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[00:00:00.200 – 00:00:10.800] Um, friends, now it’s my privilege to introduce someone to you, and I don’t have any introduction other than to say co-founder

[00:00:10.800 – 00:00:18.400] of Alcoholics Anonymous and the man whose thirty-first anniversary we’re celebrating tonight, Bill W.

[00:00:18.400 – 00:00:41.100] Gracious,

[00:00:41.100 – 00:00:44.500] what a wonderful, wonderful meeting.

[00:00:44.500 – 00:00:52.400] It’s been grim, but it’s also been gay.

[00:00:52.400 – 00:01:03.800] And the great undercurrent of it all boils to the surface in

[00:01:03.800 – 00:01:15.700] gratitude beyond expression for this wondrous and

[00:01:15.700 – 00:01:24.400] vast miracle of recovery that is now encircling the Earth.

[00:01:24.400 – 00:01:30.400] We have quite a parcel of drunks and friends here.

[00:01:30.400 – 00:01:40.500] But to help our friends stretch their imaginations, it may be

[00:01:40.500 – 00:01:48.500] that only one out of three hundred of us, counting worldwide, is present.

[00:01:48.500 – 00:01:59.000] But I know that those two hundred and ninety-nine who are not here, and

[00:01:59.000 – 00:02:09.600] their wives and their families, are thinking of this anniversary time and offering up their

[00:02:09.600 – 00:02:10.500] gratitude.

[00:02:10.500 – 00:02:20.600] It’s wonderful, it’s inexplicable

[00:02:20.600 – 00:02:31.100] how our friends have given to us, and in the days

[00:02:31.100 – 00:02:39.100] of the blight and darkness, how they stood by us.

[00:02:39.100 – 00:02:50.400] Even more, our relatives, and

[00:02:50.400 – 00:02:55.700] still more, our wives and our husbands.

[00:02:55.700 – 00:03:07.000] So before getting on with my pitch, I’d

[00:03:07.000 – 00:03:17.000] like to present my partner, one who stood by when all others had gone.

[00:03:17.000 – 00:03:27.100] Who, after AA began, filled her house in

[00:03:27.100 – 00:03:33.500] Flint Street in Brooklyn with drunks, none of whom recovered.

[00:03:33.500 – 00:03:41.300] But there was perhaps the first laboratory.

[00:03:41.300 – 00:03:52.000] One who since has had seven thousand visitors

[00:03:52.000 – 00:03:56.100] at the house in Bedford Hills.

[00:03:56.100 – 00:04:06.900] And one who since has helped to spirit this

[00:04:06.900 – 00:04:15.400] wonderful society now sprung up in our midst, growing faster than AA ever did.

[00:04:15.400 – 00:04:19.400] Well, here’s Lois.

[00:04:19.400 – 00:04:39.600] Good

[00:04:39.600 – 00:04:42.000] evening, everybody.

[00:04:42.000 – 00:04:46.300] Each one of these dinners, these anniversaries, I think is the very best.

[00:04:46.300 – 00:04:52.800] But this one, I’m sure is, couldn’t be possibly be any better than this.

[00:04:52.800 – 00:04:55.200] Just simply wonderful.

[00:04:55.200 – 00:05:04.000] And I want to thank you all for coming to this wonderful anniversary of Bill’s sobriety.

[00:05:04.000 – 00:05:12.400] And there are many, many other things I’d like to thank you all for.

[00:05:12.400 – 00:05:24.400] I’d like to thank the AAs particularly for this wonderful program that they’ve given to us,

[00:05:24.400 – 00:05:27.100] the families of, of AAs.

[00:05:27.100 – 00:05:30.100] Marge was certainly right.

[00:05:30.100 – 00:05:40.600] Before Al-Anon, we wives used to go to meetings and be so restless and

[00:05:40.600 – 00:05:41.300] nervous.

[00:05:41.300 – 00:05:49.900] But that isn’t quite so now because we have a program of our own, so many of us have.

[00:05:49.900 – 00:05:60.000] And after the wonderful miracle of AA in the early days,

[00:05:60.000 – 00:06:05.900] of course, we families of alcoholics were so very, very grateful.

[00:06:05.900 – 00:06:17.000] This wonderful, wonderful thing had happened that we’d been hoping for and working for for so long, and

[00:06:17.000 – 00:06:20.900] we were just on cloud nine all the time.

[00:06:20.900 – 00:06:31.500] But then by degrees, things began to get a little bit

[00:06:31.500 – 00:06:41.900] rougher, and we couldn’t understand why with this marvelous AA program that our husbands had, we

[00:06:41.900 – 00:06:51.900] were mostly all wives then in those early days, why things weren’t perfect all

[00:06:51.900 – 00:06:52.900] the time at home.

[00:06:52.900 – 00:07:00.600] Our husbands, the alcoholics, were living this wonderful way of life.

[00:07:00.600 – 00:07:10.700] They were trying to practice it as well as they could at home, but there seemed to be quite a few

[00:07:10.700 – 00:07:15.300] ups and downs, mostly downs some of the time.

[00:07:15.300 – 00:07:25.400] And Bill and I considered this thing, and we thought it was– we couldn’t understand why it was, and we thought it was very

[00:07:25.400 – 00:07:30.800] sad, and we were puzzled by it.

[00:07:30.800 – 00:07:36.700] But by degrees, the truth began to sink in.

[00:07:36.700 – 00:07:45.700] Just the way the truth that an alcoholic is an alcoholic begins to finally sink into the alcoholic.

[00:07:45.700 – 00:07:57.700] We families began to see that perhaps what was wrong with the home situation was

[00:07:57.700 – 00:08:08.600] that it was all– the living was all one-sided, that the alcoholic was living this

[00:08:08.600 – 00:08:15.900] wonderful way of life, and the wife was the same old stick-in-the-mud that she’d always been.

[00:08:15.900 – 00:08:26.100] So by degrees, all over the country where

[00:08:26.100 – 00:08:36.600] there were AA groups, the wives began to get this notion that, that they, too, better try to practice

[00:08:36.600 – 00:08:38.200] the Twelve Steps of AA.

[00:08:38.200 – 00:08:45.900] And that really was the beginning of what we now call Al-Anon, the Al-Anon Family Groups.

[00:08:45.900 – 00:08:57.200] And since those early days, the groups have been unified, and

[00:08:57.200 – 00:09:03.000] they’re growing all over the country and all over the world.

[00:09:03.000 – 00:09:08.300] There are groups in thirty-five foreign countries.

[00:09:08.300 – 00:09:15.300] We have nearly three thousand Al-Anon groups all over the world.

[00:09:15.300 – 00:09:25.400] And it really is a tremendous, tremendous thing because,

[00:09:25.400 – 00:09:31.200] you know, for every alcoholic, there are about five people that are affected.

