Bill F. from Lorraine, Ohio at Windsor, Ontario, Date missing

Thank you. Nice, nice, welcome. Everything about this conference. Good night. You know, a lot of food in the morning. Didn't have to buy it. You know, a lot of hard work in there and a lot of a lot of support to the elements also because they helped contribute to that. But AL's been up here telling stories all all day, you know, and yesterday. And I tell you what is sponsor Pat saying

one day Jesus on earth and he's walking down the street and he came to a corner

there's a man crying. He said why are you crying? My son said blind and I can't see and Jesus healed them When another corner a man was crying and said, why are you crying my son and I'm lame and I can't walk And Jesus healed him and Pat was riding in his car one day all alone and he was crying. Jesus appeared in the seat next to me said why are you crying? Pat said I got to go to a meetings with Al and said Jesus.

Jesus started crying

to loosen up. They want to play Kenya top this

and I read a little something before I started. Got a lot of mileage out of it. I cut it out of newspaper and maybe some of you can identify with this. Dear professor. This was told to me by a guy from Torrington CT.

A man was driving home late 1 evening going South to 991. He had several drinks and it's so obvious to please soon pull them over. As the cop approached the car and accident occurred in the opposite lane. So the cop told a drunk to get out of the car and wait. The cop crossed the media and to see if he could help the accident victims. The drunk waited for a while but then decided after his car and he started off for home.

He told his wife to tell the police if they should call. He's been home all night and sober as a judge.

The next morning, the doorbell rang. When he answered it, two state cops were standing there, including the one who had stopped him.

Naturally, claimed he had been home all night. His wife backed up the story, but the cops asked if they could look in the garage. The man, not sure what's going on, said sure. So they went to the garage, open the door, and there was a police cruiser, it's lights still flashing.

Those kind of things used to happen to me.

My wife's been in Al Anon for 31 years,

you know, and I'm accustomed to the yelling on handshake. I don't know if any of you over here are familiar with it goes like this.

I I told a fella the other day, I said I finally found out why those Alvin closed their eyes when we Make Love to them. They came to see us having a good time.

A lot of support from Ellen on in my life.

My name is Bill. I'm an alcoholic.

I'm going to talk to you tonight about alcoholism. I'm not going to talk to you about the typical alcoholic personality. I'm not going to talk to you about whether God is a male or a female. I'm not going to talk to you about whether

defects of character are different than shortcomings. I'm going to tell you what a bottle of whiskey and did in my life. And whether you understand it yet or not, today a bottle of whiskey does the same thing today to a man or a woman as it did 100 years ago.

And the only program we've found over the years has been successful in treating the alcoholic has been a A with the best results. A lot of people talk about going to a treatment center to get well. When you come into a A, you're coming into a A for treatment.

The treatment is the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, which made an impact worldwide.

Lot of people don't understand it. They always think as if they they go someplace to be treated and come here and tell us what they did.

AA is a treatment for alcoholism. And I've learned since I've been in a a there's a big difference between an alcohol problem and a behavioral disorder. See, a lot of people want to talk about behavioral disorders. You got to be careful when you come in here because we try to get away from that stuff.

In the world's most renowned psychiatrist gave us the format for Alcoholics Anonymous. A lot of people say it was divinely inspired by it came from Carl Jung. He gave the role in Hazard, who went overseas to study with him. Now there's a point I want to bring out just to emphasize what I'm saying.

Karl Young took role in Hazard to this therapy. He said he learned the inner workings of his mind so well he believed relapsed, unthinkable. That's what a lot of people are trying to do, learn what made him alcoholic, the inner workings of their minds.

Nevertheless, he was drunk short period of time, he went back overseas. He wanted to know why. And Carl Jung said this. Chronic Alcoholics must have a spiritual experience in order to recover a psychic change to a spiritual experience. And that was the whole format for the program of AA. Join the Oxford Movement, came home, got the message to Abby and Ebby, brought it to Bill,

and lo and behold, there was the beginning of the program of Alcoholics Anonymous. It's important to remember that because too many people come in this program anymore suffering from the paralysis of analysis.

Well, too deep into this stuff.

