Reunion in Bristol, UK

Right. Thank you, everybody. I'll now introduce our main speaker for this evening. It's, Clancy Eye, whose home group is the Pacific Group in Los Angeles. Thank you, Clancy.

My name is Clancy Inmislain, and I'm an alcoholic. And I'm very glad to be here. Glad to be back here, as part of this reunion, get together, convention, whatever it might be. I was sitting here thinking of the, first time I came here. Travers, somehow, he and I got acquainted and he invited me to come to Europe to spend a few days to talk.

So I said, okay. I didn't I've never been around any in this area in Europe. And I came to he met me in London. He we went up to Glasgow of all places. And we got in the car, we drove to Dumfries for the, blue bottle convention.

At that time, it's it was I remember I was kinda shocked. I had not been anywhere like this and everyone smoked in those days. Just everyone smoked. And you talk to this big room full of Scotts people, all you see is a sea of smoke. There's nobody out there at all.

And you I hope you're staying for the meeting. You know? And, every once in a while, a quiff of wind would blow by and you'd see the the clouds would part. Hundreds of little guys each with a cigarette each. It's great.

Great. And we safely got out of there. The next night, we went to Dublin, which I had never been to. I was thrilled to go to Dublin and spent, I gave a talk there and then spent a couple hours just studying the the post office with all the bullet holes. And sorry I missed all the fun.

And then we went to Bristol. It was last night but and Bristol was really an experience in 1989. I guess it was 88, 89. While we were sitting in the meeting while I was talking, you would hear explosions around of the, troubles going on. And the leader made an interesting statement.

He said, this room was the only room in North Ireland where Catholics and protestants are sitting down in peace tonight. She sends a shiver down your spine to think about that. Then we came over to to Bristol and had a good time here. He drove me around, showed me bath. And I had this meeting and I thought that'd be the end of it, but they invited me back another time.

I've come back several times since then. Now I seem to go through Bristol. I was there last night. And before that, I was in Dublin for change. A lot of the Dublin guys are here tonight.

They they couldn't quite gather all the truth that I put out to them in one sitting. They're back with their tape recorders tonight. Bad sess to you. But I'm glad to be here. I'm glad to be safe and sane and sober and enjoy the 10 minute speakers.

I, every speaker likes to know that the 10 minute speaker is only gonna take 4 minutes. It gives me 6 more minutes. The second one went along. He went. But I I pity your sponsor.

He must be a saint. But, you know, tomorrow night, I said to Sally, what about what's the schedule for the weekend? She says, well, Saturday night at the at the what's it called? Council house. I'm gonna send I don't have thought of that in a minute.

This is not a this is not a coral group. No. I'll I'll do all the speaking here till I need you again. She's well, we'd like to have you give your you know, tell your story. And, I said, well, I'd like to talk about Friday night.

She's well, whatever you think is important about AA. Something important AA. And so I'm gonna talk a few minutes about something that I think is important to AA because we're kind of for some time, we've been little little bit at a crossroads people feel. You know, this is kind of an interesting time of year. End of October, Bill Wilson was getting sober and was going to really make it this time.

And he had great hopes and he lasted till November 11th when he got drunk again and went on his final drunk in 1934. But, AA has been around since 1935, of course, since June. And ever since the 50th anniversary, sometimes the 50th is mentioned a little bit of the 50th anniversary, not too much, a little bit of the 55th. It's come up in the last couple of years. A number of people have come to the conclusion this time really that we ought to change some of our procedures because we should more keep up with modern times and modern things that the things age nice, but it's it's a little dated, a little out of date.

And they have about 4 categories. I think that, that people seem to feel strongly about. 1 is that maybe the book is a little bit out of date. Maybe we should change some of the terminology in the book. In fact, it came up last year at the World Service Conference and it was, voted down, but it was it went out to all the groups.

Do you think we should change the book? And there are little isolated pockets of people who have different feelings about it. For example, there's a there's a group of feminists who take exception to the fact that throughout the book, God has called him. And it should be God to change the steps of God as we understand God and rather because it isn't a matter. God is not necessarily a masculine figure.

