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[00:00:00.700 – 00:00:07.000] It’s an honor to end this bell blessing of the New York.

[00:00:07.000 – 00:00:25.300] On

[00:00:25.300 – 00:00:36.600] this, our twenty-third anniversary, we are gathered together, first of all, I think, to

[00:00:36.600 – 00:00:46.800] give thanks to Almighty God for the love and grace which has made

[00:00:46.800 – 00:00:56.900] our release from bondage possible, and which, if we do our

[00:00:56.900 – 00:01:08.100] part, augurs so well for the future.

[00:01:08.100 – 00:01:18.200] Lois and I never approach, actually, this city with a biblical name, this city set on

[00:01:18.200 – 00:01:28.500] a hill, without a mixture of

[00:01:28.500 – 00:01:31.900] wonderful emotions.

[00:01:31.900 – 00:01:42.900] As we come in here, whether by car or by plane, something

[00:01:42.900 – 00:01:45.500] seems to come e– come out to meet us.

[00:01:45.500 – 00:01:57.400] Because not only people can be special, so

[00:01:57.400 – 00:01:58.200] can places.

[00:01:58.200 – 00:02:08.900] And with places we have associations, and

[00:02:08.900 – 00:02:17.000] with this place, the dearest of all.

[00:02:17.000 – 00:02:29.700] And as we approach the town, the flood tide of reminiscence of

[00:02:29.700 – 00:02:35.800] all that happened here in our pioneering times fills the mind.

[00:02:35.800 – 00:02:46.700] And as we go from gathering to gathering, as

[00:02:46.700 – 00:02:57.900] we hear one incredible story of redemption after another, all

[00:02:57.900 – 00:03:08.100] of this gathers great force and intensity, and finally culminates in

[00:03:08.100 – 00:03:11.000] such a meeting as we are now having.

[00:03:11.000 – 00:03:21.100] I always pondered with you what

[00:03:21.100 – 00:03:24.700] to say at a time like this.

[00:03:24.700 – 00:03:32.400] There are a good many topics we might discuss.

[00:03:32.400 – 00:03:42.700] But I don’t think that people are interested so much in topics

[00:03:42.700 – 00:03:52.800] as they are in the spiritual significance of

[00:03:52.800 – 00:03:55.100] what happened in this town.

[00:03:55.100 – 00:04:05.300] The story is well known, and it’s been oft-printed,

[00:04:05.300 – 00:04:08.300] oft-told.

[00:04:08.300 – 00:04:18.700] But I am beginning to be persuaded that the reason we like to hear the story again

[00:04:18.700 – 00:04:28.900] is to, in some measure, to relive it, to set the clock back

[00:04:28.900 – 00:04:39.400] to that time when this society was very young, when a great veil

[00:04:39.400 – 00:04:41.300] hung over its future.

[00:04:41.300 – 00:04:47.900] So how did it all begin?

[00:04:47.900 – 00:04:55.600] And what do we see in it now?

[00:04:55.600 – 00:05:05.600] And shall we, still a very erratic people, in the midst of

[00:05:05.600 – 00:05:18.400] chaotic times, in the midst of dissolution of society and values all around us, by

[00:05:18.400 – 00:05:21.900] what reason should we continue to hang together?

[00:05:21.900 – 00:05:29.600] Why should we claim any special grace?

[00:05:29.600 – 00:05:37.000] Will our unity survive the test of time?

[00:05:37.000 – 00:05:47.200] Will our functioning persist with such evenness that

[00:05:47.200 – 00:05:57.300] at long last we have reached over all difficulties and into

[00:05:57.300 – 00:06:04.200] the cave of every alcoholic and his family who still suffers in the dark?

[00:06:04.200 – 00:06:17.800] On the way over to this hall, a

[00:06:17.800 – 00:06:29.200] friend remarked, “I wonder how many years of sobriety will be represented,” and

[00:06:29.200 – 00:06:30.500] what a pleasant thought.

[00:06:30.500 – 00:06:36.600] And then I wondered with him.

[00:06:36.600 – 00:06:46.700] But back of that sobriety, I wonder how many years of misery there have

[00:06:46.700 – 00:06:56.800] been for those afflicted and for

[00:06:56.800 – 00:06:58.200] those who love them.

[00:06:58.200 – 00:07:10.700] And then I contemplated there might be a few thousand people here, one, two, three, four, and

[00:07:10.700 – 00:07:21.000] realized that this gathering was the only token, the

[00:07:21.000 – 00:07:26.800] barest percentage of what a total meeting of A.A.

[00:07:26.800 – 00:07:29.700] today would be like.

[00:07:29.700 – 00:07:40.500] And then I realized something of the influence upon this, upon all of our friends, upon

[00:07:40.500 – 00:07:43.300] the world around us.

[00:07:43.300 – 00:07:53.600] And I began to see how hopeless was the task of taking in the– even

[00:07:53.600 – 00:08:04.600] the slightest fraction of A.A.’s history as expressed in terms of

[00:08:04.600 – 00:08:12.600] one of us carrying the message to the other, of our wives carrying the message to the next corner.

[00:08:12.600 – 00:08:16.600] No, that would be impossible.

[00:08:16.600 – 00:08:22.300] Only God could know the history of A.A.

[00:08:22.300 – 00:08:22.900] to date.

[00:08:22.900 – 00:08:32.900] And of course, only God knows what our future will

[00:08:32.900 – 00:08:33.300] be.

[00:08:33.300 – 00:08:44.000] Unlike a great many societies which

[00:08:44.000 – 00:08:54.600] started through the inspiration of one or a few, this society

[00:08:54.600 – 00:09:04.600] was apparently contrived in the God of– in the mind of God to be started by the inspiration and

[00:09:04.600 – 00:09:08.300] the goodwill of many.

[00:09:08.300 – 00:09:18.300] By the experience of religion, by the

[00:09:18.300 – 00:09:31.700] experience of friends, and men of goodwill in countless numbers generated.

[00:09:31.700 – 00:09:42.800] I might interject here, too, that we all sadly miss Walter Tompkins,

[00:09:42.800 – 00:09:49.500] who played a great role in bringing this thing together, our beloved Akron preacher.

[00:09:49.500 – 00:09:60.000] But I point with a corresponding joy to

[00:09:60.000 – 00:10:08.800] the clergyman who sits over here as a human being who is interested in being here.

[00:10:08.800 – 00:10:11.600] I’m not going to call him a preacher.

[00:10:11.600 – 00:10:13.200] I’m going to call him Burt.

[00:10:13.200 – 00:10:23.500] And I’m going to say, Burt, even if we did stand you up, we certainly do appreciate your presence here

[00:10:23.500 – 00:10:33.600] for yourself and as a symbol of that great source, religion, from which

[00:10:33.600 – 00:10:36.000] all our basic concepts have been drawn.

[00:10:36.000 – 00:10:43.700] And so we might run through the catalog of our friends in gratitude and thanks.

[00:10:43.700 – 00:10:53.900] Now let us see, dimly perhaps, how

[00:10:53.900 – 00:10:55.700] this thing began to be fashioned.

[00:10:55.700 – 00:11:03.200] Of course, we are all in the Christian tradition.

[00:11:03.200 – 00:11:10.400] The principles happen to come, come to us from those sources in a general way.

[00:11:10.400 – 00:11:15.700] But I think you can always have a starting point.

[00:11:15.700 – 00:11:25.700] Before you can have a clear spring which will run out into

[00:11:25.700 – 00:11:36.200] a rivulet and finally become a river and with other springs fill a sea, there

[00:11:36.200 – 00:11:39.300] must be underground water.

[00:11:39.300 – 00:11:47.600] There must be underground and often unseen channels.

[00:11:47.600 – 00:11:57.800] Well, as late years, we’re beginning to realize that to bring about,

[00:11:57.800 – 00:12:01.200] there had to be channels, some of them strange.

[00:12:01.200 – 00:12:12.100] And the first channel was undoubtedly a– none other than the celebrated Carl

[00:12:12.100 – 00:12:18.700] Jung One of the fathers of the psychiatric art.