This is a simple program at a very simple statement that keep it simple and somebody packed the word on their stupid.

Not stupid is keep it simple. Somebody else, to keep it simple, is a simple program for complicated people or not complicated people were sick.

You ever hear somebody stand up and say I'm not a bad person getting good, I'm a sick person getting well? Because we consider alcoholism and illness a disease. It's not too, too well received yet. You know, alcoholism is still shame based. A lot of people would rather be mentally ill and come here and be an alcoholic,

and only we can change that. Well, I came in here because I started drinking at an early age,

as 1314. I had a regular drinking pattern at this time,

and it wasn't alcoholism because I was choosing to do it. You know, there's a big difference between choosing to get drunk and getting drunk when you don't want to.

After choosing to get drunk I I had a lot of problems in my life as a teenager

and somewhere along the line in the early 20s I was married, I had a wife and two children and I got a mandate. I was told to quit drinking or else when something like this.

I'm tired of playing catch up. I don't want to live this way anymore. Every time we get a few dollars ahead, you're in jail on a DWI,

we have to hire an attorney, pay him money, We go to court, we pay the court money, our insurance goes up and we spend the next year paying off your DWI.

And that doesn't happen to go to the bar room and you spend more money than you have, and we spend the next two or three paychecks paying off your bar bill.

If that doesn't happen, you're sick, you're hungover, you can't go to work, our paycheck is short, and you still drink. I'm not going to live this way. If you drink one more time, I'm going to leave you. Now, it's not my idea to try to convince you that I didn't want a divorce and I didn't. I wouldn't want a divorce then any more than I want a divorce now. And I did the only thing I knew. As an alcoholic and probably most Alcoholics throughout history, I quit drinking.

It's common, common fact. If you're having a problem with it, quit. And I quit the only way I knew how. I got rid of the alcohol in the house. I didn't go to the bars and I didn't run with my drinking buddies.

Same thing we recommend in AA. And I quit drinking for three or four or five months, I can't remember exactly how long,

and the last thing I remember is going out the door and my wife screaming at me. Would you rather drink and have a wife and family? And I had no more idea why I was drunk then than I had when I came into AA and got drunk twice.

I had two. Two times I got drunk in this program

and May 11th, 19164 I had my last drinks. I've been sober 35 years and I had about three years before that accumulated

and I and I was always an active member. I've never been inactive,

see, And when I quit drinking, I became a model husband. I, I did everything I could around the house. And Carol today called me a model husband, my wife today. And we celebrated 25 years of marriage.

And I was pretty proud of being called a model husband. And one day I was doing some work in the dictionary with the kids schoolwork, and I looked at the definition of a model, a small imitation of the real thing.

So I don't know if she was complimenting me or not, you know.

But anyway, I start suffering

hi from the effects of alcohol

and I couldn't quit. I could say quit short periods of time. And throughout history people have tried to quit drinking just by abstinence. And a lot of people come to a A and they quit drinking by abstinence. And that's a half measure. You can see once you're an alcoholic, you're always an alcoholic and physically never change that.

But somewhere along the line we had to find The X Factor and there come the 12 steps of AA, physical alignment, charge of mental, the steps take care of. That's what I never had previous in my life. All I did was stop drinking and I would go back and mental obsession. I would like the transmission out of fluid. You know, it says not drinking is an abnormal condition for an alcoholic and that's where I was. I understand this Ridge, restless, irritable and discontented. I got that,

you know, and when you get that way, that's the definition of a dry drunk. Give you an example of a guy in dry drunk got up one morning, his wife said would you like to have breakfast? Said have breakfast every morning. Why wouldn't I have it today? So what do you want? Give me eggs. How do you want them? Fry one and scramble the other. You fried one egg and scramble the other and you looked at me and said you scrambled the wrong one.

Little exaggeration, but you get where I'm coming from.

I had a lot of time. I needed booze. I just couldn't function without it.

Well, I want a Korean War, and that's a story in itself. But I was going to college under the GI Bill

and consequences of my alcoholism are creeping up on me and the only way I can control it is by not drinking. First step of AA, always back again. And I'm in college. I'm doing well. On December 21st, 1956, our class threw a party for the holiday season. Food over here, booze over here. You eat at home, right? You drink at a party

on the way home I had a head on collision. Two people were killed, the woman in one car and a young boy in a car with me.