And then there's some, some discussion length about are we just a little aren't we just a little too stringent these days about our membership requirements? We want people to be alcoholics. And, in this world today, there's a lot of people who have all the problems we have who are not really alcoholics, whether on drugs and other things. And this is just a bit little bit, iconoclastic to to make him be to make say that you have to be an alcoholic to be a full fledged member. A third source of of discussion around the world is in isn't the Lord's prayer just a little too religious?

I mean, it's it's a religious prayer. It isn't it isn't a good prayer like the serenity prayer. Some countries refuse to say the Lord's prayer. Some groups in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the middle of sky in the middle of America. Couple years ago, there there was a master movement because they said this Christian prayer was offending Jewish members and they started to stop saying it.

And then, of course, the final place that there's still discussion is, aren't we getting just a little too strict about this? Are we becoming doctors and telling people they can't take antidepressants and medications for their emotions? And aren't we taking on a little more than we can chew, and it's not just a little bit too much? And so I want to tonight just take up these 4 items and look at them and see if we think about it and, give you my opinion. I travel around a lot.

I, I've been active for a lot of years. And, so I've had a chance for the last few years to talk in exotic places like Cape Town and Berlin and Sydney and Christchurch and and all over the all the states in the United States and all of Canada and Oslo and Stockholm. A lot of places. And I've heard a lot of people talk and I get it. I'm because I'm interested in AA and and it's been a long time since I've been sober.

Next week will be 46 years with my sobriety date. And I have a interest in a and I have a I hope an open mind so I can listen to the arguments, At least make up my mind for me. I don't make up my mind for a obviously because a is larger than me or my opinion by multitude quantities. But you take that first one, should the book be changed? And there there's there have been some fairly good arguments propounded that maybe they're writing the terminology that it's it's a little out of date.

It's a little passe that modern readers don't find it very interesting. And that's always been kind of interesting to me. And I I felt that way the first time I read the book in 1949. You know, I I thought it was out of date then as far as I was concerned. And so I understand the feeling.

Push on the book is the interesting thing. They, it has been described by many people as a miracle. And if you're like me, you're a little cynical about miracles. You know, miracles you hear old fools get up with a say things like, I had a miracle this morning. I got up very early and I saw the sunrise and I knew I'd been given another day and it was a miracle.

Oh, Jesus. Why don't you get up early tomorrow and have another one you goofed. Miracles are supposed to be things that are unexplainable, inexplicable to correctly say the word. Miracles are supposed to be things that aren't cannot be described. And I think one of the reasons that they ascribe that to this book, this book was written by a man, 3 years sober.

If you're new tonight, you may think, well, 3 years sober. God, you shouldn't know enough to write a book by then. But when you get to be 3 years sober, you'll discover you don't know enough to write a book. By the time you're 5 years sober, you're just trying to be nice to people 3 years sober. Keep coming back, Jimmy.

By the time you're 10 years sober, you send hate to send people 3 years sober to get your coffee. Is that 2 sugars and 1 cream or something? Never mind. I'll do it. By the time you're 20 years sober, you hate to have people 3 years sober unattended on your property.

Nothing against them. It's just it's a good. This guy, 3 years sober, sat down surrounded by failure. We forget that. You know, we keep thinking of all those early age.

We're just dedicated wonderful people to take over. Very few of them did. Very few of them did. In the back of the first edition of the book, the first printing where he put in those 12 stories of the people he thought might have the best stories. Most of those people died drunk.

Most of those people in the second printing died drunk. Failure was a big thing. And they were, they were not like the Christians in the catacombs being they were because alcohol is they didn't understand the alcoholism. Even the good guys, a lot of them got drunk. Because at that time, they didn't realize you have to keep doing it even after you're feeling better.