[00:12:18.700 – 00:12:28.600] I think we drunks, as a class, are rather allergic to, to psychiatry.

[00:12:28.600 – 00:12:33.600] We’re apt to beat our chest and, uh, say, “Well, uh, we did it.

[00:12:33.600 – 00:12:42.700] Uh, what the hell did they do?” But listen to what this great man did for us.

[00:12:42.700 – 00:12:52.800] Sometime in the late thirties, a patient had come to him utterly hopeless, prominent American businessman, stayed

[00:12:52.800 – 00:13:04.100] a year, thought that the hidden springs under his compulsion to drink had been revealed, went away very hopefully,

[00:13:04.100 – 00:13:10.700] hope-hopefully, was back in a matter of months, drunk.

[00:13:10.700 – 00:13:20.900] To this businessman, this great psychiatrist, this mighty authority in

[00:13:20.900 – 00:13:27.900] this new and rather mysterious art, had been the court of last resort.

[00:13:27.900 – 00:13:31.400] So said he to Dr.

[00:13:31.400 – 00:13:41.500] Carl, “What, what next?” And this great and very humble man

[00:13:41.500 – 00:13:52.100] said, “Well, I thought you might be one of those occasional cases where there could be reeducation,

[00:13:52.100 – 00:13:57.000] adept, where we could unhook this insanity of yours to drink.

[00:13:57.000 – 00:14:04.200] But as time has gone on, I have seen that you are like most of the rest.

[00:14:04.200 – 00:14:14.000] There is nothing that medicine or psychiatry can do for you.

[00:14:14.000 – 00:14:25.600] You can only put yourself under commitment if you wish to live long.” “But,”

[00:14:25.600 – 00:14:35.900] persisted our friend, now hitting what we AAs understand to be the bottom, “Is there nothing?”

[00:14:35.900 – 00:14:38.900] “Yes,” said Carl Jung.

[00:14:38.900 – 00:14:49.600] “There is a bare possibility, and that possibility is nonetheless than a spiritual experience.

[00:14:49.600 – 00:15:01.900] And if you want to put it– me to put it to you straight, I mean religious conversion.” “Well,”

[00:15:01.900 – 00:15:06.300] our friend says, “I’m a rec– I’m a vestment Episcopal church.

[00:15:06.300 – 00:15:08.600] My wife, they booted me out.

[00:15:08.600 – 00:15:18.600] I got faith, but it doesn’t seem to work.” Said Carl Jung, “What I’m talking about goes far

[00:15:18.600 – 00:15:26.400] deeper than faith of the ordinary sort.

[00:15:26.400 – 00:15:37.200] It involves an experience which transforms and

[00:15:37.200 – 00:15:47.200] enables the recipient to do that which they couldn’t do before.” “How do I get such an experience?” said the

[00:15:47.200 – 00:15:47.700] patient.

[00:15:47.700 – 00:15:57.000] Jung said, “Well, these genuine transforming experiences are not plentiful.

[00:15:57.000 – 00:16:04.800] At least one of such a dimension as would expel your insane obsession.

[00:16:04.800 – 00:16:14.800] The lightning powerful enough to dispel your insanity only strikes

[00:16:14.800 – 00:16:16.300] occasionally here and there.

[00:16:16.300 – 00:16:22.400] Down through the ages, men have got well through conversion, through spiritual experience.

[00:16:22.400 – 00:16:25.700] You might put yourself within range of it.

[00:16:25.700 – 00:16:37.200] Try hard, pray hard, hope for the best, and that’s it.” So

[00:16:37.200 – 00:16:42.600] our friend joined up with the Oxford Group of that day.

[00:16:42.600 – 00:16:52.700] And at that time, from our AA point of view, they were probably rather evangelical, or they, uh, had some

[00:16:52.700 – 00:16:57.200] notions that we since haven’t found applicable to us.

[00:16:57.200 – 00:17:07.200] But they were emphasizing certain essentials common

[00:17:07.200 – 00:17:16.400] to all religions, perhaps, and of particular force in the Christian religion.

[00:17:16.400 – 00:17:27.400] They were saying to their people, “Literally,

[00:17:27.400 – 00:17:30.100] of ourselves we are nothing.

[00:17:30.100 – 00:17:40.100] The Father doeth the work.” One of the very first steps in their program was the statement

[00:17:40.100 – 00:17:47.900] and the deep belief by each member that he, on his own resources, could not manage his own life.

[00:17:47.900 – 00:17:51.100] And then, like lots of other

[00:17:51.200 – 00:17:59.400] Religions, they advocated self-survey, and they advocated confession, and they advocated res- uh, restitution.

[00:17:59.400 – 00:18:09.000] They advocated prayer, meditation, the best possible attempt to get the guidance of God.

[00:18:09.000 – 00:18:15.200] All characteristics you see today of our present Twelve Steps.

[00:18:15.200 – 00:18:25.200] So, the drunk returned from Switzerland, finds his obsession

[00:18:25.200 – 00:18:35.400] not suppressed, but he finds a strange release among this group of people as he tried to practice these simple precepts.

[00:18:35.400 – 00:18:41.500] This he passed along to a friend of mine, who we all know as Ebby.

[00:18:41.500 – 00:18:54.400] Ebby, a virtually silent case, and those seemed very spectacular in that time, almost

[00:18:54.400 – 00:19:00.100] immediately sobered up and showed signs for a while of staying that way.

[00:19:00.100 – 00:19:09.300] Ebby, in turn, thought of me, and he knew that I was headed into the same ringer.

[00:19:09.300 – 00:19:19.800] Indeed, I had been told, or rather, wife Lois had been told, by

[00:19:19.800 – 00:19:24.900] a, a doctor who has since become a legend in A.A.

[00:19:24.900 – 00:19:27.400] Well, that’s the wrong word.

[00:19:27.400 – 00:19:31.300] He’s become a medical saint in our estimation, Dr.

[00:19:31.300 – 00:19:32.200] Silkworth.

[00:19:32.200 – 00:19:41.800] And one summer night in nineteen thirty-four, he said, talking to Lois, and she said, “Why can’t he stop?

[00:19:41.800 – 00:19:46.600] God knows he’s one of the most obstinate men I’ve ever seen.

[00:19:46.600 – 00:19:56.800] He’s got willpower galore, but he simply won’t work on this booze question.”

[00:19:56.800 – 00:19:58.500] So very much like Dr.

[00:19:58.500 – 00:20:09.400] Jung, this man in medicine went on to explain to her that I had developed a compulsion to drink, which

[00:20:09.400 – 00:20:15.700] on my resources or on no medical resources he knew anything about could there be any relief.

[00:20:15.700 – 00:20:25.700] So said Lois, “Well, what, what, what next, doctor?” And the doctor said,

[00:20:25.700 – 00:20:27.700] “I’m afraid you’ll have to commit him.

[00:20:27.700 – 00:20:31.700] Else he’ll soon go mad.

[00:20:31.700 – 00:20:40.100] He’s already showing a little brain damage.” Now, I think most of you can testify that that’s persisted.

[00:20:40.100 – 00:20:45.400] “You’ll have to lock him up.

[00:20:45.400 – 00:20:53.900] That’s the score.” Well, I wasn’t told this so pointedly, but by this time I knew.

[00:20:53.900 – 00:20:58.600] I’m scared as I leave the hospital.

[00:20:58.600 – 00:21:02.800] Bright, constant vigilance keeps me sober a while.

[00:21:02.800 – 00:21:10.600] Then this strange insanity about that first drink takes over, and once more I am in the toil.

[00:21:10.600 – 00:21:20.600] I’m toiling the areaway of our home dragging a golf bag, gashing my head on the areaway, and Lois and I hit a

[00:21:20.600 – 00:21:21.300] new bottom.

[00:21:21.300 – 00:21:30.700] Then came to me, just as there has come to you, each of you, a friend, and this friend Ebby.

[00:21:30.700 – 00:21:34.500] And then there’s that talk over the kitchen table.

[00:21:34.500 – 00:21:41.400] Now, Ebby had been talking to the drunk who was Jung’s patient.

