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Source: Bill W – Al-Anon Luncheon Address – Date Unknown.mp3 File: bill-w-al-anon-luncheon-address-date-unknown.mp3 Duration: 00:24:00
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These next two talks are primarily for Arbutus, although, Bill, I know you'll enjoy them, too. They're Bill's talk at the Al-Anon luncheon last year, and Yev G., an AA member, deputy director of the NCA now, kind of taking Marty M.'s place. My dearest friends, AA, Al-Anon, Alateen, and now, I believe, the Alcox, are the constant manifestations of the miraculous. Long before this meeting, I learned that my assignment for speaking was unity, and it occurred to me that one of the great miracles, constantly occurring, is about to occur tonight, when you, the wives and husbands of us drunks, have asked me, an alcoholic, one time, and yet, I suppose, to speak on the subject of unity.
In the case of Al-Anon, the Lord has been made more out of a great deal, but in the case of AA, the Lord has made much out of nothing. I think that probably, most drunks could only unify with the Bible, by day, the boon companion, at bedtime, to sleep with. It was unity of a sort, but even that disappeared when he became a booze fighter. So then comes this new life, this great gateway, through which so many have already passed, into a new life, a quality of life beyond understanding.
And here we are, the future stretching before us. I never make a talk on Al-Anon without saying that this is the greatest thing that has happened since AA began. You see, it is one thing for a drunk to get out of unity with his boss. It is another thing for him to get out of unity with the town. This is better, but these relations are relatively different compared to those in the family. And inevitably, the greatest damage we folks did was in the areas of the close relation, as symbolized by Al-Anon, Al-Ateem, and the Al-Ta'as.
It is these we damage. It is all these, many more in number than we, who we deform. And this deformity was inflicted upon you, often without your knowledge, because our deformities were so glaring, that there could be no visibility on your own. So when AA came along, it was supposed that just by sobriety, and maybe the first step, and the twelfth step, all would be solved.
[00:05:18]
But the scars of the years were there. I don't speak in guilt or remorse of these scars, because we too were ill, as you know, spiritually, emotionally, physically. So what a blessed relief it is, that now knowing that, we need not go in for a blame-casting. We of you, or you of us, for a blame-casting, in all of its myriad forms, as the thing rends the world apart today. And has rend our world apart before AA, Al-Anon, Al-Ateem, and the Al-Ta'as.
Now then, getting sober, getting a little unity with the boss, and the community, and a few bucks in the bank, was a brave, indeed a great, beginning. But it was only the beginning, because of these sore scars, that still hurt, of which to offer, all of us were unconscious. So we tended again, to get into blame-casting, one against the other. If it weren't for you, how damn happy I'd be. Now then, when you people realized, that we had scarred and deformed you, because we were sick, you began to be able to forgive us.
And your next step toward wholeness, was the forgiveness of yourselves, and the recognition that you too, had damages, and effects, arising much out of this terrible experience of opulism. Which prevented participation, and communication, in the language of love, in the strange way it prevented these things, between the closest of relations, the family. So, in the early years of AA, unconsciously realizing this, you began to fore-gather. Bowery drunks were downstairs, in splendid unity, ho-hum.
And you asked yourselves, why is it, that some of us think, that this is worse, than when that bastard was drunk? And you began to find out, that it was this terrible deformity, in the family of relations. And then you said, how are my hidden souls, making it unable for me to communicate with him, or her, if you like. So, this explosion, this search, began. Way back. And then as AA grew, and the drunks prospered, and often patronized you, all too often said, my, it's great if you'll come and make the coffees and cake, and you can warm your hands at the fire, and get a load of this stuff.
[00:10:25]
You figured, maybe we can, better get a load of this stuff, but not from the drunks. Let us found it upon our own experience. Let us ponder, what has happened to us, what we can do to become whole, drunks or no drunks. And when this realization broke, and became more widespread, we found, that the coffee and cake auxiliary, had turned into a benign therapy, called alcohol. So, you struggled to unify. First, in your family. And as these realizations dawned, and you began to practice the twelve steps, well, the kids got there.
And then you could hold up your hands in the community. And again, you could belong. So, this process of increasing wholeness, first within, and then without, began to go on a phase. And then there were those who still had sore problems. The wife or a husband of an alcoholic, still drinking. And you found, miraculous, that he or she with such a partner, could find wholeness and life, even though the sickness of the partner was beyond the reach.
