The chapter Bill's Story at West End Big Book Awakening meeting in St. Paul, MN

A book study. The goal of this recording is to increase our collective knowledge of the book Alcoholics Anonymous by sharing with each other. I'm Julia and I'm an alcoholic. Hi, Julia. I'm Stephanie. I'm an alcoholic. Hi, Stephanie.

So today we're going to be talking about Bills story, which is chapter one in the big book. It starts on page one.

Stephanie is going to tell us a little more about Bill now and who he was. That's right, That's right. A little bit about Bill, just a little bit of his history, because it's good to get to know about this guy that left his story in in the book for us to read. Bills born in November 26th of 1895, which kind of blows my mind. That was that long ago in East Dorset, Vt. His parents were Emily and Gilman Wilson and he was born in Mount Mount alias in and Tavern. So he, he was, he like was born right behind this Tavern.

Crazy to me. His grandfather, William C Wilson, was an alcoholic as well. And he got sober, sober after having a religious experience under this this drug, it's called

psilocybin, but actually it's kind of like mushrooms. So he's probably having a little bit of his spiritual experience is probably a hallucination of some sort. But nonetheless, it gotten silver.

Sally's parents abandoned he and his sister after they were born, which is so sad to me. His dad left on a business trip, never to return, and mom went to Vermont to study osteopathic medicine.

So he's raised by his mom's grandparents,

Fayette and Ella Griffith. And he didn't really love academics, but he spent months trying to, like, he got obsessive, right, trying to like, carve this boomering. And he wanted to, to carve boomerang so he could hunt. And I think he finally did get one. He met Lois in 1913, and he was sailing in Vermont. And then he started at Norwood University but left after a second semester because of depression and anxiety. So he was already struggling with those things

and he did return to school, but then he got suspended.

So let's see, in June 1916, he went to into the Vermont National Guard and then he got married in January 24th of 1918. And Julie is going to share some fun facts about Bill. All right, there are four of them are fun. One of them is not so fun, but OK. As Stephanie mentioned, he was born behind

a bar in the middle of a snowstorm, which is pretty ironic for an alcoholic, right? And his mom, who she mentioned was studying osteopathic medicine, was one of the first women to graduate from Harvard with a degree, which I think is just fascinating.

Bill experienced a lot of depression, and his first bout of it started at age 11 when his parents left. He had a younger sister, Dorothy, four years younger than him. And he had another serious, very serious bout of depression. When he was 18. His high school sweetheart actually died, and that's kind of what he first experienced, like the really intense depression. He was married to his wife Lois for 53 years and died on their 53rd wedding anniversary on January 24th of 1971.

Bill and Lois never have had kids. Bill desperately wanted them, but

through a series of ectopic pregnancies, they tried to adopt several times, but it would always get to the point in the adoption where they would find out Bill was drunk or drinking. So that always put a kebabs on that. And then last fun fact, he was Bill was offered an honorary law degree later in his life from Yale, but declined it because of the traditions which he wrote. So there's your fun facts about Bill. Yeah, interesting stuff.

So with Bill's story, and one of the values of the big book is for us to see ourselves in the disease of alcoholism.

We had a beginning. Bill W knew the value of sharing this story with others and it was in this big book, as it is in this big book as the first study that helps us to identify what Bill's journey

CEO can make a recovery and that we can gain hope that we can have recovery if we were willing. Bill's story is made-up of basically kind of two sections. The first part is the 1st

pages one through 8 is kind of like the problem, the progression of the disease and pages 9 through 16 is, is the solution that he found,

you know, in the story lots of times I wouldn't, I wouldn't identify with Bill. I didn't go to law school. I don't know anything about numbers of stockbroking and what have you, but

the point of it is for us to be able to see our our story as an alcoholic, as an addiction, the way he thinks, the way he acts and the way he drinks. So I'm going to walk, walk through some key phrases that help us identify with Bill and his progression. I have to take a deep breath and nervous.