[00:21:41.400 – 00:21:50.500] You see, this transmission line of one drunk starting to another had gone on for two jumps before it got to me.

[00:21:50.500 – 00:21:55.600] And Ebby came to me quoting this alcoholic and quoting Dr.

[00:21:55.600 – 00:21:58.900] Young– Jung that this was a pretty hopeless business.

[00:21:58.900 – 00:22:06.900] So there was the identification.

[00:22:06.900 – 00:22:16.700] I knew Ebby to be hopeless, yet here he was, unaccountably in a state of what he called relief under this water wagon business.

[00:22:16.700 – 00:22:24.500] Well, the result was that what he said struck me deep.

[00:22:24.500 – 00:22:34.900] It eventuated in a very sudden experience so that in my case I have not been tempted

[00:22:34.900 – 00:22:36.900] to drink since on any sense.

[00:22:36.900 – 00:22:38.800] That was a gift.

[00:22:38.800 – 00:22:43.700] I won’t go into that because I want to pass on to what happened here.

[00:22:43.700 – 00:22:54.100] I am only trying to show you the several streams of influence and the underground water,

[00:22:54.100 – 00:23:00.000] uh, that finally surfaced here in Akron as the first clear spring.

[00:23:00.000 – 00:23:14.200] So I am filled with a great desire to help other drunks, and

[00:23:14.200 – 00:23:15.500] nothing happens.

[00:23:15.500 – 00:23:19.500] I’m talking about my sudden experience.

[00:23:19.500 – 00:23:25.100] I’m afraid I was filled with the wrong kind of piety.

[00:23:25.100 – 00:23:36.000] I was no doubt possessed of great spiritual ambition, which seems to be about the wo- the worst possible time.

[00:23:36.000 – 00:23:43.600] I was teaching, and I was preaching, and I was pushing, and I was shoving.

[00:23:43.600 – 00:23:53.600] And I guess the whole approach was pretty full of I, I,

[00:23:53.600 – 00:23:53.900] I.

[00:23:53.900 – 00:23:57.500] So nothing happened.

[00:23:57.500 – 00:24:07.600] And one day, uh, worn down by the taunts of people who said I’d better quit

[00:24:07.600 – 00:24:17.900] mi– being a missionary and get in some groceries for the house, I went over to

[00:24:17.900 – 00:24:27.900] Wall Street, insinuated myself into a business deal with complete strangers which brought me out here, and it held

[00:24:27.900 – 00:24:29.200] some promise.

[00:24:29.200 – 00:24:35.400] And the business deal fell through with a bang in about a week.

[00:24:35.400 – 00:24:40.700] My companions took their leave.

[00:24:40.700 – 00:24:42.800] They had the fair home, but I didn’t.

[00:24:42.800 – 00:24:47.900] So I was left in the Mayflower, Flower Hotel.

[00:24:47.900 – 00:24:54.800] I always feel this deep stirring when I enter that lobby.

[00:24:54.800 – 00:25:04.800] For the first time in my now six months of sobriety, I began to

[00:25:04.800 – 00:25:05.800] feel frightened.

[00:25:05.800 – 00:25:10.800] I thought of going into the bar which was then at one end of the lobby.

[00:25:10.800 – 00:25:14.900] Then I walked to the other end, and there was a church directory.

[00:25:14.900 – 00:25:25.300] I thought to myself, for the first time, I think, “I need another

[00:25:25.300 – 00:25:34.700] alcoholic to keep me sober.” And it wasn’t a question of saving him entirely.

[00:25:34.700 – 00:25:36.900] It was a question of saving me.

[00:25:36.900 – 00:25:46.900] And then I realized what work I had done had been helpful to do that so that another idea

[00:25:46.900 – 00:25:47.800] came into view.

[00:25:47.800 – 00:25:58.200] And I called up Walter Kunk, and he gave me a list of people, and

[00:25:58.200 – 00:25:60.000] they didn’t understand too much.

[00:25:60.000 – 00:26:01.500] Can’t be blamed.

[00:26:01.500 – 00:26:04.800] There were about ten of them.

[00:26:04.800 – 00:26:06.900] I called them up.

[00:26:06.900 – 00:26:08.600] They couldn’t see me.

[00:26:08.600 – 00:26:12.100] They couldn’t understand why I had to find another drunk.

[00:26:12.100 – 00:26:13.700] That sounded rather ominous.

[00:26:13.700 – 00:26:24.200] And finally, at the end of the list, with great reluctance, I called up

[00:26:24.200 – 00:26:26.400] somebody called Henrietta Seiberling.

[00:26:26.400 – 00:26:31.000] I conceived this to be the elderly Mrs.

[00:26:31.000 – 00:26:31.800] Seiberling.

[00:26:31.800 – 00:26:38.700] I was sure that on a Saturday afternoon, she wouldn’t care to entertain a drunk looking for another drunk.

[00:26:38.700 – 00:26:45.100] But something had persisted in telling me, “You just better do this,” and I did.

[00:26:45.100 – 00:26:55.200] And that southern voice that we know so well of Henrietta’s came over the phone, and she said, “Well, I’m no alcoholic, but I guess

[00:26:55.200 – 00:26:57.000] I understand about hitting bottom.

[00:26:57.000 – 00:27:05.800] And I think I understand something about relief, and I have something in mind for you.

[00:27:05.800 – 00:27:13.700] Will you come right out here now?” Sounds like the twelfth step, doesn’t it?

[00:27:13.700 – 00:27:27.600] So here was somebody who understood enough and who cared enough to see an utter stranger who

[00:27:27.600 – 00:27:29.400] was looking for a drunk to work with.

[00:27:29.400 – 00:27:35.700] I get out there, quickly tell my story.

[00:27:35.700 – 00:27:38.500] She said, “I know just the man.

[00:27:38.500 – 00:27:40.800] He’s tried everything.

[00:27:40.800 – 00:27:45.000] They’re getting in a very hopeless state.

[00:27:45.000 – 00:27:47.800] I’ll call up over there.

[00:27:47.800 – 00:27:50.200] It’s Dr.

[00:27:50.200 – 00:27:54.900] Bob and my friend Anne.

[00:27:54.900 – 00:28:01.700] I’m sure they’ll be interested.” So they call– she called up.

[00:28:01.700 – 00:28:03.800] Anne answered.

[00:28:03.800 – 00:28:08.800] Mother’s Day, Bob had just come in with the potted plant.

[00:28:08.800 – 00:28:10.200] You know, that classic.

[00:28:10.200 – 00:28:12.900] He’s so potted he’s under the table.

[00:28:12.900 – 00:28:13.800] He can’t move.

[00:28:13.800 – 00:28:17.800] Next morning, there’s a terrific hangover.

[00:28:17.800 – 00:28:22.000] He still can’t move.

[00:28:22.000 – 00:28:31.900] But reluctantly, he said he would stop in at Henrietta’s gatehouse for just a few minutes about five o’clock.

[00:28:31.900 – 00:28:40.500] And as though it were yesterday, I saw the door open.

[00:28:40.500 – 00:28:44.600] I saw Anne come in.

[00:28:44.600 – 00:28:47.400] Half six.

[00:28:47.400 – 00:28:53.700] I saw Bob looking apprehensively from side to side.

[00:28:53.700 – 00:28:56.300] You could read his mind.

[00:28:56.300 – 00:29:08.800] He presently revealed it when he said, “I can only stay about five minutes.” So I said, “I guess you must be thirsty.” Henrietta,

[00:29:08.800 – 00:29:14.100] the soul of discretion, immediately put us in a little room, her library.

[00:29:14.100 – 00:29:18.500] And here something new happened.

[00:29:18.500 – 00:29:21.500] I frankly told Dr.

[00:29:21.500 – 00:29:29.000] Bob that, uh, I needed him as much as he needed me, that I was in danger myself.

[00:29:29.000 – 00:29:36.900] I remembered the advice of my own doctor who said, “You’re preaching too much.

[00:29:36.900 – 00:29:38.700] This is too much pressure.

[00:29:38.700 – 00:29:50.600] You’re not pouring in the deadly medical evidence about this, the allergy plus the infection.” But I

[00:29:50.600 – 00:29:52.400] found out, too, that Dr.

