Throwback Thursday AA history post - a short bio and a talk by Bill Dotson, AA #3: Bill Dotson AA #3, a short bio a nd talk
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Every Italicized Sentence It is sometimes said in the rooms that the italicized parts of the literature are especially important and bear extra attention. Italicized words or short phrases are not included. Big Book: "To show other alcoholics precisely how we recovered is the main purpose of this book." Foreword to the First Edition "He was sober." [Ebby, when he first visited Bill] Page 9, Bill's Story "He said 'Why don't you chose your own conception of God?' " [Ebby to Bill] "It was only a matter of being willing to believe in a power greater than myself. Nothing more was required of me to make my beginning." Page 12, Bill's Story "But the ex-problem drinker who has found this solution, who is properly armed with facts about himself, can generally win the entire confidence of another alcoholic in a few hours. Until such an understanding is reached, little or nothing can be accomplished." Page 18, The...
Throwback Thursday AA history/Literature post - Read Bill's 1948 Grapevine article on Tradition Two: Tradition Two Sooner or later, every AA comes to depend upon a Power greater than himself. He finds that the God of his understanding is not only a source of strength, but also a source of positive direction. Realizing that some fraction of that infinite resource is now available, his life takes on and entirely different complexion. He experiences a new inner security together with such a sense of destiny and purpose as he has never known before. As each day passes, our AA reviews his mistakes and vicissitudes. He learns from daily experience what his remaining character defects are and becomes ever more willing that they be removed. In this fashion he improves his conscious contact with God. Every AA group follows this same cycle of development. We are coming to realize that each group, as well as each individual, is a special entity, not qui...
Big Book topics for meditation, study or use with a sponsee (From our online AA literature study guide at AABookClub.org): Walk With Sincerity But the ex-problem drinker who has found this solution, who is properly armed with facts about himself, can generally win the entire confidence of another alcoholic in a few hours. Until such an understanding is reached, little or nothing can be accomplished. That the man who is making the approach has had the same difficulty, that he obviously knows what he is talking about, that his whole deportment shouts at the new prospect that he is a man with a real answer, that he has no attitude of Holier Than Thou, nothing whatever except the sincere desire to be helpful; that there are no fees to pay, no axes to grind, no people to please, no lectures to be endured these are the conditions we have found most effective. After such an approach many take up their beds and walk again. (Page 18-19) This is the how and why of it. Fi...
Big Book topics for meditation, study or use with a sponsee, from our online AA literature study guide at AABookClub.org): Magnificent, Marvelous Reality The mind and body are marvelous mechanisms. (Page 6) Logic is great stuff. We liked it. We still like it. It is not by chance we were given the power to reason, to examine the evidence of our senses, and to draw conclusions. That is one of man's magnificent attributes. (Page 53) When we became alcoholics, crushed by a self-imposed crisis we could not postpone or evade, we had to fearlessly face the proposition that either God is everything or else He is nothing. God either is, or He isn't. What was our choice to be? (Page 53) They knew they had a host of new friends; it seemed they had known these strangers always. They had seen miracles, and one was to come to them. They had visioned the Great Reality their loving and All Powerful Creator. (Page 161) Maximum Service or Half Measures If you have decided you want w...