So I'm just going to I'm just going to kind of point out some some phrases in the book that kind of really helped me identify and hopefully it'll help you guys identify with Bill Story and especially his progression. So I'm going to speak and we'll see about this progression the first half of the book and Julie is going to take over the solution. The good part. So you know, right away on page one,

there's a phrase that says here was love applause more in moments of sublime intervals hilarious. I was I was part of life at last. So basically he was he was in the they're getting back from

he was in that the World War One, he got back and he was he found alcohol and it was fun. I can totally relate to the fact that alcohol was fun when I first drank. I'm like, this is this is good, I feel good, you know what have you. But in even in the first paragraph, since I forgot the strong warnings and the prejudices of my people concerned this drink. So I was talking to my sponsor about that

because he comes from an Irish background and his grandfather died of alcoholism. So clearly

there were some warnings already set in place for him that he just didn't pay any attention to. He thought it was immune to it

and then right in the middle of page one, it says here lies at Hampshire Grandiere who caught his death drinking cold, cold small beer. A good soldier is near forgot whether he dieth by musket or by pot and the pot there is a pot of beer. So and I believe in that one. It's it's kind of like an identify identification of a spiritual experience for him,

even if he didn't realize it or not was an ominous warning which he failed to hear.

On the bottom of the page it says my talent of leadership, I imagine would place me the head of vast enterprises. I would manage what the utmost assurance that ego is showing up big time, big time.

So then Bill decides on page two that he's going to give us, you know, give it a go in in law and study law. He's going to make some money. And that's when he really started to drink instead of his drive for success was on. He proved to the world that he was important but potential alcoholic that I was. I nearly failed my law course as one of the finals. I was too drunk to think of right. So my drinking was not yet continuous. It disturbed his wife.

So I identify with that

because he knew as a potential alcoholic, but there was a lot of denial and I imagine a lot of manipulation and his wife probably mentioned some things and he's like, no, I'm good, I'm good. And, and even when he was saying and part of it that

I'll, you know, men come up with their best ideas when they're drinking. So he was like, it's OK, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do my best work when I'm drinking. I must be a genius. That's that's what geniuses do. So that's where I'm at.

Oh, so, so then at you and that in Page 2,

he completed, he, he got interested in, in stockbroking and what have you. And so he came up with this idea that he's going to make more money. And he was trying to persuade his broker friends that he had some really good ideas and they weren't quite buying what he had to sell. So he he basically says I failed to persuade, persuade my broker friends to send me out looking over factories and management put my wife and I decided to go anyway.

And so basically they get they gave up all the possessions. I'm trying to imagine Lois and all this going, OK, we're going to do that now. And they were it off on a motorcycle and the side care stuff, the side car stuff with tent blankets and a change of clothes and three huge volumes of financial reference services.

Her friends thought it was lunacy. Commission should be appointed. So funny to me that he has like a change of clothes and he has just just a couple things, but he has three huge volumes of financial stuff, which just is obsession. You know, as Alcoholics we just get obsessed about things.

Does 11 train of thought, which is so crazy to me. Excuse me,

so on you know, on page three it says for the next few years, fortune, fortune through money and applause my way. I had arrived so, so basically got back and, and convinced people that he had some good ideas and he just thought that he had arrived and

he was making all kinds of money that he was, he was just having a good old time

and drinking and taking important parts of his life. And he made a host of Fair weather friends.

I've made a host of Fairweather friends and I'm drinking especially, you know, just at a bar or whatever. I just have a whole bunch of friends for that night.

We've just, you know, I really relate to that so much. Just, you were just having a good time when we're drinking.

Umm. Then he says on that towards the bottom of page three. My drinking is doing more serious proportions, continuing all day and night, almost every night. The remonstrances of my friends terminated in a row when I became a lone wolf.

There are many unhappy scenes and assumptions apartment but that there have been no real fidelity infidelity.

So

basically at that point, people were noticing more and more that he was drinking that was affecting his life,

and his Fairweather friends decided that he was not part of the company that they wanted to keep either.

And he just decided that's when drinking became something that he was doing by himself. And that's the progression

now. On page 4,

it talks about how he decided that he was going to go into golfing

and he was going to be the great, the greatest golfer and he he got a really great jacket and he was looking very well to do

and he just thought he was such a big wig. His his ego was really just taking over. And the local banker watched me world fat checks. And none of us still with amused skepticism. Isn't it funny at when we're drinking how we just don't see how foolish we could look. And I really identified with that. Just the center of the universe is self centeredness and just thinking that

you're doing everything really, really well and

and the other people are just kind of rolling their eyes going and I know what's up with that guy. This is very interesting to me.

So in 1929, then, that's when all hell broke loose and the market basically crashed. And

Bill had a solution for that. He had he had friends that were

there are people that were jumping out of out of windows in the buildings and

just going crazy. Everybody had lost their money. And Bill's response to it, that it was that he was disgusted. He said he would not jump. And I went back to the bar. My friends had dropped several million since 10:00. So what? Tomorrow was another day. And as I drank, the old fierce determination to come back, to win would come back.

