Once again I was reading the history of this program and using a lot of it as meditative material. In a sense, as I read it, it has an element of spirituality to it. That’s because it was written by non alcoholics interested in the program itself and how it formed and grew to help alcoholics like myself to get sober.
Oh, and the book itself, because I don’t want to create a problem by saying what it is and what’s in it, I will still hold off giving away the title. In fact I kind of laugh, when I look at when it was published I was already sober a few years.
But what it shows for one thing was the problem from almost the beginning was the difference between Dr. Bob and the Akron group, who belonged to the Oxford Group, and the New York City group, who with Bill W. had broken away from the Oxford Group. The Akron, Ohio group was almost a religion. New York was not. So there were difficulties none of us have had to go through.
Why I bring this up is that when I think about all of this I find myself open to the spirituality of this program. Especially when I think of what it was that these groups had to go through to build this program and try to remain sober. And it was what Bill and others, and Dr. Bob and others, had to do to form this program, to put the Steps into reality, as well as the program itself. At the same time writing the BB.
What I was thinking about were the things in spirituality, which really made this program effective came after the book was published. But they became part of it and that’s a blessing for those of us who wanted to get sober and stay sober. Not easy. Says a lot about Bill, Dr. Bob, and all those who contributed what they could to the practice of what they were learning and finally writing at the same time. Amazing to a chronic alcoholic like myself.
It also reminds me of what I was like, when I came through these doors and into this program. My mind was filled with things I thought I knew and felt I didn’t need to listen to anyone else in order to remain sober. I was told by my old sponsor and those old timers what I needed to do. And eventually I did and am so grateful. I was told to “Shut Up! I didn’t know what I was talking about. I needed to learn how to listen to those who were sober!”
I can’t tell how grateful I am for my old sponsor and those old timers who straightened me out. I have an old friend in the program, who often talks about how much he thought he was in control, while he was blind to what he was losing even in sobriety. In a sense that was me. I had to get honest and open up and share, after I learned how this program works and was working it. Staying sober a day at a time…and not doing that alone. Again, amazing.