The 12 Traditions in Pompano Beach, FL

It will keep me sober. That's the name of the game. And to pay my pay my dues for what Alcoholics Anonymous has done for me is is something that I can never do. I can't even pay the interest on what has done for me. I found, a a November 13, 1947, Bob tonight was just, I have to call him mister Bob.

He was, he came in, he said in in April, I believe, wasn't it? I've, but he's just a few months older than I, and so I have to give him the respect of seniority. And but I know exactly what he was talking about tonight about the promises of this program because this program has gave me every promise that's in this big book. He he read you 12, but if you go through the big book, I imagine you'd find over a 100 promises that it puts in this book, and I've received every one of them through the application of this program. This program has been good to me.

My name is Lester Traes and I'm an alcoholic. Hi, everybody. And the business at hand tonight is to talk about the 12 traditions of this program of our colleagues anonymous. The the program of our colleagues anonymous, as we all know, is built in a triangle. The, the foundation of the triangle is recovery.

That's the 12 steps. And then on one of the sides of the triangle is unity, which is the 12 traditions. And the other side of the triangle is service. And that's the 3rd legus in the twelve concepts. What I have found through the application of the a program over the length of time that I've been sober, that it takes more for me to stay sober than just the 12¢.

I have to embrace in my life the total program of our collection honors, recovery, unity, and service. We have a program that is designed program for living. It will do for you what you cannot do for yourself if you will apply it to the best of your ability. I'm a great believer. Now a lot of people may disagree with this.

If you do, that's quite alright with me. Anything I I say, if you disagree with me, it's alright with me. But I have found what I'm going to tell you tonight to be as near to the truth as I possibly can. This is my opinion and it's subject to change without notice. And if you can tell me you are wrong, I'll certainly change.

I'm not a know it all in alcoholics anonymous. I've just studied these books and I've and I have my own interpretation of it. And I might say this in a matter of passing that anybody that stays sober for 30 years as a true true alcoholic like I am, he's got to do something right. You can't believe that. Right, Joe?

He's got to do something right. And so I followed the a a program. That's all. I've just followed it and so I've stayed sober. The 12 steps teaches me to live with myself.

The 12 tradition teaches me to live with you. And the 3rd legacy teaches me to serve you, to be a servant. And so this is the program of. If I'm only studying the 12 steps and applying the 12 steps that I'll call it synonymous to my life, I'm only using 1 third of the program. If I am applying the the 12 steps and the 12 traditions, I'm using 2 thirds of the program.

And if I'm adding service to those 2, I'm applying the 12 the total program of life college amount. And when anybody tells me that they are practicing the program of in their everyday living, I will assume that they are practicing the 3 legacies because that is the total program of that age. Now for a long time in my life, let let well let's go to this. And then in April a year ago I made a talk here. How many of you people was here a year ago in April?

Well quite a few of you. I made a talk on the 12 steps and I gave you a little case history and told you how the 12 steps were laid out, by the book. In other words, when Bill Wilson laid out the 12 steps of the alcoholic synonymous, he laid about it in such a fashion that if we follow them in the sequence that they are written, we will go through a deflation at depth. In other words, and after we reach the 12th step, we will have a spiritual awakening as a result of the previous 11 steps. And I went through this and I went through the 12 steps and showed you how they cause us to deflate.

The first thing he does in the 12 steps to deflate is that he tells us that we're powerless over something. And that's unheard of in the, in in the lingo of an alcoholic to tell him that he's powerless over anything. Right? Up to the time that an alcoholic told me that, if anybody, everybody that I knew of was trying to regiment my drinking, they was trying to take away from me the rights to drink and the privilege to drink and I resented it to no end. And so the the more that they tried to regiment me, the drunker I got.

But I came into Alcoholics Anonymous and you told me that it was the first drink that made you drunk. And you told me that you were powerless over it after you've taken that first drink. And if you left out the first one, you didn't have to worry about the 20th one. And so, therefore, I can understand this. And so I realized that I was powerless over alcohol.

And through me realizing that I was powerless over alcohol, I surrendered to the to to alcohol. I surrendered to it. It was bigger than I was, and it's still bigger than I am. And so this started a process of deflation, getting rid of my worst enemy and that is myself. The big book many times tells me that selfishness and self centeredness is the root of all my troubles.

