Wesley P. speaking in Lakeland, FL

6 anonymous. He's a very good friend of mine. He's done a lot to my sobriety. So will you please help me with welcome Wesley P from Pompano Beach? Hi, everybody.

My name is Wesley Persson. I'm an alcoholic. Let's give Cease another big hand because he deserves it. Thanks for bringing that message to my friends, Cece. Well, you know, for the last 2 years, I missed this this, Lakeland trip on every year.

I I I 1 in the 1st year, I had a heart attack up in Seesys hometown. He drove me to, you know, he drove me to a heart attack. When you get up there, you never get through. And then last year, I I had a a case of flu, and I couldn't come over. And you don't know just how happy I'm to be here because I love you people, and and, you're my kind of people.

And and I want to tell you about this program that I call it synonymous and what it's done for me. I I wanna share with you because I care about you. Sharing and caring is the name of this game. And, you know, Jesus gave us a beautiful interpretation of the 12 steps, And he carried you right through his his, his life and how he he how he found and how he worked the 12 steps. And it reminds me of of Bill, Bill w, before I get in myself.

You know, when Bill had his spiritual, experience, it scared him to death. And next day, Abby came in and gave him a book called Variety of Religious Experiences by William James. And, Abby told Bill to read it, and Bill couldn't get interested in the book because it was too heavy for him. But finally, he realized that this book was trying to tell him what had happened to him the day before, and he got so excited about the book, he just consumed the book. He got he knew what every word meant in the book.

And this book came, came up with a with a with a meaning that Bill understood a definition of what he had had the day before. He had had a spiritual experience in the most minute measure of time. And this, this book went on to tell him what a what a what a spiritual experience was, and it was deflation at death. Deflation at death. Now this is a a a little cliche is does not heard too much about NA, but the 12 steps are so designed, when Bill Wilson wrote them, he so he so designed these 12 steps, where if you go go through them, and the and and the sequence that that Seese brought to you tonight, will you go through a process of deflation at depth?

In other words, you're getting rid of your greatest enemy, and that's self, s e l f, and that's what the AA program is all about. They say this is an inside job. Well, the inside job is getting rid of self, s e l f. You can blame your alcoholism on everything in the world, but it's not the one thing that caused it, and that was alcohol. And the reason alcohol caused it is because you drank alcohol for the effects of alcohol, and that's all it's put in your life.

Most alcoholics, I find that to be true. You dislike what alcohol did for you. Does anybody disagree with that? And so, therefore, the whole the whole entire program of alcoholics and illness is based upon deflation at death. Getting rid of the ego, edging ego, e g o, means edging God out, easing God out.

When you have ego, when you get to be in the big shot, the big eye, you edge God out of your life. Well, the more that you deplete or or deflate yourself, the more you let God in. And the first thing that Bill did to start this thing off with are both let let me say this, both co founders were best for the same thing. Now the reason I know that is this little book here called, a a as Bill sees it, on page 212, it says, doctor Bob did not need me for his spiritual, instructions. He had already had more than I.

What he did need when we first went met was deflation at depth and the understanding that only one drunk can give to another. You see, Bill and doctor Bob both had had ego. And until they eliminated that, them too they they themselves had this phenomenal craving for alcohol. And the more that you deflate, the more you get away from self, well, the less you will be bothered with with alcoholism, the ism. In other words, that's why when when we talk about the 12 steps, the first half of the 12 steps is only, the first half of the first step is the only time you ever see alcohol mentioned in the 12 steps.

The rest of it is on the ism, I s n, and that's self. So what she's told me tonight as I sit in that chair was that Bill told him that in the 12 steps, or his friend Ernie told him that he was powerless over alcohol, and she says he was. And so therefore, he started the deflation because whoever heard of telling a drunk that he was powerless over anything? It's unheard of. All your life when somebody told you that you were powerless over something, well, you just show them by God you weren't powerless over.

You just get drunk. That's all. Well, then he says your life is unmanageable. Well, those two statements are completely deflating. And then he said, you are insane because he said you have to be restored to sanity.

Well, if you have to be restored to sanity, where you come from? You come from insanity. Have to. That's deflation. Then he tells you that you made a decision to turn your life and your will over the care of God if you understand him.