[00:09:31.200 – 00:09:41.100] So the potential of Al-Anon is about five times greater than of AA.

[00:09:41.100 – 00:09:46.600] And we’ve just made just a tiny little beginning.

[00:09:46.600 – 00:09:57.000] But we want to thank you AAs for

[00:09:57.000 – 00:09:58.100] showing us the way.

[00:09:58.100 – 00:10:05.600] We’ve been following in your footsteps and trying to catch up a little.

[00:10:05.600 – 00:10:06.800] Thank you so much.

[00:10:06.800 – 00:10:25.900] Let

[00:10:25.900 – 00:10:31.600] us continue a little on the theme of gratitude.

[00:10:31.600 – 00:10:41.500] Nobody invented Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:10:41.500 – 00:10:51.800] We think, we know that God was the founder.

[00:10:51.800 – 00:11:03.000] A couple of us have been given that title, but it’s much overrated.

[00:11:03.000 – 00:11:04.100] And I’ll tell you why.

[00:11:04.100 – 00:11:17.800] Before AA began, there

[00:11:17.800 – 00:11:27.900] were people of great inspiration and wisdom who placed the original candles on the table

[00:11:27.900 – 00:11:37.800] that has now spread worldwide, the table at which we partake.

[00:11:37.800 – 00:11:48.600] The first one of these, strangely enough, was

[00:11:48.600 – 00:11:51.300] a psychiatrist, Dr.

[00:11:51.300 – 00:12:01.400] Carl Jung, the famous Swiss, one of that triumvirate who founded

[00:12:01.400 – 00:12:04.600] this modern art.

[00:12:04.600 – 00:12:14.900] One day, probably around nineteen thirty-

[00:12:14.900 – 00:12:18.600] He was talking to a chap we’ll call Rowland.

[00:12:18.600 – 00:12:25.000] Rowland had tried all of the drunk cures in this country.

[00:12:25.000 – 00:12:28.900] He was notable in the world of business.

[00:12:28.900 – 00:12:31.900] He’d gone completely to pieces.

[00:12:31.900 – 00:12:35.600] Jung had treated him for a year.

[00:12:35.600 – 00:12:45.700] And he thought that the hidden springs of his motivation stood revealed, and now,

[00:12:45.700 – 00:12:47.700] as we say, he’d make it.

[00:12:47.700 – 00:12:55.000] Leaving Jung, he was back in a matter of weeks in horrible shape.

[00:12:55.000 – 00:13:05.000] And he said to this doctor, “Carl, you are my

[00:13:05.000 – 00:13:06.900] court of last resort.

[00:13:06.900 – 00:13:17.500] Is there no place for me to go?” So here came the words of a great

[00:13:17.500 – 00:13:27.600] human being who, in deep humility, said, “Rowland, I thought you might be one of those

[00:13:27.600 – 00:13:37.600] fortunate ones, one of the few that my art can very occasionally help.

[00:13:37.600 – 00:13:50.000] But I’m sorry to say you are not.” “So,” said the patient, “is there no other recourse?” And

[00:13:50.000 – 00:13:52.000] Jung said, “Yes, time out of mind.

[00:13:52.000 – 00:14:00.800] Here and there, alcoholics have recovered through spiritual experiences.

[00:14:00.800 – 00:14:03.800] Call it a conversion if you like.

[00:14:03.800 – 00:14:13.800] And all that I can say to you is that you place yourself in some

[00:14:13.800 – 00:14:24.000] religious atmosphere and hope that this benign lightning of grace will hit

[00:14:24.000 – 00:14:24.800] you.

[00:14:24.800 – 00:14:29.700] But it’s only a case itself.” Rowland did that.

[00:14:29.700 – 00:14:36.300] He came to the so-called Oxford groups of that era.

[00:14:36.300 – 00:14:46.400] And these were people of many denominations, few

[00:14:46.400 – 00:14:47.100] drunks.

[00:14:47.100 – 00:14:55.800] They were urging very simple common denominators of morality and religion.

[00:14:55.800 – 00:15:06.800] In effect, they were carrying the message to each other, as we have since done, saying,

[00:15:06.800 – 00:15:17.300] “Admit that life is unmanageable just on your own resources.

[00:15:17.300 – 00:15:26.000] Make a survey of your faults, a confession if you like.

[00:15:26.000 – 00:15:30.100] Stop this cursed business of living alone.

[00:15:30.100 – 00:15:35.700] Share these defects with others.

[00:15:35.700 – 00:15:46.400] Make restitution for harms you have done, so sweeping away what

[00:15:46.400 – 00:15:48.500] debris of the past you can.

[00:15:48.500 – 00:15:58.500] And then let us acquaint you with the kind of giving that asks no

[00:15:58.500 – 00:16:09.700] reward in money or prestige.” And quite accountably and mysteriously, and

[00:16:09.700 – 00:16:18.700] I remind you that at depth what goes on among us is a mystery, Rowland found himself sober.

[00:16:18.700 – 00:16:21.800] He came to America.

[00:16:21.800 – 00:16:31.800] And in the Oxford groups here, under the tutelage of our

[00:16:31.800 – 00:16:34.900] great and dear friend, Dr.

[00:16:34.900 – 00:16:43.900] Sam Shoemaker, Rowland continued his sobriety.

[00:16:43.900 – 00:16:48.900] He pitched into the movement.

[00:16:48.900 – 00:16:58.900] Occasionally, he helped an alcoholic, and one of these happened to be an old

[00:16:58.900 – 00:17:05.900] schoolmate of mine, so dearly known to us as Ebby.

[00:17:05.900 – 00:17:15.800] Ebby had been about to be locked up in a mental institution.

[00:17:15.800 – 00:17:23.700] They took him out, and he too sobered.

[00:17:23.700 – 00:17:34.300] Meanwhile, one summer evening in nineteen

[00:17:34.300 – 00:17:44.700] thirty-four, I lay in Towns Hospital up here on Central Park West.

[00:17:44.700 – 00:17:54.700] And like Rowland and Ebby, I

[00:17:54.700 – 00:18:01.100] had seemingly reached the end of the road.

[00:18:01.100 – 00:18:11.300] Life had been good, yet unaccountably, I was destroying my

[00:18:11.300 – 00:18:11.700] own.

[00:18:11.700 – 00:18:19.300] And what the ravages were upon Lois and my friends, only they know.

[00:18:19.300 – 00:18:23.000] It was the old story.

[00:18:23.000 – 00:18:25.000] I won’t repeat it.

[00:18:25.000 – 00:18:35.700] And on this summer’s evening, while

[00:18:35.700 – 00:18:47.100] I lay upstairs, Lois made her plea to the doctor, as

[00:18:47.100 – 00:18:49.700] Roland had made his to Carl Jung.

