"Overjoyed, the newcomer plunged into Twelfth Step work. Tirelessly he laid AA's message before scores of people. Since this was a very early group, those...
"'Nevertheless,' we pointed out, 'you still have a legal right to take this job.' 'I know that,' he said. 'But this is no time for legalities. Alcoholics...
"Then came the opposition. They pointed out that the Foundation board already knew of a total of half a million dollars set aside for AA in the wills of people...
"It is significant, now that almost no AA in our Fellowship breaks anonymity at the public level, that nearly all these fears have subsided. We see that we...
"Now we come to another kind of problem: the intellectually self- sufficient man or woman. To these, many AA's can say, 'Yes, we were like you...far too smart...
"So how, exactly, can the willing person continue to turn his will and his life over to the Higher Power? He made a beginning, we have seen, when he commenced...
"The sponsors of those who feel they need no inventory are confronted with quite another problem. This is because people who are driven by pride of self...
"Yet many of us still hung back. We said, 'Why can't "God as we understand Him" tell us where we are astray? If the Creator gave us our lives in the first...
"What we must recognize now is that we exult in some of our defects. We really love them. Who, for example, doesn't like to feel just a little superior to the...
"This improved perception of humility starts another revolutionary change in our outlook. Our eyes begin to open to the immense values which have come straight...
"Finally, we begin to see that all people, including ourselves, are to some extent emotionally ill as well as frequently wrong, and then we approach true...
"Nor is this the only kind of Twelfth Step work. We sit in AA meetings and listen, not only to receive something ourselves, but to give the reassurance and...
"'Although I asked Charlie for a little time to consider it, my own mind was about made up. Racing back to Brooklyn on the Subway, I had a seeming flash of...
"Not long after the man with the double stigma knocked for admission, AA's other group received into its membership a salesman we shall call Ed. A power...
"Then our trustees wrote a bright page of AA history. They declared for the principle that AA must always stay poor. Bare running expenses plus a prudent...
"Another crowd of AA's says: 'We were plumb disgusted with religion and all its works. The Bible, we said, was full of nonsense; we could cite it chapter and...
"At first that 'somebody' is likely to be his closest AA friend. He relies upon the assurance that his many troubles, now made more acute because he cannot use...
"First off, they can be told that the majority of AA members have suffered severely from self-justification during their drinking days. For most of us,...
"At this stage, the difficulties of trying to deal rightly with God by ourselves are twofold. Though we may at first be startled to realize that God knows all...
"Self-righteous anger also can be very enjoyable. In a perverse way we can actually take satisfaction from the fact that many people annoy us, for it brings a...
"Then, in AA, we looked and listened. Everywhere we saw failure and misery transformed by humility into priceless assets. We heard story after story of how...
"Such a radical change in our outlook will take time, maybe a lot of time. Not many people can truthfully assert that they love everybody. Most of us must...
"To see how erratic emotions victimized us often took a long time. We could perceive them quickly in others, but only slowly in ourselves. First of all, we had...
"Perhaps, though, your relation to him is such that you would care to reveal only a part of your story. If this is the situation, by all means do so, for you...
"'Shucks!' says somebody. 'This is nonsense. It isn't practical.' When such thoughts break in, we might recall, a little ruefully, how much store we used to...
"We may often pass through Twelfth Step experiences where we will seem to be temporarily off the beam. These will appear as big setbacks at the time, but will...
"At length the time came for him to speak in a meeting. We shivered, for we knew what was coming. He paid a fine tribute to the Fellowship; he told how his...
"When these facts were printed, there was a profound reaction. To people familiar with endless drives for charitable funds, AA presented a strange and...
"As psychiatrists have often observed, defiance is the outstanding characteristic of many an alcoholic. So it's not strange that lots of us have had our day at...
"Then it is explained that other Steps of the AA program can be practiced with success only when Step Three is given a determined and persistent trial. This...
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