Latest / Sober Readings / A New Sense Of Belonging
Transcript
- Scott Hayes: Welcome to Sober Readings. Today is Tuesday, the 12th of May. Let's begin today with the Serenity Grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change. Courage to change the things we can. And the wisdom to know the difference. Greetings today from Daily Reflections for May 12th. The past is over. AA experience has taught us we cannot live alone with our pressing problems and the character defects which cause or aggravate them. If Step 4 has revealed in stark relief those experiences we'd rather not remember, then the need to quit living by ourselves with those tormenting ghosts of yesterday gets more urgent than ever. We have to talk to somebody about them. That comes from the 12 Steps and 12 Traditions, page 55. Whatever is done is over. It cannot be changed. But my attitude about it can be changed through talking with others who have gone before and with sponsors. I can wish the past never was. But if I change my actions in regard to what I have done, my attitude will change. I won't have to wish the past away. I can change my feelings and attitudes, but only through my actions and the help of my fellow alcoholics. Today's reading from 24 Hours, May 12 AA Thought for the Day. When we come into AA looking for a way out of drinking, we really need a lot more than that. We need fellowship. We need to get the things that are troubling us out into the open. We need a new outlet for our energies and we need a new strength beyond ourselves that will help us to face life instead of running away from it. In AA, we find these things that we need. So ask yourself, have I found the things that I need? the meditation for the day. Turn out all thoughts of doubt and fear and resentment. Never tolerate them if you can help it. Bar the windows and doors of your mind against them as you would bar your home against a thief who would steal in to take away your treasures. What greater treasures can you have than faith and courage and love? All these are stolen from you by doubt and fear and resentment. Face each day with peace and hope. They are results of true faith in God. faith gives you a feeling of protection and safety that you can get in no other way. Today's prayer for the day. I pray that I may feel protected and safe, but not only when I am in the harbor. I pray that I may have protection and safety even in the midst of the storms of life. And for today's final reading, I'm going to read from a book called Our Great Responsibility, a selection of Bill W's general service conference talks from 1951 to 1970. And so we'll go to page 89, which the chapter is titled 1953, Variations in the 12 Steps and 12 Traditions. And this is a speech given by Bill W. Good morning, folks. I came in here rather unprepared. I asked on the way in what I was going to talk about, and I see the title as a rather formidable one, Variations in the Twelve Steps and the Twelve Traditions. So I thought I would spin a little yarn to you about the original variations, especially in the steps and the hassles we had about them, and then maybe philosophize a little bit on this question of whether this program of ours is frozen as solid as an ice cube, or whether there is any elasticity in it or not. Whether we are going to get into the business of insisting upon conformity, whether we are going to get into the business of creating an authority that says that these steps and traditions have to be this way. That is the serious underlying question that this topic involves. As you know, in the first four years of AA, we had a word of mouth program, and the principles that we used in this word of mouth program were abstracted from certain practices of the old Oxford group. with which some of us early members were brought into contact. As a good many of you know, we retained some of the Oxford group principles and quite as emphatically rejected others. We owe those people a double debt of gratitude because we learned from them what to do and what not to do. We also picked up over their objection at the time, certain medical ideas about alcoholism, its fatality, its hopelessness. The fact that no matter how culpable we had been in getting that way, that once we had got that way, we were irresponsible and sick. That idea was channeled into us by good old Dr. Silkworth. And until we began to make use of that idea, the results were absolutely nil. So after a year or two of AA, before the group had any name, and before the 12 steps were written, our word of mouth program could be summed up in a half dozen steps. which in the vernacular of the time ran like this. You admit that you're a drunk and that you're hopeless. The admission is up to you, brother. You have to figure it out. That was the substance of what now is step one in the early days. Then you get honest with yourself, self-overhauling. Well, the religionists call that an examination of the conscience. The Oxford groupers called it something else. But we just called it getting honest with yourself as you never had before. Then you came along to the next step in the old word of mouth program, and that was to be sure you'd got honest with yourself. And to humble yourself enough so you could get this program, you'd better sit down and, in confidence, get thoroughly honest with somebody else. We'd already begun to run in that phrase, in confidence, although it doesn't always work that way. It did create terrific havoc in the Oxford this indiscriminate sharing of intimate things. At any rate, the idea was you sat down with somebody in whom you had confidence, and in confidence you described what you could see of your own personal defects, or your sins, or your maladjustments, whatever you prefer to call them. That was the next step. Then it was realized that in your alcoholic career, you'd got into bad relations with a lot of people, had hurt them. Who were these people? Let's go see them and straighten things out, or at least promise to do so. That was the next step. Then the following step was the idea of working with other people without the usual demands for prestige or money. And then, rather gingerly in the old days, because so many were in fear of being godbitten, we would sort of sneak it up on the boys that, well, you can't really make this program stick, in the experience of most of us anyway, unless you depend on some higher power. Call it God if you wish, call it a group if you wish, but it won't work very well without that. That was the substance of those steps. You admitted you were a drunk, you got honest with yourself, you got honest with somebody else, you made restitution for the harm you'd done, you worked with other people without demand for reward, you depended upon whatever God you thought there was, and you prayed to him for help to carry this thing. That was the thing in a nutshell up to the time the big book came out. And I'll stop right there. There's a lot more in here that I could read, which I will read in future episodes. But again, this is called Our Great Responsibility, a selection of Bill W.'s General Service Conference talks. And if you're interested at all in the history of AA, this is really great. It's, uh, I love reading speeches like this from Bill W. that explain exactly just how unstructured the program started and how the steps have evolved into what they are today. I think it's important to know the history of AA, that much of it came from the Oxford group, the idea of your own conception of God. And so I'll be reading more from this book in upcoming episodes. I hope you enjoyed that reading. And so that's it for today's episode of Sober Readings. I hope you enjoyed the show. Please do me a huge favor if you did and hit that like button. Share this episode with someone you think might like it or need it. Drop a comment, let me know what you thought. And make sure you follow the show. and subscribe so you never miss the next episode. If you love to read sober literature, you want to be a guest on the show, you want to read with me, I'd love to have you. Just send me an email at soberreadingswithscott at gmail.com. And also, if you'd like to drop a dollar in the virtual donation basket for today's readings, just go to soberreadings.com and click the donate button. So thank you so much for listening today. Stay sober, keep reading, and I'll see you in the next episode. Until then, take care of yourselves and each other and remember just for today, don't drink, go to a meeting, and keep coming back. Have a great day, and as my friend Larry says, best day ever.