That's that's you telling God it your way is the wrong way that you cannot run your own life. And if you're gonna have what these other people have, and I'll call it synonymous, you have to make a complete change. You've got to do God's will, not your will. Because your way has got you in all this mess. Now, can anybody in here say to me that the first drink of alcohol that you took, you said to yourself, well, now I would like to be a member of Alcoholic Surroundings.

And I'm gonna drink this alcohol until I become qualified to be a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. Did anybody do that? Uh-uh. You couldn't help yourself. You couldn't help yourself.

You are totally you see, alcoholism, in my opinion, and all these are my opinion, these are my interpretation of the pro. No one else's. And what these four books tell me, alcoholic synonymous 12 and 12, a a comes of age and Bill sees it, tells me that alcoholism is a self inflicted disease. Now now, the the big book calls it a self imposed disease. I don't see no difference in being a self inflicted and self imposed.

To me, it sounds insane. And so the problem without politics anonymous is a self imposed program. No one can no one can make you impose into you the program without policy and honor. You have to do it yourself. The simple a b c says, a, that we're alcoholic, and we cannot manage our own lives.

B, that probably no human being can relieve us by alcoholism. I don't care what your group does. I don't want care what Chris say she says. I don't care what your mother says, or your father says, or your children says, or your minister says, or your church says, or whatever it might be in your life. No one can relieve you of your alcohol.

No human being. That's what the program says. It says these are 3 pertinent ideas. But it says in c, it says that God could a definite promise. God could and would if he was sovereign.

And this is what this program is all about, is you seeking God and placing God into your own individual life, which no one else can do for you but yourself. And to do this, you have to get rid of self. You got to get away from self and yourself centeredness because that's the root of all of our troubles. Instead of being self reliant, you've gotta be god and relaxed. And this is what the big book says it's all about.

This is what the big book is all about. Just teach you how to do this. That is the first 164 pages. And that's why you never hear a a member that's been in that a in any length of time and enjoy the sober riding fruit of this program without them telling you that the answer lies right in here, the first 164 pages. Because this is the truth.

This is the truth. Well, that's deflation when you tell God that your way is the wrong way and you got to do his way, right? Moral inventory for the first time in your life. You've got to look at yourself exactly the way you are, not the way you pretend to be. All my life, I pretended to be something that I wasn't.

That's deflation. The next thing you have to do is to to admit to yourself to God and another human being the exact nature of your rounds. That's deflation. Anybody disagree with this? Next thing you have to do is is ask God to, become willing to God remove all your defects to take care of you.

Your sins have come issue. Say things that you do every day that you know that you shouldn't do. And the next thing you have to do is how many ask them to remove your shortcomings. You send them all mission, not doing the things you know that you should do every day. That's all deflation.

And the next thing you have to do is to make amends. Make a list of people that you've harmed and become willing to make amends to them. That's deflation. This is all an inside job. And then after that, you have to you have to take other people into consideration.

If you're gonna harm anybody about making these amends, you have to take them into consideration. You don't be a bull in the china closet anymore. And that's deflation. You gotta get rid of self. And then after you've done all this, it says, you continue to take a personal inventory.

Not somebody else's inventory, but your inventory. And when you're wrong, prophet admit it. That's deflation. And then it says, you'll never have a perfect contact with God. That you that through prayer and meditation, you have to listen and talk to God every day, and ask him for his will, not your will, and the power to carry that out because your will is wrong.

God's will is right. And then after you have done this, it says, having had letter it says, having had a spiritual awakening as the results of these steps. What steps? The previous level. You have received the God contents.

You have received a personality change. You have changed a 180 degrees, And then you have a story to carry, and you try to carry this message to the alcohol. It doesn't say that you that you that you have to go out and beat somebody over the head with it. It says, you try. That's all.

Just try. And to practice these principles in all your affairs. Well, you know that a word of fairness. Did you ever stop to say did you ever have an affair by yourself? It wasn't much fun, wasn't it?

Well, it's no part of the 12 steps. I mean, I'm just bringing this out. It's so funny why he put that word of therapy. You know that? It must have meant that he's gonna bring something else in our lives, something outside of us.

Well, the 12 steps is entirely for me, for an inside job, right, for this deflation. Alright. Now, I'm sober and in good graces of a a. I'm making the epitome here. What have I done?

I started off in the state of bondage. I would live in the drink and drink in the lake. I was addicted to alcohol. I was in bondage. I was a slave to alcohol.

