Sobriety Meme of the Week:
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Throwback Thursday AA history post - The six articles published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer in late 1939 led to tremendous growth in Cleveland's AA Group #3, but also got Clarence kicked out: That fall Clarence smuggled freelance reporter Elrick Davis into meetings of that first Greater Cleveland group and Mr. Davis wrote a series of articles on A.A. which were published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. This resulted in over 500 calls for help to be tended by the only 13 active members... Many members were upset by this workload and by the surreptitious manner in which it was done. So they voted Clarence out of A.A. (which was something that could be done at the time). (aa.cle.org) Reprinted from the October 23, 1939, Cleveland Plain Dealer with permission. [3 of 6 articles] Alcoholics Anonymous Makes Its Stand Here by ELRICK B. DAVIS October 24, 1939 Cleveland Plain Dealer In two previous articles, Mr. Davis told of Alcoholics Anonymous, an organization of former dri...
There are several passages which alcoholics are encouraged to think of staying sober permanently or long term, not merely One Day at a Time . Big Book: "Wait for the end of the spree, or at least for a lucid interval. Then let his family or a friend ask him if he wants to quit for good and if he would go to any extreme to do so." Page 90, Working With Others "Suppose, however, that your husband fits the description of number two. The same principles which apply to husband number one should be practice. But after his next binge, ask him if he would really like to get over drinking for good." Page 112, To Wives "Should it happen again [the husband loses his job], regard it in a different light. Maybe it will prove a blessing! It may convince your husband he wants to stop drinking forever." Page 116, To Wives "Assume on the other hand that father has, at the outset, a stirring spiritual experience. Overnight, as it were, he is a different man...
AA history and literature together - read Bill's 1948 Grapevine article on Tradition Eight: Tradition Eight Throughout the world AAs are twelfth-stepping with thousands of new prospects a month. Between one and two thousand of these sick on our first presentation; past experience shows that most of the remainder will come back to us later on. Almost entirely unorganized and completely non professional, this mighty spiritual current is now flowing from alcoholics who are well to those who are sick. One alcoholic talking to another; that's all. Could this vast and vital face-to-face effort ever be professionalized or even organized? Most emphatically, it could not. The few efforts to professionalized straight twelfth Step work have always failed quickly. Today, no AA will tolerate the idea of paid "AA therapists" or "organizers." Nor does any AA like to be told just how he must handle that new prospect of his. No, this great life-giving stream can nev...
Big Book topics for study, meditation or use with a sponsee (from our online AA literature study guide at aabookclub.org): Good Thinking I was to test my thinking by the new God-consciousness within. Common sense would thus become uncommon sense. I was to sit quietly when in doubt, as king only for direction and strength to meet my problems as He would have me. Never was I to pray for myself, except as my requests bore on my usefulness to others. Then only might I expect to receive. But that would be in great measure. My friend promised when these things were done I would enter upon a new relationship with my Creator; that I would have the elements of a way of living which answered all my problems. 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. Simple, but not easy; a price had to be paid. It meant destruction of self-centeredness. I must turn in al...