[00:29:52.400 – 00:30:02.500] Bob, when it came to spiritual matters, was far better instructed than I, and Anne perhaps better than

[00:30:02.500 – 00:30:03.100] either of us.

[00:30:03.100 – 00:30:07.400] So I had nothing to tell him on that score.

[00:30:07.400 – 00:30:10.000] Here was a man I knew.

[00:30:10.000 – 00:30:20.200] So here we were, two fellows with some information, but

[00:30:20.200 – 00:30:23.200] still no results.

[00:30:23.200 – 00:30:33.200] So I discussed this matter of alcoholism, of which he seemed to know little, as indeed is

[00:30:33.200 – 00:30:35.600] true of many physicians even today.

[00:30:35.600 – 00:30:45.000] And of course, coming from me, an ex-drunk, I suppose that it struck him very deeply.

[00:30:45.000 – 00:30:55.200] So after one prodigious slip in which he really hit bottom, from which he issued out of

[00:30:55.200 – 00:31:05.200] this hospital up the street from an operation that it was doubtful he could perform to make restitution before

[00:31:05.200 – 00:31:13.200] he even got home, Dr.

[00:31:13.200 – 00:31:14.200] Bob recovered.

[00:31:14.200 – 00:31:28.100] Well, Ann playing it safe and me wishing to continue with my business proxy route, it

[00:31:28.100 – 00:31:30.800] was very agreeable when she asked me over there.

[00:31:30.800 – 00:31:41.000] So all during the summer of nineteen thirty-five, I lived with the Smiths, an

[00:31:41.000 – 00:31:44.900] experience I shall never, never forget.

[00:31:44.900 – 00:31:54.900] You see, it must be remembered that I was almost without any religious instruction.

[00:31:54.900 – 00:32:00.200] A few things picked up from the Oxford Group, odd pieces of reading.

[00:32:00.200 – 00:32:06.900] I had quit Congregational Sunday School when ten because I was asked to sign a temperance pledge.

[00:32:06.900 – 00:32:16.700] So that was the extent of my spiritual training and theological knowledge at the moment.

[00:32:16.700 – 00:32:26.800] And here were those people, so tender, so wise, so devout in the best sense

[00:32:26.800 – 00:32:27.600] of the word.

[00:32:27.600 – 00:32:37.600] The house was frightfully run down, and I remember sitting in what was then a pretty flat and replay, but which was

[00:32:37.600 – 00:32:46.100] nevertheless suffused with a real radiance, and Ann would sit there beside that fireplace and read from the Bible.

[00:32:46.100 – 00:32:52.300] And I’m rather an impatient fellow, but they kind of tamed me on the meditation business.

[00:32:52.300 – 00:32:55.300] In other words, they became my teachers.

[00:32:55.300 – 00:33:00.400] But this hadn’t gone along very long when Dr.

[00:33:00.400 – 00:33:02.200] Bob took the initiative.

[00:33:02.200 – 00:33:07.100] He said, “Bill, hadn’t we better be doing something?

[00:33:07.100 – 00:33:17.200] Hadn’t we better be talking to some more alcoholics?” In other words,

[00:33:17.200 – 00:33:17.500] Dr.

[00:33:17.500 – 00:33:27.500] Bob, destined to be the prince of all AA’s twelve shepherds, was beginning to see his mission, and he was beginning

[00:33:27.500 – 00:33:28.400] to jog me.

[00:33:28.400 – 00:33:39.200] Because up to this point, you see, there was a lot of sweetness and light, and there were lots of ideas,

[00:33:39.200 – 00:33:45.700] and there was a good deal of underground water, but there wasn’t anything that looked like a spring.

[00:33:45.700 – 00:33:53.200] So Bob said, “I’ll call up the city hospital.

[00:33:53.200 – 00:34:03.300] They got a lot of drunks coming in down there.” And he got a hold of the nurse and said they got a fellow from New York,

[00:34:03.300 – 00:34:05.500] surefire cure for alcoholism.

[00:34:05.500 – 00:34:11.300] The nurse, an old friend, said, “Well, I hope to hell I haven’t, Bob.

[00:34:11.300 – 00:34:19.400] You’ve tried it yourself.” He said, “Well, what you got down there?” “Well, there’s a fellow in there on a stretcher.

[00:34:19.400 – 00:34:22.100] He’s been in four times in the last six months.

[00:34:22.100 – 00:34:28.900] He can’t even get out of here and get home lately without getting sued.

[00:34:28.900 – 00:34:33.600] He used to be a well-known lawyer around the town.

[00:34:33.600 – 00:34:43.600] If you want any more identification of him as a drunk, I might tell you that he’s in delirium tremens and has already given a black

[00:34:43.600 – 00:34:44.700] eye to one nurse.

[00:34:44.700 – 00:34:53.500] Now, how would that suit you to start?” Said Dr.

[00:34:53.500 – 00:35:04.500] Bob, “Put him in a private room, and you give him some, this medication.” Well,

[00:35:04.500 – 00:35:13.600] I had a kind of a scientific training, and in my family there were a lot of doctors, so that some of the information I brought along to Dr.

[00:35:13.600 – 00:35:19.900] Bob, even in that early day, was that drunks needed vitamins.

[00:35:19.900 – 00:35:25.000] We didn’t have a lot of pills around then, but I had heard that there was a lot in cabbage.

[00:35:25.000 – 00:35:28.500] So I recommended to Dr.

[00:35:28.500 – 00:35:32.600] Bob that all drunks be put on a diet of sauerkraut.

[00:35:32.600 – 00:35:41.700] But that wasn’t all.

[00:35:43.200 – 00:35:53.200] It was realized that drunks, uh, were, had very erratic blood sugar and that, uh, ordinary granulated, uh,

[00:35:53.200 – 00:35:57.700] gave them a sour stomach, but somehow they had to get that, uh, get some sugar.

[00:35:57.700 – 00:36:03.200] So I recommended to Dr.

[00:36:03.200 – 00:36:12.200] Bob, uh, a, an intake every day of Karo corn syrup, see?

[00:36:12.200 – 00:36:21.600] And then just to be sure of vitamin C, I suggested that he eat a can of cold tomatoes every day.

[00:36:21.600 – 00:36:23.500] Well, now I had Dr.

[00:36:23.500 – 00:36:26.000] Bob very faithfully following this.

[00:36:26.000 – 00:36:31.600] Uh, he would actually eat a half a can of cold tomatoes every morning.

[00:36:31.600 – 00:36:38.900] He would take about four spoons of Karo corn syrup and a good big gob of sauerkraut.

[00:36:38.900 – 00:36:48.900] You know, the good man welched on

[00:36:48.900 – 00:36:58.900] the sauerkraut because he got tired of it, and actually the first drunk that came around who is sober today in this

[00:36:58.900 – 00:37:06.600] audience, we never thought he would sober, we fed him sauerkraut, and it stirred up his ulcers too bad, so he blamed.

[00:37:06.600 – 00:37:12.200] So we canceled out the sauerkraut, and we held onto the tomatoes and the corn syrup.

[00:37:12.200 – 00:37:22.200] So armed with our spiritual and medical knowledge and resources and the tomatoes

[00:37:22.200 – 00:37:32.700] and the sauerkraut, we advanced on Akron City Hospital to visit one whose name we were soon told was Bill Dodson,

[00:37:32.700 – 00:37:36.800] him who had just talked to Nurse a couple days before.

[00:37:36.800 – 00:37:43.100] And we’d had him meanwhile on a little sedative and the canned tomatoes.

[00:37:43.100 – 00:37:56.400] So we came in to see Bill, and, uh, he said, “Well, who are you folks, and why am I in this private room?” “Well,”

[00:37:56.400 – 00:38:06.500] uh, we said, “uh, we’re drunk just like you are, and here’s the story.” So we told the story, and poor old Bill stood

[00:38:06.500 – 00:38:08.200] there, uh, sat there.

[00:38:08.200 – 00:38:09.100] Wait a minute.