And from the bondage, I got and from there, I got into the program and I received faith that this program would work for me. And from faith, I received courage because courage is without fear. And I started trusting God and I got and I got courage because I had to have courage to take the full step because it says fearless, and the word fearless means without fear. Courage to look at myself like I was. And from this courage, I had the courage to sit down and and write out the 4th step and to take the 5th step immediately thereafter.

And I had the courage to look at step, the house cleaning steps. I had courage to do those, and through these house cleaning steps, I got free. I got the freedom of living. If anyone should know what freedom is, is an alcoholic that is free of his old self, the old stinking, drinking, thinking. I got freedom.

And from this freedom, what did I get? I got abundance. I got the spiritual abundance, and I got material abundance because I became part of the universe. I became part of the world. My pockets jingled.

I had money in the bank. I had 2 cars in the garage. I'd build a new car I had a new business, and everybody wanted to do business with me because I was honest. I was a member of alcoholics and honest. I went to graph.

I I did what I said I was gonna do because the program had taught me that. I was in the I was in the epitome of life with the spiritual abundance, and God was doing for me what I could not do for myself. Have you ever been in that position? Well, I'm 12 years in the program, I'll call it tonight. Well, you would take that would be enough would be enough.

But, you know, the human mind is like a garden. If you you don't keep that hole in your hand, it's gonna get full of weeds, and those weeds are the negative thoughts. That old raking thinking can drop right into you just as fast as it lets you. And you know what I started to think about one day? My retirement plan.

I wasn't satisfied with what God was doing. I wasn't trust God anymore. I was I was said, well, here I here I am, I've educated my 2 children. I've got rid of that. Now I've done a good job there.

I started taking credit. I sent them through college. My wife and I didn't have any college education, but I did for them what I didn't have an opportunity to do myself. I was taking credit for it. My business has been good.

And I've spent a lot of time with I'll call it synonymous. But I just haven't done nothing about Wesley Parishes in retirement plan. Now that's a simple way of thinking, ain't it? Well, you see, I had stopped growing when I had had a spiritual awakening. I had stopped growing.

I thought that was all necessary of me just attend meetings and be part of Alcoholics Anonymous, make it through 12 step calls, and I forgot about this inside job. And these weeds started growing inside. I didn't realize that I had to have more to fulfill my life and keep this keep this this bag of this deflation going in my life. Because once that you start deflating, you start inflating. I didn't know that the 12 traditions were the continuation of the 12 steps in the program of Alcoholics Anonymous.

I didn't know that the 12 that the program of Alcoholics Anonymous is is in 3 parts. When you tell me that you are a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, I would assume and you are living the program of that, I would assume that you are living the 12 steps. I assume that you're living in unity. I assume that you are rendering service to your fellow man. That is the program of alcoholism.

Recovery, unity, and service. That's it. And this is what these 4 books here. These 4 basic textbooks of alcoholics anonymous teach us about. It's recovery.

That's number 1. That's foundation. Unity and service. And I didn't know this. And so therefore, I started getting squirrely.

I started thinking about, well, you know, I'm really doing too much for Alcoholics Anonymous. I I just I don't know why I've spent as much time as I have with it and denied my the things that I know that's important to me. Getting taken back over again, not being satisfied with God's doing for me. Not being satisfied with God's doing for me, when he's doing for me what I couldn't do for myself. And I started working on this and that and thinking about this retirement plan, what I was gonna do.

Oh, it could be a 100 other things, but I'm just using my retirement plan just for Exactly. And you know, all of a sudden, the old devil took over. You know, we talk about the high power in this program. Well, what about this lower power? We have a lower power in a a too.

Don't you ever hit yourself. I was his best second lieutenant, and I run off and left him. And he he's started talking to me. And he said, Wesley, you're right. I got you need a good retirement plan.

You just ain't gonna make it on social security, and deflation's coming along, and I got you gonna starve to death. And you don't have nothing to go on. And I got thinking about this, and one day the telephone rang. And this man says to me, he says, Wesley, I'm I'm gonna be home tonight. It was Wednesday night, and my my group met on Wednesday night.

And he says, tonight is my my night at home, and I want air condition my house. You come on out here, and let's see what we're gonna do about it. Knowing done well, that it was it was, meeting night. I I I said to myself, you know, real fast, like, I said, well, I'll go like that tonight. I've been wanting to go to this meeting in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday night for a long time, and I just never have the opportunity.