And if I wanna stay sober, I have to get rid of these two things. And so I went on to the second step and you deflated me further because you told me that my life was unmanageable, that I could not manage my life drunk or sober. And you went along in more about alcoholism and in the big book here, and you told me why I couldn't manage my life, and you made me deflate more. And then you told me that I had to believe in a power greater than myself if I wanted to be restored to sanity. You told me I was insane because I had to be restored to sanity.

I must have came from insanity. And so therefore, you told me that I was insane to the 12th to the second step, and I realized that I was. And only through this power that I find in in, in the step about the agnostic. You told me about a power greater than myself and you made me deflate more. And then you told me that I had to that my way was the wrong way, That I could not manage my life and if I was gonna be happy, I was gonna have to make a decision to turn my will and my life over the care of God as I understand it.

And that was for the deflation. And from that, you told me I was going to have to take an inventory and look at my life just the way it that was, not the way that I've continued to be. I had to face reality and to face reality, I had to deflate more, get rid of self. And so, therefore, I took the full step. And from the 4th step out, then you told me I had to admit to god, to myself, to god, and to another human being the exact nature of my wrongs That's further deflation.

And then you told me that I had I had to to become willing for God to remove all these defects of character. That's more deflation. And then you told me I had to humbly, humbly ask God to remove my shortcomings. That Steph used to say, when it was first written, it says, humbly down on your knees as God for shortcomings. And so I knew exactly what it meant when it says humbled.

And so I had to deflate myself, father. And then you told me I had to make amends to the people that I'd harmed or become willing to make amends. And then you told me for the first time in my life that I was gonna have to start thinking about other people, that I'd hurt other people of nothing. I wasn't gonna hurt anybody else any father, and I was gonna have to start giving consideration to these things. And if I had any means to make that would affect the well-being of another person for me not to do it, and this is deflation.

And then you told me that that I had to continue to do these things, and every day that I was to take an inventory. And when I was wrong, properly admit it, that I was a human being and I was subject to human error. And from now you told me that I would never have a personal relation a perfect relationship with God, that this is a program of spiritual progress, not spiritual perfection. And then I had to continue to to to, ask, through prayer and meditation. In other words, listening and talking to God every day of my life and ask him for his will, not my will.

And to keep this process of deflation going forward and eliminating my self efficiency and make myself God efficiency. Get rid of my self will between me and god. And when I got through this self will, then I realized in step 12 that I had achieved a spiritual experience, a spiritual awakening. And I had eliminated my greatest enemy and that was self. Well, I had this spiritual awakening, and I was about 8 years sober in our college anonymous and things started to change.

In other words, I started to lose this thing. I started losing it. I started to be get begin getting self importance all over again. In other words, I followed the same lines that the program of alcoholism was broke, followed in a a comes of age. It says here on page 249 by doctor Thiebaud, a psychiatrist, was the first one that showed any interest in Alcoholics Anonymous.

He was a Marty Mann, the first first woman's, alcoholic. He was her doctor at the time he she she came into AA, and how she got to AA was that the big book had been finished and they decided before they would take it to the printers that they would make 400 mammograph copies of it and take it out and distribute it among people, a professional people that was interested in alcoholism, and that they would check it and if there was anything in this book that would offend them while they wanted to know about it so that so that they could change the wording of it and so forth and so on. And so they they distributed this 400 books and so that, the, mammogram copies. And so doctor Thiebaud got hold of one of these, mammograph copies. And he could do nothing with a mighty man.

She would get drunk and and, regardless of what he did for her, she she was right back in his hospital. And at this time, after he had wrote, read this book, he thought so much of it of this manuscript that he gave it to Marty Mann and asked her to read it. And Martie Mann read this manuscript that that AA had give doctor Thiebaud to, to read to see if everything was in order as far as he was concerned, and she felt so much of it that she joined our politics anonymous and she never had another drink after that and today she, you know, who Marty Mann is. She is the 1st oldest member of woman member of our colleagues and doctors. And so this was doctor Tibor and this is how this is how he got interested in AA.