[00:18:49.700 – 00:18:57.500] “And,” said she, “Doctor, what is his goal?

[00:18:57.500 – 00:19:03.400] Why can’t Bill get well?

[00:19:03.400 – 00:19:11.100] For years now, he has wanted to get well.

[00:19:11.100 – 00:19:22.200] He has desperately tried to get well.” She was talking to

[00:19:22.200 – 00:19:29.200] a little man with marvelous blue eyes that the old-timers can remember.

[00:19:29.200 – 00:19:39.400] For those eyes, in his lifetime, looked into the eyes of

[00:19:39.400 – 00:19:49.900] some forty thousand alcoholics, ten of them in AA in

[00:19:49.900 – 00:19:51.400] his early and middle age.

[00:19:51.400 – 00:20:00.300] Ever so kind, he said, “I have to tell you the truth.

[00:20:00.300 – 00:20:09.900] Bill was one of those rare people I thought could be educated out of this thing.

[00:20:09.900 – 00:20:17.700] But, Lois, I have to tell you that he has a

[00:20:17.900 – 00:20:22.100] Compulsion that condemns him to drink against his will.

[00:20:22.100 – 00:20:27.300] Almost an insanity, if you like.

[00:20:27.300 – 00:20:38.200] And he also has some strange sensitivity to the body, which I will call an allergy, that

[00:20:38.200 – 00:20:48.300] ensures that unless you confine him somewhere, he may be mad

[00:20:48.400 – 00:20:51.500] or dead within a year.

[00:20:51.500 – 00:21:02.200] That was the sentence passed upon me and

[00:21:02.200 – 00:21:08.500] upon Lois in the summer of nineteen thirty-four.

[00:21:08.500 – 00:21:13.900] I learned what it was.

[00:21:13.900 – 00:21:16.400] I had already guessed.

[00:21:16.400 – 00:21:18.200] It wasn’t news.

[00:21:18.200 – 00:21:23.400] Somehow, though, the shock of it kept me sober a few months.

[00:21:23.400 – 00:21:34.600] And then this marvelous chain of circumstance, having

[00:21:34.600 – 00:21:37.900] two branches, began to come into one.

[00:21:37.900 – 00:21:48.100] A few months after the hospital, I was, as we say, taken drunk

[00:21:48.100 – 00:21:48.500] again.

[00:21:48.500 – 00:21:58.600] I couldn’t say why or just how

[00:21:58.600 – 00:21:59.300] it was.

[00:21:59.300 – 00:22:09.300] And Lois found me next morning dragging a golf bag, lying in the

[00:22:09.300 – 00:22:16.300] area way at one eighty-two Clinton Street, having gashed my head badly on the grate.

[00:22:16.300 – 00:22:27.800] Shortly after this, the

[00:22:27.800 – 00:22:28.700] phone rang.

[00:22:28.700 – 00:22:37.600] Lois was working in that sub-celebrated department store, keeping the house together.

[00:22:37.600 – 00:22:42.000] I was home, as usual, drinking.

[00:22:42.000 – 00:22:48.000] At this point, two and three bottles of bathtub gin a day.

[00:22:48.000 – 00:22:57.100] And the phone rang, and here was the voice of Ebby.

[00:22:57.100 – 00:23:00.900] Clearly enough, he was sober.

[00:23:00.900 – 00:23:02.100] Ebby and New York sober?

[00:23:02.100 – 00:23:03.200] Impossible.

[00:23:03.200 – 00:23:11.900] And I thought right away, “Well, let’s get him over.

[00:23:11.900 – 00:23:21.900] We’ll talk about the good old days, and we’ll have a drink, and that’ll help recall them.”

[00:23:22.600 – 00:23:28.900] And Ebby soon stood at that area way against which I had recently fallen, and I looked out the grating.

[00:23:28.900 – 00:23:37.300] And I could see at once that he had something more than water wagon sobriety.

[00:23:37.300 – 00:23:41.300] There was something indefinable about him.

[00:23:41.300 – 00:23:51.900] And he came in, and he sat at the kitchen table, and there was the pitcher of gin with a little orange juice in it just to call it cocktails.

[00:23:51.900 – 00:23:58.100] And I pushed him over a glass and started to pour.

[00:23:58.100 – 00:24:13.400] Ebby said, “No, thanks.” I said, “What’s gone into you?” “Well,” he said, “I’m not drinking today.” “Yes,

[00:24:13.400 – 00:24:24.100] but what’s gone into you?” And even through the haze of the gin, I’ll never forget

[00:24:24.100 – 00:24:35.300] his face when he said, “I’ve got religion.” I almost exclaimed, “My God.” One

[00:24:35.300 – 00:24:36.400] had to be polite.

[00:24:36.400 – 00:24:37.300] One friend.

[00:24:37.300 – 00:24:44.700] And then he recounted this little formula I have just described to you as issuing out of Sam Shoemaker.

[00:24:44.700 – 00:24:48.500] None of the principles were exactly new.

[00:24:48.500 – 00:24:58.200] But the program did call for a prayer to God as you understand Him.

[00:24:58.200 – 00:25:02.500] And there I balked.

[00:25:02.500 – 00:25:14.800] Anyhow, no evangelist Ebby, he merely told me his ex– story and

[00:25:14.800 – 00:25:24.900] how he, too, unaccountably, had had that desire to drink vanish the moment

[00:25:24.900 – 00:25:34.900] he became willing to be honest enough with himself and other people to try to square things away, to carry

[00:25:34.900 – 00:25:45.100] a message of hope to others, no gimmicks, and to pray to whatever God he thought there was, even if it was just

[00:25:45.100 – 00:25:46.200] an experiment.

[00:25:46.200 – 00:25:53.600] So we did talk about the old times.

[00:25:53.600 – 00:25:55.800] He was sober.

[00:25:55.800 – 00:25:59.900] I was getting drunker, and he went away.

[00:25:59.900 – 00:26:09.900] I found that though I continued to drink in no

[00:26:09.900 – 00:26:19.900] waking hour, with the memory of that face and the feel of that

[00:26:19.900 – 00:26:26.000] indefinable something in that personality, I couldn’t duck it.

[00:26:26.000 – 00:26:36.700] So I thought to myself, “My God, I don’t believe I could ever be converted,

[00:26:36.700 – 00:26:46.700] but this is the last chance, and I’m going up to see that little man

[00:26:46.700 – 00:26:55.600] with the blue eyes.” On the way, I bought a bag of beer, which I tried to sh-share with people in the subway.

[00:26:55.600 – 00:27:06.500] I arrived at Townes waving the last bottle, shouting, “Hey, doctor, this time I got something.” And

[00:27:06.500 – 00:27:11.000] the old man who loved me, as he did all drunks.