And I said, I'll make that meeting up tomorrow night down in Fort Lauderdale. So I went out and I went to the meet I went out and sold the air conditioner. And how sweet it was. It was so sweet that I forgot about Thursday night going to Fort Lauderdale. Well, for a whole week, I didn't go to a meeting.

Word, about me not being to that meeting the night before or Wednesday before. And you know, not one person said one word about me not being to that meeting the night before Wednesday before. And I hadn't missed a meeting on Wednesday night in years. And you know what I said? Well, if that's all I mean to this group, the hell with it.

Now this gives me the opportunity to turn this over to the new come to the new member. I'm just gonna become an elder statesman. Charlie, you know what I'm talking about. I'm just gonna be out now on the stage. And so and so I, I I, see, I started down the ladder.

You see, when you get an abundance of this program, this is when you got to work the hardest. When God is doing for you what you cannot do it for yourself, and you're getting abundance of this program. This is why you gotta work the hardest, you know, to stay on top because it's just absolutely a fact in life. If you're on top, somebody's always trying to knock you off, you know? And so I I didn't know this.

And so you see, I got knocked off the top. And I started going down. I started getting complacent. I started getting that quiet pleasure inside of me. Complacency.

I look over there and I'd see somebody in my group and I said, look at that guy dressed up in that $300 suit tonight. I knew him and he didn't have a pair of pants to his name. I had to give him a pair to wear sneakers. Look at his wife. My God.

What a hag she was when he first come in the head. If you hadn't meant for me, he'd have never made it. It. Oh, and I just looked all around and I was just quiet pleasure inside. I was just eating it up, you know.

I started playing with God all over again. S and then I went to then to apathy. I became indifferent. I saw that they didn't need me around there. And I didn't know why I was a member of our colleagues.

And I don't understand anyway. I doubted whether I was an alcoholic. I I thought I just wasted my time around anyway. You know? I said, I'll come around once a month and get busy on my retirement plan.

I'll come around once a month, then I'll sit down on the back row. And if the newcomer wants a few pearls of wisdom, I'll I'll say that 5 to 10 minutes. Let him have it. You know? And I kept that up for a month or 2, and Oh, that's the worst thing in my life.

I can do. You know, I turned my life and my will over the care of God because my way was a wrong way. And here, I was some more of that wrong way. And here, I was some more of that wrong way. You know, I turned my life and my will over the care of God because my way was a wrong way.

And here, I was And here, I was walking some more of that wrong way. And so therefore, I took my life over again. I started dependent upon forgot about my wife. I forgot about my family. I forgot about my sponsor.

I forgot about my group. I forgot about my God. I forgot about everything but the big I. I was just completely inflated all over again. I had lost everything that I had gained, and I thought it's not for 12 years.

The big guy. And this is a this is just being a human being. I didn't know this. And through the grace of God, I had a good sponsor. And this good sponsor knew it and he grabbed me up with the bootstraps and he straightened me out.

And he says, Wesley, I don't know what you're gonna do, but you better do something. Well I didn't know what I was gonna do. And one day just by chance I picked up the grapevine. And I I read the front inside cover of the grapevine. There's 12 steps.

I read them, and I let it lead through. And finally I got to the back page on the inside and that was the 12 traditions. And I started reading the 12 traditions. Then I turned back over and I read the 12 steps. And I said, well, I can't use the 12 traditions in my life because they're written at the group level.

And I can't really re use, because I can well, I said, I don't know why I can't use them. I said, the the 12 steps are written at the we level, in the plural. And I said to myself, what's the difference between we and a group? It's a good question. What's the difference between we and a group?

The 12 steps is written at the at the we level, the group level, with the 12 tradition. And I went over to the 3rd tradition in a long form in the big book Alcoholics Anonymous, and it told me that anytime that 2 or 3 members of Alcoholics Anonymous got together for the purpose of discussing the program of our colleagues anonymous and and they had no other activity besides that that they would call a group. So it only takes 2 to make a group. Well, how many does it take take week to to to make week? It takes 2, doesn't it matter?

Well, it takes the same amount to use use the 12 steps and the plural that takes the to use the 12 tradition. And I said, well, I never used the 12 traditions at the at the we level. I use them at the I level. I said, why can't I start using the 12 traditions at the I level? Maybe if I understand the 12 traditions myself and use them, maybe I can transmit those to my group after I learned something about it.