[00:38:09.100 – 00:38:10.200] He laid there.

[00:38:10.200 – 00:38:16.500] And he shook his head, and he said, “Well, I guess it’s too late for me.

[00:38:16.500 – 00:38:25.800] You fellows have got pretty tough stories, but it isn’t so tough as mine.” He said, “I don’t dare go out of here.

[00:38:25.800 – 00:38:35.800] I can’t get home without getting drunk.” “If you say this is a lunacy, an obsession, you are dead right in my

[00:38:35.800 – 00:38:37.200] case, but it’s too bad.

[00:38:37.200 – 00:38:39.900] I don’t believe it can be beat at this stage.

[00:38:39.900 – 00:38:50.100] Thanks very much for coming in.” So we said, “Well, could we come back, Bill?” “Well,” he said, “gee, it would be wonderful

[00:38:50.100 – 00:39:00.200] if you would.” He said, “I don’t, I don’t believe it’s any use, but you are the first people I have ever met who have the

[00:39:00.200 – 00:39:02.100] faintest idea what ails me.

[00:39:02.100 – 00:39:12.600] You come back.” Again, the transforming experience.

[00:39:12.600 – 00:39:22.700] All of this on its surface utterly simple, and yet now was to come the mystery

[00:39:22.700 – 00:39:24.000] of the transformation.

[00:39:24.000 – 00:39:28.700] We got down there the next morning.

[00:39:28.700 – 00:39:32.900] Henrietta and his wife was in the room.

[00:39:32.900 – 00:39:37.300] Bill looked at us and said, “There they are.

[00:39:37.300 – 00:39:49.500] These are the fellows I was telling you about.” And then Bill said during the night, it

[00:39:49.500 – 00:39:59.600] suddenly came to him, “If they can be lifted out of this by God’s grace, maybe He’ll be good to me

[00:39:59.600 – 00:40:03.800] if I’ll meet the conditions.

[00:40:03.800 – 00:40:11.600] And as soon as I said that, something flowed into me.

[00:40:11.600 – 00:40:14.100] I felt confident.

[00:40:14.100 – 00:40:15.500] I felt better.

[00:40:15.500 – 00:40:25.600] A weight was lifted off me.” And we went on talking with Bill, and you could

[00:40:25.600 – 00:40:35.900] tell by the change in his face, that kind of change that so many of us have seen under our own eyes since.

[00:40:35.900 – 00:40:46.600] And there was assurance that when two or three were gathered together under

[00:40:46.600 – 00:40:57.000] the banner of these principles and in the kinship of common suffering, there He

[00:40:57.000 – 00:40:59.000] would be in the midst of us.

[00:40:59.000 – 00:41:09.600] And suddenly Bill said, “Henrietta, please fetch my clothes.

[00:41:09.600 – 00:41:21.900] I’m going to get up and get out of here.” And Bill got up, and he git and

[00:41:21.900 – 00:41:24.400] never had a drink to the day of his death.

[00:41:24.400 – 00:41:31.600] And so was formed the first AA group.

[00:41:31.600 – 00:41:41.800] The channels of underground water had

[00:41:41.800 – 00:41:44.300] formed a tiny spring.

[00:41:44.300 – 00:41:50.600] In Akron, the city on the hill.

[00:41:50.600 – 00:42:00.800] And Bill and Bob and I, and Henrietta, and Anne, joined by Lois on vacation,

[00:42:00.800 – 00:42:05.500] slugged away at this thing all during the summer of nineteen thirty-five.

[00:42:05.500 – 00:42:11.900] Failure, failure, failure, but once in a while, there would be encouraged.

[00:42:11.900 – 00:42:17.100] Then I go back to New York.

[00:42:17.100 – 00:42:19.400] Small group takes shape there.

[00:42:19.400 – 00:42:23.500] In spring grew a little larger.

[00:42:23.500 – 00:42:30.900] But there was still one tremendous ingredient to be had.

[00:42:30.900 – 00:42:38.000] We had the medical savvy that could deflate these people at death.

[00:42:38.000 – 00:42:44.100] The God of science passing the death sentence on the alcoholic.

[00:42:44.100 – 00:42:54.700] We had the essential principles for the conversion experience, the admission of helplessness, the

[00:42:54.700 – 00:43:04.900] internal and external house cleaning, the great new compelling interest in carrying the message, prayer, meditation.

[00:43:04.900 – 00:43:07.000] The elements were present.

[00:43:07.000 – 00:43:10.700] They’d come in from many quarters, as you see.

[00:43:10.700 – 00:43:15.000] But we still lacked one thing.

[00:43:15.000 – 00:43:25.400] At the end of four whole years of slugging here in Akron, in

[00:43:25.400 – 00:43:35.500] New York, and perhaps after nineteen thirty-seven in Cleveland, we could only count

[00:43:35.500 – 00:43:41.900] a hundred people as recovered.

[00:43:41.900 – 00:43:44.400] That represented an immense effort.

[00:43:44.400 – 00:43:50.700] Only twenty-five people a year in all three places.

[00:43:50.700 – 00:43:57.500] By then, too, we had produced the book Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:43:57.500 – 00:44:03.900] We had said, “Yes, there’s enough time elapsed now.

[00:44:03.900 – 00:44:14.200] There is enough inner assurance among us to know that recovery is possible.” But

[00:44:14.200 – 00:44:16.500] my God, how long will it take?

[00:44:16.500 – 00:44:19.700] Twenty-five people a year?

[00:44:19.700 – 00:44:23.500] Well, they’re carrying the message one to another.

[00:44:23.500 – 00:44:27.900] But how are people gonna hear about this?

[00:44:27.900 – 00:44:31.800] How can the message really be spread?

[00:44:31.800 – 00:44:39.900] Are the five million drunks in America and the five million elsewhere all coming to Akron or New York?

[00:44:39.900 – 00:44:41.900] If so, why?

[00:44:41.900 – 00:44:43.100] What will we do with them?

[00:44:43.100 – 00:44:46.500] How are we going to get this message out?

[00:44:46.500 – 00:44:56.600] Again, the Clevelander’s coming over here had his

[00:44:56.600 – 00:44:59.900] friend in Elric Davis over on the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

[00:44:59.900 – 00:45:09.100] And Elric, well, I won’t just tell you about Elric, but he had a power of identification with us, let’s put it that way.

[00:45:09.100 – 00:45:19.100] So that he began to write a series of pieces in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, ten or a dozen of them, and every three or four days,

[00:45:19.100 – 00:45:23.700] the editor of the Plain Dealer would say, “Both come and get it.

[00:45:23.700 – 00:45:33.700] This is good.” Well, then occurred the event which we had both hoped for

[00:45:33.700 – 00:45:34.800] and feared.

[00:45:34.800 – 00:45:39.100] There was a tremendous rush.

[00:45:39.100 – 00:45:46.800] Telephone calls from all over town and from the surrounding countries.

[00:45:46.800 – 00:45:49.800] We want this AA.

[00:45:49.800 – 00:45:57.700] I suppose in Cleveland at the time, uh, there weren’t twenty people sober.

[00:45:57.700 – 00:46:02.400] Fifteen of them hardly dry behind the ears.

[00:46:02.400 – 00:46:08.000] People were tossed willy-nilly into the hospital.

[00:46:08.000 – 00:46:13.500] Confusion reigned supreme.

[00:46:13.500 – 00:46:20.400] One deacon would form a group, get in the hair of another deacon.

[00:46:20.400 – 00:46:24.100] As a result of a fight, he’d run off and start another group.

[00:46:24.100 – 00:46:34.100] In fact, the more fighting there was, the more the ambition was to be founders, so the fighting created more potential founders, and each

[00:46:34.100 – 00:46:43.800] founded more groups, and the whole thing churned around in a most frightening state.

[00:46:43.800 – 00:46:50.800] Again, in comes the grace.

[00:46:50.800 – 00:46:54.700] In comes the imperative.

[00:46:54.700 – 00:46:56.000] It’s do or die.

[00:46:56.000 – 00:47:07.100] The nonsense that only old-timers could carry the message evaporated as new people were taken to one meeting, and

[00:47:07.100 – 00:47:10.900] right away, they were experienced twelve-steppers and put on changes.