[00:27:11.000 – 00:27:19.200] In AA, dear friends, we call him the little man who loved drunks.

[00:27:19.200 – 00:27:21.200] He looked at me sadly.

[00:27:21.200 – 00:27:24.400] He said, “I’m afraid you have got something.

[00:27:24.400 – 00:27:31.300] You better go upstairs and get to bed.” Well, I’d come early, well before the DTs this trip.

[00:27:31.300 – 00:27:33.100] I did just this.

[00:27:33.100 – 00:27:41.900] In two or three days, I was pretty well straightened out.

[00:27:41.900 – 00:27:48.400] No more liquor, no sedatives.

[00:27:48.400 – 00:27:58.500] And I kept thinking about Ebby and what had happened to him and gagging

[00:27:58.500 – 00:28:02.800] on this idea that I had to depend on some higher power.

[00:28:02.800 – 00:28:12.500] God knows my life had been a struggle for self-sufficiency, but it hadn’t worked.

[00:28:12.500 – 00:28:15.600] But a higher power?

[00:28:15.600 – 00:28:19.400] So I became very depressed.

[00:28:19.400 – 00:28:26.200] I said, “I am caught in the jaws of a vice.

[00:28:26.200 – 00:28:36.800] One is my inability to believe in this thing, this higher power, and

[00:28:36.800 – 00:28:46.800] the other is that I have tagged myself an alcoholic, the victim

[00:28:46.800 – 00:28:57.100] of this malignancy, this compulsion, which coupled to my sensitivity means

[00:28:57.100 – 00:28:58.400] madness or death.

[00:28:58.400 – 00:29:10.000] So I’m caught between disbelief and this specter.” My

[00:29:10.000 – 00:29:11.800] depression, deep.

[00:29:11.800 – 00:29:18.500] All of a sudden, in the door stood Ebby.

[00:29:18.500 – 00:29:23.900] And I thought, “Gee, he practices what he preaches.

[00:29:23.900 – 00:29:36.700] Isn’t it nice he came up to see me?” And then, suspicious like, like a drunk, I said, “Well, he’s going to evangelize.” And

[00:29:36.700 – 00:29:38.800] oh, boy, how I hated evangelists.

[00:29:38.800 – 00:29:47.400] Well, he had the great Christian virtue of prudence.

[00:29:47.400 – 00:29:57.500] So he said, “I thought I’d look you up.” He began to talk about other

[00:29:57.500 – 00:29:59.500] times and other things.

[00:29:59.500 – 00:30:04.700] I was waiting for the blow to strike, and it never came.

[00:30:04.700 – 00:30:08.100] And I found myself asking him.

[00:30:08.100 – 00:30:13.600] See, attraction rather than promotion was already the formula.

[00:30:13.600 – 00:30:23.800] “Ebby, what’s this nice little bunch of clichés hitched to the higher power job you were telling

[00:30:23.800 – 00:30:26.700] me about?” So he repeated them.

[00:30:26.700 – 00:30:38.100] Get honest with yourself, with somebody else, make restitution, give without demand, pray

[00:30:38.100 – 00:30:40.400] to any power you think there is.

[00:30:40.400 – 00:30:43.900] Simple as that.

[00:30:43.900 – 00:30:54.100] “Ebby,” said I, “I can do any and all of this gladly,

[00:30:54.100 – 00:31:02.900] but please, not the God bit.” So Ebby said, “Well, that’s how I felt.

[00:31:02.900 – 00:31:13.800] I’ll be around pretty soon again.” And when he left, I

[00:31:13.800 – 00:31:17.600] crashed into the worst depression that I’d ever known in my life.

[00:31:17.600 – 00:31:27.700] And someplace down in the abyss, for such it was, the last vestige of my prideful

[00:31:27.700 – 00:31:31.900] obstinance was rubbed out, at least for the moment.

[00:31:31.900 – 00:31:42.100] And I cried as a child in the dark, and

[00:31:42.100 – 00:31:54.000] I said, “If there is a God, will He show Himself?” And then I was given a

[00:31:54.000 – 00:31:55.900] spiritual experience.

[00:31:55.900 – 00:32:03.400] Every AA gets it.

[00:32:03.400 – 00:32:06.600] Some of us very gradually.

[00:32:06.600 – 00:32:14.300] In my case, it was a thunderclap.

[00:32:14.300 – 00:32:17.800] It seemed to me that the room lit up.

[00:32:17.800 – 00:32:22.400] I was filled with a sense of presence.

[00:32:22.400 – 00:32:32.500] I felt suddenly transported in the mind’s eye to a mountaintop, and a great

[00:32:32.500 – 00:32:34.300] clean wind was blowing.

[00:32:34.300 – 00:32:40.400] And I perceived at once that it was not of air, it was of spirit.

[00:32:40.400 – 00:32:52.900] And my first conscious thought in this sublime ecstasy was this: This

[00:32:52.900 – 00:32:55.300] is the God of the preachers.

[00:32:55.300 – 00:33:00.300] How long this took, I don’t know.

[00:33:00.300 – 00:33:03.000] It subsided.

[00:33:03.000 – 00:33:11.400] I lay on the bed, but I am now in a new world of consciousness.

[00:33:11.400 – 00:33:22.300] I seem to be a part of life and

[00:33:22.300 – 00:33:22.800] living.

[00:33:22.800 – 00:33:30.900] I was at one with the cosmos, if you like.

[00:33:30.900 – 00:33:39.600] And I reveled in this peace and this presence and in this sudden gift of faith.

[00:33:39.600 – 00:33:43.700] And let me interject here once more.

[00:33:43.700 – 00:33:45.900] We all get this.

[00:33:45.900 – 00:33:50.200] Mine was six minutes instead of six days or six months.

[00:33:50.200 – 00:33:52.300] That’s the only difference.

[00:33:52.300 – 00:33:58.500] And then I began to be fearful.

[00:33:58.500 – 00:34:03.000] And I thought, hallucination.

[00:34:03.000 – 00:34:06.100] Better call dear old Silky.

[00:34:06.100 – 00:34:16.400] So he came, and beside me stood this great human being in

[00:34:16.400 – 00:34:19.100] the person of this little man with the blue eyes.

[00:34:19.100 – 00:34:29.500] How many men of science might have said, “Bill, I’ll give you a sedative,

[00:34:29.500 – 00:34:31.200] and you’ll feel better in the morning”?

[00:34:31.200 – 00:34:32.000] No.

[00:34:32.000 – 00:34:35.600] He listened very carefully.

[00:34:35.600 – 00:34:44.600] And at length, he said, “Bill,” he said, “you are not insane.

[00:34:44.600 – 00:34:50.600] This is not a hallucination.

