In the clearcut instructions for taking the steps the book talks about getting down to causes and conditions in step 4. To me that meant gaining some insight into my personality and character and how my behaviour and attitudes were self defeating. In other words my poor spiritual condition caused me to behave the way I did. (very short version)
I was wondering whether the term "causes and conditions" might have been a figure of speech in use at the time, like nuts and bolts or getting down to brass tacks.
That's a good question Mike. The cause of my alcoholism was directly proportionate to my lack of spiritual understanding, just like you. And how the unfortunate circumstances in life are contrary to what I perceive today as being real and eternal. Bill W used a specific phrase in step 11 that sums up my feelings all too well, and this is what he said:
"The moment we catch even a glimpse of God's will for our lives, the moment we begin to see truth, justice, and love as the real and eternal things in life, we are no longer deeply disturbed by all the seeming evidence to the contrary that surrounds us in purely human affairs."
How beautiful is that? As far as causes and conditions go, nothing can be farther from the truth when you compare that alongside the virtues listed above. Everything else is a contradiction, nothing more. And that's how I separate fact from fantasy today, period. Remove the doubt and instill some spiritual understanding instead, just like above. When we do, nothing will compare, ever.
Sorry so late to chime in, but this is one of my favorite paragraphs in the book.
Bill uses a lot of figures of spech in his writing, but this always seemed to be pretty plain-speak to me. I don't hear the phrase "causes and conditions" used much in our language today.
One interesting thing about the english language is we all seem to use many of the same figures of speech, like "nuts and bolts" and "brass tacks" whether we are in NZ, US or UK.
I have a customer from Jamaica, and in her broken island english, she uses the same figures of speech the rest of us do.
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Rob
"There ain't no Coupe DeVille hiding in the bottom of a Cracker Jack Box."
My sponsor told me when I read the book, to just read the black stuff and to ignore the white stuff in between the lines. I was never a very good listener in those days.
A cause is something that produces an effect or condition. So Bill could just have easily have said causes and effects. Sound familiar?
I hear Bill was quite handy with a thesaurus. I was in a meeting once and these two guys were arguing over the difference between a character defect and a shortcoming. I didn't have the heart to tell them they both mean the same thing and Bill just didn't want to end two steps with the same word.
Thanks for bringing that up, FS.
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Not all my days are priceless, but none of my days are worthless, anymore.
