffees? Can we do that? Have a break. Let's come back.