[00:34:50.600 – 00:35:04.100] I can’t describe it, but there has been some great psychic event.” He

[00:35:04.100 – 00:35:14.300] said, “You read in the book of these occurrences, sometimes within the precinct of religion,

[00:35:14.300 – 00:35:22.600] sometimes they’re spontaneously, and an enormous re-motivation takes place.

[00:35:22.600 – 00:35:34.300] You’ve had something like that, and whatever it is, you’d better hang onto it.” Now

[00:35:34.300 – 00:35:44.600] you see, that experience had been preceded by the ministration of people absolutely critical to the formation

[00:35:44.600 – 00:35:45.300] of AA.

[00:35:45.300 – 00:35:55.300] And as I recite this, I’m merely telling you that they happened to channel through me, one of the Earth’s

[00:35:55.300 – 00:35:56.800] most fortunate people.

[00:35:56.800 – 00:36:06.800] Well, this was a great reassurance, and my mind began to race,

[00:36:06.800 – 00:36:12.500] and I began to ask myself, what was the machinery of this thing?

[00:36:12.500 – 00:36:14.300] Why was this precipitated?

[00:36:14.300 – 00:36:24.400] And again, the hand of providence reached into our midst, and again, it was

[00:36:24.400 – 00:36:34.600] my friend Ebby who came bringing a book written by still another founder of AA, long

[00:36:34.600 – 00:36:42.400] since in his grave even then, William James, on varieties of religious experience.

[00:36:42.400 – 00:36:52.400] And the book was an eye-opener, at least to a

[00:36:52.400 – 00:36:55.400] stockbroker like me, and not even a very good broker.

[00:36:55.400 – 00:37:00.200] It was kind of hard reading.

[00:37:00.200 – 00:37:10.500] But as I looked through these great varieties of religious experience, I found that they all

[00:37:10.500 – 00:37:14.700] had certain likenesses.

[00:37:14.700 – 00:37:26.000] Nearly every one of these had stemmed from calamity

[00:37:26.000 – 00:37:28.600] as the foundation on which they rested.

[00:37:28.600 – 00:37:30.700] Not strength, calamity.

[00:37:30.700 – 00:37:40.800] The next thing about them was that they transformed people all out of proportion

[00:37:40.800 – 00:37:47.100] to any discipline, any association, any faith.

[00:37:47.100 – 00:37:52.100] They changed motivation, mysterious.

[00:37:52.100 – 00:38:00.700] Not always desirable, desirably in some cases, but most of them weren’t.

[00:38:00.700 – 00:38:07.300] It made human going concerns where there hadn’t been any before.

[00:38:07.300 – 00:38:18.400] So their common denominator was deflation of those undesirable

[00:38:18.400 – 00:38:28.400] things in the ego that set us against ourselves and thus against the

[00:38:28.400 – 00:38:34.600] world around us, against even God Himself.

[00:38:34.600 – 00:38:39.100] So this was deflation.

[00:38:39.100 – 00:38:43.300] Okay, what had deflated me?

[00:38:43.300 – 00:38:53.500] In the first place, it was one drunk

[00:38:53.500 – 00:38:54.500] talking to the next.

[00:38:54.500 – 00:38:58.800] He could reach me at depth.

[00:38:58.800 – 00:39:05.200] Exactly what the psychiatrists so often try to do with us.

[00:39:05.200 – 00:39:15.200] But with this identification, my friend Ebby could do with me at

[00:39:15.200 – 00:39:26.000] depth what the psychiatrists try so hard to do with complicated mechanisms

[00:39:26.100 – 00:39:29.400] where you don’t get this kind of identification.

[00:39:29.400 – 00:39:33.200] So I had been deflated by depth.

[00:39:33.200 – 00:39:40.000] Moreover, science had deflated me, and science had been my God.

[00:39:40.000 – 00:39:51.600] Because Carl Jung, one of the founders of the psychiatry, had said, “No,

[00:39:51.600 – 00:40:01.900] my art can’t do it.” Silkworth, already having seen thousands of drunks, said,

[00:40:01.900 – 00:40:05.100] “No, my art can’t do it.

[00:40:05.100 – 00:40:15.100] You are in the toils, Bill, and there is no escape on your own

[00:40:15.100 – 00:40:23.900] resources.” So that in that early time, one drunk began to pitch it thusly to the other.

[00:40:23.900 – 00:40:26.100] Deflation at depth.

[00:40:26.100 – 00:40:35.500] Then a house cleaning, then an appeal to a higher power, and if the deflation was enough-

[00:40:36.900 – 00:40:47.700] Perhaps chain reaction-like disgrace would be open to alcoholics.

[00:40:47.700 – 00:40:52.700] One alcoholic talking to another with this simple formula.

[00:40:52.700 – 00:40:58.000] Such was the dream, but one soon shattered.

[00:40:58.000 – 00:41:08.100] I thought that because my experience was on the spectacular stuff, that I was sort of picked out to fix all the drunks

[00:41:08.100 – 00:41:08.700] in the world.

[00:41:08.700 – 00:41:12.100] In fact, my paranoia set in, and I say so.

[00:41:12.100 – 00:41:21.600] Well, they fixed so slowly that at the end of six months, nobody was fixed, and I was only half fixed, but still sober.

[00:41:21.600 – 00:41:24.400] All right.

[00:41:24.400 – 00:41:27.700] The chain of events runs on.

[00:41:27.700 – 00:41:30.900] I find myself in Akron.

[00:41:30.900 – 00:41:37.200] Some of my friends have said, “When the hell are you gonna get over being a missionary?

[00:41:37.200 – 00:41:47.900] You’re going broke.” So I kind of got with it and scraped an acquaintance in the brokerage shop, and all of a sudden, I’m in a proxy fight out in Akron,

[00:41:47.900 – 00:41:50.200] control of a little machine tool company.

[00:41:50.200 – 00:41:58.400] And I said, “Well, after I get rich, I’ll go on with this business.” Providence apparently had another– other plans.

[00:41:58.400 – 00:42:01.900] I got a great shellacking.

[00:42:01.900 – 00:42:05.800] My newly made associates went home.

[00:42:05.800 – 00:42:08.100] I had ten bucks in my pocket.

[00:42:08.100 – 00:42:11.000] For the first time, I was alone.

[00:42:11.000 – 00:42:14.800] See, we’d been with the group.

[00:42:14.800 – 00:42:24.900] All of a sudden, I found myself walking up and down in

[00:42:24.900 – 00:42:26.700] the hotel, the Mayflower in Akron.

[00:42:26.700 – 00:42:30.000] One end, the bar room, other end, the church directory.

[00:42:30.000 – 00:42:40.000] For the first time in these months, I began to think about a drink or maybe

[00:42:40.000 – 00:42:45.100] going in there and getting a, a bottle of ginger ale, you know, and scraping an acquaintance.

