AA Book Club

Thoughts on Tradition Eleven from the Shropshire (UK) Intergroup (More at the link below): Short form 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. Long form Our relations with the general public should be characterised by personal anonymity. We think A.A. should avoid sensational advertising. Our names and pictures as A.A. members ought not be broadcast, filmed, or publicly printed. Our public relations should be guided by the principle of attraction rather than promotion. There is never need to praise ourselves. We feel it better that our friends recommend us. Tradition Eleven Discussion Questions Do I sometimes promote AA so fanatically that I make it seem unattractive? Do I understand the level of anonymity this tradition suggests? Am I an ‘invisible’ alcoholic? When in service am I careful to avoid using my name at the level of press, radio and film. Are public f...

Throwback Thursday AA history post - Jim W on Bill Wilson's Spiritual Experience(s) in his own words: Bill Wilson's Spiritual Experience(s) presented by Jim W

  (H/T Rob K)

   Humility (Descriptions) "Belief in the power of God, plus enough willingness, honesty and humility to establish and maintain the new order of things, were the essential requirements." Big Book, Page 13-4, Bill's Story Big Book: "They took inventory all right, but hung on to some of the worst items in stock. They only thought they had lost their egoism and fear; they only thought they humbled themselves. But they had not learned enough of humility, fearlessness and honesty, in the sense we find it necessary, until they told someone else all their life story." Big Book, Page 73, Into Action, Step Five 12 & 12: “If temperamentally we are on the depressive side, we are apt to be swamped with guilt and self-loathing. We wallow in this messy bog, often getting a misshapen and painful pleasure out of it. As we morbidly pursue this melancholy activity, we may sink to such a point of despair that nothing but oblivion looks p...

Big Book wisdom on Step Eleven:  

  Read about Bill's near slip: "I was not too well at the time, and was plagued by waves of self-pity and resentment. This sometimes nearly drove me back to drink..." Big Book, Page 15 From William Schaberg's Writing The Big Book, page 198:

Throwback Thursday AA history post - from  StoriesOfRecovery.org , a short bio of Fitz Mayo,, author of Big Book story Our Southern Friend: Fitz Mayo - a.k.a. John Henry Fitzhugh Mayo (1898-1943) Fitz was one of the AA founding members of AA in New York with Bill Wilson. Bill and Lois visited him and his wife Libby at his house in Cumberstone MD in connection with their attendance (and his) at Oxford Group open houses in 1936. The marriage was in trouble by that time and ended shortly after their meeting. The son of an Episcopalian clergyman, he attended a church school, where he became rebellious at what he thought an overdose of religious education and became an atheist. Fitz was a failed bookkeeper and school teacher due to his drinking. Once his marriage to Libby ended he checked himself into Town's Hospital in NYC. Fitz most likely was the second...