[00:47:10.900 – 00:47:20.300] The AA book came in as a time saver and to hold the program on its course.

[00:47:20.300 – 00:47:28.800] And those twenty people in Cleveland expanded in a matter of eight or nine months into hundreds.

[00:47:28.800 – 00:47:39.900] And in spite of all of this hulker and bulker, and in spite of all this confusion, their

[00:47:39.900 – 00:47:43.500] batting average on sobriety was awful good.

[00:47:43.500 – 00:47:53.800] We old-timers, with all our finesse and all our care, hadn’t done quite so well as the novices

[00:47:53.800 – 00:47:54.500] in Cleveland.

[00:47:54.500 – 00:48:04.600] Well, that was just about the last big ingredient that was needed to prove up the recovery

[00:48:04.600 – 00:48:05.200] picture.

[00:48:05.200 – 00:48:07.400] Drunks could get well.

[00:48:07.400 – 00:48:10.500] There could be a chain reaction.

[00:48:10.500 – 00:48:16.400] It was– If it was too fast or there was more headache, but they still kept on getting well.

[00:48:16.400 – 00:48:21.900] And then came France.

[00:48:21.900 – 00:48:26.400] At the right time, the right time.

[00:48:26.400 – 00:48:30.100] John D.

[00:48:30.100 – 00:48:39.100] Rockefeller takes an interest, doesn’t give us money, but says to America, “This is good.” More inquiries rush in.

[00:48:39.100 – 00:48:41.800] We started a little central office in New York.

[00:48:41.800 – 00:48:51.600] Next year, forty-one, Jack Alexander, assigned by Mr.

[00:48:51.600 – 00:48:55.900] Curtis Barnes, owner of the Charity Post, did a feature piece.

[00:48:55.900 – 00:49:00.300] This time, thousands of names.

[00:49:00.300 – 00:49:06.600] Meanwhile, the message has been carried by traveling alcoholics.

[00:49:06.600 – 00:49:17.000] So we had moved out of the flying vi– blind time.

[00:49:17.000 – 00:49:20.800] We had moved out of the period of infancy.

[00:49:20.800 – 00:49:30.600] We had moved out of the period when there was any question drunks could recover into the period of our adolescence.

[00:49:30.600 – 00:49:40.900] And then the great challenge was: could drunks with just these casual contacts

[00:49:40.900 – 00:49:51.100] with traveling people, just letters from service office, just this literature, could

[00:49:51.100 – 00:49:52.300] they form groups?

[00:49:52.300 – 00:49:58.500] Could this spread over the world without any professional help?

[00:49:58.500 – 00:50:01.500] Well, yes, it did.

[00:50:01.500 – 00:50:11.500] And to what extent it has spread over the world, and what is its strength has so

[00:50:11.500 – 00:50:12.300] far been?

[00:50:12.300 – 00:50:16.600] Well, figures would give us a token.

[00:50:16.600 – 00:50:20.300] We know that we’re in seventy countries.

[00:50:20.300 – 00:50:25.500] We know that we’ve been translated into a lot of tongues.

[00:50:25.500 – 00:50:33.300] We know that AA is transcending all barriers of race, creed, nationality, language, and whatnot.

[00:50:33.300 – 00:50:44.100] But even so, this is but a token of what may yet come if

[00:50:44.100 – 00:50:47.600] we do our part.

[00:50:47.600 – 00:50:57.600] Now then, until very recent years, this was a family, as

[00:50:57.600 – 00:51:05.100] I have just said, of infants and of adolescents speaking AAwise.

[00:51:05.100 – 00:51:14.400] The family had parents, the old-timers who started the groups around the country, Dr.

[00:51:14.400 – 00:51:20.400] Bob and I, who helped start the pioneering group.

[00:51:20.400 – 00:51:23.400] We had parents.

[00:51:23.400 – 00:51:30.500] Now today, these parents are thinning in the ranks.

[00:51:30.500 – 00:51:39.700] This morning, a few of us went out to the cemetery where Dr.

[00:51:39.700 – 00:51:41.100] Bob and Anne lie.

[00:51:41.100 – 00:51:49.700] And we found it to be a very joyful occasion.

[00:51:49.700 – 00:51:59.000] And at first, we thought of the word honor in connection with them.

[00:51:59.000 – 00:52:06.700] And then we remembered the story that some of you have read, how Dr.

[00:52:06.700 – 00:52:09.800] Bob said, “Well, why don’t we get buried like other people?

[00:52:09.800 – 00:52:20.300] No mention of AA there.” So this was a joyous recollection of the contribution.

[00:52:20.300 – 00:52:31.600] And

[00:52:31.600 – 00:52:42.200] as I came away from there, I wondered what will be needed of those

[00:52:42.200 – 00:52:52.700] who remain to maintain this thing in its full strength, in

[00:52:52.700 – 00:53:03.200] this astonishing unity when the world around us is full of disunity, in a function that can carry us through all difficulty.

[00:53:03.200 – 00:53:12.800] But I must call attention to the fact that as individuals, we’ve had all the difficulties there are.

[00:53:12.800 – 00:53:22.100] As groups, we have had enormous difficulties, and from those difficulties have, has come traditions.

[00:53:22.100 – 00:53:32.200] But have you ever stopped to think that Alcoholics as a– Anonymous as a whole has never had

[00:53:32.200 – 00:53:33.100] any difficulty?

[00:53:34.400 – 00:53:44.400] Sure, we’ve had some dandy rows down in headquarters and a lot of schmutting about those arrangements, but the kind of things that are dividing

[00:53:44.400 – 00:53:52.000] society around us, the really disruptive things, have we had them?

[00:53:52.000 – 00:53:55.900] Has there been any bigotry?

[00:53:55.900 – 00:53:59.100] Any religious difference?

[00:53:59.100 – 00:54:06.500] Has anyone run off with the international treasury?

[00:54:06.500 – 00:54:17.400] Has anybody successfully exploited us for

[00:54:17.400 – 00:54:18.400] more than peanuts?

[00:54:18.400 – 00:54:24.100] Have we had a political row?

[00:54:24.100 – 00:54:30.800] Have we been subjected to a tyranny?

[00:54:30.800 – 00:54:40.900] Have we ever been driven underground as

[00:54:40.900 – 00:54:43.400] people live in lots of parts of the world?

[00:54:43.400 – 00:54:46.700] No, none of these things have happened.

[00:54:46.700 – 00:54:50.900] As individuals, we’ve damn well been underground.

[00:54:50.900 – 00:54:55.000] We’ve been under the worst tyranny in the world.

[00:54:55.000 – 00:55:03.600] We have known these divisive influences and forces in ourselves in full strength and in our groups.

[00:55:03.600 – 00:55:05.000] But as a whole, no.

[00:55:05.000 – 00:55:07.600] Up to this minute, scot-free.

[00:55:07.600 – 00:55:09.300] Hasn’t touched us.

[00:55:09.300 – 00:55:16.600] Now, I think this creates a natural but rather serious illusion on our part.

[00:55:16.600 – 00:55:29.200] Apparently, when God intervenes, when

[00:55:29.200 – 00:55:39.400] we consider the gravity of this malady, alcoholism, this stark lunacy, the

[00:55:39.400 – 00:55:49.400] relief, the one hundred percent relief from the alcohol sickness is nothing like–

[00:55:49.400 – 00:55:54.300] is nothing short of a gift, an outright gift.

[00:55:54.300 – 00:56:04.800] But once we have received that gift, and then we try to apply these principles

[00:56:04.800 – 00:56:18.200] to the life problem of living with each other, of living at home, and living in the crazy world, of earning a living, then

[00:56:18.200 – 00:56:20.300] we find it isn’t all gifts.

[00:56:20.300 – 00:56:22.400] We got a responsibility.

[00:56:22.400 – 00:56:29.800] So if we are prudent, we become very vigilant about ourselves.

[00:56:29.800 – 00:56:39.800] We become very serious about our responsibilities, knowing that we can’t forever receive just gifts of grace

[00:56:39.800 – 00:56:41.900] without making ourselves worthy.