[00:42:45.100 – 00:42:48.800] This time, I’m restored to sanity.

[00:42:48.800 – 00:42:59.000] I said, “Here comes the specter.” And then I realized suddenly how much it

[00:42:59.000 – 00:43:02.800] had meant to me, though there had been no success whatever.

[00:43:02.800 – 00:43:13.000] Trying to help alcoholics had

[00:43:13.000 – 00:43:22.100] maintained my sobriety, had helped me grow a little.

[00:43:22.100 – 00:43:25.400] I had only just been reborn.

[00:43:25.400 – 00:43:37.100] And I thought, “I must find another drunk in this town mighty soon.” Got on the phone, called

[00:43:37.100 – 00:43:41.000] up a preacher, told him I was looking for a drunk to work on.

[00:43:41.000 – 00:43:43.300] Dear old Walter Thompson, Akron.

[00:43:43.300 – 00:43:48.800] Walter said, “Well, uh, one drunk at a time is…

[00:43:48.800 – 00:43:58.800] If you get two together, what happens?” So he gave me a list of people, Oxford Group people

[00:43:58.800 – 00:44:00.700] out there who might know a drunk.

[00:44:00.700 – 00:44:04.200] Well, they’d see him in church on Sunday and so on.

[00:44:04.200 – 00:44:07.500] Finally, I came to the end of the list.

[00:44:07.500 – 00:44:09.900] One name, Henrietta Seiberling.

[00:44:09.900 – 00:44:11.600] I said, “Good grief.

[00:44:11.600 – 00:44:13.400] Is that Frank Seiberling’s wife?

[00:44:13.400 – 00:44:16.000] I once met him on a deal.

[00:44:16.000 – 00:44:26.100] She wouldn’t want to see me on a Saturday afternoon looking for a drunk to work on.” Almost went back downstairs, and something said, “You’d better

[00:44:26.100 – 00:44:30.200] call.” A lovely Southern voice came over the wire.

[00:44:30.200 – 00:44:35.000] She said, “I’m no alcoholic, but I know somebody who is, and I guess I understand.

[00:44:35.000 – 00:44:42.000] I’ve had my troubles, too.” So I go out here, and it’s the gatehouse of the Seiberling estate.

[00:44:42.000 – 00:44:44.700] Here was Henrietta in the door.

[00:44:44.700 – 00:44:47.100] I told her the story.

[00:44:47.100 – 00:44:50.000] She said, “I think I know exactly the man.

[00:44:50.000 – 00:44:52.500] It’s Dr.

[00:44:52.500 – 00:44:55.900] Bob Smith.

[00:44:55.900 – 00:44:59.700] He’s tried in the groups here.

[00:44:59.700 – 00:45:01.300] He can’t make it.

[00:45:01.300 – 00:45:04.000] Used to be a well-known surgeon in town.

[00:45:04.000 – 00:45:05.900] All gone to pieces.

[00:45:05.900 – 00:45:08.900] Wife almost broken down.

[00:45:08.900 – 00:45:10.000] Shed’s a mess.

[00:45:10.000 – 00:45:12.200] House to be foreclosed.

[00:45:12.200 – 00:45:22.300] How would that do?” I said, “That’s fine.” She called up dear Anne

[00:45:22.300 – 00:45:22.800] Smith.

[00:45:22.800 – 00:45:26.800] Said, “Anne, there’s a man here from New York who thinks he can help Bob.

[00:45:26.800 – 00:45:36.800] Can’t you come over?” Anne said, “Well, not at the minute.” Henrietta says, “So why not?” “Well, it’s Mother’s Day, and he’s, you know, he’s thoughtful of me.

[00:45:36.800 – 00:45:38.800] He brought home a potted plant.

[00:45:38.800 – 00:45:49.000] It’s on the table, but he’s under the table, and he can’t get out.” “We’ll try to make it tomorrow.” So next day,

[00:45:49.000 – 00:45:58.500] about five o’clock, Henrietta has me back out, and here stands Dr.

[00:45:58.500 – 00:46:00.200] Bob and Anne.

[00:46:00.200 – 00:46:07.100] Bob didn’t look a damn bit like a founder, I’m telling you.

[00:46:07.100 – 00:46:09.000] He was crazy.

[00:46:09.000 – 00:46:14.000] He said he couldn’t stay only a couple of minutes.

[00:46:14.000 – 00:46:16.700] “Yeah,” I said, “I know how it is.

[00:46:16.700 – 00:46:20.900] You’re thirsty, huh?” Henrietta put us in the library.

[00:46:20.900 – 00:46:22.900] We talked for hours.

[00:46:22.900 – 00:46:28.500] And if in the big book you will read his story, again, that same identification.

[00:46:28.500 – 00:46:38.500] He said, “This was the first man, despite my medical training, that I’d ever talked with that made any sense about this malady, alcohol.” Thus the

[00:46:38.500 – 00:46:39.500] identification.

[00:46:39.500 – 00:46:45.500] I went to live with the Smiths, fooling with the proxy fight, but mostly fussing with drunks.

[00:46:45.500 – 00:46:49.500] Stayed there about three months.

[00:46:49.500 – 00:46:59.900] And the net of it was that we sobered up just one, a lawyer who came into Akron City Hospital,

[00:46:59.900 – 00:47:06.100] been there four times in six months, couldn’t even get from the hospital home sober.

[00:47:06.100 – 00:47:09.400] The first man on the bed.

[00:47:09.400 – 00:47:19.500] When we told our story, he shook his head and said, “Well, I’m a man of religion, but this has

[00:47:19.500 – 00:47:20.300] got me.

[00:47:20.300 – 00:47:30.400] But why don’t you come back?” We came back the next day, and during the night, I guess that old deflation

[00:47:30.400 – 00:47:39.800] of debt had been working, and at some point, if they can do it, I can, and so we had old Bill Dotts.

[00:47:39.800 – 00:47:45.900] This was the genesis of the first AA group.

[00:47:45.900 – 00:47:48.300] We didn’t know it then.

[00:47:48.300 – 00:47:51.700] We were still in the flying blind period.

[00:47:51.700 – 00:47:57.200] This was the benign conspiracy of providence.

[00:47:57.200 – 00:48:00.300] These were gifts.

[00:48:00.300 – 00:48:04.000] We were not founders.

[00:48:04.000 – 00:48:08.700] That all went further back and much higher up.

[00:48:08.700 – 00:48:14.000] As you know, a group started in New York.

[00:48:14.000 – 00:48:21.100] We came out with the book Alcoholics Anonymous four years later.

[00:48:21.100 – 00:48:28.000] Hardly one hundred members after all this time.

[00:48:28.000 – 00:48:34.000] But you could feel that you were on the scent of something.

[00:48:34.000 – 00:48:38.600] Besides, we had to work to stay alive ourselves.

