kobe-ja/AsBillSeesIt · Datasets at Hugging Face

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addition tomy drinking problem, what character defects
contributed to my financial instability? Did fear and
inferiority about my fitness for my job destroy my confidence
and fill me with conflict? Or did I overvalue myself and play
the big shot?
Businesswomen in A.A. will find that these questions often
apply to them, too, and the alcoholic housewife can also
make the family financially insecure. Indeed, all alcoholics
need to crossexamine themselves ruthlessly to determine
how their own personality defects have demolished their
security.
TWELVE AND TWELVE, P. 51-52
Comradeship in Peril
We A.A.'s are like the passengers of a great liner the moment
after rescue from shipwreck when camaraderie, joyousness
and democracy pervade the vessel from steerage to captain's
table.
Unlike the feelings of the ship's passengers, however, our
joy in escape from disaster does not subside as we go our
individual ways. The feeling of having sharing in a common
peril -- relapse into alcoholism -- continues to be an
important element in the powerful cement which binds us of
A.A. together.
Our first woman alcoholic had been a patient of Dr. Harry
Tiebout's, and he had handed her a prepublication
manuscript copy of the Big Book. The first reading made her
rebellious, but the second convinced. Presently she came to
a meeting held in our living room, and from there she
returned to the sanitarium carrying this classic message to a
fellow patient: "We aren't alone any more."
Loving Advisers
Had I not been blessed with wise and loving advisers, I might
have cracked up long ago. A doctor once saved me from
death by alcoholism because he obliged me to face up to the
deadlines of that malady. Another doctor, a psychiatrist, later
on helped me save my sanity because he led me to ferret out
some of my deep-lying defects. From a clergyman I acquired
the truthful principles by which we A.A.'s now try to live.
But these precious friends did far more thansupply me with
their professional skills. I learned that I could go to them with
any problem whatever. Their wisdom and their integrity were
mine for the asking.
Many of my dearest A.A. friends have stood with me in
exactly this same relation. Oftentimes they could help where
others could not, simply because they were A.A.'s.
GRAPEVINE, AUGUST 1961
Single Purpose
There are those who predict that A.A. may well become a
new spearhead for a spiritual awakening throughout the
world. When our friends say these things, they are both
generous and sincere. But we of A.A. must reflect that such a
tribute and such a prophecy could well prove to be a heady
drink for most of us -- that is, if we really came to believe this
to be the real purpose of A.A., andif we commenced to
behave accordingly.
Our Society, therefore, will prudently cleave to its single
purpose: the carrying of the message to the alcoholic who
still suffers. Let us resist the proud assumption that since
God has enabled us to do well in one area we are destined to
be a channel of saving grace for everybody.
A.A. COMES OF AGE, P. 232
From the Taproot
The principle that we shall find no enduring strength until we
first admit complete defeat is the main taproot from which
our whole Society has sprung and flowered.
Every newcomer is told, and soon realizes for himself, that
his humble admission of powerlessness over alcohol is his
first step toward liberation from its paralyzing grip.
So it is that we first see humility as a necessity. But this is
the barest beginning. To get completely away from our
aversion to the idea of being humble, to gain a vision of
humility as the avenue to true freedom of the human spirit, to
be willing to work for humility as somethingto be desired for
itself, takes most of us a long, long time. A whole lifetime
geared to self-centeredness cannot be set in reverse all at
once.
TWELVE AND TWELVE
Is Happiness the Goal?
"I don't think happiness or unhappiness is the point. How do
we meet the problems we face? How do we best learn from
them and transmit what we have learned to others, if they
would receive the knowledge?
"In my view, we of this world are pupils in a great school of
life. It is intended that we try to grow, and that we try to help
our fellow travelers to grow in the kind of love that makes no
demands. In short, we try to move toward the image and
likenessof God as we understand Him.
"When pain comes, we are expected to learn from it willingly,
and help others to learn. When happiness comes, we accept
it as a gift, and thank God for it."
Circle and Triangle
Above us, at the International Convention at St. Louis in
symbol for A.A., a circle enclosing a triangle. The circle
stands for the whole world of A.A., and the triangle stands
for A.A.'s Three Legacies: Recovery, Unity, and Service.
It is perhaps no accident that priests and seers of antiquity
regarded this symbol as a means of warding off spirits of
evil.
When, in 1955, we oldtimers turned over our Three Legacies
to the whole movement, nostalgia for the old days blended

addition tomy drinking problem, what character defects

contributed to my financial instability? Did fear and

inferiority about my fitness for my job destroy my confidence

and fill me with conflict? Or did I overvalue myself and play

the big shot?