And so I said, you know, I think I'll try this. I'm just stumbling in the dark. I didn't know. And then I was reading it, it comes of age one day, and I and I noticed that. Well, Bill said that the 12 the 12 traditions were the continuation of deflation after the 12 steps.

And I started and I started reading the 12 traditions, and all about it in these books. And I found out this was true because I started practicing these 12 traditions in my everyday life. And I started along with the 12 steps and you'll be amazed what happened to me. It was no time because I was back back in pornoce again and a member in good standing. I'll call it salons, loving everybody.

You see, I had only loved Western Parish. The twelve steps taught me 2 things, to love Wesley Parish and to love God. That's all. But if I'm gonna have a rounded life, I've got to love you. Did you know that?

I've got to love my fellow man and live in unity with my fellow man, if I wanna be happy. That Cease was talking about tonight. But then I lose it all. You know, I've seen so many members. I hate to say this because this just happened 2 weeks ago.

I saw a man that had been a total succession in business life and I'll call it synonymous for 37 years. I saw him commit suicide. You know why? Because he never tried to live in unity with his fellow man. He just didn't try.

And this is part of the a program. Now I'm gonna go through a few of these 12 traditions and show you how I'll level them. These are my responsibilities. The first one says my I'm gonna read them at the eye level so that so that, I'm not trying to change them, but I'm gonna try to get something out of them for me. I still got to do this inside job.

You know what I mean? Now this is why I've been sober 35 years is that I found these 12 traditions and I hadn't abandoned those outside people had to beat me to death. But I found how to control those outside people within here. I learned how to not react to their act and let them destroy me. I have I can't control what you do.

I can only control what I do. And so it says my common welfare comes first. What is my common welfare? My common welfare is staying sober. I am an alcoholic.

I don't care. I'm one rank from a drug. One's too many and a1000 is not enough. I need the program of Alcoholics Anonymous more today than I needed 35 years ago. 35 years ago, I had nothing to lose.

Today, I've got everything to lose. Everything. And so this is my common welfare. It's to stay sober. Make it my biggest business every day of my life.

This is to cease to talk about. My personal recovery depends upon my AA unity. My personal recovery depends upon me living in unity with you, not you living unity to me. That ain't got nothing to do with it. Uh-uh.

No. I've got to love you whether you love me or not. What did the great teacher once said? The great teacher once said this, what is it to love those who love you? That's nothing.

But to love those who hate you is something. Now if I wanna lose what I have gained in our college anonymous, the only thing I have to do is to react to your act and try to change you and get in a personality clash with you and you getting a person a personality clash with me. Well, at the end of the situation, who's gonna be the winner? Both of us are gonna be the loser. And so why should I then let you destroy me?

Does that make sense to you? It makes sense to me because, you see, I'm in this thing for one thing and one thing only. And that's to find a way to live and be happy without alcohol. I was born with a personality that wanted to be happy. And alcohol, I drank it for the effects.

If castor oil would have the same effect on me as alcohol, hell, I'd have been a castor oil. It wouldn't have made a better difference. Just that way. I'm not gonna let you get into my life and ruin my life. No, sir.

I'm gonna love you whether you love me or not. You can bet your boots on that. That's the way it is. I have a one honorable authority, A loving god as he expresses himself in my conscience, me. The same loving god that I found back then the third step.

Same loving god. You know, this whole thing in our college and out, this is based upon this loving god. Indeed, the divine love of god. This attracted you the first time you were never approached by our college lovers. The person that came up to see you was something about him or her that you knew that they meant every word that they said.

It was something about them that that that attracted you. It was something about them that that that you knew that that that that that they wanted you to be part of what they are part of. And it seemed that whatever they wanted to do, it was just an unlimited thing that they wanted to give you. And you knew that it was nothing about you. That's the way I was.

I knew it was nothing about me that would motivate this type of love or this type of feeling in another human being. I didn't know at that time that this was the divine love of God working in my life at that particular moment through another human being in this twelve step job. I came to AA because this man said, we need you. I came to AA because this man did not take my inventory. I came to AA because he didn't he didn't tell me about what a sorry so and so I was.

