Aa history Lovers 2004 moderators Nancy Olson and Glenn F. Chesnut page

holiday,

Bill Wilson passed a fitful night. A lifelong smoker, he had been fighting

emphysema for years, and now he was losing the battle. Nurse James

Dannenberg

was on duty in the last hour before dawn. At 6:10 a.m. on Christmas morning,

according to Dannenberg's notes, the man who sobered up millions "asked for

three shots of whiskey."

He was quite upset when he didn't get them, Cheever writes.

Wilson asked for booze again about a week later, on Jan. 2, 1971.

And on Jan. 8.

And on Jan. 14.

"My blood ran cold," Cheever said recently of the discovery. "I was shocked

and

horrified." With time to ponder, though, she found herself thinking, "Of

he wanted a drink. He was the one who talked about sobriety being 'a daily

remission.' I realized that this was a story about the power of alcohol:

that

sober,

In the Big Book, as AA's foundation text is known, Wilson recalled the time

in

1934 when doctors concluded that he was a hopeless drunk and told his wife

there was no cure, apart from the asylum or the grave. "They did not need to

tell me," he added. "I knew, and almost welcomed the idea."

On Jan. 24, 1971, the man known modestly to legions of alcoholics as "Bill

W."

was finally cured.

Cheever's discovery, reported in her book "My Name Is Bill," doesn't really

change what little we know about alcoholism, a cruel, confounding and

mysterious

disease. It doesn't really change what we know about Wilson, a rough-hewn

and

womanizing, Ouija-board-reading, acid-tripping holiness.

But it might change, at least a bit, the way some of us think about miracles

--

the shelf life of miracles, the limited warranty they carry, and how

with

out

beautiful,

but demanding endless, unglamorous upkeep.

The miracle of Wilson's sobriety -- and the birth of AA -- arrived like

something out of the Old Testament. It was 1934, late in the year, when the

doctors had given up on Bill. Booze, which once put its arm around his

shoulder,

now had its jaws around his throat. A smart, handsome, charming man, Wilson

had

become the kind of drunk who could set off one morning to play golf and

day later outside his house, unsure how he got there, with his head bleeding

mysteriously and his unused clubs still at his side. "The more he decided

not to

So for the third time, Wilson checked himself into a private hospital in New

York that specialized in drying out "rum hounds," as he called himself. He

knew

other purgatives, vomiting, tremors and depression. He also knew it probably

would not work, that just about every hard case like him went back to

drinking

The prospect was so dismal that Wilson picked up a few bottles of beer for

the

cab ride.

named Roland Hazard, yet another drunk, who was wealthy enough to seek help

from

the eminent psychiatrist Carl Jung in Switzerland. When Jung realized how

hope

American psychologist William James had arrived at a similar conclusion,

declaring in "The Varieties of Religious Experience" that "the only cure for

dipsomania is religiomania."

Well, by God, Hazard got religion and sobered up, for a while. He preached

this

"I was in favor of practically everything he had to say except one thing,"

Wilson later recalled of his conversations with Thatcher. "I was not in

favor of

After a couple of days at Towns Hospital, Bill Wilson was past the d.t.'s

and

feeling really low. Science could do nothing for him. He now realized that

couldn't kick the booze by himself. Yet he was unable to believe in the only

power experts knew of to save a drunk.

Then:

there is

wondrous

and

clean wind was blowing, and this blowing at first went around and then it

seemed

to go through me. And then the ecstasy redoubled and I found myself

'I am a free man! So this is the God of the preachers!' And little by little

the

ecstasy subsided and I found myself in a new world of consciousness."

Carry This Message

Brimming with vision and new consciousness, Wilson blew back into the

familiar

creation.

He bragged that he was going to save every drunk in the world. He went

scavenging for men to preach to, finding them in missions and hospitals and

jails and among his own drinking buddies. Some of his targets thought he

sounded

against as a young man. He discovered that many alcoholics were "not in

favor of

God" -- God was an authority figure and drunks don't deal well with

authority.

"This doesn't work," he despaired to his wife, Lois. She reminded him that

he

was keeping at least one drunk sober -- himself.

Saul

to

the miraculously enlightened -- was discovering little by little that he was

Tempted while on a business trip in Akron, Ohio, Wilson fought off the

bottle by

cold-calling churches from the hotel directory in search of a drunk to help.

One

call led him to an alcoholic surgeon named Bob Smith. Initially, Smith

to being saved -- this was after one of those sad-but-hilarious tales that

give

a sort of rosy glow to a truly savage disease: Wilson's first scheduled

carrying an enormous potted plant for no discernible reason. He deposited

the

non sequitur before his bewildered wife, then passed out.

saying that he wasn't there for Smith, he was there for Bill Wilson. This

was a

key insight in the development of AA -- the realization that helping another

about

miracles in the lives of others. Now, he was just trying to maintain the

miracle

in his own.

and

recoveries with more drunks in this same spirit. Some of those men and women

got

sober themselves, and reached out to still others. And so on, down through

years and out around the planet to the largely anonymous millions of today,

who

range from celebrities to legislators to schoolteachers to busboys, from a

desperate

soul working on a second sober sunrise. AA is now so widespread and well

known

a

12-step meeting for fish-addicted sharks, confident that every parent in the

It's impossible to know exactly how many people have tried AA, how many

stayed

sober, how many attend meetings and how often. The group is not only

it is non-hierarchical, nondenominational, non-centralized, nonpartisan.

According to the Twelve Traditions that govern AA, there is no requirement

for

apart from that one. All it takes to convene an AA meeting is two alcoholics

who

feel like talking, and the tone of the meetings is as varied as the people

choose to attend. Group consensus rules in all things, so in any good-size

city

there are smoking meetings and nonsmoking meetings, meetings for early

and for night owls, meetings mostly populated by long-timers and meetings

more

oriented to the newly sober.

popular

Narcotics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous and so forth.

But

AA has never branched out. Getting and staying sober has been labor enough.

heard

puts

pledged

understood

him," with italics right there in the Big Book. Prospective converts are

often

works for them. Almighty God with the white beard, or a gentle breeze in the

treetops, or the sublime engineering of a molecule, or the vastness of

space, or

the love of friends, or the power of the AA meeting itself: Choose your own

Infinite.

Whatever works.

In the can-do land of the bottom line, even our spirituality tends to be

results-oriented.

But the language of AA plays provocatively with a simple word: "work." In

one

sense, sobriety is something that just happens, much like Wilson's great

wind. It is a gift from the Higher Power to the alcoholic. At the same time,

"work" means work, as in tangible, sometimes even grudging, effort. In the

early

drunk-saving techniques, and often Smith's wife, Anne, read aloud from the

Bible. They were partial to the Epistle of James, which reminded them that

"faith without works is dead." AA members speak of "working the steps," and

many

meetings end with the affirmation that "it works if you work it."

that

admission

that they are powerless over alcohol and continuing through labors of

humility,

repentance, meditation and service, AA members maintain the dam that holds

back

A Friend of Bill W.

Cheever is a forthright woman with a big laugh and no immediately obvious

illusions, a hard-working writer who publishes books like clockwork, pens a

column for Newsday and teaches at Bennington College. She decided to write

about

knowing

which

to

the unsentimental practicality, to the hovering dark clouds and the weirdo

No doubt she also loved Wilson for the fact that his miracle, worked and

reworked through the long chain of drunks, touched her own family, late in

the

lubricant

of Cheever's masterpieces. He was the poet laureate of postwar suburbia, in

which hope, striving, lust and angst were all refracted through the bottom

of a

cocktail glass.

Cheever's

life, as his daughter explained in her acclaimed memoirs "Home Before Dark,"

and

Bottle," she recalls learning to mix a martini by the age of 6, and doing

plenty

of drinking as an adult. Susan Cheever now speaks of her father's AA years

amazing gift to the whole family, not a gift of bliss so much as a gift of

simple reality. When a drunk enters the unreal world of his illness, he

takes

Her homage to the family benefactor is pro-Wilson but not hagiographic. "I

like

to take saints and make them into people," she explains. She touches the

concrete

Wilson's boyhood home in East Dorset, Vt., not far from the Bennington

campus.

Cheever noticed the low ceiling of the stairway leading to Wilson's room,

caught a glimpse in her mind's eyes, so to speak, of the gangly boy having

to

duck his head each time he passed.

a

depressed 10-year-old boy trapped in that house" after his parents had

him to his remote and austere grandparents.

It's not easy making a spiritual figure compelling and real without slipping

into iconoclasm. Cheever's approach is to apply a writerly version of

Wilson's

humility. She gets the goods on his serial adultery, for instance, but

declines

to make too much of it. "He was engaged to Lois when he was 18 -- hello!"

Cheever says. "They were married 53 years. All we really know is that they

were

Likewise, she can look into Wilson's LSD experiment with proto-hippie Aldous

Huxley without getting mired in a puritanical inquisition into whether this

constituted a "slip" in his sobriety or hypocrisy in his creed.

This attitude allows Cheever to see that Wilson's inconsistencies and quirks

weren't blemishes on his record -- they were the essence of a flawed man who

was

endlessly seeking what works. "Again and again, his intuitions were wrong,"

solutions." Most of the key traditions of AA operations, including its

independence, anonymity and governance-by-consensus, ran counter to Wilson's

personal disposition. "He wanted fame and fortune, but somehow was able to

figure out that AA would have to be a group in which nobody represents it,

nobody speaks for it and nobody's in charge of it."

Sobering Reality

The striking thing about Wilson's story -- which only settles in upon

reflection

-- is how hard his life was even after he sobered up.