[00:48:38.600 – 00:48:41.700] Evangelism in reverse, if you like.

[00:48:41.700 – 00:48:46.600] Then it sparked over into Cleveland.

[00:48:46.600 – 00:48:56.900] The Plain Dealer ran a series of pieces written by a drunk who unhappily never got well, but he had the pitch all right.

[00:48:56.900 – 00:49:07.300] And these pieces were so powerful, backed up by The Plain Dealer, that the small group of twenty there in nineteen thirty-nine

[00:49:07.300 – 00:49:11.900] were besieged with something like six hundred drunks and their families.

[00:49:11.900 – 00:49:22.200] And for the first time, the book having just come out, in

[00:49:22.200 – 00:49:32.400] which we ventured to state our method and back it up by case histories, we had a tool.

[00:49:32.400 – 00:49:40.600] Lo and behold, this town inside of a year had about thirty AA groups.

[00:49:40.600 – 00:49:53.900] And the vast miracle was under momentum, culminating

[00:49:53.900 – 00:49:58.900] in this small sample we have here tonight.

[00:49:58.900 – 00:50:09.000] Now then, I’ve talked too much about my part in this

[00:50:09.000 – 00:50:09.700] after all.

[00:50:09.700 – 00:50:20.500] You know, we had a convention

[00:50:20.500 – 00:50:25.800] at Toronto in July, an international.

[00:50:25.800 – 00:50:37.700] People came by planeloads from the greater reaches up and down this land, eleven

[00:50:37.700 – 00:50:38.700] thousand of us.

[00:50:38.700 – 00:50:50.000] And there, we thought that the theme should be responsibility.

[00:50:50.000 – 00:50:58.100] In other words, progress in spiritual things.

[00:50:58.100 – 00:51:09.100] Genuine progress meant an increasing ability and willingness to become more responsible.

[00:51:09.100 – 00:51:11.500] That A.A.

[00:51:11.500 – 00:51:14.200] was something more than just sobriety.

[00:51:14.200 – 00:51:22.100] It was supposed, if we used it rightly, to make us growing human concerns.

[00:51:22.100 – 00:51:29.700] And up there, we took a great look at the future.

[00:51:29.700 – 00:51:40.400] None were prophets, but we did feel that the destiny

[00:51:40.400 – 00:51:40.900] of A.A.

[00:51:40.900 – 00:51:52.600] in all the eras to come would be actually determined both

[00:51:52.600 – 00:52:02.600] by individual and collective responsibility to share this message and

[00:52:02.600 – 00:52:13.100] to grow into the citizenry of the world and bear our part of its responsibilities.

[00:52:13.100 – 00:52:24.500] So maybe some of you would think this a Sunday school pledge, but this is what we said to each other

[00:52:24.500 – 00:52:35.100] at the close of that gathering: “I am responsible when anyone, anywhere

[00:52:35.100 – 00:52:44.300] reaches out for help I want the hand of AA always to be there.

[00:52:44.300 – 00:52:50.500] And for that, I am responsible.

[00:52:50.500 – 00:53:02.600] In conclusion, I

[00:53:02.600 – 00:53:12.700] would like to tell you a story about the responsibility of two

[00:53:12.700 – 00:53:13.200] people.

[00:53:13.200 – 00:53:23.600] The beauty and

[00:53:23.600 – 00:53:33.500] the magnitude of this story will soon be evident.

[00:53:33.500 – 00:53:46.800] You know, as people pass off the scene, it’s

[00:53:46.800 – 00:53:49.900] sometimes easy to forget.

[00:53:49.900 – 00:53:57.100] I’m ashamed to say I find myself forgetting sometimes.

[00:53:57.100 – 00:54:07.100] But after that outburst in the Plain Dealer, and we saw

[00:54:07.100 – 00:54:14.100] that we could go into mass production, Dr.

[00:54:14.100 – 00:54:24.100] Bob began to take an interest in alcoholics and in

[00:54:24.100 – 00:54:34.200] their health and in their care, which I think will probably never again be

[00:54:34.200 – 00:54:39.300] matched in AA history.

[00:54:39.300 – 00:54:52.400] Already hospitalizing folks at the city institution, he

[00:54:52.400 – 00:54:58.400] one day couldn’t get somebody in, and he went over to St.

[00:54:58.400 – 00:55:01.500] Thomas, the Catholic hospital there.

[00:55:01.500 – 00:55:14.400] And he had a trembling victim with him, and

[00:55:14.400 – 00:55:22.800] the nurse on reception was one so beloved to us as Sister Ignatius.

[00:55:22.800 – 00:55:32.900] She was dubious, however, about the trustees, maybe even the

[00:55:32.900 – 00:55:33.900] superior.

[00:55:33.900 – 00:55:39.100] And she said, “Dr.

[00:55:39.100 – 00:55:49.600] Smith, if you don’t mind, shan’t we say that this man has a bad case of

[00:55:49.600 – 00:55:59.200] nerves or something, and I will put him in the flower room.” Quite significant was the flower room.

[00:55:59.200 – 00:56:02.400] And so Dr.

[00:56:02.400 – 00:56:12.900] Bob and this marvelous sister began to minister to us way back in nineteen

[00:56:12.900 – 00:56:14.000] hundred and four.

[00:56:14.000 – 00:56:26.600] The atmosphere of that place, absolutely

[00:56:26.600 – 00:56:28.000] ideal for us.

[00:56:28.000 – 00:56:32.200] No proselyting.

[00:56:32.200 – 00:56:34.800] Anybody received.

[00:56:34.800 – 00:56:44.800] The sister asked them to pay what they could, and she finally put so much on the

[00:56:44.800 – 00:56:46.700] cuff, the trustees did object.

[00:56:46.700 – 00:56:57.100] But do you know that these people ministered to five thousand

[00:56:57.100 – 00:57:03.700] drunks between nineteen forty and nineteen fifty when Dr.

[00:57:03.700 – 00:57:04.700] Bob died?

[00:57:04.700 – 00:57:15.300] That made him the prince

[00:57:15.300 – 00:57:24.400] of the twelfth step, and I guess Sister Ignatius the princess.

[00:57:24.400 – 00:57:27.600] Moreover, Dr.

[00:57:27.600 – 00:57:32.400] Bob had medically treated all of these people for nothing.

[00:57:32.400 – 00:57:36.800] And when Dr.

[00:57:36.800 – 00:57:45.800] Bob took his leave of us, the last time we saw him was at the Cleveland International in nineteen fifty.

[00:57:45.800 – 00:57:55.800] That had been the sum of the responsibility which he and sister

[00:57:55.800 – 00:58:02.800] had assumed and so wonderfully discharged.