Why didn't I drink like a man? Why did I do this? Why didn't I do that? He didn't try to take away from me the rights and the privileges to do whatever I wanted to do. And whatever I wanted to do, he didn't condemn me for it.

He showed me that he has loved me because love is tolerance and love is patience and love is understanding. It. This is divine love of God. The divine love of God is spontaneous, it's unlimited, and it's unmotivated. And this is what we have in our politics.

And And this is what we have in our politics and minds. This is the this is the this is our element of authority that I have. And he's taught me that I am not a governor. Only thing I do is I'm a servant. I'm a servant to you.

This is my responsibility to serve you, to to to whatever I know about this program is to transmit it to you, where you can have what I have received in this program. Tell you about my mistakes where if you want to if you want to hound yours by through through my my trial and error, well, you can do it. And to tell you where I found my answers, that's me being a servant to you. I came to get, but I hope I can say it again, And I've never seen a servant yet that was a boss. I've never had.

The only requirement for AA is a membership, AA is a membership. An AA membership is a desire to stop drinking. The only thing I have to do to be a member of our colleague's law is have a desire to drop it stop drinking every day in my life. That's it. It's not about anything else.

I don't get all confused about these outside issues, these things that we bring into our call as anonymous as human beings. It's not necessary. I don't care about she wolves, or he wolves, or or little red riding hood, or none of that stuff. Not interested in it. It's their damn business.

They want that kind of stuff. It's alright. I don't care whether they take pills or not. That's their I don't care whether they smoke grass or not. That's their business.

That's an outside issue as far as alcoholics and all this is concerned. We are interested in one thing and one thing only. You can't drink pills, or you can't drink grass. And it says right here, it says, the only requirement is the desire to stop drinking. That's it.

I don't get confused about all this stuff. Somebody comes in my room and starts talking about pills and all that stuff. I say, you're out of place. You ain't got no business here, buddy. I said, we're we're for one thing and one thing only.

We we we we got one single mind. If you've got a drink in problem, we are here to help you. Period. If you don't have a drinking problem, there's other places. There's 202 fellowships using the program with Alcoholics Anonymous, helping other people.

Now we've been very generous with this program. 202. This one, the newest one is called, constitute a nines. And their slogan is, don't take that first buck. See, we've got to be single of mind.

We know this. We can't be everything to everything. If you read the history of AA, if you read the history of Washingtonians, you can see why this is absolutely 100% necessary. We have nothing against these other people. We are just single of mine.

That's our one purpose. Stop drinking. That's all. I should always be autonomous, except as matters affecting that as a whole. I've got a doctor's degree in negative thinking.

I can out lie, out cheat, out steal any so called normal person. No. I got I know how. I mean, I live in that way for years. I know right from wrong.

And I'm gonna tell you something right now. I've got to make a decision every day of my life on this little simple piece of philosophy. Anything just about right is wrong. Anything just about right is wrong. And that's the way it is.

Now, if you wanna hear the hounds of heaven bark in the morning, all you have to do is to do something wrong, and your conscious is gonna get at you. Well, you see, you're the one who's gonna pay the penalty. No one else. And Well you see, you're the one who's gonna pay the penalty and no one else. And you know right from wrong, and you wouldn't become a member of our college.

Because you come to a because you know that you're a rebel or you wouldn't want to be a member. I never saw a person in my life want to be a member of our college. Law. But here we are. And so therefore, we know it.

So we have to be autonomous. We have to make our own decision. We have to stand on our own 2 feet, and for first time in our lives, meet our own responsibility toward ourselves, to be honest with ourselves for the first time in our life, regardless of what other people do. Don't be led by the nose just because at that particular time, it's a little convenient and it will help you in the social activity or something like that. You're only hurting yourself when you do it.

I'm gonna drop down to to 7. AA groups ought to be fully self supported and declining outside contributions. You say, well, what's that got to do with being happy? That's got everything in the world to be in being happy. I'm a member of Alcoholics Anonymous.

I have to support AA because I am a member of AA, and AA is supported by its membership only. We decline all outside contributions. And so therefore, who is left to support it but you and I as members? And if you're not supporting it and if I'm not supporting it, we are not meeting our responsibilities as individuals. Does anybody disagree with that?

