The Doctor's Opinion: The Basis of Our Fellowship is Carrying the Message

TEXT (p. xxv): As part of his rehabilitation he commenced to present his conceptions to other alcoholics, impressing upon them that they must do likewise with still others. This has become the basis of a rapidly growing fellowship of these men and their families.

THOUGHT: For a program that stresses "suggestions," there are an awful lot of "musts" in the Big Book. Here is one of them: I must carry the message of recovery to others. The process of learning how to do that effectively constitutes a lifetime journey. The ultimate yardstick is always the same: Love. (The "Four Absolutes" have the following to say about Love: "Ask yourself, 'Is this ugly or is it beautiful?' If it's truly beautiful then it is the way of love, it is the way of A.A., and it is the will of God, as we understand Him.")

PRAYER: Father, please enable me to set aside everything I think I know, for an open mind and a new experience; help me to see the truth about the requirements for recovery.

Foreword to Third Edition: Recovery Begins With Talking

TEXT (p. xxii): In spite of the great increase in the size and the span of the Fellowship, at its core it remains simple and personal. Each day, somewhere in the world, recovery begins when one alcoholic talks with another alcoholic, sharing experience, strength, and hope.

THOUGHT: It has been said that as an alcoholic "balance" is something I swing by while moving from one extreme to the other. I have both refused to work with others because I didn't want to be bothered, and expended great energy trying to get new guys into the Big Book as quickly and intensely as possible. Every once in a while I find it beneficial to just take a breath and simply start a conversation with no lofty goals in mind.

PRAYER: Father, please enable me to set aside everything I think I know, for an open mind and a new experience; help me to see the truth about sharing experience, strength, and hope.

Foreword to Second Edition: Whatever Works

TEXT (p. xxi): In all probability, we shall never be able to touch more than a fair fraction of the alcohol problem in all its ramifications. Upon therapy for the alcoholic himself, we surely have no monopoly. Yet it is our great hope that all those who have as yet found no answer may begin to find one in the pages of this book and will presently join us on the high road to a new freedom.

THOUGHT: When I first started working with new guys, I was so rigid about recovery that I would actually get into shouting matches with them. Today I realize A.A has no monopoly on recovery. In fact, it wouldn't want one--lest some drunk be denied freedom via some other means. I know that A.A. worked for me when nothing else did. And I want to carry that message of recovery to others who need it. But if you've got some other way to stay sober that works for you, the only honest response I can give is: "Thank God."

PRAYER: Father, please enable me to set aside everything I think I know, for an open mind and a new experience; help me to see the truth about each person's unique journey to God.

Foreword to Second Edition: Unity

TEXT (pp. xviii-xix): By the close of 1941, A.A. numbered 8,000 members.... Our Society then entered a fearsome and exciting adolescent period. The test that it faced was this: Could these large numbers of erstwhile erratic alcoholics successfully meet and work together? ... Would there be schisms which would split A.A. apart? Soon A.A. was beset by these very problems .... But out of this frightening and at first disrupting experience the conviction grew that A.A.'s had to hang together or die separately.

THOUGHT: In one of the stories in the back of the Big Book (p. 417), a physician writes: "Shakespeare said, 'All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.' He forgot to mention that I was the chief critic. I was always able to see the flaw in every person, every situation. And I was always glad to point it out, because I knew you wanted perfection, just as I did." It used to be very common for me to criticize individual members and entire groups in A.A. Today, I try to remember to ask myself whether those criticisms are worth the threat they pose to the unity of A.A.--given that my life depends upon the unity of A.A.

PRAYER: Father, please enable me to set aside everything I think I know, for an open mind and a new experience; help me to see the truth about my need to criticize everything and everyone.

Foreword to Second Edition: Strenuous Work Is Vital

TEXT (pp. xvi-xvii): [Dr. Bob] had repeatedly tried spiritual means to resolve his alcoholic dilemma but had failed. But when [Bill W.] gave him Dr. Silkworth's description of alcoholism and its hopelessness, [Dr. Bob] began to pursue the spiritual remedy for his malady with a willingness he had never before been able to muster. He sobered, never to drink again up to the moment of his death in 1950. This seemed to prove that one alcoholic could affect another as no nonalcoholic could. It also indicated that strenuous work, one alcoholic with another, was vital to permanent recovery.

THOUGHT: There will be things I am asked to do in A.A. that I won't want to do. For a long time, I refused to sponsor other drunks. As far as I was concerned, I had worked enough of the Steps to "get mine," and I wasn't about to waste my new found freedom babysitting others. Thank God the statement above about strenuous work with other alcoholics being vital to permanent recovery eventually made its way through my thick skull.

PRAYER: Father, please enable me to set aside everything I think I know, for an open mind and a new experience; help me to see the truth about working with others.

Foreword to Second Edition: A Miracle

TEXT (p. xv): Since the original Foreword to this book was written in 1939, a wholesale miracle has taken place. Our earliest printing voiced the hope "that every alcoholic who journeys will find the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous at his destination. Already," continues the early text "twos and threes and fives of us have sprung up in other communities."