It wasn't that they were malicious or bad, but surrounded mainly by failure. For the worst of motives, he wrote this damn book to make some money so they could build some hospitals. That's the purpose of writing the book, Alcoholics Anonymous. And no background in psychology, no background in abnormal psychology or medicine or anything else. Just watching the few people staying sober around him and applying him through his own mind.

He said, Don wrote this damn book. What's so miraculous about that? Well, the miracle is that goofy book has changed more alcoholic lives in the last 57 years, 56 years, than all other therapies combined in the history of mankind. That is a miracle. And there's people who wanna change the book, and they completely forget the fact that book is not designed to be a pot boiler.

It is designed be it is designed to work on human emotions. And we say, well, it's kinda out of date. I'm gonna tell you something. Human emotions are never out of date. They're exactly the same as they've always been.

When I get very, very upset, I get upset in exactly the same way the pharaoh of Egypt got except except I don't have any Jewish children to kill. Well, I'm looking though. But emotions are emotions and they always have been. Human emotions have never changed. You you read you can read back 5000 years about human emotions and identify with them.

The actions, the scientific aspects of it all, all different. But this book is designed to quell emotional excess in people who have found a chemical escape from reality. And what will they change? I don't know what they'll change but I I for 1 will not I will I would want to see it work for a long time before I accepted it because this works. And I think that that argument changing the book, which incidentally came from newer people.

We don't have to be concerned what newer people think because they don't know very much yet. Not to be cruel. They know a great deal about some things, but not about this book. This book is really a, a jewel. You know, it's a funny thing.

Every August, I read in a book study. You read a chapter a week and then they break into groups and discuss it. I've been doing that for 30 years. And I've read that book through a number of times. And to this day, when I read it, I'm always amazed at how well it's put together.

When you read it aloud, you have to read every word and it makes really makes sense when you're reading it yourself. You skim. You just jump pages, jump sentences and I know that. But when you read it aloud, it really is remarkable. It's a remarkable book.

That book is a miracle. And I hope that in my day, in your day, it will always stay that way. One of the great problems, of course, today is this idea of isn't it aren't we getting a bit too selfish, demanding that people be alcoholics? After all, is it all one big disease? Alcoholism, drug addiction, gambling, overeating.

Do you know where that phrase came from? It's all one big big disease. It came from a treatment center. They only had 1 bus. Go to the meeting.

Just tell them whatever they wanna hear. Why would why should we be so why should we be so concerned about being an alcoholic? And to think about that, you have to stop and think about a little bit of the history of where it came from, this concept. That our primary purpose carry the message to the alcoholic who still suffer, not people who still suffer, but alcoholics who still suffer. Why would that be?

As most of you remember and know, of course, that in 1939, a was stumbling for the issued this book. It didn't do much sales. They didn't have an appointee to buy a hospital. Could even buy a bus ticket to the hospital. And in 1941, they had a little 40.

They had an article in Liberty Magazine, but made it sound like a religious organization. Did no good. And then at the end of 1940, Saturday Evening Post had a writer who dealt in in frauds and scams. And he just written a tremendous series of articles on the corruption in the labor movement and the docks of Philadelphia. His next assignment was to find out about AA and write an expose of AA.

And he went to AA and was astonished to discover it was not at all secret, not at all frightening, not at all threatening. It was a absolutely what it said it would be. He traveled all over the country where there's alcoholic jobs. Went to Saint Louis, went to Chicago, went to Los Angeles, talked to people. And it it was just what he said, what they said it was.

And he wrote this great article and it made AHS all of a sudden well known because there was no place that was helping alcoholics of our type at that time or any other time for that matter. So it really got a lot of letters. They start groups all over in all the cities. Thousands of people got in AA. But after a year or 2, it started dying off again.

And people were arguing and fighting and groups were quitting and people getting drunk and every Bill Wilson was sitting in his office, breathe these letters, another group has died, and other cities without AA and just baffled by it. And in in 1945, in an effort to try to unify things, he started this thing called the grapevine, which was a big like a tabloid. And, that didn't do much. But some guy in North Carolina sent an article and said, Bill, I don't know if you know about this. Read about this.