And he became such a wonderful, friend of a a that they'll put some of his writings and a a comes of age in the history of and this is one of the remarks that doctor Thiebaud made about ego. And while this deflation has to continue, it says here, it is common knowledge that the return of the full fledged ego can happen at any time. Years of sobriety are no insurance against its reoccurrence. No AA, regardless of his veteran status, can ever relax his guard against the encroachment of revising ego. Recently, one writing to another reported that he was suffering, he feared, from halitosis.

A reference to the smugness and self complacency which so easily can creep into an individual with years of sobriety behind them. You say you never have it made and I'll call this another. You've got yourself to contend with. And if you don't keep deflating yourself, you're in trouble. A true barometer of how you're getting wrong, and I'll call it synonymous, is this as far as I'm concerned, and this is my opinion.

When I've got my mind on myself, I'm unhappy. I'm inflated. When I got my mind on you and a god of my understanding, I'm deflated. As long as I keep my mind off of myself, I'm okay. As long as I am trying to apply this AA program to the best of my ability.

Now if I if I if I start losing interest in our colleagues, I'm inflating. And as long but as long as I can keep my enthusiasm in the program of our college, I'm deflated. And this is why we always have to be working with others, and this is why we always have to be doing things in our quality matters. This is all the reason why we always, as Joe said tonight, we have to attend meetings. We have to be part of this program.

You know? And I didn't know this. I didn't know this. And so I started backsliding. And so what I what happened to me was this.

I started to make a an excuse not to attend my AA meeting. And I used the excuse, well, I had done enough for my group. It was time for me to let the newcomers do something, you know. And so, therefore, I started to renege on going to my weekly meeting or accepting talks at other groups because I felt like that I owed my family a little bit more time. And I had I had not give them the necessary things while I was while I was under the influence of of alcohol, and and I was getting a little older every day, and it was time for me to start thinking about security in my old age.

And so, therefore, I'd better work harder, and I'd better start making a little bit more money. You see, I wasn't satisfied with what god was doing for me. He was doing for me a lot more than I'd ever had before in my life, but yet I became dissatisfied with it. And so what did happen? I said to myself one night, I said, well, now the telephone rang and this man says, would you come out to my house tonight on this business deal?

I wanna buy something from you. And I said, why sure I'll be glad to come out there. Knowing in my mind that was meeting that. You know? But I said to myself, I'm cunning, you see.

I said, I've always wanted to go over here to old Joe Blow's meeting on Thursday night. This is Wednesday night. And I said, I've won't been been wanting to go over to this Thursday night meeting for a long time. I'll go out and see this guy tonight, and tomorrow night, I'll go see go to see Joe at his meeting. You know?

And so I went out this Wednesday night, and I made this deal. How sweet it was. You know? Made a little extra money, and everything was fine. Well, the next night, Thursday night, I forgot about Joe's meeting and I didn't go.

Well, the next Wednesday night, I went back to my meeting and you know not a soul said anything about me not being out of the the night before. Didn't even miss me. And I said, hell, I'm not so important. You know? I got they can take this thing over.

They don't need me all this time. You know, I've become complacent. Then I then I started looking around, and I said, well, it hadn't been for me. He'd have never made it. You know, that quiet pleasure inside of you.

What a great job you had done for your group. You know? And you start taking credit. Well, everybody's sober. I do that.

What a wonderful job I've done for them. How wonderful they're getting along. Gee, did I tell him the right things? Have I been an inspiration to him? You know?

And then all of a sudden you become in a state of apathy. You know? You become indifferent. You see that your group can get along without you, you know, they're self they're self sufficient without you and so and so you you you become indifferent whether you attend the the meetings or not. You'll say, well, I'll go there once a month.

And if they've got, and I'll sit back on the back row and and the new members after the meeting, I'll sit there 5 or 10 minutes after the meeting, and they can drop by and I'll drop them a few pearls of wisdom. I'll tell them how to do it, you know, and you become indifferent as to whether you attend or meet us or not. And this goes on for a while. And then all of a sudden you become dependent. You start you start dependent entirely upon yourself and that's the worst thing you can do, I'll tell you that right now.

You're your worst enemy if you're an alcoholic. You see, you become self sufficient all over again. You forget about your God. You forget about your group. You forget about your family.

You forget about your friends. You forget about everybody but the bigger. You know? Me. I never needed them people anyhow.