And Christmas Eve of that year there was two funerals. I ruined the holiday season for quite a few families

and as a result I was sentenced for state reformatory for traffic, manslaughter, resentment, self pity. I had my attorney asked me to get a letter from the priest. I needed all the help I could. I wouldn't see the priest asked him for a letter of support and he said who are you? I don't know who you are and he knew who I was but he looked in a book of contributions and my name wasn't there. Did you better find somebody that knows you

well? I didn't get that letter.

When I went to prison, somebody would come to me. What are you here for, Bill? I'm no longer there for manslaughter. You know why I was there now don't you?

Priest? Didn't write me a letter.

Forget the manslaughter charge. I'm building up a case where when I come into a a white only God and spirituality looking at one incident.

Well, I'm in that institution for nine months. 10th month I should go to parole board, 12 month I should come home. Good guy like me, no thoughts of alcohol when any around A man. Walked by myself one day and he said the man in the laundry has got booze and for three nights I didn't sleep.

Clicked right into that alcohol again. That mental obsession not to get drunk. I never went anyplace to get drunk.

I never went into a bar room and told a Barton, give me a shot in the beer. I want to get divorced.

I'd always take a shot and beer gonna make me feel better. I'm going to control it this time. I'm not going to have the same problem I had last time. You had a delusion,

never went in a barrel to give me a shot in the beer. I want to lose my job,

give me a shot in the beer. I want to go to jail. Never happened. Always going to make me feel good.

So I signed in there and 3rd, 3rd day I went down to that laundry room to get a little taste, not to get drunk, just a little taste. And when I went to the parole board I got 16 more months in prison for being drunk. Now, do you think I did that because I would rather be drunk and sober?

I did that because that's typical alcoholic behavior. That's why people think we're nuts. I don't have the proper attitude

when I'm dealing with alcohol. I just don't have. When I started drinking, alcohol became a mind expanding chemical for me and it did for a lot of other people. For my buddies, you know, social drinkers drink for the same reasons. We started something that we're Alcoholics and they're not that they don't have the same defects that we have. We have one big difference. They can shut it off. We can't. When we get alcoholism, there's the big difference.

Boy, I got this problem. Now I, I went back in my cell and I took what we call an A, a, an inventory and I came to a conclusion.

People that drink have more problems than people that don't drink have. I'm never going to drink again

and the guys picked me up, bringing me home when I was paroled. I'm divorced now,

probably about 15 minutes out of Mansfield. There's one of these red signs of blinking lights. Liquor pull in there can bring the mind the pain to suffering humiliation of a week or a month ago. We are without defense against the first drink. Here I am. I don't know how to deal with alcohol. Some people don't understand this. Some people in a, a, don't,

you know, But there I am now. I've got 18 years parole. I have to pull one year clean and I'm off paper and I'm home six months and I'm standing for the judge. And he said, how do you plead the DWI? I said not guilty, your honor, very polite. And he set a trial date for me. And when I came to trial, I was drunk. And he looked at him. He said, you're intoxicated. And I said, who are you, Dick Tracy?

Back to jail I went,

I understand. And looking at one of these deadbeat dads, you hear so much about

a judge

condemning me in these states that I'm the scum of the earth. They won't pay for my children's food and their clothing.

I've got my head bowed and I'm not this coming to the earth. And I love my children

and I love them then as much as I do today. But I had alcoholism and I don't have to make excuses because after I sobered up, I, I, I met all my obligation. But when I was drinking active alcoholism, I could not,

don't get down from that bench and take that Zorro robe off.

Get rid of this policeman. I'll show you doesn't love his kids. I can't do any of this. That part of it is nobody ever gave me one of these slips of paper that's floating around a A and said, go to Alcoholics Anonymous. You may have an alcohol problem. They kept throwing me in jail. And one of the first things I became active in when I sobered up was the Big Brothers movement in a a that we had.