[00:58:02.800 – 00:58:11.700] God knows how many of the, so– those they sobered up, and they were a good sixty percent.

[00:58:11.700 – 00:58:18.000] How many of them are lineal ancestors of many in this room?

[00:58:18.000 – 00:58:24.400] Because the culture implanted in them began to magnify.

[00:58:24.400 – 00:58:31.200] And the story isn’t quite through.

[00:58:31.200 – 00:58:34.000] Though Dr.

[00:58:34.000 – 00:58:44.100] Bob is gone in fifty, Sister was moved to the Charity Hospital in

[00:58:44.100 – 00:58:44.500] Cleveland.

[00:58:44.500 – 00:58:52.400] And our love was with her.

[00:58:52.400 – 00:59:02.600] And AAs who could do plumbing and wiring or give money and were not poor

[00:59:02.600 – 00:59:14.000] refurbished the whole wing in this hospital and said, “Sister, this is the Rosary Hall that

[00:59:14.000 – 00:59:15.500] you’ve been thinking about.

[00:59:15.500 – 00:59:25.700] This is the new flower room.” So

[00:59:25.700 – 00:59:36.200] sister, with wonderful sponsors in the surrounding country, has since looked

[00:59:36.200 – 00:59:40.000] after ten thousand more.

[00:59:40.000 – 00:59:50.200] So, dear folks, what is

[00:59:50.200 – 00:59:53.500] our responsibility to the future going to be?

[00:59:53.500 – 00:60:03.500] We must invoke God’s

[00:60:03.500 – 00:60:04.800] blessing and guidance.

[00:60:04.800 – 00:60:15.000] May He bless you and me and Alcoholics Anonymous forever.

[00:60:15.000 – 00:60:40.300] Thank

[00:60:40.300 – 00:60:40.900] you, Bill.

[00:60:40.900 – 00:60:44.800] And in closing, I know I speak for everyone.

[00:60:44.800 – 00:60:46.500] I know I speak for myself.

[00:60:46.500 – 00:60:51.700] Our deepest gratitude to you, and may you have many blessed twenty-four hours.

[00:54:34.200 – 00:54:39.300] matched in AA history.

[00:54:39.300 – 00:54:52.400] Already hospitalizing folks at the city institution, he

[00:54:52.400 – 00:54:58.400] one day couldn’t get somebody in, and he went over to St.

[00:54:58.400 – 00:55:01.500] Thomas, the Catholic hospital there.

[00:55:01.500 – 00:55:14.400] And he had a trembling victim with him, and

[00:55:14.400 – 00:55:22.800] the nurse on reception was one so beloved to us as Sister Ignatius.

[00:55:22.800 – 00:55:32.900] She was dubious, however, about the trustees, maybe even the

[00:55:32.900 – 00:55:33.900] superior.

[00:55:33.900 – 00:55:39.100] And she said, “Dr.

[00:55:39.100 – 00:55:49.600] Smith, if you don’t mind, shan’t we say that this man has a bad case of

[00:55:49.600 – 00:55:59.200] nerves or something, and I will put him in the flower room.” Quite significant was the flower room.

[00:55:59.200 – 00:56:02.400] And so Dr.

[00:56:02.400 – 00:56:12.900] Bob and this marvelous sister began to minister to us way back in nineteen

[00:56:12.900 – 00:56:14.000] hundred and four.

[00:56:14.000 – 00:56:26.600] The atmosphere of that place, absolutely

[00:56:26.600 – 00:56:28.000] ideal for us.

[00:56:28.000 – 00:56:32.200] No proselyting.

[00:56:32.200 – 00:56:34.800] Anybody received.

[00:56:34.800 – 00:56:44.800] The sister asked them to pay what they could, and she finally put so much on the

[00:56:44.800 – 00:56:46.700] cuff, the trustees did object.

[00:56:46.700 – 00:56:57.100] But do you know that these people ministered to five thousand

[00:56:57.100 – 00:57:03.700] drunks between nineteen forty and nineteen fifty when Dr.

[00:57:03.700 – 00:57:04.700] Bob died?

[00:57:04.700 – 00:57:15.300] That made him the prince

[00:57:15.300 – 00:57:24.400] of the twelfth step, and I guess Sister Ignatius the princess.

[00:57:24.400 – 00:57:27.600] Moreover, Dr.

[00:57:27.600 – 00:57:32.400] Bob had medically treated all of these people for nothing.

[00:57:32.400 – 00:57:36.800] And when Dr.

[00:57:36.800 – 00:57:45.800] Bob took his leave of us, the last time we saw him was at the Cleveland International in nineteen fifty.

[00:57:45.800 – 00:57:55.800] That had been the sum of the responsibility which he and sister

[00:57:55.800 – 00:58:02.800] had assumed and so wonderfully discharged.

[00:58:02.800 – 00:58:11.700] God knows how many of the, so– those they sobered up, and they were a good sixty percent.

[00:58:11.700 – 00:58:18.000] How many of them are lineal ancestors of many in this room?

[00:58:18.000 – 00:58:24.400] Because the culture implanted in them began to magnify.

[00:58:24.400 – 00:58:31.200] And the story isn’t quite through.

[00:58:31.200 – 00:58:34.000] Though Dr.

[00:58:34.000 – 00:58:44.100] Bob is gone in fifty, Sister was moved to the Charity Hospital in

[00:58:44.100 – 00:58:44.500] Cleveland.

[00:58:44.500 – 00:58:52.400] And our love was with her.

[00:58:52.400 – 00:59:02.600] And AAs who could do plumbing and wiring or give money and were not poor

[00:59:02.600 – 00:59:14.000] refurbished the whole wing in this hospital and said, “Sister, this is the Rosary Hall that

[00:59:14.000 – 00:59:15.500] you’ve been thinking about.

[00:59:15.500 – 00:59:25.700] This is the new flower room.” So

[00:59:25.700 – 00:59:36.200] sister, with wonderful sponsors in the surrounding country, has since looked

[00:59:36.200 – 00:59:40.000] after ten thousand more.

[00:59:40.000 – 00:59:50.200] So, dear folks, what is

[00:59:50.200 – 00:59:53.500] our responsibility to the future going to be?

[00:59:53.500 – 00:60:03.500] We must invoke God’s

[00:60:03.500 – 00:60:04.800] blessing and guidance.

[00:60:04.800 – 00:60:15.000] May He bless you and me and Alcoholics Anonymous forever.

[00:60:15.000 – 00:60:40.300] Thank

[00:60:40.300 – 00:60:40.900] you, Bill.

[00:60:40.900 – 00:60:44.800] And in closing, I know I speak for everyone.

[00:60:44.800 – 00:60:46.500] I know I speak for myself.

[00:60:46.500 – 00:60:51.700] Our deepest gratitude to you, and may you have many blessed twenty-four hours.

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