My god. I'm not sick like they are. See, well, I can have a few drinks and nobody will ever know it, you know, And then you go right back into bondage again. That's right. That's the way it is.

And I've seen the the cycle hundreds of times. My my sponsor grabbed me up by the bootstraps when I started depending entirely upon myself because he recognizes in me. And he said, boy, you better get back to Alcoholics Anonymous and get back there fast. And so I returned to AA, but I still had lost that zip, you know, that enthusiasm that I had before. And I was carrying this stuff away.

I was carrying this stuff home with me, you know, and practicing some of it at home and we noticed my wife was getting this damn tired of it, you know, because I was changing before her very eyes. And one day I opened up the grapevine to the to the directory where they was having conferences and I noticed where they was having a conference in Durham, North Carolina and I said, I think I'll go to that conference. And she says, it'll be any good. Go. She didn't even argue.

So I got ready and I went to this this, conference in Durham, North Carolina. And this one guy got up there and all he could talk about was He would use that word over and over and over. And when I got home, that's the only thing I had was that one word. It was just Brandon between my eyes. This guy used that word a 100 times in his talk, and that's the only thing I can remember about that whole entire weekend was intelligence.

An old boy up in Virginia, Dutch Whitley, used to say he said, you don't even know how to pronounce it. I said, hell, I don't know how to spell it either. So what's the difference? But, you know, I figured out what that word meant. I never looked it up in the dictionary, but I found out what an was as far as I was concerned, an intelligent gesture is a damn know it all.

And I had become a know it all in alcoholic synonymous. Now that's trouble. I'm telling you right now. That's trouble. Well, I knew the founders of this program had some way or another supplied me the answer.

I knew somewhere in this program there was an answer to my dilemma. I knew that somewhere there was an answer where I could grow. I had gone through the 12 steps. I had recovered just as long as I could recover. I had to go to some other area of this program.

And so I went to the grapevine. One day I picked it up and was was reading it, sitting around the house and I and the first thing I did, I looked on the inside of the of the page of the first page and there's always the 12 steps. And then I turned it over to the back page and inside the back page, there's always the 12 traditions. And so I read the 12 steps, and then I turned over to the 12 traditions. And I said to myself, well, what's the difference between the way that steps are written and the way the the the the the traditions are written.

And I looked at the steps and I said, well, the steps are written at the we level, the plural we. And I says, the the twelve traditions are written at the group level. What is the difference between we and a group? And that's a good question. What is the difference between we and a group?

And I turned to the big book and over to where it was talking about the traditions, and I read traditions 3. And it said that our membership ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism. If we may refuse none who wish to recover it, nor are AA membership ever depend upon the money or conformity. Any 2 or 3 alcoholics gather together for the sobriety, they call themselves in the a group, provided that as a group, they have no other affiliation. Anytime that 2 members of Alcoholics Anonymous gets together for the purpose of that sobriety without any other affiliation, they are in a a group.

Tom says that all you need to start a group is 2 resentments and a dozen donuts. Well, how many does it take to take make we? 2. Right? And how many does it take to make make a group?

It takes 2. So we in a group's the same. Now this made sense to me. Believe it or not, it made sense to me. And I said to myself, well, I never practice the 12 steps at the we level.

I practice them at the I level. We do it together, but what will my interpretation and what your interpretation of the 12 steps are is altogether different, But we practice the things together. We share together and we care together. And I said, well, keep me sober won't faze you and well, keep you sober won't faze me, but we have the 12¢, and we practice them at the eye level. And I said, why can't I practice the 12 traditions at the eye level?

I know the 12 traditions is gonna be good for me because what is good for my group is good for me, and what is good for me is good for my group, And that's all he stood. And I said there's not a soul in my group that's practicing the 12th traditions. I'll be number 1 there. Now that's something to be. I they don't ever say nothing about the 12th traditions.

One time I dropped my my my group got in a big turmoil and and after everybody chose sides, the republican has got over here and the democrats over here and all of a sudden some some independence caught out. What about what does the what does the 12 traditions say about it? Well, hell, that was too late because everybody had chose chose sides, and the 12 traditions would have done no good whatsoever because they had made up their minds what they were gonna do. That's all. And they were gonna do it a buck to gut 1 of the 2, and they said it was a group conscience, or maybe it was a group conscience.