We used to go to prisons and jails and sponsor people out who didn't have any place to go or a job

and we knocked on judges doors and we told judges it's better to treat an alcoholic and put them in jail

and they started in our area. Given these slips and a lot of people complain about it, a did that. We believed in it.

Well,

somewhere along the line I came to some conclusion. I was sitting in a bar room on Saturday morning and I decided there must be more to life than this. To work all week long, to get a paycheck on Friday, to be broke on Monday. Must be more to life than this. And I decided to go to a A

and when I went to Alcoholics Anonymous, I, I met a group of people, men. There wasn't too many women around at that time.

And they shared with me what they had,

and they misdirected me, not intentionally. They shared what they had because you can't transmit in here what you don't have.

And they had the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous to the worthy organization. And a lot of people can stay different, a lot of different stay sober, a lot of different ways in a fellowship.

And that's what they gave me, the fellowship of a A to stay sober on.

And I understand it wasn't enough for me.

As long as I go to the meetings and do what I have to do, then I won't drink. That was my program. It was an eye program, no basis for God. You don't get a spiritual experience or awakening by staying in God.

I mean staying in self rather than God.

That's where I was and we had a little thing we titled this little group of guys. There's about 12:15 of us individual programs now. We were bigger than a a you don't need God, big book steps in spirituality. Just do what I do. There's a guy on an Eagle trip.

He rarely have I seen an individual fail who sorely followed my path. You know, that's that's where I was

and I came in here and I stayed here for seven months. And if I missed the meeting, maybe one, and I got drunk

and I came back here

and I've gravitated over to that little nucleus of individual programs. Again and again I was pointed out, certain individuals in here, stay away from them. Why? They're fanatics. All they talk about is God in big books. Stay away from they'll drive you crazy. I'll get you drunk. And I avoided them.

Became loyal to this individual program group

after 27 months. I was the hub. People coming and going. We made statements like this. What keeps me sober may get you drunk, and what gets you drunk may keep me sober.

Know where you're at.

27 months. I got drunk, I got worse than I came back to AA

and I was here about three more years, so I'd be about 30. Two years ago. I had three more years in a program.

I was secretary of our central office. I was chairman at three groups. I was speaking to the patients at Serenity Hall.

I was chairman, I was doing, I was sponsoring people and I'm sitting in my bedroom and I'm fighting booze. I don't mean should I have a drink to go out and dance or talk to the girls. I don't want to drink and this thing's going squirrely up here.

I'm thinking to myself, what am IA freak? I'm doing everything these people told me to do in here. I am fighting booze

and my telephone rang that day and a man came into my life who gave me Alcoholics Anonymous as I tried to practice it today. And he asked me what was wrong. And I said, Dan, I've lost my enthusiasm for A. I've done everything you people have told me to do,

and I'm going to get drunk.

He said, build the root of the word enthusiasm with steel, meaning God. And unless you find God in your life, you'll never have enthusiasm come down to see me. And I went to see Dan that day and the first thing he asked me is, Bill, had you ever taken the third step in a A? And I told him, no, I had never gone through the steps of a A I was told I didn't have to. I was told all I have to do is not take the first drink,

be honest about it, work with another drunk

and you'll never drink again. And for some people this may work,

but our founders made a statement and they said if you're seriously alcoholic, as we were, we believe there is no middle of the road solution.

And I was probably middle of the road,

and Dan guided me through the steps

and I found out that I didn't know too much about AAI, knew a lot about personal ideas, conclusions that we made-up ourselves a direction. None.

And he guided me through the steps I took in inventory with him. I took a fifth step with him.

What took me to the rest of the program told me about making amends. I had made no amends in here and I became active in a A and I do a lot of fifth steps. I've been in treatment for 28 years around treatment centers

and you know, at one time

it was socially acceptable to throw Christians to the lions.

It wasn't morally right, but it was socially acceptable. And what I have found out over the years,

as we have a lot of people coming into AA today

who don't really understand what a furious moral inventory is,

and they give you this, well, everybody's doing it

and may be socially acceptable, but it's not morally right. You're doing a good force and 5th step.