Businesswomen in A.A. will find that these questions often

apply to them, too, and the alcoholic housewife can also

make the family financially insecure. Indeed, all alcoholics

need to crossexamine themselves ruthlessly to determine

how their own personality defects have demolished their

security.

TWELVE AND TWELVE, P. 51-52

Comradeship in Peril

We A.A.'s are like the passengers of a great liner the moment

after rescue from shipwreck when camaraderie, joyousness

and democracy pervade the vessel from steerage to captain's

table.

Unlike the feelings of the ship's passengers, however, our

joy in escape from disaster does not subside as we go our

individual ways. The feeling of having sharing in a common

peril -- relapse into alcoholism -- continues to be an

important element in the powerful cement which binds us of

A.A. together.

Our first woman alcoholic had been a patient of Dr. Harry

Tiebout's, and he had handed her a prepublication

manuscript copy of the Big Book. The first reading made her

rebellious, but the second convinced. Presently she came to

a meeting held in our living room, and from there she

returned to the sanitarium carrying this classic message to a

fellow patient: "We aren't alone any more."

Loving Advisers

Had I not been blessed with wise and loving advisers, I might

have cracked up long ago. A doctor once saved me from

death by alcoholism because he obliged me to face up to the

deadlines of that malady. Another doctor, a psychiatrist, later

on helped me save my sanity because he led me to ferret out

some of my deep-lying defects. From a clergyman I acquired

the truthful principles by which we A.A.'s now try to live.

But these precious friends did far more thansupply me with

their professional skills. I learned that I could go to them with

any problem whatever. Their wisdom and their integrity were

mine for the asking.

Many of my dearest A.A. friends have stood with me in

exactly this same relation. Oftentimes they could help where

others could not, simply because they were A.A.'s.

GRAPEVINE, AUGUST 1961

Single Purpose

There are those who predict that A.A. may well become a

new spearhead for a spiritual awakening throughout the

world. When our friends say these things, they are both

generous and sincere. But we of A.A. must reflect that such a

tribute and such a prophecy could well prove to be a heady

drink for most of us -- that is, if we really came to believe this

to be the real purpose of A.A., andif we commenced to

behave accordingly.

Our Society, therefore, will prudently cleave to its single

purpose: the carrying of the message to the alcoholic who

still suffers. Let us resist the proud assumption that since

God has enabled us to do well in one area we are destined to

be a channel of saving grace for everybody.

A.A. COMES OF AGE, P. 232

From the Taproot

The principle that we shall find no enduring strength until we

first admit complete defeat is the main taproot from which

our whole Society has sprung and flowered.

Every newcomer is told, and soon realizes for himself, that

his humble admission of powerlessness over alcohol is his

first step toward liberation from its paralyzing grip.

So it is that we first see humility as a necessity. But this is

the barest beginning. To get completely away from our

aversion to the idea of being humble, to gain a vision of

humility as the avenue to true freedom of the human spirit, to

be willing to work for humility as somethingto be desired for

itself, takes most of us a long, long time. A whole lifetime

geared to self-centeredness cannot be set in reverse all at

once.

TWELVE AND TWELVE

Is Happiness the Goal?

"I don't think happiness or unhappiness is the point. How do

we meet the problems we face? How do we best learn from

them and transmit what we have learned to others, if they

would receive the knowledge?

"In my view, we of this world are pupils in a great school of

life. It is intended that we try to grow, and that we try to help

our fellow travelers to grow in the kind of love that makes no

demands. In short, we try to move toward the image and

likenessof God as we understand Him.

"When pain comes, we are expected to learn from it willingly,

and help others to learn. When happiness comes, we accept

it as a gift, and thank God for it."

Circle and Triangle

Above us, at the International Convention at St. Louis in

symbol for A.A., a circle enclosing a triangle. The circle

stands for the whole world of A.A., and the triangle stands

for A.A.'s Three Legacies: Recovery, Unity, and Service.

It is perhaps no accident that priests and seers of antiquity

regarded this symbol as a means of warding off spirits of

evil.

When, in 1955, we oldtimers turned over our Three Legacies

to the whole movement, nostalgia for the old days blended