I don't you know, I used to sit by men in there when I first come in, and I had a resentment that I re that that I let them be reborn every every meet night. Because I I just I just like to you know, you just aggravated the hell out of me. There and wait till the meeting was over and start passing the basket and he'd wait till the basket got to him and he'd reach in his pocket and put the basket on his lap and he'd slap this little old pocket book open and you could hear it all over the room. Drop it in there. And I'd say, that tight son of a bitch.

If he don't put but a dime in there, I ain't gonna put nothing. Now, I didn't put nothing either. Now, who was I hurt? I was hurting me, because I wasn't meeting my responsibility. You see, you and I have the most perfect program known to man.

Did you know that? When Bill left when Bill left us, he left us a perfect program. He didn't left he didn't let leave it stone unturned. He gave us the 12 tradition or the 12 steps. He gave us the 12 traditions.

He gave us a third legacy, and he gave us a 12 concepts. In other words, that is recovery, unity, and service, and the perpetuation of our colleagues anonymous as long as human life. So what else could you ask about? And these things belong to you and I as members, and they are mine and yours as long as you and I support our colleagues around us. There is no stranger test as long as you and I meet our responsibility.

I don't say guilty. It hurts. I say guilty. It feels good. You know what I'm talking about.

That's all it is to it. Well, I'm going back to one more, and then I'm gonna let y'all people go. I'm gonna go back to number 5. It says, each group ought to have a one primary purpose, to carry the message to the alcoholic who still suffers. Carry the message to the alcoholic who still suffers.

I've been sober 35 years and I still suffer from disease of alcoholism every day of my life. I'm here tonight to take my medicine for my disease. What about you? Are you here tonight for your disease, Charlie? Everybody?

You've been sober 25, 30. Everybody here, I hope they take medicine for that disease, getting the prescription filled. I don't know about the doctor, but the prescription is good. Well, if this be true then, it's my responsibility every time I see you is to carry the message to you. It's my responsibility to 12 step you every time I see you.

And it's your responsibility to 12 step me every time you see me. How about that? To carry the message to each other. There's no stronger thing in the world than love. Love, l o v e.

And when I come to I call it synonymous, well, love to me was a physical thing. It's not that anymore. It's a spiritual thing. I love you just because you are you. And I want you to have the best of everything.

I want I want to I want to transmit things to you, my experiences, and hope with you that this program works. And I want you to be sober 35 years. And I want you to be sober 35 years. And you might say, well, that's some braggadocious say. No.

I go to these conventions all over the world and they they let people stand up and it's very few people that will stand up. A few people once in a while, you get a 35 year old man to stand up. And after that, you know, we just peter out about that long. You know, we just wear out. If you put it to practice within yourself.

If you've taken hold the total package, recovery unit and serve. It works if you work. It will not work unless you work. It's an inside job for every human being that's in a memo of our colleagues love. Remember, it says, no human being can relieve you of your alcoholism.

So you've got to go to where you find out what will. And this book tells you in the prefix that this was written by a 100 men and women, and this is precisely not suggesting it, but precisely how they recovered. So this ain't no much malarkey. This is the truth. This is 45 years old and the alcoholics have never changed it, so you know it's gotta be right.

Are we the change? Alcoholics anonymous. AA comes of age. This is a history our college of our you know why your children study American history in school? Because they wanna teach your children to love their country.

The more that they know about the history of their country, the more they love it. Well, I can tell you the more that you know about AA, the more you'll love And I strongly suggest AA, AA comes of age, read it, and digest it, and become part of This was written 17 years after Bill has written a big book, his interpretation of the 12 steps and 12 traditions. And it's extremely good. And the last but not least is as Bill sees it. This is Bill's writings and inserts of his letters and so forth.

And this is strictly a a You know, I I wanna say this one thing in closing. And going all over the country, every once in a while, a person will come up to me and says, Wesley, I've lost my program. I don't know what the trouble is. And I said, well, let's go and have a cup of coffee. So we get go in and get a cup of coffee.

All of that. But it's just something happened in our program. And I said, well, what are you reading? Oh, we are reading these these good books. Sermon on the Mount, Emmett Fox, A lot of these self improvement books they got today, and this one, the little yellow spot on the wall by Hoopla Dung, and And, all this thing.

And and they go on for 30 minutes telling me what wonderful books they'll read. And I said, well, it's funny you haven't said anything about the big book. Oh, well, we haven't read that last 3 or 4 years. That's the last time we've written through that. I said, Well, when did you become a normal person?