Why No Two People Operate the 12 Steps Alike – Dick B.

About This Speaker Tape

The Frog Story - 1954

From a childhood in Maine to the gutters of Washington D.C. and the boweries, Dick B.'s trajectory was a jagged line. He maps out a life of early drinking failed prep schools a stint in the First World War and a failed marriage culminating in a desperate attempt to end it all by jumping off a tanker bound for Aruba in 1940. He dismantles the idea of a 'right way' to make an AA call arguing instead that a simple willingness to help is what matters. After a relapse ten months into sobriety he describes the raw moment a woman's tears and a blunt 'son of a bee' call-out snapped him back to reality. He makes his case for the 'musts' of recovery—specifically the necessity of giving the sobriety away to avoid ending up back in the gutter.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Introduction by Al B. and Dick B.'s opening remarks on sobriety dates.
• 4:15 Laughter: The bullfrog and the lady story.
• 8:30 Dick B. discusses his early drinking career and being thrown out of three prep schools.
• 12:45 Description of hitting bottom in the boweries and the feeling of being a 'drunken bum'.
• 15:20 The suicide attempt on the tanker bound for Aruba.
• 18:10 Dick B.'s first encounter with an AA club room in Washington D.C. and the 'three dollars' he scammed.
• 22:30 Relapse story: The confrontation with the woman and the bottle of Teachers scotch.
• 26:15 The 'not stupid' patient in the asylum story.
• 30:00 Discussion on the 'musts' of AA and the necessity of service to avoid relapse.
• 33:45 Closing thoughts on the 'paradise of sobriety' and the story of the two thieves on the cross.