You'll find it interesting. And he'd written an article for the grapevine about the Washingtonians. And Bill Wilson had never heard of the Washingtonians. And turned out there had been a group just exactly a 100 years before, 18/40. 6 drunks got together in a bar back of a bar.

One of them just was out of jail. And he came back to his friends and, you know, those people administer up there said that he knew how I feel. He just know how I feel. Those guys don't have you guys are the only guys who are field. You 5 guys and yeah.

I know we all understand each other, but we gotta stop breaking. He said, well, maybe we could maybe we could help each other stop breaking somehow. I don't know how we can do that. But, yeah, you you 6 structure gonna help him stop breaking. That's really that's But they they drew up a little charter.

They elected officers. The 6 of them, I guess, there are 1 guy who was an officer. He felt bad. And they decided to name themselves after, after we've gone for a little while after George Washington because nobody ever heard of drunks helping drunks. Washington was the first of a kind.

And some people came from Baltimore. This was in Baltimore. Some people came to Philadelphia and, heard about it, went back and started a little group in Philadelphia. Somebody else had a little group in Washington, and it kind of staggered forward. I'm pretty sure they got somebody from Boston heard about it, came down, and got someone back in Boston, got some people started.

And little by little, these idiots were staying sober, and nobody can believe it. And, at the end of the 1st year, they they decided what we should celebrate. We we started in March, but George Washington's birthday was February 22nd. We'll make that our anniversary date. And they were in several states by this time.

A number of people staying sober. And then they in the second year, they got a couple of guys in who were really great speakers. And in those days, there's no telephones or radios or anything like that. So most communications were mass meetings with speakers. And these guys were out just grave and grave talks and you don't have to drink anymore.

And near the end of the second year, people still thought they're kinda goofy, but they thought they tried to find all the chapters they had. They sent him a letter saying, this on our 2nd anniversary, get somebody from your local community, some opinion maker, and have them come in and give a talk. Not that we care what he says so much, but he will see we're not crazy. And then maybe you spread the word. So all over the country, a lot of states by this time in Springfield, Illinois, the, young man that had come in was a guy named Abraham Lincoln.

If you read the book of Lincoln's speeches, there's a book, one from April to February 22, 18 42 in which he talks at length, but but just his remarks is I don't understand what this is to you folks. I know you to be fine people, but I don't have the thirst you have so I can't identify, but I wanna wish you well and so on. And it continued to grow. By 18/45, it was estimated their membership was a 100,000 sober drunkards. And there had never been anything like it in the history of the world.

And you made them think that doesn't sound like a lot of people. AA, with all of its activities and all of its inventions, didn't have a 1,000 people after 5 for 5 years. And then after they had 5 years, they got thinking, you know, we really have helped a lot of drunkards. But there's a lot of other people with problems too. We should try to help them perhaps.

We should open narcotics addicts who are not drunkards. Not heroin and cocaine like today, but, opium and other drugs that people are on. And maybe we should get involved in, political work. It help maybe we should help have the government run right. And a great many of them got into the stamping out of the sale of alcohol because there was no sales of alcohol.

There'd be no alcoholism, none and none. And these 100,000 people just dedicated themselves to making the world a better place. And by 1848, the movement was extinct. With all of very few exceptions, all of them died drunken deaths. I have a book home written by one of the few survivors in 18/61.

He says, I don't know what happened. We were doing so well and then people got so so involved in doing so many things. They didn't have time to come to our meetings or help other drunkards anymore and pretty soon they all left. And Bill Wilson wrote that and read that and thought, my god. And he looked up the Washingtonians in their library and found out about it and was staggered because that's exactly among other things that was happening to Alcoholics Anonymous.

These other dead other problems too. They're so diffused in what they were doing and they're fighting over authority and power. They're defining who's getting the most things in the newspapers. I mean, the Washington is that every flaw that we try to fight against. And as a result of that argue our article and the series of thoughts have brought about, he sat down and in the last gasp effort to save AA, he wrote the 12 traditions.

