I went to a meeting today...And as usual....Nobody was busting out with a topic. So I brought up....The book. Let's talk about the Big Book. I asked with a show of hands....How may people have read it? Would you believe 6 out of the 24 people there had even read it?
I mean if you open the book to the foreward...Right in the front....You don't have to dig any further...It says...
To show other alcoholics PRECISELY HOW WE HAVE RECOVERED is the main purpose of this book.
Wouldn't you think that more people would have a desire to see what that's all about?
That book contains the message we should carry....
The tremendous fact for every one of us is that we have discovered a common solution. We have a way out on which we can absolutely agree, and upon which we can join in brotherly and harmonious action. This is the great news this book carries to those who suffer from alcoholism.
BB pg 17
And only a quarter of the people in the meeting had bothered to read it. That perplexed me.
In the preface it states that the book has become the basic text for our society. And what is a text / textbook? It's a book that is studied. You don't read it once or twice and put it back on the shelf. You read it again and again. Take it to Big Book meetings and make notes. Highlight meaningful text. I get a lot out of it when I read it alone as well. It can also be interesting to listen to speaker tapes on the Big Book while taking notes in the margins of the book.
I do believe the Big Book was "inspired". I notice something different every time I read it. And the answers to all of my problems seem to be in that book!
I don't think we should be surprised that a person relapses, or has not read the Big Book.
We ought to be surprised that we are still sober, or that we have read the Big Book.
We are sober today because of a miracle.
__________________
"... unless this person can experience an entire psychic change there is very little hope of recovery." Dr. Silkworth. (Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Ed. p.xxix)
Stepchild, I understand you very well. Here we have meetings that they almost don't read the Big Book. I can see that there people are to get boyfriends or girlfriends, jobs, to talk about life. Its some kind of social club. And when I go there, sometimes I am angry and I start with quotes of Big Book :D to "punish" them ... and I see in their eyes that they almost don't know what is all about. And I've seen people, who don't do the Steps and they are sponsoring. And even don't read the Big Book and really are sponsoring. It's ... I don't have words for it.
And there is no recovery. This is the truth. My sponsor once told me that I have to be where is no recovery. Because there is may be one person, who really search a way out. And I have to be there for her/him. May be the Higher Power will approah him/her through me. I don't know .. I just have to look my own recovery and part of this is to carry the message.
Still baffles me too Steppa! It probably should'nt, but it does. I guess my perspective has changed since I'm on the other side now. The Spiritual Awakening side with the tools and design for living that is the 12 Steps. I did not change by just going to meetings and talking within the Fellowship. I needed to work/still work The Steps on a daily basis and have a Spiritual Awakening. It took me going through some pain to become desperate enough for a change and willing to step outside my comfort zone and work The Program in it's entirety.
That's very good advice your sponsor gave you MOH. I really think desperation has a lot to do with it. That's the greatest gift I was ever given. I didn't come into AA for the girl..Or the family...Or friends....No judge sent me there. I was desperate....And I wanted to know everything I could about AA. I immersed myself in it......And that meant not only reading...But studying the book that will show me PRECISELY HOW THEY RECOVERED.
That's a good word PRECISELY. It means....in exact terms; without vagueness.
On page 29 they say..
Further on, clear-cut directions are given showing how we recovered.
I mean....If studying and understanding that isn't at the top of your To-Do list.....Maybe you just don't want it that bad. Maybe if you just go to park your ass in a meeting and text your friends..... Your life will get better. I haven't seen that work yet.
Then I had to do what what was in the book....But that's a different story. Page 85.
If we have carefully followed directions, we have begun to sense the flow of His Spirit into us. To some extent we have become God-conscious. We have begun to develop this vital sixth sense.
I know I wasn't very excited about the Big Book UNTIL I got the gift of desperation. Until then it really didn't make alot of sense to me, I didn't always identify with it.
But once I took the first step and realized that I was powerless over alcohol - meaning that I could not drink safely anymore, but that I would drink anyway and things were therefore very dire, I found myself willing to go to any lengths. And that meant I had a totally new perspective on the Big Book (and many other things in the program). (Funny thing about the first step for me is, it wasn't something that I was trying to do at the time. It just flashed through my mind when I looked around at where I was living, and what I had been doing, and where my very best efforts while drinking had gotten me. And it had a profound effect).
Sorry Stepdude, I had to laugh when I read your post ... ... ... why???
At my old Home Group in Georgia, I'd share frequently and nearly always read a passage out of my BB, that I always carried with me, to emphasize a point ... most the time, members would come up to me in the 'meeting after the meeting' and comment on how much it meant to them or to say, 'I'm glad you read that' ... ... ...
Well, I had an old timer come up to once and said he was getting tired of me reading all the time ... he said this is not a 'book study' meeting ... and he said if people were serious about the program, they could read it themselves ...
I said if they don't read the book, just how are to know about the 'good stuff' if someone doesn't bring it to their attention ??? ... ... ... He left me alone after that and I continued for years, to read out of the book any time I was inspired to do so when the topic seem to call for it ...
Thanks for the memory!!!
__________________
'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
Must be! There are no coincidences in The Program.