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Good morning everyone!
Let's turn to page xi, the Preface to the Third Edition, and look at paragraph #2. This book is identified as "the basic text for our Society." A basic text is a book which can convey knowledge – in other words, a text book.
Turn to page xiii, the Foreword to the First Edition. The first paragraph is where we want to draw our attention. Bill realized that there is strength in the collective voice. Hence, "... are more than one hundred men and women who have recovered… ." (There's that word "recovered" again!) The fact of the matter is that we are more likely to listen to one hundred than to just a single voice.
"To show other alcoholics PRECISELY HOW WE HAVE RECOVERED is the main purpose of this book." A powerful statement! Note that the capitalized words in the sentence above were capitalized in the first edition of the book. Subsequent editions italicized these words.
This is where I usually share my story about my Aunt Pat's strawberry shortcake:
"My Aunt Pat makes a wonderful strawberry shortcake. I look forward to it every time I see her out in Newton, New Jersey. After years of visits I finally asked her for the recipe which she gladly gives to me. I went home, followed the directions as they were written and viola! the strawberry shortcake I have always loved!
"Then my ego gets involved. I think a little more sugar in the whipped cream would improve it. Maybe frozen strawberries. Or let's use Cool Whip instead of real whipped cream. I make the cake using my version and it isn't as good, in fact I am disappointed."
The Big Book shows us a specific recipe for sobriety and, if we follow it carefully, we will get all the benefits of The AA Program. If we change the recipe we will get something else and we will be greatly disappointed.
With our next post we will go to page xv - the Foreword to the Second Edition. Thanks again, and don't forget to pass it on!
With our next post we will go to page xv - the Foreword to the Second Edition. Thanks again, and don't forget to pass it on!
Have a great day!
Jim
Weekend Big Book Studies with Jim & Dave - visit: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Big_Book_Seminars
For a weekly chuckle visit: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/The_Friday_Chuckle
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