1945, 10 years after age started. Not in the form we read him where you read him out, but the long form. If you're not familiar with those in the back of the book across the short form is the long form and it flashes them out a little bit. And he issued them 1 by 1 in this new thing called the grapevine, and most people didn't wanna hear about it. We don't hear I don't know.

We don't have any rules. This is spiritual movement. We have rules. And most people wouldn't have didn't accept him. He he started a very famous tour around the country from time to time.

He put his wife in his sidecar and his motorcycle. He'd drive to meetings. He explained this is not meanness. This is not rules. This is we're trying to save.

In fact, we got to a point, if you can imagine this, groups would say, Bill, please come and speak at our anniversary, our second anniversary, or first anniversary. Unless you're gonna talk about the traditions, then don't come. We don't want you. I mean, that's that's how bad it was. And by 1949, some people have accepted the traditions but a nationwide and in Ireland or or replace elsewhere was IAA, we're not willing to accept these rules, they felt.

So Bill and doctor Bob got together. Their followers were fought a lot, but they got together. And, decided if we just have one meeting someplace, we could explain this to these people and, they'd understand it. So they set up the first they thought the only international convention of alcoholics anonymous. The same one that will be celebrated next year in Toronto.

Only this was in Cleveland in July 4th weekend 1950. I have the tapes home from that convention. They're very poor quality, but they're very interesting. They, a lot of things went on. Doctor Bob was dying of cancer.

And they said he probably didn't wanna talk, but he insisted on it. He said I'm 15 years sober. I'm the 2nd oldest sober person in the world. And his son, another guy helped this tall gaunt man to the to the podium and he gave what has come down in the annals of AA to be like the Gettysburg address of Alcoholics Anonymous. Most of you heard it, read it.

He, he welcomed you well, welcome you all to Cleveland. I hope you enjoy here. I hope you'll go back and tell the boys and girls in your home group that we're all here together. And as I look over this vast group of people, I'm glad that some small thing I did a few years ago helped bring this about. He said, I wanna apologize for my health.

I've been in bed most of the last few months and just some introductory remarks. But then he got to the meat of what he has said, but I so I want to just talk about 2 or 3 things that I think are a great interest. And the next couple of minutes, he talks about things that are as pertinent tonight in Bristol as they were that day in in Cleveland. He said first, let us let us remember. He said, let us remember to keep our program pure.

Let's not louse it all up with Freudian complexes which may be of interest to the scientific mind, but it's nothing to do with our work here. Our work here when reduced to the last consists of love and service. And we all know what love is, and we all know what services. He didn't say let's keep our program poor. He said let's keep our program simple.

And secondly, he said, let us guard that erring member, the tongue, and try to use it with kindness and understanding. And there's no person in this room or any room like it who does know exactly what he's talking about. When we're feeling good, we're all expansive and pleasant. That's how we threaten us or hurt our feelings and slash and cut and burn. And finally, he said, none of us would be here if someone hadn't taken the time to maybe take us to a few meetings, give us a pat on the back when we need it, explain things to us.

He said, let us let us never reach that stage of smug complacency. We're too busy to help our fellow brethren who were yet to come. And he sat down with Ted shortly thereafter. But incidentally, just funny little anecdote you may find interesting. You mentioned Bill Wilson dying in 1971, January.

I heard him give his last talk in Miami Beach in 1970 or I thought he was gonna hear it. At every international convention, that convention went so well incidentally that they decide to have them every 5 years. I went to my first one in 1960 in Long Beach and 65 in Toronto and 70 Miami Beach. And Bill Wilson talked at the Friday night meeting, and people were just always came so excited. You know?

And here we are in Miami Beach, 10,000 people in this convention center waiting for Bill to come out and nobody knew how sick he was. The guy finally come on and said, I have some bad news. Bill is too sick to talk. His his illness is too far gone. And god, it just, oh, it's just a balloon punctured.