You have to check into our behavioral pattern amends never. I bought a new car when I sobered up load around town hunk the horn and waved at everybody. Look what a A is doing for me. Materialism

and the amends that I made of where I did damage to other people, those were simple. But the amends of forgiveness where I had to forgive somebody else for what they did to me was difficult. And I'm meeting more and more people are coming into a A today. I don't know how it is in your area who feel they have the right to have resentment,

failing to understand that it states in our program that resentments is the number one offender.

It's more people drunk than anything else and we have a program that's designed to work with these resentments

and I hear I don't know how many versions of how to work with resentment. Failing to understand is the beginning of our therapy and a a starts with dealing with resentment and in a four step it says these resentments must be mastered. But how we could not wish them away. This was our course of action. When a person offends us, we say to our house selves, perhaps this person is spiritually sick. How may I be of service to him?

Thy will, not my will be done. We avoid retaliation or argument.

That was a mechanical practice for me. I practiced it mechanically until it became a part of my life. The program of Alcoholics Anonymous is loaded with therapy and people coming into a A don't know that today. Always out here somebody else, three weeks in a program never went through the steps. I need more than a A. How do you know you haven't been there long enough to work the program?

Give it a fair shot.

A lot of reasons why we're Alcoholics and a lot of suggestions on how to quit. You know, the smartest man in the world has to be the bartender,

get a good job like he has. And I was a bartender a few times with how he's lost the job.

When he made me bartender, I went into partnership, but I was the only one who knew it, you know,

And the bartender said to me one, I said, Bill, do you know why you get so drunk? I said, why? He said you drink shots and beer, just drink beer. And I drank beer all night and I got drunk. I come back, I said I drank beer all night and I got drunk. He said too much volume for you because small you are. I didn't have all of this on me at the time,

and he gave me a suggestion. Just drink whiskey

but with a warning. Don't drink any 7UP ginger ale or Coca-Cola. That sweet stuff will get you sick, not the booze.

So I drank whiskey with soda water. I got drunk. I come back. He said, well, do you have a headache hangover? I said, yes, take a bottle of beer home with you, take the calf off, put it under your bed. And when you wake up in the morning with that big head, treat that flat beer. I got up in the morning, Big Head, drank that flat beer, heaved it all over my mother's wall,

and he said you want to keep from getting drunk tonight. I said yes, you drink olive oil, it coats your stomach

and that worked. I drank a glass of olive oil that night and I didn't get drunk. I got so sick on the olive oil I never made it out.

We laugh,

but did you notice something? I never questioned the bartender,

but I come to the doors of Alcoholics Anonymous and I sit down at an AA meeting. I don't have a job, I don't have a wife, I don't have a family. I don't have any dignity. I don't have any self respect. I don't have anything. And they tell me what to do to stay sober and I tell them I don't have to do anything in here. What makes me an authority on recovery now?

Anybody gave me a job and paid me $500 a week or gave you a $500 a week when you got your money to give it to me every week

and I'm going to beat the hell out of you, throw you in jail, tear your clothes, take your dignity, self respect away,

take your wife and family away, me even ask you for your life. But you must pay me. What would you think I'd tell him?

That's what our addiction is telling us. Give me everything near and dear to you and this is how I'm going to pay you back. And we resist recovery.

MMM,

well I start following the therapy of alcoholic synonymous and I find out things happen for me when I started going through the program

because I was the guy in AA who came up to you and told you how wonderful your life would become as a result of AA,

how wonderful your life would become. Told them about promises I heard them read at meetings.

And when I walked away, I said to myself, why don't you believe what you're saying, Bill?

Why are you trying to convince yourself this is real? Do you know why I had never experienced it? And I'm not alone. You're sitting in this room this evening and you haven't experienced the promises of a A. You probably haven't worked the steps. You may be the best person able to define the words and never have the experience. If you're anything like me

today, I can tell you I don't have to define

the experience of the 12 promises. Something you feel, you experience it. My grandfather had a bad back when I was young. He tried to tell me how the pain was. I would pain relative to certain parts of my body and thought I understood it. Two years ago my back really went out,

no explanation necessary. Now have experienced it and it's like these promises in this program.

You can define the words in there, but till you experience you never really know what you're dealing with. Give it a fair shot.