And that just cracks me up because he's like, he he knew what he had to do to escape all this, you know, this depression and, and this shock and horror of losing all this money. He was like, I'm just going to drink. And once you start drinking, then you come up with these ideas like, here I go. I'm going to I'm going to be a winner. Has nothing to do with me because he was, you know, he was just in denial about everything.

So after the market crash, she telephoned a friend in Montreal and he decided to go to, you know, decide to go to Canada.

And he felt like Napoleon returning from Albino St. Helena for me. And Julia's going to talk a little bit about that. But drinking caught up with him again, and a judges friend had to let him go. This time we stayed broke.

I think about geographical changes and how

as Alcoholics be escaped and sometimes we actually move thinking that drinking won't follow us. I know that happened for me. So can I talk about the Napoleon? Oh yeah, talk about Napoleon. I never understood what that meant when they said the Napoleon and Saint Helena so I looked it up.

So Napoleon 1813 in France was defeated. His army was defeated and they took Napoleon and put him on this island called Elba and they're like Oh well fine he's out knowledge and he'll be fine. 11 months later he marches back to France with an army that he had built up an Alba and they're like shoot. So they fight a bunch and then the second time they captured Napoleon they take him and put him on Saint Helena, which is this super deserted island in the middle of nowhere. So basically he's saying

I'm going to come back with a vengeance. I got you. Like our alcoholic thoughts is like, oh, you're going to put me on an island. Well, I'll come back with an army and like, I'm not going to get caught. So that's what that reference is, in case any of you were wondering, because I was definitely wondering. So, yeah,

but what an ego, right?

It just blows my mind. And I really, I mean, I really can relate to that. I mean, there's so many times where I just thought, no, I'm, I'm fine. That's not going to happen to me or what have you. It's it's you know, I'm going to be good. Everything is going to be good. But then, you know, this time they stayed broke. That's when it's drinking really, really started to turn. We can just identify with that progression on the bottom of the page. On page four, it says, mercifully, no one could guess that I was to have no real important real employment for five years

or hardly draw a sober breath. My wife began to work in a department store, coming home exhausted to find me drunk, and I became an unwelcome hanger on her at the brokerage places. So I imagine Bill again does not really realizing the enormity of this problem and trying to go into the brokerage center and hang out with people. And they're probably just like, can you just please go home?

You know, it makes me feel sad, but

but then then I understand the fact that we're just kind. That denial that just happens is is baffling.

In the second paragraph on page 5,

you know he's talking about how he's he's making bathtub gin and two bottles a day and often 3 to get to be routine.

You know he'd wake up in the morning shaking violently and it says a Tumblr full of gin fall by a half dozen bottles of beer would be required if I were to eat any breakfast. Nevertheless, I still thought I could control the situation and there were many periods of sobriety which renewed my wife's hope.

I mean, having to drink before eating, before being able to eat and

and the insanity of it all and being able to go for a couple of days and

you know, is obviously, you know, Lois needs some Ellen on

that the period sobriety, which, you know, renewing his wife's hope. I I know that to be the case for many, many of us when we have some periods of sobriety and then people think we're getting better and we don't understand the disease. Why would anybody else understand the disease? So that's an insanity of it all. There is an interesting story about in the fourth paragraph. He said, then I got a promising business opportunity. Stocks run a low point of 1932 and I'd somehow formed a group to buy.

I was to share generously in the profits when I became when I went on a prodigious. I can never say that word Bender and that chance vanished. It's really interesting to me. I read a little bit about that story. It was during prohibition and and Bill was previously known for putting together deals. Some old friends asked him if he would help with the deal and they really were concerned if you could stay sober and he told them not to worry about that again. Ego. After working months to come up with the deal, someone offered him the taste of

unique beverage that he hadn't had before in the form of Applejack.

And Bill at first refused to drink it. But then someone said, you haven't, you've never had this one before. It's really special. And then that alcoholic brain take, you know, good sudden takes. He takes a sip. And he was after the races, you know, triggering that allergy. And basically he lost his chance. I mean, it's, it's, it's sad.

Then he woke up

and he had this had to be stopped. He thought. I saw I could not take as much as one drink.

I was it was through forever. But before then they had written lots of sweet promises to his wife and happily observed this time that she, you know, he, she observed that he meant business. And so he did.

That's when he's trying to use willpower, right? He's trying to to

use whatever he could, his fierce determination to not drink. But whenever the race of willpower and obsession of the mind are competing, the obsession always wins.