THOUGHT: I am surrounded by A.A. meetings. Practically any time of the day or night I can open my schedule book and find a meeting a short drive away. Whenever I travel I have great confidence that I will be able to find a meeting conveniently located near my destination. While there are certainly still places where meetings are few and far between, for the most part A.A. has become a global phenomenon. When I reflect that this phenomenon began less than 80 years ago with one man sharing a spiritual solution for alcoholism with another--who am I to say there is no God?

PRAYER: Father, please enable me to set aside everything I think I know, for an open mind and a new experience; help me to see the truth about the miracle of A.A.

Foreword to First Edition: An Honest Desire

TEXT (p. xiv): The only requirement for membership is an honest desire to stop drinking.

THOUGHT: Compare this line to Tradition Three, which states: "The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking." Thank God I don't have to convince anyone I have an "honest" desire to stop--as long as I say I have a desire to stop, I'm a member. Having said that, it is important to remember that while the only requirement for membership is a desire to stop, recovery requires more.

PRAYER: Father, please enable me to set aside everything I think I know, for an open mind and a new experience; help me to see the truth about the requirements of recovery in A.A.

Foreword to First Edition: Precise Instructions

TEXT (p. xiii): We, of Alcoholics Anonymous, are more than one hundred men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. To show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book.

THOUGHT: The fact that the Big Book provides precise instructions for how to recover from alcoholism is somewhat of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the presence of precise instructions should instill in me a certain sense of confidence that the instructions are in fact sound. On the other hand, the presence of precise instructions increases the likelihood that I will miss something if I don't pay attention or try to tackle recovery on my own without the help of someone who is familiar with the instructions.

PRAYER: Father, please enable me to set aside everything I think I know, for an open mind and a new experience; help me to see the truth about the precise instructions in the Big Book.

Preface to Fourth Edition: The Personal Stories

TEXT (p. xii): If you have a drinking problem, we hope that you may pause in reading one of the forty-two personal stories and think: "Yes, that happened to me"; or, more important,"Yes, I've felt like that"; or, most important, "Yes, I believe this program can work for me too."

THOUGHT: When I came to A.A. and heard others tell their stories, I was told to look for similarities rather than differences--"identify, don't criticize." I was told that if I was real alcoholic, then I likely suffered from "terminal uniqueness"--I could always come up with some reason why what you were telling me didn't apply to me. For a real alcoholic, that state of mind can be deadly when it comes to hearing the message of recovery in A.A.

PRAYER: Father, please enable me to set aside everything I think I know, for an open mind and a new experience; help me to see the truth about the personal stories I hear in A.A.

Preface to Fourth Edition: Our Basic Text

TEXT (p. xi): Because this book has become the basic text for our Society and has helped such large numbers of alcoholic men and women to recovery, there exists strong sentiment against any radical changes being made in it. Therefore, the first portion of this volume, describing the A.A. recovery program, has been left largely untouched in the course of revisions made for the second, third, and fourth editions.

THOUGHT: First, I am told that the Big Book is essentially our textbook. Like any other textbook, I should probably start at the beginning and work my way through to the end, stopping to do all the assignments and take all the tests as I go along. Second, I am told that the first portion of the Big Book, generally understood to encompass the first 164 pages, is where I will find the recovery program.

PRAYER: Father, please enable me to set aside everything I think I know, for an open mind and a new experience; help me to see the truth about our recovery program.

Title Page: The Circle and Triangle

TEXT: In earlier editions of the Big Book, the title page included the image of the circle and the triangle that we so often see around meetings.

THOUGHT: My sponsor had me draw the circle and triangle on the title page of the Big Book. He told me that if I was a real alcoholic, then I suffered from a three-fold illness: physical, mental, and spiritual. He told me that my recovery likewise depended on a three-fold solution that was embodied in the image of the circle and the triangle: (1) I was to bring my body to the meetings (Unity); (2) I was to bring my mind to the Steps (Recovery); and, (3) I was to channel my spirit to helping others (Service). Only if I was firmly grounded in all three parts of the program would I become whole--as symbolized by the circle.

PRAYER: Father, please enable me to set aside everything I think I know, for an open mind and a new experience; help me to see the Truth about Unity, Service, and Recovery.

Title Page: A Promise of Recovery

TEXT: The title page of the Big Book reads: "Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism."

THOUGHT: When I walked into the rooms of A.A. after my (God willing) last drunk, I was hopeless. I thought I had tried A.A. (repeatedly), but kept getting drunk. For some reason, God graced me with the willingness to try A.A. one more time. Later, I was to find out that I had in fact only tried those parts of the A.A. program that suited me and, as warned, those half-measures availed me nothing. Starting back at the title page of the Big Book, my new sponsor gave me new hope. In this book, I could find what I had been missing; I could recover.

PRAYER: Father, please enable me to set aside everything I think I know, for an open mind and a new experience; help me to see the truth about the program of recovery set forth in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous.