323 Groping Toward God "More than most people, I think, alcoholics want to know who they are, what this life is about, whether they have a divine origin and an appointed destiny, and whether there is a system of cosmic justice and love. "It is the experience of many of us in the early stages of drinking to feel that we have had glimpses of the Absolute and a heightened feeling of identification with the cosmos. While these glimpses and feelings doubtless have a validity, they are deformed and finally swept away in the chemical, spiritual, and emotional damage wrought by the alcohol itself. "In A.A., and in many religious approaches, alcoholics find a great deal more of what they merely glimpsed and felt while trying to grope their way toward God in alcohol." LETTER, 1960 324 Spirituality and Money Some of us still ask, "Just what is this Third Legacy business anyhow? And just how much territory does `service' take in?" Let's begin with my own sponsor, Ebby. When Ebby heard how serious my drinking was, he resolved to visit me. He was in New York; I was in Brooklyn. His resolve was not enough; he had to take action and he had to spend money. He called me on the phone and then got into the subway; total cost, ten cents. At the level of the telephone booth and subway turnstile, spirituality and money began to mix. One without the other would have amounted to nothing at all. Right then and there, Ebby established the principle that A.A. in action calls for the sacrifice of much time and a little money. A.A. COMES OF AGE, P. 140-141 325 Humility Brings Hope Now that we no longer patronize bars and bordellos, now that we bring home the pay checks, now that we are so very active in A.A., and now that people congratulate us on these signs of progress -- well, we naturally proceed to congratulate ourselves. Of course, we are not yet within hailing distance of humility. << << << >> >> >> We ought to be willing to try humility in seeking the removal of our other shortcomings, just as we did when we admitted that we were powerless over alcohol, and came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. If humility could enable us to find the grace by which the deadly alcohol obsession could be banished, then there must be hope of the same result respecting any other problem we can possibly have. 1. GRAPEVINE, JUNE 1961 2. TWELVE AND TWELVE, P. 76 326 Welcome Criticism "Thanks much for your letter of criticism. I'm certain that had it not been for its strong critics, A.A. would have made slower progress. "For myself, I have come to set a high value on the people who have criticized me, whether they have seemed reasonable critics or unreasonable ones. Both have often restrained me from doing much worse than I actually have done. The unreasonable ones havetaught me, I hope, a little patience. But the reasonable ones have always done a great job for all of A.A. -- and have taught me many a valuable lesson." LETTER, 1955 327 Three Choices The immediate object of our quest is sobriety -- freedom from alcohol and from all its baleful consequences. Without this freedom, we have nothing at all. Paradoxically, though, we can achieve no liberation from the alcohol obsession until we become willing to deal with those character defects which have landed us in that helpless condition. In this freedom quest, we are always given three choices. A rebellious refusal to work upon our glaring defects can be an almost certain ticket to destruction. Or, perhaps for a time, we can stay sober with a minimum of self-improvement and settle ourselves into a comfortable but often dangerous mediocrity. Or,finally, we can continuously try hard for those sterling qualities that can add up to fineness of spirit and action -- true and lasting freedom under God. GRAPEVINE, NOVEMBER 1960 328 A New-Found Providence When dealing with a prospect of agnostic or atheistic bent, you had better use everyday language to describe spiritual principles. There is no use arousing any prejudice he may have against certain theological terms and conceptions, about which he may already be confused. Don't raise such issues, no matter what your own convictions are. << << << >> >> >> Every man and woman who has joined A.A. and intends to stick has, without realizing it, made a beginning on Step Three. Isn't it true that, in all matters touching upon alcohol, each of them has decided to turn his or her life over to the care, protection, and guidance of A.A.? Already a willingness has been achieved to cast out one's own ideas about hte alcohol problem in favor of those suggested by A.A. Now if this is not turning one's will and life over to a new-found "Providence," then what is it? 1. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, P. 93 2. TWELVE AND TWELVE, P. 35 329 Do It Our Way? In praying, our immediate temptation will be to ask for specific solutions to specific problems, and for the ability to help other people as we have already thought they should be helped. In that case, we are asking God to do it our way. Therefore, we ought to consider each request carefully to see what its real merit is. Even so, when making specific requests, it will be well to add to each one of them this qualification: "... if it be Thy will." TWELVE AND TWELVE, P. 102 330 To Grow Up Those adolescent urges that so many of us have for complete approval, utter security, and perfect romance -- urgesquite appropriate to age seventeen -- prove to be an impossible way of life at forty-seven or fifty-seven. Since A.A. began, I've taken huge wallops in all these areas because of my failure to grow up, emotionally and spiritually. << << << >> >> >> As we grow spiritually, we find that our old attitudes toward our instinctual drives need to undergo drastic revisions. Our demands for emotional security and wealth, for personal prestige and power all have to be tempered and redirected. We learn that the full satisfaction of these demands cannot be the sole end and aim of our lives. We cannot place the cart before the horse, or we shall be pulled backward into disillusionment. But when we are willing to place spiritual growth first -- then and only then do we have a real chance to grow in healthy awareness and mature love. 1. GRAPEVINE, JANUARY 1958 2. TWELVE AND TWELVE, P. 114 331 The Great Fact We realize we know only a little. God will constantly disclose more to you and to us. Ask Him in your morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who is still sick. The answers will come, if your own house is in order. But obviously you cannot transmit something you haven't got. See to it that your relationship with Him is right, and great events will come to pass for you and countless others. This is the great fact for us. To the Newcomer: Abandon yourself to God as you understand God. Admit your faults to Him and to your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past. Give freely of what you find and join us. We shall be with you in the fellowship of the spirit, and you will surely meet some of us as you trudge the road of happy destiny. May God bless you and keep you -- until then. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, P. 164 332 I Am Responsible . . . When anyone, anywhere, reaches out for help, I want the hand of A.A. always to be there. And for that: I am responsible. -- DECLARATION OF 30TH ANNIVERSARY INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION, 1965 << << << >> >> >> DEAR FRIENDS: Since 1938, the greatest part of my A.A. life has been spent in helping to create, design, manage, and insure the solvency and effectiveness of A.A.'s world services -- the office of which has enabled our Fellowship to function all over the globe, and as a unified whole. It is no exaggeration to say that, under their trustees, these all important services have accounted for much of our present size and over-all effectiveness. The A.A. General Service Office is by far the largest single carrier of the A.A. message. It has well related A.A. to the troubled world in which we live. It has fostered the spread of our Fellowship everywhere. A.A. World Services, Inc., stands ready to serve the special needs of any group orisolated individual, no matter the distance or language. Its many years of accumulated experience are available to us all. The members of our trusteeship -- the General Service Board of A.A. -- will, in the future, be our primary leaders in all of our world affairs. This high responsibility has long since been delegated to them; they are the successors in world service to Dr. Bob and to me, and they are directly accountable to A.A. as a whole. This is the legacy of world-service responsibility that we vanishing oldtimers are leaving to you, the A.A.'s of today and tomorrow. We know that you will guard, support, and cherish this world legacy as the greatest collective responsibility that A.A.has or ever can have. Yours in trust, and in affection, Bill Bill W. died on January 24, 1971. THE TWELVE STEPS 1 -- We admitted we were powerless over alcohol -- that our lives had become unmanageable. 2 -- Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. 3 -- Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. 4 -- Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. 5 -- Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. 6 -- Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. 7 -- Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. 8 -- Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. 9 -- Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. 10 -- Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. 11 -- Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. 12 -- Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs. THE TWELVE TRADITIONS 1 -- Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity. 2 -- 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. 3 -- The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking. 4 -- Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole. 5 -- Each group has but one primary purpose -- to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers. 6 -- An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance or lend the A.A. nameto any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose. 7 -- Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions. 8 -- Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers. 9 -- A.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve. 10 -- Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy. 11 -- Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films. 12 -- Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.