Well, I sobered up. I came back in there The last time I was really bad. I was a wino. You know, I I'm one of these guys. Couldn't differentiate the truth from the false. I was begging dreams in the morning. I was doing odd jobs around bars

or drinks. Woke up one morning suffering from plastic frobii. It was real. I'm screaming I could touch the walls. My mother came and she said what's wrong son? Said mom, the cool walls are closing in on me. Said you're damn drunk. You're in the hallway.

I don't know where I'm at.

Nighttime I'm seeing the movies,

no key to the house, have to ring the doorbell to come home and get in the house at night. She took the key away. I've been too many drunks home at night,

you know, Fry eggs and bacon, eat all the leftovers, drink the milk. My mother got tired of that. Come home, ring the doorbell, put the light on, see if I'm alone. She let me in and frisked me.

One night she found a wine bottle. That's the last one she ever got. I put it on the windows filming Ring the Doorbell.

You know, one night I came in. She didn't frisk me. I felt let down. I got so accustomed to that. I went to the door and I found on the door, said mom, you didn't search me, She said. Go to sleep, Bill.

I found louder. Mom, you didn't search me and I don't know how long this went on

and on field from across the hallway, said Mary. Get up and search a bill. I have to go to work in the morning.

Went into the bedroom, opened the window, sat on the bed drinking my wine and broke out laughing. I'm going places.

That's what came into a AIDS last time.

And for me to be living the life I'm living today, incomprehensible. Never dreamed it.

I got active in this program. I did a lot of voluntary court work, and I became the chief probation officer in the court system in Lorain County. Think of that

ex convict threatened with another year in jail for non support, arrested 34 times just in the city of Lorraine. I'm an officer of the court. A lot of people couldn't understand this. My mother couldn't. But she was proud. Anytime anybody came over the house, first thing she would say is you know where my bill works? He works in a Court House with the judges

and the people she was talking to thought I had on enough John, enough on the job training. I should have been there years ago

and I say this to men in our area. If you ever need detox and we don't have insurance, how do you get detox? You hit a cop,

you want to get detox with without insurance. You hit a cop and you're going to get detox. And I hit a cop one night and I got detox

and one of the police officers who detoxed me, he was in a courtroom and he didn't know what I was doing there. And he yelled across the courtroom and he said, hey, Rummy, come here, Judge, slam that gavel down. He said this man is a respected member of this judicial staff. He's betrayed with a dignity and respect to a member of the staff. He's Mr. Finley for every time I walk through the courtroom after I had to come up the cop, I point at him saying don't forget the Mr.

And I want to come to Alcoholics Anonymous and sit down in one of these chairs and feel like I'm being punished.

If anybody in this room feels they're being punished because they're in a A, you need more than a A, go get it.

This is a life giving, life changing, life rewarding program.

No male or female sitting in the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous knows where. His and her life were gold

as a result of applying this program for their lives any more than I did mine. And I can't tell you where it will go, but I'll guarantee each and everyone of you in this room this evening, I'll tell you exactly where your life is going to go if you don't stay sober.

Right down the tubes. I've watched it. Thousands of people

and people are concerned today what's happening in Alcoholics Anonymous, dual addictions coming and everything else. It's not a problem.

I go to a lot of meetings and people are complaining. They got speakers up here speaking, talk about drugs. You can't relate to it. I've been to meetings where people in the audience jump up, say we don't need you druggies here.

And I go over to him and I tell him, what are you jumping on the speaker for? He's doing what he was asked to do,

kept the chairman who brought him up there. Chew him out. If you don't want a drug speaker up here, that's the way you handle it, through a Home group. You have a group conscience meeting,

See. Because when I was sober about 16 or 17 years, I became an elder statesman

and I can relate to the elder statesman. I had a lot of time around here. I was active and I sort of feel like it float now. Not do too much work, just tell others what to do.

We got a lot of elder statesman today around our area. I don't know yours for not sponsoring anymore. They're not picking people up anymore, they're not making coffee anymore. They're not doing anything but telling other people how it should be. Be careful if you're in that category.