And then there were those, bedeviled by the unhappy surprise, and they made you exclaim, my God, this depression, this tension, this plain God business in God's name. Why he's worse than when he was drinking? And I may say, in some respects, why? However, under the influence of the twelve steps, and by the grace of God, you are able to say, but that is his problem. It is not for me to reform him, or for him to reform me.
It is for me to recognize that I, too, have no power over the alcoholic. That was a phrase used in early AA. No power over the alcoholic. And there, I suspect, there was a certain unconscious residue, which seemed to be saying that power over the alcoholic would be a damn desirable thing if you could only get it. Good work if you could get it. And you saw through this cloud before your vision, and no cataracts passed off your sight, and if you like, your insight.
So this is the miracle, the deep one, the fundamental one. So then, having felt wholeness with your world around you, with the family, even with father, Even With Us, You Set Out On Your Twelve Step Jobs, And You Were Not Lacking Customers, And This Thing Grew, And Is Unified Countrywide, Under A Uniform Set of Principles, Of Traditions,
[00:15:26]
And You Began to Function Not Only as Groups, But as Areas, And Beginning, Fifty-One, Was It Long? Worldwide, That Had a Potential, Because, I Don't Know, Several Dozen Groups, Maybe Five, Or Six, Or Seven Dozen, Of You Had Written, The Office for the Drunks, The World Department, Saying, Would You Mind Listing Us, In Your Directory, So That Other Sufferers, Like Us, Could Find the Al-Anon Groups, And The Drunks, Not Yet Quite Made Whole, Retarded Over Our Dead Bodies, So, You Said, Well, We'll Have a Worldwide Fellowship Ourselves, And Then, Having Had Grievous Experience, And Developing Such A Thing, And We No Longer Fear the Word Grievous, Because It Is the Basis of All That We Have.
This Wonderful World Service Thing, Began Slowly to Evolve, And Some Old-Timers, Spearheaded By Laws, And Two Or Three Close Friends, Of That Very Early Period, Set Their Small Ship on the World Waves, And It Became Seaworthy, And Began to Fill Increasingly in Purpose, And As With AA, Friends Came to RA, Friends in Medicine, Friends in Religion, And They Brought Customers With Them, And The World Looked Up, And The World Around Us Liked Them.
So, We Had the World's Center of Service, Some Kind of Proprietary Said, You Did. So, Then, There Was This Problem, That We, Of AA, Have Been Trying to Face Up To, A Great Many Years. Our Center of Service Had Trustees, It Had Some Help, But The Trustees Were All Old-Timers. This Was in the Day of the Patriarch. The Old-Timers, Now, Well, It Was a Matriarch, But Both Matriarchs, And Patriarchs, Are Perishable.
So, More and More Are Going West, Into Sunset. So, Where Does the Succession Come From? What Is Going to Link This Vital Ganglion of Service? This World Nurse Center, These Arteries of Communication to You in Permanence, So That Your World Services Can Survive. Obviously, You Had Come to the Point, Just As We Did, Where Position Two, Already Had Worked in the Groups, In the Form of the Group Conscious, And the Trusted Service.
Well, For the Purposes of Communication, And Safety, We Had to, You Folks Had to be Linked to Your Headquarters.
[00:20:17]
So, You People Come, And You Were the Conscience for the Trusted Service. And Now, The Old-Timers Can Step Aside, And Make Way for New Generations. In AA, This Morning, Our Society Took Its Last Step, One That You Never Will Perhaps Need to Take. As You Know, Our Trusteeship, Originally, Literally, and Legally, A Guardianship, Was Composed of More of AA's Friends than AA's. Why? Because the Drunks Might Get Drunk, When They Got Drunk, They Might Use Up the Money, And, Well, You Know.
For a Protectorate, I Put It in Myself. I've Been, The Last 11 Years, Getting This Undone. And, Sometimes, I Haven't Had a Hell of a Lot of Help. But You Are a More Trusting Soul, And Already Have a Majority of Your Own Number on Your Board of Trustees, or Directors, or Whatever You Call Them. So, Lois and I, Symbolizing Class, Feel Fortunate that We Have Lived Long enough to Feel Confident that Under God's Guidance, These Principles Will Always Attract to Them Servants Whose Conscience Shall Be Walked, Servants Whose Dedication Will Guarantee Our Unity and Effectiveness.
God Has Written an Insurance Policy, And Every Time You Come Here, You Joyfully Pay a Premium. So, This is Your World Instrument for Deepening and Perfecting Unity, for Allowing Your Society, Without Any Government as Such, to Function Worldwide, to Relay Itself to the World Around Us, in an Ever-Accelerating Way. God Bless You.