Umm. Shortly afterwards he came home drunk. There have been no fight. Whereas. But where is my hybrid resolve? I mean. He was completely baffled. I simply don't know. I hadn't even. I hadn't even come to mind. Someone, someone had pushed a drink my way and I had taken it. Was I crazy? I began to wonder. For such appalling lack, lack of perspective seem near being just that.

When we drink, we tend to crush in our sanity. I know I did. I just thought, I'm not going to drink. I have this big resolve. I'm just not going to do it anymore. I can do it. I cannot. I cannot have to drink.

And then you drink, then you think you're crazy. It's just part of the disease.

And what's really funny in the top of Page Six, you know you when he decided that he was going to try to quit again and use his willpower,

he

his confidence began to be replaced by cock sureness. He'd laugh at Jen Mills.

And now, now I had what it take. One day I walked into the cafe to to telephone. In no time I was being on the bar asking myself how this happened. As the whiskey rose to my head, I told myself I would manage better next time, but I might as well get get good and drunk then. And I did. Boy, I really relate to that.

You know, you just think that you're have this willpower, you've done really good. You probably had a few weeks under his belt and he's like, I got this

and then that that addictive brain gets gets talking to you and it starts telling you, you know,

you could you've done this for a couple weeks to willpower is obviously working.

So,

so you could probably have a drink and you'd probably be OK and then all of a sudden you have a drink and then then all of a sudden you're just going, well, F it. I'm just, I might as well get good and drunk anyways and I'll start again tomorrow. I really relate to that.

In the second paragraph, he said, my brain raised controllably and there's a terrible sense of impending calamity. I hardly dared cross the street like collapse and be rundown by an early morning truck. For me, it was scarcely daylight.

Then he's saying, should I kill myself? No, not now. Then a mental fog settled down. Jim would fix that. So 2 bottles in oblivion. So he's, he's thinking, I think this is so bad, this is so hard.

I think I just might kill myself. And then he settles down a little bit and he's like, I could kill myself or I could just go ahead and get some gin and just check out for a little bit.

It seems crazy to other people. It seems pretty normal to me

and the bottom of the page it says. Then came the night when I was. The physical and mental torture was so hellish I feared I could would burst through my window, sash and all. Somehow I managed to drag my mattress to a lower floor lest I suddenly leave. And then a doctor came in with a heavy sedative. The next day found me drinking both on gin and the sedative. This combination land soon landed me on the rocks and people feared for my sanity. So did I. I could eat little, little or nothing when drinking and I was 40 lbs underweight.

Bill was in constant oblivion and he did so much to manage everything that couldn't be managed.

He, he, I mean, he moved his bed for God's sake so he wouldn't fall out. I mean, drinking around the clock and and forgetting to eat. I mean, that's the insanity of the disease.

And the second part of of page the second paragraph on page seven it says I met a kind doctor explained that certainly selfish and foolish. I had been seriously ill bottling mentally. It relieved me somewhat to learn that in Alcoholics the will is amazingly weakened when it comes to combating liquor,

though it often remains strong in our in other respects. My incredible behavior in the face of a desperate desire to stop was explained. Understanding myself now, I feared forth in high hope. For three or four months the goose hung high and went to town regularly and even made a little money. Surely this is the answer, self knowledge.

So Bella Donna was given much like in in detox treatment, you know, treatment centers now they give you Valium. Belladonna was used then, but it wasn't it wasn't a good drug. It really was

hard to tolerate and hydrotherapy and mild exercise helped a lot.

I'm hydrotherapy was basically where they lay you on a table and put in cold water and in hot water on you. So he was a clean drunk basically.

Umm And I can sense this relief in his brain. We start starting to understand that he has a disease, he just doesn't know what to do about it. So he just,

I can, I can tell, I can identify with the fact that he was relieved knowing it was, it was a disease and that he's like, all right, I got this. I understand it. Now I'm kind of off the hook a little bit. And now I'm going to take care of it because myself will myself knowledge is going to take care of the thing. I mean, just like me and my stack of books. I I figured I'd have I'd have some answers if I if I if I study enough about it, I'll understand

how to get well and

basically the next sentence. But it was not for the frightful day came when I drink once more.

Umm, who's the canal? Hand things off to Julia.