That was a treacherous time for me. And another time I had problems in this program. Two times, serious problems. Once when I chose to live my life as if there was no God.

And the second one is when I believed that I believed in God more than anyone else. That made as much problem for me as the other. Careful of that.

So I'm in here about three years and Dan took me to the steps and became my sponsor.

Here's the solution to most problems in Alcoholics Anonymous today. Good sponsorship.

You see, it doesn't matter to me how you get into this room of Alcoholics Anonymous. I don't care if the court sends you here, if the employer send you here, your mother sends you here, your wife sends you here, you're here for a visit to see what it's like. It doesn't matter to me. What's important to me is when you get here, what happens to you after you get here?

Does your group do like so many? Are there any new people here tonight? And a man raises his hand and everybody applauds for him.

And then at the end of the meeting, they all go home and leave. On standing there,

nobody approaches them. Asks him if he has a sponsor, if he needs some help.

If you need to ride, check and see if that's in your group.

My Home group is an important tool in my program because sponsorship is an important part of my program. I'm sponsoring 6 people right now. You know I'm sponsoring 6 because they can't get any.

That's why I have six. I've been active since I've been in AA, and when my telephone rings and somebody asks me

for help, I don't sit down on the edge of my bed and ask myself, is this person ready for a A? I ask myself, am I ready for this call?

Because if I'm not gonna devote the time necessary to give this person a program and follow up on him and take him to meetings, I better give it to somebody else. Anybody can hand somebody a sheet of paper that here's where the meetings are, go get em.

And our Home group is important as some of my Home group members here today I still make coffee.

Anyway, I direct it.

So many groups I go to have 3-4 months chairman, 3-4 months secretary. Do you know why?

Because they convinced the Newman that he needs it

and he does it a couple weeks and he convinced another Newman. We don't have that longevity directing a group. And when a person asked me to be his sponsor, I have a requirement of them. I'm going to sponsor you. You'll join my Home group

and when you're at my Home group every week, our director activities in the group and I'll be there with you early so we can have a discussion before the meeting or after. But I'll see you once a week for sure. A lot of people say I already have a Home group and get your sponsor there, then. I believe this.

Yeah. And Dan suggested I become active in a Home group. You know why?

So that's the beginning of unselfishness.

What do you do at a meeting? You become a service to somebody else

because it doesn't end there.

Not just at the meeting.

And Dan told me

that selfishness, self centeredness, is the root of all our problems. If you know why, that blocks God out from my life.

If I want to be a service, it allows God to come in. I make coffee, I set up chairs. I do all of these things.

I don't just practice unselfishness at a meeting, I take it home with me,

and at home I am boss.

Nobody tells me how much soap to put in the water when I do the dishes

and my wife and I believe in prayer. I'm developing equality in my life today. I've never had previous to the program of a A a quality of faith, of beliefs and things unseen, and I can't define it to you. I don't know how God works.

See, I don't know how. I think sometimes the people who think they know God are the ones that create the most problems.

Good orderly direction in my life. Yes, I pray to power greater than myself

of my understanding and I have no problems with this. The only people that seem to have problems with a higher power in this program are Christians.

Everybody else can talk about a rock, a tree, a block of wood, a copper, a sky, a sunset, a tree. But if a Christian stands up and says Jesus Christ is my higher power, but you're bringing religion in the program, it's his power. Let him have it. You know, don't you write them? It's a real power. But Needless to say, I tried to practice this program wherever I go

on a job. Boss came up to me one day and he said Bill, for 25 years I've been in business,

I've never had a man like you before. Employee. You know why I tried to give the man 9 hours work for 8 hours pay. I didn't try to give him one hour's work for 9 hours pay.

That's revolutionary for me.

We can be followed. When you get employees like that, that's the attraction of a A members.

And the neighbor said to me one day, he said, Bill, he said, what does that a A program do to you guys? They said, why? Andy said, if anybody had told me a few years ago that you would be living the life you're living today, I would have sat down in his curve and broke down laughing. I said, Andy, they give me a program to follow to bring God into my life. And now the kicker And change the way that I live.

See, I can talk to people about having a God, but if I'm living the same life, I'm kidding myself.