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District 14 Archives |
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December | January | May | June | July | August | September | November Alcoholics Anonymous has its own Archives newsletter called 'Markings'. In the May-June 2004 issue they referred to the relationship A.A. has had with the Clergy. It states: Alcoholics Anonymous early on struck a chord with the clergy, who could see that this unorthodox movement of low-bottom drunks had a roadmap to a spirituality that lived and breathed. Members of the clergy continue to contribute to our work, with Class A trustees serving on the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous. The relationship has been complex, evolving from simple support to deep admiration, as expressed by Dr. Fosdick: (Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, p.323) "Alcoholics Anonymous, grown to its present strength, is a godsend to us ministers. How can we understand an alcoholic-his compulsive desire for liquor, the hopeless captivity against which he futilely contends, one determined decision after another to stop drinking ending in collapse? When we talk to an alcoholic, he knows that never having been in his place we cannot understand his plight. But when an ex-alcoholic*, who has been in the depths himself has taken the Twelve Steps to freedom, talks to an alcoholic, amazing results can follow and have followed in countless thousands** of lives." *by ex-alcoholic he refers to having overcome the obsession of mind and allergy of the body. **A.A. Comes of Age was published in 1957. A more recent praise of A.A.'s work was published in Guideposts magazine in April 1989. It was an article by the magazines' founder, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and titled "Twelve Tremendous Steps That Will Work for Anyone'. I have permission from the Guideposts people to copy and distribute this article. If you would like to read it please e-mail me at ctedinc@ipa.net and send a SASE to Ted Hutchens, 5076 E. Farm Road 174, Rogersville, MO 65742. In our Archives mission statement we use a quote from Bill W. to define our purpose for the collecting of historical items relating to A.A., "...so that myth doesn't prevail over fact.". On the subject of myth, It seems that both Bill and Dr. Bob had a familiarity with Greek Mythology by their writings. Perhaps the best known are the references to 'laurels' (p. 85 in both Alcoholics Anonymous and Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions) where in both books the lesson is not to '...rest on our laurels.' while practicing the A.A. program. The laurel wreath is the symbol that appears on the Olympic medal. It is literally a crown, formed from leaves of the laurel tree, that was awarded to the victor in each event. According to Greek mythology the laurel tree was created from a mortal Daphne who was pursued by the god Apollo and whose only escape from him was to be transformed into the tree from which Apollo took the branches to make the crown he wore from that day forth. For our use it means not to step back from helping others based on past accomplishments. In 'Dr. Bob's Nightmare' (p. 175 Alcoholics Anonymous) Bob refers to his dilemma of being compelled to drink to soothe his stomach, but knowing that drinking would torture his nerves as being "...between Scylla and Charybdis...". These were two monsters in mythology that brought dread to mariners passing through the straits of Sicily. Charybdis '...swallows the waves of the bitter sea and three times each day she throws them up again.'* while Scylla was a nymph of rare beauty given six frightful heads on necks of monstrous length and doomed to live in a dark cavern by the sea by a jealous rival. Both creatures certainly represent physical and mental discomfort and the dread of drinking or not drinking for Dr. Bob. The most meaningful use is in the 12 x 12 where Bill writes on Tradition Four (best known for Rule #62), ' We are children of chaos...' (p. 146 Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions). The god Chaos was '...vast and dark.'* and from Chaos came two children, Erebus (the dark region of the underworld through which the dead must pass before they reach Hades) and Night**. Certainly this is in step with the darkness of our active alcoholism turning towards the light of Alcoholics Anonymous! *New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology, 1977. **Erebus and Night gave birth in turn to Ether and Hemera, the day. In reading 'BILL'S STORY' in the Big Book he writes, "Out of this alloy of drink and speculation, I commenced to forge the weapon that one day would turn in its flight like a boomerang and all but cut me to ribbons." (Alcoholics Anonymous, p.2). I believe this is Bill trying to define the obsession and allergy described by Dr. Silkworth (THE DOCTOR'S OPINION). Also, as a boy, Bill W. had become fascinated by boomerangs. He had read about them and, while being raised by his maternal grandparents*, he searched about frantically for a piece of wood to fashion into this weapon of the Australian bushmen. Ultimately he removed the appropriate sample to carve from the headboard of his bed! It worked, much to the consternation of his grandparents**. *his parents had split and his mother was one of the earliest women physicians to be in practice. Both of Bill's parents are buried in the same cemetery in Vermont, but his mother and father are separated by a road.