I don't know. But God sure wasn't at the meeting. I'll tell you that right now. He just wasn't there. And I said to myself, I said, well, you know, these these traditions may be what I need.

And I said, I'm gonna try to practice these 12 traditions along with my with my 12 steps and I wanna find out what will happen. Maybe I can find my answer. Maybe they will give me what I've been missing on this program. And, you know, I started practicing in the 12th traditions at the eye level and things started to happen in the me beyond my father's dreams. Just absolutely everything went, just turned in reverse.

Everything went a 180 degrees different and life became beautiful again, and my steps become alive again, and the program became alive again, and my group became alive again, and I became part of my group again. And I wanna share with you tonight how I live the twelve traditions in my everyday life. And I've got a lot of people in my group today living the traditions because they've asked me what happened to me and I tell them what happened and they'll say, well I think I'll try that too. And you'd be amazed how many people in my group has has joined me in practices in their traditions and their everyday living. You know, it's not a member of our colleagues and analysts in the United States today that's sober that don't practice the 12 traditions in their everyday life.

But there's very few members of our colleagues and our elders in the United States today that know what they're doing. And how much better would it be if you knew what you were doing and you could gain the benefits from it? You get what I'm trying to get over to? Know what you're doing. You know what you're doing with the 12 steps.

Believe me, you can just recover so long, you gotta quit recovering. You gotta find places to grow in this program. You gotta grow. You gotta go. 1 of the 2, and Tom told you that tonight.

And that's the way it is. And so I started using the 12 steps at the eye level. I mean, 12 traditions at the eye level. Now I'm not trying to change the program of our product model. What I'm trying to do is give Wesley Parish a way of life that he can live and be happy without alcohol.

This is what this thing is all about because I was born with a personality that wanted to be happy and I have a lot of loose screws. I must have been the last one on the assembly line on Friday afternoon and there was a hurry to go home, And I wasn't put together all altogether, you know, and a lot of loose screws, and I took a drink of alcohol at 17 years of age. And I said, to me, I said, if I'm gonna be a success in life, I'm gonna have to partake of that stuff because it acted just like a screwdriver. It tightened up every loose screw in me, and it made me what I wanted to be. And so I and I made I made a lot of myself.

I was on a religious detective stuff, and for 17 years, I progressed in the disease of alcoholism. And when I came to Alcoholics Anonymous, I was just sick and tired of being sick and tired. That's all. I had no other place to go, but through the grace of God, I found you. And I say this without any reservation, that if alcohol would have the same effect on me, as cast if castor oil would have the same effect on me as alcohol, hell I would have been a castor oil.

It wouldn't have made a bit of difference because I drink I I drink alcohol for the effects, for the effects. Now I've got to do the same thing with the program of our colleagues anonymous. I've got to have effects out of this program of our colleagues. Now I'm gonna say something now that you might disagree with me on, but I feel this way about it. I think and believe that alcoholism is a self inflicted disease.

I drank alcohol for the effects and so I inflicted my own disease. I believe in reverse that the program of Alcoholics Anonymous is a self inflicted program. I am the only one that can inflict it on me and you're the only one that can inflict it on you. It works if you work. It works if I work.

If it is to be, it is up to me. It's just that simple. You you can give me all the lip service you you want to about this program, but unless I put it into action in my life, I get no benefit from it. I get no benefit from it. And so I started using the 12 traditions and I wanna go through them with you and and show you how I and I'm not gonna use all of them because it's just too many, but things that that really is pertinent to our living.

The first one says, our commonwealth our common welfare comes first. Personal recovery depends upon a unity. At the eye level, I say this, my common welfare comes first. Now what is my common welfare? My common welfare is to stay sober.

I'm an alcoholic. I've got an incurable disease called alcoholism. I can arrest it, but I can never cure it. And therefore, it's got to be the number one thing in my life. Nothing that can come in front of it.

It's got to come for my wife. It's got to come for my children, my job, my business and society. Because without me being sober, I don't have a wife. I don't have children. I don't have a job or business, and society wants nothing to do with me.

And if you're an alcoholic, you know exactly what I'm talking about. And so that is my common welfare regardless. Staying sober is my biggest business. I need the program of our college's anonymous more tonight than I needed 31 years ago. When I came to this program, I had nothing to lose.

