Carl Jung gave his patient, seeking and answer to his alcoholic dilemma, the direction he needed. He was told to find a spiritual solution. Fortunately for us all, he did. He passed that message on to Ebby, along with the Oxford Movement, and Ebby did the same to Bill and Bill passed it on to Dr. Bob and AA was born. That story should never be forgotten, because it is the story of each one of us. Not just in the passing it on, but in the seeking.
Bill and Bob didn’t have the guide we have today in the BB. Bill, in the beginning, wasn’t seeking a spiritual solution to his problem with alcohol. He was stumbling around and falling all over the place. It wasn’t until Ebby planted the seed in him that he began to clumsily find his way out of that dilemma. Bob on the other hand was desperately attempting to find a spiritual answer but had no direction, until Bill came along. And none of these four men could begin this journey until they had surrendered to the first step. That was the key Dr. Bob was unaware of. Until Bill told him his story Dr. Bob had no direction. The man with Dr. Jung knew from his own experiences and what Dr. Jung told him that he was beyond all help. Dr. Jung’s statement to him was his bottom. Ebby on the other hand might have just gone through his bottom without seeing it. Just a guess.
In the BB we’re handed the solution in an order and a way which is the solution to our problem with alcohol. We’re shown step by step the solution. In the first three chapters of the BB we’re handed the first key, which opens the door. Our bottoms. The hopelessness of our alcoholic situation. Then we find we progress to the soluion itself. God could and would if he was sought. All of the steps lead us inevitably to this answer we so desperately need in order not to die of our drinking.
I was thinking today of that word “sought” or seeking. That’s what I must do. I must seek the answer everyday. Bill used that word any number of times. “Sought through prayer and meditation…” It’s what he did on the bed in the hospital. “If there is a God…” He was trying to find him. He was seeking him. That’s what Rowlad H. did, Dr. Jung’s patient, when he went out and found the Oxford Movement. He was seeking.
I know today, if I am to remain sober, that this program is exactly what Bill described it as: an action program. It’s always an action program. Everyday I get up, I must remember to put this program into action. But it’s so simple. By applying the word “seeking” to my day, I have to remember how it’s done. And it’s done through these 12 steps one day at a time. It’s how it works.