It does feel good, you know, to be relieved to know that you have a disease. And it definitely suits the bill. He knows he's powerless. He's starting to understand he's powerless. And he also knows, knows now that willpower doesn't work. And he knew he wasn't sinful. He he knew he wasn't a bad person and he he thought he had it licked. But just because, you know, it doesn't solve the problem. And knowledge isn't the cure. And soon Bill finds out how much is not the cure,

so he's left with this low point in his life, right? So Bill is basically

of the understanding that is an alcoholic, but there's really not much you can do for him as well. Power isn't working. So this just a little context. This is in 1933 when he first meets Doctor Silkworth. And Silkworth tells him about the disease of alcoholism and tells him, you know, it's not just it's a physical allergy and it's like an obsession with two parts of it. So he goes to towns twice. The first time was the summer 1933. And that's what they're talking here about on page 7.

And then as we go on to page 8, it kind of starts all of a sudden

it talks about the solution, right? How he got out of it. But before we get there quick, no words can tell. The loneliness and despair I found in that bitter morass of self pity. I can totally identify with that feeling of having just like tar wrapped around your soul. Like Bill is clearly from his career. He is a self-made man. He's optimistic, he's hard working. I mean, he went through all those little gigs as a stock broker and he has a great drive for success. And yet he can't figure out how to quit drinking

and how dark it is. Before the dawn is someone who has depression I can totally relate to like that idea of like complete oblivion but not knowing how to solve my problems and just feeling hopeless. And then boom, all of a sudden on the middle of page eight, he was catapulted into a new dimension, 4th dimension of existence. And So what had happened?

I'm sure some of you have heard of Abby Thatcher. So in 1930, summer of 1934, he goes back, Bill Wilson gets back into towns. But how he gets there,

umm, he comes out of towns, right? He gets there, comes out and Bill is at home drinking gin or whatever he's drinking and he's just getting drunk and can't figure out why he's getting drunk. And his friend Abby calls him. Abby Thatcher was a childhood friend. His wife, Bill's wife Lois, actually grew up with him in Vermont playing together. And Abby was from a really prominent family in the East. They were really rich. They basically kicked him out and said, Abby, you're too drunk. Stop embarrassing us. Go

stay at the summer cabin at the summer cabin, he like tried to fix the place up. He wound up having this incident where he was shooting at the wall because of the pigeons and then the police were called blah blah, blah. So and Abby shows up to court and these two guys from the Oxford Group show up and stand up for him and basically he gets out of his like big trouble because his two friends from the Oxford Group came. So I did a little bit of research on the Oxford Group because most of a A comes from, you know, some of the tenants of the

and I was like, I don't know what that is. So the Oxford Group was a kind of, I'll call it a religious movement, but it really wasn't was like a spiritual moment. People of different kind of Christianities coming together was based out of a Lutheran something or other. But their idea they had four main ideas that

the moral standards absolute honesty, absolute purity, unselfishness and love, which I think you can kind of find throughout the principles and steps of A A

with these guys had formed group and would meet on a regular basis

to be spiritually reborn

and them the Oxford group defines sin is anything that kept one from God for or from one another.

So anyway, these groups are meeting they have these ideas that you know they're going to share their their sins and temptations with another Christian. I look at that step four and five, right, surrender our life past, present and future into God's keeping in direction. 1-2 and three, right, 11 and 12, restitution to all of whom we have wronged directly or indirectly 8-9

and listening for God's guidance and carrying it out. 11-12 yeah. So that's the Oxford Group stuff that I can totally see how Bill took that and woven into the 12 steps. So anyway, Evie calls up Bill, Bill's drunk. He's like super waste of his life. And he's like, hey, I've got like, I want to come see you, right? I've had this experience and I was like, oh great. Haha, my old drinking buddy, like I really need a friend. And I can, I've been trying to picture my last couple years of drinking and if I, I usually drank alone in the living room, right?

If one of my friends from college that I partied with and called me up and said, hey, can I come over? I'd be like, sure. And I would be sitting there with the vodka on the table. I can just see it now, Bill sitting there and being like, yeah, come on over. I could use a friend. And he doesn't know what he's in for. So Emmy comes in, shows up and says he was sober. Top of page nine. And there he was, fresh skinned and glowing. There was something different about his eyes. How many of us

know exactly what that looks like as we watch people come in and out of this room? So cool.

So. And then Abby's like, I've got religion. I was like, well, OK, like, so then there's this process where they talk and talk and talk. And Bill listens to Abby talk about the spiritual experience,

and he sees that Abby is truly better.