**this story is told in detail in 'Bill W.' by Robert Thomsen One of the principle texts that Bill worked from when writing the Big Book was 'Sermon on the Mount' by Emmet Fox. In his writings, he (Fox) refers to holding resentment as '...drinking Prussic Acid*...', and waiting for the person we resent to suffer. This was likely a catalyst for Bill to give so much attention to the subject. I always imagine the sponsor talking with the newcomer and pointing out the passages; 'Resentment is the "number one" offender. It destroys more alcoholics than anything else.' (Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 64), '...a life which includes deep resentment leads only to futility and unhappiness.', '...this business of resentment is infinitely grave. We found that it is fatal.' (Alcoholics Anonymous, p.66) and the sponsoree saying, "So, these resentments are bad?" A line that follows these statements was one I overlooked for years, "We turned back to the list (resentments), for it held the key to the future.' (Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 66). That just about defines the program of A.A., building character on principles instead of resentments.-Ted *Prussic Acid is hydrocyanic acid (nasty stuff), taken from the French word prussique. The French language also gave us the root word for resentment, ressentir which means 'to feel the result of'. Top of page When Tradition Three begins (12 x 12, p. 139) it qualifies that it is talking to '...every serious* drinker, "You are an A.A. member if you say so." '. When we began, each group or area had its own membership rules. 'The total list was a mile long. If all those rules had been in effect everywhere, nobody could have possibly joined A.A. at all, so great was the sum of our anxiety and fear.' (p.140) Our local rules (The Springfield Discussion Club @ Hotel Sterling, circa 1946) for local A.A. were as follows: 'Membership in this club is by invitation only.' followed by 'All guest(s) and visitors are by personal invitation by one of its members.' and 'This club is not open to the public.' When refering to the process of forming the Twelve Traditions, A.A. says 'It was this vast welter of explosive experience that A.A.'s Twelve Traditions took form and were later published in 1946 and later confirmed at A.A.'s First International Convention, held at Cleveland in 1950.' (12 x 12, p.18) I think it interesting that the A.A. pamphlet on the Traditions refers to their production process as 'distilling'!-Ted *emphasis added to reflect A.A.'s singleness of purpose Someone recently inquired about the origins of the word 'sponsor' in A.A. The Big Book has a chapter devoted to the subject, yet never uses the word sponsor. It does, however, put forward the terms 'prospect' (p. 90), 'protege' (p. 92), and 'candidate' (p.94). Each of these terms refers to a special relationship with people being introduced to the A.A. program. The dictionary defines (for our purposes) sponsor as: 1. n someone who accepts personal responsibility for another. The source for our use of the term probably resides in the membership of early A.A. being mostly men and the expression was borrowed from lodge membership, i.e. Shriner's, Masonic, Knights of Columbus etc. where someone would actually sponsor you for membership. By the time the 12 x 12 was printed (1952) the term had already taken hold and is still used today. Perhaps the best description of sponsorship is in the opening of the chapter WORKING WITH OTHERS which states, "Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics.'
Taken from the manuscript of A.A. World History, 1985; January is the anniversary month for Springfield MO AA. We started continuous meetings on January 15, 1945 beginning in the home of Jeanne C., our founder. Her home still stands at 1950 S. Jefferson (just north of Cherokee), and there is a stone in the sidewalk commemorating the event. The stone was placed there in 1995 and is registered with the city as a historical marker. We have one of Jeanne's talks recorded and in it she details the beginnings of AA here. One of the places we later met was the Hotel Sterling, still located downtown across from the newly reopened Gilloiz Theatre. Jeanne tells of gathering in the basement there with water running across the floor! Our first set of 'membership rules' (before the Traditions were established) are typed on the letterhead of the Sterling and are located in the Archives @ Central Office. On October 14, 1939, the "Journal of the American Medical Association" (JAMA) published the following review of "Alcoholics Anonymous: How More Than One Hundred Men Have Recovered from Alcoholism." The seriousness of the psychiatric and social problem represented by addiction to alcohol is generally underestimated by those not intimately familiar with the tragedies in the families of victims or the resistance (alcoholic) addicts offer to any effective treatment. Many psychiatrists regard addiction to alcohol as having a more pessimistic prognosis than schizophrenia. For many years the public was beguiled into believing that short courses of enforced abstinence and catharsis in "institutes" and "rest homes" would do the trick, and now that the failure of such temporizing has become common knowledge, a considerable number of other forms of quack treatment have sprung up. The book under review is a curious combination of organizing propaganda and religious exhortation. It is in no sense a scientific book, although it is introduced by a letter from a physician* who claims to know some of the anonymous contributors who have been "cured" of addiction to alcohol and have joined together in an organization which would save other (alcohol) addicts by a kind of religious conversion. The book contains instructions as to how to intrique the alcoholic addict into the acceptance of divine guidance in the place of alcohol in terms strongly reminiscent of Dale Carnegie and the adherents of the Buchman ("Oxford") movement. The one valid thing in the book is the recognition of the seriousness of addiction to alcohol. Other than this, the book has no scientific merit or interest.**
* Dr. Silkworth's name was not printed until 1955 in the first printing
of the 2nd Edition 'Alcoholics Anonymous', 16 years and 17 printings later. Step 12-After the first 11 steps it is assumed that you have recieved the single benefit-'a spiritual awakening'-meaning a peace with yourself, God as you understand Him, and those around you. Carry this message! (the one in AA printed materials) Tradition 12-A great compliment to Step 12 in stating (12x12, p.184), 'The spiritual substance of anonymity is sacrifice.' Not just the abandon of public disclosure of membership, but giving of yourself to others-many times at great inconvenience! As my first sponsor said, "Doing for others without recognition or reward." |