What did you have to lose when you came to this program? I had nothing. Today, I have everything to lose. When I came to this program, I had no self respect. I didn't have the love of my family.

I wasn't acceptable in the community that I lived in. I was a bankrupt businessman and I didn't even have a god of my understanding. I had nothing. Today I've got my self respect. I've got the love of my family.

I live in a home today. I don't live in no house. There's love and there's laughter. I've been a successful businessman since being in AA. I I acceptable in the community that I I live in, but that's not the greatest thing of all.

The greatest thing of all is that I've got a God that I can call my friend. I can have what I've got today or I can have one drink of whiskey or one drink of alcohol, but I can never have both because I am an alcoholic. So my common welfare is to stay sober. That's it. One day at a time.

My personal recovery depends upon my a a unity. My personal recovery depends upon me living in unity with you. That's you living in unity with me that don't have anything to do with it. I've got to love you whether you love me or not. I've got to accept you just the way you are, not the way that I want you to be.

I can no more change you than you can change me and so, therefore, you are you and I am me, and I have to leave it that way. The only thing I can do is is to have such a quality of sobering that I attract you. And you can say to me, well, what do you do to have this personality? This is the only way I can help you. It's just through lip service and you have to put this thing in the action of your own life.

I cannot change you no more than you can change me. And so therefore it is my responsibility to live in unity with you if I wanna be happy. Now if I wanna be unhappy, all I have to do is get in conflict with you and you get in conflict with me and we both will lose what we are trying to acquire in our politics and others. And so therefore, I am being dishonest with myself when I get in conflict with you. When I react to the act and you disturb me, that is my fault, not your fault.

It's just that simple. I have to live in unity with you. You know, the greatest teacher on earth once said, what is it to love those who love you? That's nothing. But to love those who hate you is something.

Now the world out there don't live that way. Normal people just don't live that way. You know? Well, we're not normal. You know that?

We're just not normal. Try it sometime. Try it in your group. Try it in your group. Live immediately with your fellow man regardless.

It's the key to happiness. Don't live in conflict. I have but one element of authority, a loving God as he expresses himself in my conscience. I learned about this loving God that I have when I went went to see the man and ask him if he would take me to an alcoholic synonymous meeting. There's a word called acape or agape.

It's a Greek it's a Greek word that describes the type of love that we have in our alcoholic synonymous. It's the divine love of God. And when I asked this man, I said, can I go to an alcoholic synodal speaking with you? He had great, big, blue eyes and he looked at me with those great, big, blue eyes and he said, you can go tomorrow night if you're sober. But I could feel something in his voice that I was needed, that I was wanted, but I had to start doing my share.

I had to earn the joy of going with him the night. I had to do something to show him that I had the desire to stop drinking. He told me that this is a program where you just don't drink, but it's still that way. And he told me that he was willing to go to any limits to help me and this, and this thing that he was telling me was just spontaneous right out of him. This is the divine love of God coming out of this man that I went to see.

And this is what attracted me to a a. It was a love that was spontaneous, it was unlimited, and it was unmotivated. This man just in the step of the finger, he just absolutely spontaneously, he he he was he was ready for me, and what he had to offer me was unlimited. And it was certainly in and nothing about me that would motivate a thing like this. Was anything about you when you first come to AA that would motivate love?

Well, this is what attracted you to this program. This is what attracted you to this program. The divine love of God. And this is a loving God that they're talking about here in this program. The 3rd step in 3rd step where you said you made a decision to turn your life and your will over the care of god as you understand him.

This is the same god as he expresses himself in my conscience. I've got to remember this and I, and he is part of me. I am God efficient, not self sufficient in the program of life quality and values. Stop your machine and turn your tape over. You cannot serve people without loving people.

But you can govern people and dictate to them without loving them. You do that through hate and trying to worm something and turn something out of them. But when you're at service, you love people and you serve them because you want to serve them. Right? You want to be part of them and give of yourself.

You come to get but you say to give in this program and that's the key to the whole thing. It's giving, giving of yourself, Sharing and caring from the program of our college and honors. You you will never see a service that is the boss. Did you know that? Service is just not the boss.