[00:56:41.900 – 00:56:46.500] So we are vigilant about ourselves.

[00:56:46.500 – 00:56:48.500] We are vigilant about the group.

[00:56:48.500 – 00:56:50.500] We are vigilant about the area.

[00:56:50.500 – 00:57:01.200] But because all of us never got into any of these major troubles, we are very apt to say, “Well,

[00:57:01.200 – 00:57:10.400] God is looking after alcoholics anonymous.” And bless the people that say it.

[00:57:10.400 – 00:57:15.500] So he has been looking after us as a whole.

[00:57:15.500 – 00:57:25.500] And so he will if we meet the kind of responsibilities and exercise the kind of vigilance

[00:57:25.500 – 00:57:35.700] and prudence, and I don’t mean anger and fear, that will make us worthy of a continuation of

[00:57:35.700 – 00:57:39.100] this extraordinary outpouring of His grace.

[00:57:39.100 – 00:57:50.100] And what are the conditions for us as a whole that will make this possible?

[00:57:50.100 – 00:58:00.200] Well, as a whole, under the traditions, we shall need to maintain a

[00:58:00.200 – 00:58:09.600] unity that no peril or calamity can break.

[00:58:09.600 – 00:58:21.400] We shall need a function that will carry this message within reach of

[00:58:21.400 – 00:58:28.300] every alcoholic and his family in the dark where they still live.

[00:58:28.300 – 00:58:38.400] As a movement, we

[00:58:38.400 – 00:58:44.300] shall have to confess our defects when we see them.

[00:58:44.300 – 00:58:56.300] You know, in society today, movements have a remarkable perversion,

[00:58:56.300 – 00:59:02.700] I think, towards confessing the defects of other movements.

[00:59:02.700 – 00:59:13.900] Did you ever stop to think how rare it is for a government to confess its defects or

[00:59:13.900 – 00:59:15.500] with the other government’s defects?

[00:59:15.500 – 00:59:26.000] Did you ever stop to think how rare it is for any form of society

[00:59:26.000 – 00:59:32.900] to confess its defects in the sense that we individuals have to confess our defects in order to stay alive?

[00:59:32.900 – 00:59:35.200] No, we shall pass the buck.

[00:59:35.200 – 00:59:37.000] We shall blame others.

[00:59:37.000 – 00:59:41.300] We can’t confess our defects.

[00:59:41.300 – 00:59:46.600] That is suicide for us individually, and so it may be for this movement.

[00:59:46.600 – 00:59:50.200] So let us be vigilant for our defects.

[00:59:50.200 – 00:59:53.300] Not full of yell about them, just vigilant.

[00:59:53.300 – 00:60:01.800] Let us be willing to try to correct our defects as a society.

[00:60:01.800 – 00:60:11.900] And let each individual member of this society remember that a little is expected

[00:60:11.900 – 00:60:15.300] of him in sacrifice for the whole body.

[00:60:15.300 – 00:60:26.100] Also, let

[00:60:26.100 – 00:60:36.900] us realize that we have become citizens of the world with responsibilities there in this most perilous time, uh,

[00:60:36.900 – 00:60:38.000] yet to know.

[00:60:38.000 – 00:60:42.400] And what are our responsibilities?

[00:60:42.400 – 00:60:52.600] Essentially, by example, I think, rather than by aggression, to carry these

[00:60:52.600 – 00:60:56.400] principles into all our affairs.

[00:60:56.400 – 00:61:07.500] Increasingly, the last phrase of that Twelfth Step, “to practice these principles in all our affairs.” Sobriety

[00:61:07.500 – 00:61:08.500] is but a beginning.

[00:61:08.500 – 00:61:12.500] Without it, we have nothing.

[00:61:12.500 – 00:61:22.600] It’s a primary purpose of AA, but when that gift is secured, then we have that problem

[00:61:22.600 – 00:61:23.200] of living.

[00:61:23.200 – 00:61:29.800] Now, we have this problem of living as a society, as a whole.

[00:61:29.800 – 00:61:40.100] So let’s apply the same standards to the life of the whole as we do to the– our individual lives or the lives

[00:61:40.100 – 00:61:40.700] of the group.

[00:61:40.700 – 00:61:47.100] Let us confess when we are wrong.

[00:61:47.100 – 00:61:54.500] Let us hew to our primary purpose.

[00:61:54.500 – 00:62:04.800] Let us each make the kindly sacrifice

[00:62:04.800 – 00:62:15.100] of those urges to power, money, and personal prestige

[00:62:15.100 – 00:62:21.800] which are rending the world apart today.

[00:62:21.800 – 00:62:28.300] Let us deny these things in ourselves for the benefit of the whole.

[00:62:28.300 – 00:62:36.200] In our relations as a whole with the world outside, let us never fall into controversy.

[00:62:36.200 – 00:62:43.900] And controversy characterizes nearly all societies.

[00:62:43.900 – 00:62:46.800] We are not strong enough for controversy.

[00:62:46.800 – 00:62:56.800] One perhaps to be thinkable would be rather refreshing in this

[00:62:56.800 – 00:62:57.600] warring world.

[00:62:57.600 – 00:63:07.700] I do not mean to say that we should deny the right of the individual or the duty of the individual to act on

[00:63:07.700 – 00:63:10.900] the issues of our time as he sees fit.

[00:63:10.900 – 00:63:15.500] But as a society, no controversy at the public level.

[00:63:15.500 – 00:63:20.000] We’re fighting nothing or nobody.

[00:63:20.000 – 00:63:34.300] Then I think will come a final and great temptation.

[00:63:34.300 – 00:63:44.600] The temptation came to me in a very

[00:63:44.600 – 00:63:45.800] striking way.

[00:63:45.800 – 00:63:54.500] Uh, there’s a moving picture coming out that doesn’t directly mention AA.

[00:63:54.500 – 00:64:04.600] Out in Hollywood, you know, they have some pretty, uh, hard-boiled critics, pretty sophisticated

[00:64:04.600 – 00:64:05.100] people.

[00:64:05.100 – 00:64:08.300] This is good picture.

[00:64:08.300 – 00:64:09.700] It’s not extraordinary.

[00:64:09.700 – 00:64:11.700] It’s going to be put out by Universal.

[00:64:11.700 – 00:64:21.800] Well, I like Hollywood folks, but you know, all their

[00:64:21.800 – 00:64:23.300] lives makes them car drivers.

[00:64:23.300 – 00:64:25.500] Sometimes they’re cynical.

[00:64:25.500 – 00:64:29.200] Sometimes they’re hard-boiled.

[00:64:29.200 – 00:64:37.900] And all of that is reflected in these critical journals like Variety and some of the others.

[00:64:37.900 – 00:64:48.000] In other words, here are people in charge of those publications that really see you and perhaps to some extent

[00:64:48.000 – 00:64:51.700] are really sophisticated and very worldly people.

[00:64:51.700 – 00:65:01.800] Do you know what one of these journals recently said about this new picture?

[00:65:01.800 – 00:65:04.200] It said, “This is good picture, folks.

[00:65:04.200 – 00:65:13.200] You want to go and see.” It says nothing about Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:65:13.200 – 00:65:23.300] Nevertheless, it’s all about Alcoholics Anonymous, as you will

[00:65:23.300 – 00:65:23.800] see.

[00:65:23.800 – 00:65:33.800] And Alcoholics Anonymous is

[00:65:33.800 – 00:65:44.000] probably the greatest movement of modern

[00:65:44.000 – 00:65:54.100] science, and quite possibly the greatest movement, or

[00:65:54.100 – 00:66:00.800] one of the greatest movements, of all time.

[00:66:00.800 – 00:66:07.400] Now, this comes from Hollywood.

[00:66:07.400 – 00:66:17.700] And it makes you wonder, what is there about the spirit that has been granted

[00:66:17.700 – 00:66:18.000] us?

[00:66:18.000 – 00:66:24.500] We can’t brag of this as a virtue, as a grace, a gift.

[00:66:24.500 – 00:66:33.500] What is there about us that could have caused a typical Hollywood writer to pen any such story as that?