And in the beginning, a Bill story, he talks about that poem written on the gravestone. And he talks about how he was much moved at the Winchester Cathedral. So this was before he got sober. He's like what, Like in his early 20s over there

in World War One, and all of a sudden that that that experience came flooding back to him as a sudden spiritual experience. And Bill W was one of the people that didn't have a gradual spiritual experience. He had a boom right there one

and as Abby was talking, it reminded him of his grandfather and how his grandfather kind of talked about religion. He was growing up and I can relate to this. I had a dad who talked about spirituality all the time and it made so much more sense to me than the religious aspect I was raised in. And so he,

he's hearing us from Abby. He's kind of like on the fence. And I love the holiday. He describes how he goes through the thought process. I think a lot of us as Alcoholics who have had some sort of faith or background do, we're kind of at the point where we're hopeless. We're like, why is all this crappy stuff happening in the world? Like, and we're going back and forth teetering on the scale. Is there a God? Is there not a God you know? And basically

Bill decides that

he would, he would have God so or his higher power, as you can say.

He saw that here was something at work in a human heart which had done the impossible. He saw that his friend, who had had just as much problem drinking as he had, had found a solution. And he just has this experience. He'd always believed in a power greater than myself, but he couldn't reconcile some of that other stuff that we think of when it comes to religion.

And

he talks about how Abby looked. He says, my friend was much more than inwardly reorganized. He was on a different footing. His roots grasped new soil. Those are all ways of seeing that he has gone through some sort of spiritual experience that Abby has gone through something profound. And Abby and Bill continue to talk. And Bill's kind of combating what Eddie says. And finally, Abby just gets so frustrated about this conversation with God. He's like, why don't you just choose your own conception of God? And it wasn't like this magical like nice little sponsor being like,

why don't you choose her? It was like he was like pissed off. He was like, come on, they'll get it. So that's really the changing point where not only Bill hasn't invented a long time ago he was powerless over alcohol. He hasn't yet admitted his life was unmanageable up to this point. So he's done like the first half of step one. And here's where we see in his story that he does kind of 1-2 and three. Would I have it? Of course I would.

God is concerned with us humans when we want him enough. So this idea that

he's he, he's licked with alcohol, He's got to find a solution. This one seems like it could be OK. And then on page 13, he literally goes through the steps. It's really funny how quickly he goes through the steps with Eddie. So this is about

December 14th of 1934 in Towns Hospital and Abby comes back and goes through all the steps with Bill kind of. And that's how they don't have the steps yet. But this is kind of, you can see how the Oxford Group stuff kind of aligns with how Bill went through the steps with Eddie. Eddie

and so all of page 13 has step 345

11. I was to sit quietly when an adult asking for direction and strength and belief in the power of God, plus enough willingness, honest humility to establish and maintain new order of things or essential requirements.

Umm, So I mean, a lot of the second-half of the story describes his spiritual experience

and it emphasizes the importance of importance of enlarging and perfecting your spiritual life. Right.

Let's see, we're kind of coming up on time here

and

I think he does a really good job in the last couple of pages of describing the miracle that happened. And I, I step back and think about this. Bill had no AA to go to Bill. Bill was an alcoholic. He knew he was an alcoholic. There was no solution for him. And to have found this with Abby's and to come into this place of wanting to help other Alcoholics. That's the other key part of the second-half of the story is that he realized that in order to keep a sobriety, had to share the message with other

Pollocks. And you know, all of this is occurring over a period of like a year and a half. And I don't know how many of you know the story of how he met Doctor Bob, but he was in the hotel. He wanted to drink. He went to a phone booth and start looking at the phone books, trying to call someone to work with an alcoholic. He wound up talking to Doctor Bob, who was they've gone to the Oxford Group together at some point and that kept him sober. But it's pretty amazing that the founder, Bill W, one of the founders of a A, like his story is about

exactly how we feel and think

and the problem and the progression of the disease and then the absolute spherical solution. So

they place Bill, you know, wrote the 12 steps and 12 traditions. They work through that which later became Alcoholics Anonymous and then they play school story. I think in this book very specifically. First they give the doctors opinion. So it's kind of like Bill's experience where he goes to Doctor Silk with hears all about his, you know, alcoholism, obsession and allergy. And then

I don't think it's a mistake that the chapter after it is called there is a solution. So those stories right in the middle of there, because I think that they want people to be able to relate to

what it's like to be an alcoholic. And I don't know about you, but after reading the story, I'm like, yeah, I have all of those things. So thanks for listening. That's all I got. Yeah. Thanks.