And we are servants in this prodigal alcoholic matter. Number 3, it says, the only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking. That's it. The only requirement I have every day of my life and I join AA every day of my life. The only requirement you require of me is that I I stop drinking.

That's all. You don't even ask me if I'm an alcoholic. I diagnose my own case and I say that I am an alcoholic. You never said to me, well, I just don't believe you're an alcoholic. You said you haven't got certain qualifications that you need to be an alcoholic.

You never said that to me. You allowed me the privilege of diagnosing my own case. Right? But why shouldn't I allow you the privilege of you diagnosing in your own case? You know, many, many times I pointed my finger at a member of our college synonymous and I said he'll never make it.

He's too educated. You don't have enough. He's got his sex life. He's running ram, ram boxes. He can't make it with all this sex in his life and this, that and the other.

He's right, he's something else. Something else is wrong with him. Uh-uh. That's a bunch of. Every person diagnoses our own case in alcoholic synonymous as to whether they're alcoholic or not.

The program of alcoholic synonymous is for alcoholics. We have a lot of byproducts But a a is for alcoholics. You can't drink pills, Joe. You can't drink pills. The addict's anonymous is a good outfit.

I've known about it. Born in Lexington, Kentucky. It was in it was in 1947 when I came to a a and they do a beautiful job. They do a beautiful job. And they have a beautiful program and they use the program of alcoholics anonymous.

But alcoholics anonymous is for alcoholics and don't ever forget that. This is it. And the only requirement and the only requirement is a desire to stop drinking. You see this eliminates me taking anybody's inventory and I can spend more time on my own and so therefore I'm better off. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting groups or AA as a whole.

I should always be autonomous except when in the sector or AA members or AA as a whole. The word economist means self governed. I could stand firmly on my own two feet. I should not be led around by the nose just because in that particular time, it's convenient that people will think more of me if I don't go in rebuttal. I don't I don't have to live that way anymore.

I don't have to be led anymore. I've got a doctor's degree in negative sanction. I'm an alcoholic. I know right from wrong. That's the reason I'm a member of Alcoholics Anonymous.

And so therefore, if I if I go along with somebody just for the ride and know that I'm wrong, that is my fault. That is my fault. That's a luxury that I can afford and I don't think any alcoholic can afford. Because we have to listen to those hounds bark at 4 o'clock in the morning. We have to pay the penalty for our mistakes.

And if we know that we are doing something wrong and we do it, then we have no one else to blame but ourselves. And we have a sign hanging up in a group where I come from and it says this, It says, anything just about right is wrong. Shall I say that over again? Anything that's about right is wrong. We can't afford the luxury anymore of doing things of these old ideas.

Uh-uh. The next book says we try to hold on to these old ideas but the result says no until we let go absolutely. So we know these things are not for us and we just can't do them anymore. And so therefore we have to be autonomous and we stand on our own 2 feet and we make our own decisions if we wanna be happy. And this is what it's predicated on, is to be happy.

I'm gonna skip number 5 and come back to it. It says, number 7. Every a a group ought to be fully self supporting declining all outside contributions. You say, well what does that have to do with being happy? It has a lot to do with being happy.

You show me a person that don't meet our responsibilities and I'll show you a person that's not happy. But you show me a person that needs his responsibility, to Belize and I'll tell you a person that is happy. It's just that simple. The membership of alcoholics anonymous supports Alcoholics Anonymous and no one else. We have no strings attached to the program of Alcoholics Anonymous.

That as long as you and I as members support alcoholic synonymous, there will never be any stranger to that. We are fully self supporting. You know, I used to sit next to a millionaire when I first come in there and he was chairman of the board of, of Hob Hacks. And I used to sit by and just enjoy resentment I had against this guy. You know.

And and when when the the meeting was over and the speakers were through and and the the plate was coming by, he had reached in his hand pocket and pull out a little old bitty black pocketbook And he'd snap that thing open and you could hear it all over the room and it was embarrassing just to hear it, you know. And he'd go down there and he'd fiddle around in those coins and he'd come up with a Texas hat. That's a dime. And when that basket went by, he you'll hear, you know. And I'd say that type son of a bitch.

If he don't if he don't put but a dime anytime, he won't put nothing. And I didn't put nothing in there either. Now who was I hurting? Me. You see, I wasn't meeting meeting my responsibility.