[00:66:33.500 – 00:66:37.000] Well, we don’t know.

[00:66:37.000 – 00:66:38.800] That’s a part of the mystery.

[00:66:38.800 – 00:66:48.900] Now, conceivably, this feeling will go on building up

[00:66:48.900 – 00:66:49.900] about A.A.

[00:66:49.900 – 00:67:00.200] And behind it, uh, will be implicit the notion, well, maybe A.A.

[00:67:00.200 – 00:67:05.600] now, the drunks have become the chosen people who are destined to save the world.

[00:67:05.600 – 00:67:14.800] Now, let me say flatly and unequivocally that so far as we’re concerned, that is a damn bad idea.

[00:67:14.800 – 00:67:20.700] We can’t stand that kind of stuff.

[00:67:20.700 – 00:67:26.800] We mustn’t at any cost become a new and a competing religion.

[00:67:26.800 – 00:67:39.100] We must not be so vain as to suppose that such is our destiny.

[00:67:39.100 – 00:67:50.100] When people say these things about us in their hopelessness, and the world is hopeless today, they

[00:67:50.100 – 00:67:51.700] are genuine.

[00:67:51.700 – 00:67:54.800] They are sincere.

[00:67:54.800 – 00:68:01.800] But never let any such thing as that motivate us as A.A.

[00:68:01.800 – 00:68:12.100] Let us put on the perennial example of regeneration under the grace

[00:68:12.100 – 00:68:12.700] of God.

[00:68:12.700 – 00:68:21.200] Let us remember our anonymity.

[00:68:21.200 – 00:68:33.600] And let us remember that my good partner and his wife, who

[00:68:33.600 – 00:68:43.800] lie up here in this cemetery, went even further than an-anonymity as we had understood

[00:68:43.800 – 00:68:53.300] it when they refused to put the word A on their own burial stone.

[00:68:53.300 – 00:69:00.600] A lot of people may say, well, uh, most everybody gets buried like ord-ordinary folks.

[00:69:00.600 – 00:69:02.200] What’s the fuss about?

[00:69:02.200 – 00:69:07.300] But to me, that’s a very symbolic thing because, in effect, Dr.

[00:69:07.300 – 00:69:10.700] Bob was saying to me, all right, protect A.A.

[00:69:10.700 – 00:69:12.600] with anonymity at the public level.

[00:69:12.600 – 00:69:15.400] Keep it out of controversy at the public level.

[00:69:15.400 – 00:69:18.800] Don’t let’s get married to other people at the public level.

[00:69:18.800 – 00:69:21.700] Protect it.

[00:69:21.700 – 00:69:28.900] Let’s each make a sacrifice of our personal desire for money, fame, and what have you.

[00:69:28.900 – 00:69:35.000] That’s all very well.

[00:69:35.000 – 00:69:37.500] But he wasn’t telling me.

[00:69:37.500 – 00:69:49.200] He was just stating a, a conviction of his own, for whatever it might be worth, when he said, let’s

[00:69:49.200 – 00:69:50.800] get buried like other people.

[00:69:50.800 – 00:70:02.100] And in the spot he was in, and the spot I may be in if I don’t get stewed on him, uh,

[00:70:02.100 – 00:70:12.300] he was trying to say, let the principle of anonymity also include

[00:70:12.300 – 00:70:18.400] this question of public or private honors or distinctions for doing A.A.

[00:70:18.400 – 00:70:19.100] work.

[00:70:19.100 – 00:70:29.300] No symbols, marks, or distinctions, or

[00:70:29.300 – 00:70:29.700] honors.

[00:70:29.700 – 00:70:39.900] And to my mind, that marked the acme of the kind

[00:70:39.900 – 00:70:49.900] of humility which we’ll need to preserve our means of survival in full strength and to transmit

[00:70:49.900 – 00:71:00.200] it on to posterity for so long as the Lord our God wants that

[00:71:00.200 – 00:71:00.500] done.

[00:66:17.700 – 00:66:18.000] us?

[00:66:18.000 – 00:66:24.500] We can’t brag of this as a virtue, as a grace, a gift.

[00:66:24.500 – 00:66:33.500] What is there about us that could have caused a typical Hollywood writer to pen any such story as that?

[00:66:33.500 – 00:66:37.000] Well, we don’t know.

[00:66:37.000 – 00:66:38.800] That’s a part of the mystery.

[00:66:38.800 – 00:66:48.900] Now, conceivably, this feeling will go on building up

[00:66:48.900 – 00:66:49.900] about A.A.

[00:66:49.900 – 00:67:00.200] And behind it, uh, will be implicit the notion, well, maybe A.A.

[00:67:00.200 – 00:67:05.600] now, the drunks have become the chosen people who are destined to save the world.

[00:67:05.600 – 00:67:14.800] Now, let me say flatly and unequivocally that so far as we’re concerned, that is a damn bad idea.

[00:67:14.800 – 00:67:20.700] We can’t stand that kind of stuff.

[00:67:20.700 – 00:67:26.800] We mustn’t at any cost become a new and a competing religion.

[00:67:26.800 – 00:67:39.100] We must not be so vain as to suppose that such is our destiny.

[00:67:39.100 – 00:67:50.100] When people say these things about us in their hopelessness, and the world is hopeless today, they

[00:67:50.100 – 00:67:51.700] are genuine.

[00:67:51.700 – 00:67:54.800] They are sincere.

[00:67:54.800 – 00:68:01.800] But never let any such thing as that motivate us as A.A.

[00:68:01.800 – 00:68:12.100] Let us put on the perennial example of regeneration under the grace

[00:68:12.100 – 00:68:12.700] of God.

[00:68:12.700 – 00:68:21.200] Let us remember our anonymity.

[00:68:21.200 – 00:68:33.600] And let us remember that my good partner and his wife, who

[00:68:33.600 – 00:68:43.800] lie up here in this cemetery, went even further than an-anonymity as we had understood

[00:68:43.800 – 00:68:53.300] it when they refused to put the word A on their own burial stone.

[00:68:53.300 – 00:69:00.600] A lot of people may say, well, uh, most everybody gets buried like ord-ordinary folks.

[00:69:00.600 – 00:69:02.200] What’s the fuss about?

[00:69:02.200 – 00:69:07.300] But to me, that’s a very symbolic thing because, in effect, Dr.

[00:69:07.300 – 00:69:10.700] Bob was saying to me, all right, protect A.A.

[00:69:10.700 – 00:69:12.600] with anonymity at the public level.

[00:69:12.600 – 00:69:15.400] Keep it out of controversy at the public level.

[00:69:15.400 – 00:69:18.800] Don’t let’s get married to other people at the public level.

[00:69:18.800 – 00:69:21.700] Protect it.

[00:69:21.700 – 00:69:28.900] Let’s each make a sacrifice of our personal desire for money, fame, and what have you.

[00:69:28.900 – 00:69:35.000] That’s all very well.

[00:69:35.000 – 00:69:37.500] But he wasn’t telling me.

[00:69:37.500 – 00:69:49.200] He was just stating a, a conviction of his own, for whatever it might be worth, when he said, let’s

[00:69:49.200 – 00:69:50.800] get buried like other people.

[00:69:50.800 – 00:70:02.100] And in the spot he was in, and the spot I may be in if I don’t get stewed on him, uh,

[00:70:02.100 – 00:70:12.300] he was trying to say, let the principle of anonymity also include

[00:70:12.300 – 00:70:18.400] this question of public or private honors or distinctions for doing A.A.

[00:70:18.400 – 00:70:19.100] work.

[00:70:19.100 – 00:70:29.300] No symbols, marks, or distinctions, or

[00:70:29.300 – 00:70:29.700] honors.

[00:70:29.700 – 00:70:39.900] And to my mind, that marked the acme of the kind

[00:70:39.900 – 00:70:49.900] of humility which we’ll need to preserve our means of survival in full strength and to transmit

[00:70:49.900 – 00:71:00.200] it on to posterity for so long as the Lord our God wants that

[00:71:00.200 – 00:71:00.500] done.

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