And he said, but we do have a substitute speaker. Okay. And I felt sorry for him. Well, But he got out and talked and on the way back to the hotel, I was walking with an old timer who got sober under doctor Bob. I said, isn't that sorry?

Isn't that too bad, John, that, we will McHugh his name was he is an American Irishman. I said, isn't that too bad we'll never hear Bill talk? He said, oh, he'll talk at this convention. I said, no. We won't.

I got friends in the world service. They say he's not gonna talk. He'll talk. I just got a feeling. Well, maybe he knows something.

So the next night, there's another big meeting. He thought maybe he'll talk here, but he didn't. The last big meeting Sunday morning, this must be the time, but they introduced the regular speaker and he got to give a talk. But halfway through his talk, somebody came already. Tugger and he tries, I have some wonderful news.

An ambulance has just brought Bill Wilson to the back door, and he wants to say a few words. And they wheeled him in in a wheelchair and he had tubes up. You're dying from emphysema. And God, everybody jumped up and clapped and cheered, and the organist played climb every mountain, and it just said shivers out. And he some of you heard that tape?

He said, I'm so glad to be here friends. I know that God will help us continue on our work as long as we do his work. And that kinda sounded like the tape broke. He he ran out of air, slumped back in his wheelchair and they wheeled him out. God, this is a great moment.

But on the way back to hotels, I walked with Johnny. I said, John, how the hell did you know that Bill Wilson gonna talk? Nobody knew that. He said, kid, remember you're dealing with human beings. They may be inspired human beings, but they're human beings.

Do you think Bill Wilson would want and said that doctor Bob taught while he was dying and Bill wouldn't? Touching etiquette. But that same convention, they had 6 young guys, 6 young guys with, can you I don't know where they were. These took 2 traditions and explained them that there weren't really rules. They were just suggestions.

And, I mean, they're so excited. You could just hear their tails whirring. I mean, you know, I wanna talk to you about this. And and even at the end of all that, I mean, you know, they're persuading people. There's these are not laws or rules.

We don't even have any way to enforce them. We have no way to enforce them. If you break the tradition, we can punish you. We can't keep you out of meetings. You know, there's we these are we don't have any AA police.

As you get sober longer, you kinda wish you did. Like, for instance, my area, I am known I have been known unfairly as kind of a dictator type sponsor. And what people never seem to realize is that you can be a dictator type sponsor only with a 100% cooperation of the dictatee. If he doesn't like it, he says screw you and the dictatorship is over. My boss thought it would be nice if we had police who could come at night and say, did you say screw you to your sponsor?

Come with us to the camp for a little training. But they gave this wonderful tradition to start. And even then, Bill Wilson wasn't quite certain. And you hear that tape, he said, we've now heard the traditions explained as everyone thinks that understands it. I see no objections.

We accept them. And they've been a way of life. But one of the great things in there was to profit from the Washingtonian movement and to remember the singleness of purpose. Without that, it is just another therapy. It's just another group therapy.

The thing that makes the Washingtonians and Alcoholics Anonymous the only 2 therapies that have ever, ever worked on a continuing basis for alcoholics of our type. The only thing that they have in common almost I mean, they have the goals in common, but they are the only 2 organizations that are comprised of alcoholics talking to alcoholics. Because the great enemy of every alcoholic is his secret knowledge that he is different. And unless you can get through that, he will never get better. That's why to this day, after all the therapies and all the great AA everywhere in the world and there's just wonderful in America where there's more sobriety than any place in the history of mankind.

You're still estimated that something over 90% of alcoholics of our type still die drunk. Not because a, it doesn't work, but because you don't understand. I I don't my my case is different. I I don't that that's the kind of thing won't help me. It's really frightening.

But anyway, the, that is why the to this day, it is so consistently correct, I believe. Unless you're an alcoholic, it's very hard to identify. Now I've been working with addicts, non alcoholic addicts for over 30 years. But I'll tell you, if I sit in an AA meeting and some guy can get give a long wonderful talk on narcotics, it's just a lecture to me. I don't identify with it.

