Throwback Thursday AA history link - Sober for Thirty Years, a Grapevine article by AA pioneer Jim Burwell (You may have to scroll past an ad): Sober for Thirty Years - Jim Burwell Grapevine article *********** On June 10, the editors of this blog founded the AA Book Club Facebook group dedicated solely to AA and AA-related literature. ** For the time being, this is a PUBLIC GROUP ** However, it is possible to post anonymously, especially from a laptop or desktop. To join this Club and post your favourite passages and read/comment on others' posts, please join us by clicking Here
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Showing posts from August, 2023
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From our online AA literature study guide at AABookClub.org , Big Book topics for study, meditation or use with a sponsee. (For background on the origin of the topics, click this link: Big Book Topics - AA Book Club) Now or Not Yet? A clean and contrite heart make me dear God If we are sorry for what we have done, and have the honest desire to let God take us to better things, we believe we will be forgiven and will have learned our lesson. If we are not sorry, and our conduct continues to harm others, we are quite sure to drink. We are not theorizing. These are facts out of our experience. (Page 70) When ready, we say something like this: "My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do your bidding. Amen." (Page 76) The alcoholic is like a tornado roaring his
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From William Schaberg's Writing The Big Book, Page 72, on Bill's pragmatism and religious flexibility: Bob most likely had his own ideas on how things should work and he may have expressed some of those to Bill in private conversations, but he consistently deferred to Wilson's decisions whenever they disagreed substantively on the evolving policies and procedures within A.A. With so many acknowledged differences between them, it is unusual they did not have the kind of arguments one would normally expect under such circumstances. Still, it must be remembered these were not normal circumstances, but rather a situation where stubborn disagreement or even outright rebellion might well be the direct road back to drinking. (Witness Hank Parkhurst's slip from sobriety just eighteen months after this.) Given that reality, Bob Smith - despite his greater age and his impressive medical credentials - always accommodated Bill's desires and routinely yielded to his 'spo