I I know what you're talking about. But give me some goof who gets up here. I drank an awful lot and I don't know what the hell made me do it, but I'm staying sober. I got a sponsor, and he's mean to me, and I'm feeling better. Thank you very much.

You bet, baby. I know how that feels. You bet. Probably the best illustration I know on that field of life of identification. When I was about 2 years sober, I gave a little talk in an a club just a small meeting.

I talked on obsessions. Not on the how to overcome them. I didn't know how to overcome them. I just knew all about obsessions because I had them all. And some woman came up at first.

She said, oh, that's just wonderful. She said, some friends and I started a little group called Overeaters Anonymous. And we don't have any speakers. We just were talking to other ladies about the obsessions. I said, sure.

I was way to about a £130. I was skinny. I had no front teeth. Just next Sunday, I went over to the Overeaters Anonymous meeting About 8 fat old ladies sitting around table. And I give them a talk and obsessions.

I thought it'd probably help them a lot. They're great. And I said, no. Well, I've certainly carried a message to these poor souls. Then they had participation.

And I these people talk. I couldn't believe my ears. Woman over here had made a 2 layer cake for her son's birthday. And he was in military school in Long Beach. Her husband went down there to get him, and she took one taste to that cake and another taste.

By the time they got back, it was gone. I didn't say anything because I'm too nice to go. Geez, can't you just have a piece of cake? Over over here talking about eating ice cream and eating ice cream, going to get some more ice cream and having more ice cream. And I didn't say anything.

I thought to myself, it's no wonder you're fat for Christmas. Over over here, I talked about eating till she couldn't eat anymore. Then she put her finger down her throat to throw up and so she would eat some more. I thought to myself, oh, don't bother shaking hands with me. Now what was the what was the difference?

Food did to them something they didn't do to me. It was that I could intellectually understand it, but there's no identification. Without identification, it's just information. It would never get me to do anything. And that's why it is so imperative that we remember in our groups to talk about alcohol and alcoholism so that newcomers can identify and not hear some lecture on abstruse substances that may be lethal and deadly, but have nothing to do with our problem.

The man who founded Gammer's and Outlets, Jim Willis, a friend of mine. He founded which became the most successful of all the non AA movements. It was the first of the most successful. Still is active all over the world. I mean, you and he got very active in it and, by 19 mid 19 sixties, he'd got so active in GA.

He just about cut AA off. And so they were very surprised when he got drunk and died. And people couldn't understand that. But in GA, they still revere him. He never did gamble again.

He did not he did not do that. And his picture still appear like Bill Wilson's up for us. Jim Willis, the founder of GA. And, he wasn't a bad man. He didn't do anything wrong.

He just stopped doing the things that kept alcoholics sober. So I think it's almost safe to say that until something really different comes along, it is quite consistent with our recovery to require the use of discussions on alcoholism and that members of Alcoholics Anonymous be alcoholics. In fact, some of you have seen, of course, there's a little pamphlet called problems other than alcohol. When asked Bill, must a member be an alcoholic to be a member? He said, yes.

Can we suggest that they could be a member even if they're not alcoholic? No. I'm just quite clear. It's not because we're being insular or trying to put people down or we're not above or below. It's just the nature of our recovery is based on identification.

With identification, no meaningful actions get taken. Without the actions, there's no recovery. The, now there may be an argument for the next one. They they wanna get rid of the lord's prayer, serenity prayer because the lord's prayer is too religious, too Christian. And we really think about this kind of funny.

I don't know if you ever read where the serenity prayer is from. It's from a longer poem by a man named Reinhold Niebuhr which is the most religious Christian poem in the history of the world. I mean, just Christ was doing that and they took those two lines out and, but that is really a religious tract. The Lord's prayer, I can't imagine why they think it's so religious because it really is nothing it was said by Christ I guess. But that just make it a Christian prayer.

He wasn't a Christian when he said it. He was a Jewish guy. And what does he say that's so terrible? That's that's antithetical to what we believe in this room. Yes.

For our our father in heaven wherever you or wherever you want him to be and give us this day our daily bread and, Let us forgive our trespasses like we forgive those who trespass around and we make our amends. And all the way through, it's just it's almost like the 12 steps. And people are willing to give up their sorority to keep from saying that dreadful prayer because it's too religious. And it's not you don't have to believe in it. You just have to say it.

That's another one of the things here. When people are new and this offends them, I have to tell them, you don't have to believe it. You just have to say it. Like the actions here. I don't know why it works but altogether it seems to work somehow.

And I don't, I don't particularly care. They say, well, it offends the Jewish members. I don't think so. My home group, the Pacific group, meets in the synagogue of all places. The rabbi comes to our meetings once in a while.

He says the Lord's prayer. The 9 people I sponsor who are Jewish have no argument with it, but some new cover little snot all of a sudden is offended by it. And I had stated that, have you seen my muscle? Those of you who are listening to this on tape will never know what I just did. I don't mean to be difficult about it, but it really is, you know, to think about that to fight and argue in AA about saying the Lord's prayer.

So silly because there's nothing in there that even connotes religion. You accept a higher power. You're you wanna take certain action that makes you feel better. Give us this dear, dear, to bread. Deliver us from temptation.

Is there anything here and there that you don't hear in an AA meeting? For thine is the power, the glory forever and ever. In fact, they don't say that the Catholic church, but when Catholics are in AA and priests are in AA, they say it. And yet some little newcomers snot can't say it because it bothers them. Well, I don't judge.

I'm just reporting. I don't see any argument there. The last argument is really one of the bigger ones today in the world. Medications have taken such strides And alcoholics it's a funny thing about alcoholics. They seem to have great epidemics of things.

About 4 or 5 years ago, simply half of AA suddenly caught being bipolar. Nobody ever heard of it before but they suddenly realized they had it when the medications were available. Years years before that, before most of you were here was hypoglycemia. Yes. I'm hypoglycemic and the doctor insists I take these pills.

I don't think you should. You're not a doctor. Don't tell me what to do. And yet there are people in alcohol in his house. I absolutely know that without the correct medication are just crazier than June bugs.

We have 2 or 3 in our group. I sponsor a woman, very distinguished woman, but she is clinically insane, psychotic. If she does not take that continuing anti psychotic drugs, she'll go down. So where do you make the difference? Why why is the why all the medication all of a sudden?

And I think that one of the reasons is this, probably the main reason that alcoholism itself is a strange disease. It is characterized, especially in the early sobriety by vast swings of emotions, ups and downs and ups and downs. It almost is indistinguishable from manic depression. It's almost just indistinguishable from bipolarism, which is and so it is natural to go to a doctor, explain these symptoms, and even if they're in doubt, they usually will give you a prescription. Doctor Paul Ollig or some of you remember him as stories in the book of doctor, addict, someone else And it's under a new name now, the new book.

But I knew him well. I watched him get sober. He came used to come to our group a lot and I've known him very well. But he explained to me, he said, you know, Clancy, after he's been sober, you can't blame the doctors really. Here they sit with an anteroom full of sick people who desperately need help.

And in their office, somebody whining, I feel bad. They look at me funny on the bus. What am I gonna do? Why don't you just take these and, it's like you take care of sick people. Because neurosis takes many forms.

And I would say you think it's safe to say that almost any sober alcoholic in their early sobriety, unless they are very rare indeed, went through tremendous swings. And some when you just don't if you're gonna make it, another day you can be totally elated. It's just one of them to be sober. I can hardly wait to tomorrow when I'll be suicidal. And it is this very condition that Alcoholics Anonymous and its actions work to treat.

And antidepressants are very nice things and they help a little bit, I guess. But, you know, as we learn more and more about them, they are becoming more and more questionable. Even even the antidepressants, to say nothing of the really strong ones. But new studies this year have indicated that people who stay on who stay on antidepressants become suicidal. In fact, there's a study about a month ago made the front page of the paper where children on antidepressants were committing suicide at a rather fast rate.