What, really, had that bright light and clean wind changed? He and Lois

remained

determined

to keep him poor forever. He had a chance to cash in by allying his message

with

harbored

Rockefeller came through with a tiny stipend. Alcoholics Anonymous struggled

for

six long and underwhelming years before catching its crucial break: a

article in the Saturday Evening Post.

Then, as the group flourished, Wilson was attacked by jealous colleagues and

abandoned by old friends. He sank into a crushing depression, and "often

just

sat for hours with his head on the desk or with his head in his hands,"

writes. "When he raised his head, he was sometimes weeping." Wilson liked

children but was childless. Cigarettes were killing him but he couldn't stop

smoking.

a

misshapen and painful pleasure out of it."

Yet for 36-plus years of this troubled and very human life, he was able to

resist that next drink. Perhaps the most efficacious miracles are the small

ones. And because "his mind was the right lens" and his will was "the right

machine," in Cheever's words, for mass-producing that limited but crucial

victory, Bill Wilson's miracle keeps working, one person and one day at a

time.

© 2004 The Washington Post Company

world

Seidman

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++++Message 1788. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: One Solitary Voice by Jack B...any

info.?

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Jack B got sober in 1942 in the southern Westchester county area

just north of New York City. Before relocating to Perth, Australia

in the late 1970s, he was associated with "The Cops and Robbers" of

Westchester AA [oldtimers from the era of 1950-80 in Westchester]

and notably at the Sobriety Unlimited Group on Gramatan Avenue in

Mt. Vernon, NY. As an aside: this group keeps a fully decorated

Christmas tree in the meeting room 365 days per year. Sobriety is

like Christmas everyday! It never stops giving!

Jack was well known for his emphasis on the physical aspects of our

disease which is chronicled in his pamphlet published in 1968 - "One

Solitary Voice". He used to go to area meetings with a contraption

known as "The Monster". Roughly it was a representation of the body,

it's organs, and the physical interrelations between the alcohol

intake in an alcoholic and the effect it has on the brain and body

of an alcoholic.

Jack passed in the mid 1980's if I recall correctly. He was a good

friend of my mom's [Margette Grandy/Hartzell (deceased) of Maryknoll

Group] and of Jim B. of Lincolndale.

I still have photocopies of "One Solitary Voice", [someone made off

with the original sometime ago] which I pass on to newcomers as it

helps to explain the physical dimension of alcoholism which isn't

discussed in many meetings these days.

Glenn K. Audiotapes of Long Island has a recording of Jack at the

Blackstone Retreat.

Jim K.

The Into Action Group

--- In AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com, "wbmscm"

wrote:

> Does anyone have any information on a gentlemen by the name of

> B. who wrote a publication called "One Solitary Voice"?

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++++Message 1801. . . . . . . . . . . . Chip system, etc. -- Compilation

From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/12/2004 4:37:00 PM

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This is a compilation of previous posts which have been deleted.

Nancy

Date: Thu May 6, 2004 3:00 pm

Subject: Chip System

How did this system come about, and is it practiced world wide?

From: Ken Ring

Date: Sat May 8, 2004 8:28 pm

Subject: Re: Chip System

I don't claim that I have authenticated all of the statements

included in the following, but it has been accepted locally for

quite some time. From our archives collection.

MEDALLIONS

In 1965, a Wendell's employee, "Bill," joined AA. Bill gave

numerous talks at Mission Farms and detention centers in

Minneapolis and surrounding areas. He began handing out bronze

medallions with the Serenity Prayer on one side and two large

A's on the reverse. Everyone wanted a medallion!

Bill then got the idea that all AA members should have a

medallion to carry in their pocket or purse, to constantly

remind them of their hard won sobrietyÅ but the medallions

should be just for that person-so, somehow it has to say how

long he/she has been soberÅ it had to be easily distinguished

from pocket change, thus, the raised center medallion was born.

The first versions of the medallion were actually two pieces-the

medallion was struck, then the center was soldered on. This

worked, but the medallions began to sell in such great numbers,

Wendells couldn't keep up with the demand. At that time, coining

dies were made and they used insert dies in the center with the

Roman numeral engraved and when the medallion was struck, it

gave them a one-piece medallion that could be made in one

operation.

The raised center medallion was introduced in November of 1973

at the Founders Group weekend at the Leamington Hotel in

Minneapolis. The response was outstanding. A mailing went out to

all the Intergroups and Central Offices in the United States and

Canada. Wendell's has had to make various changes in the

medallion at the request of AA World Services (they deleted the

two A's). Without a doubt, the raised center medallion has been

used by more recovering people than any one item, aside from the

Big Book, used in recovery, and it all came to be because of one

member who recognized the need for "reassurance" and was

fortunate enough to be employed by a coining mint.

In many parts of the country, or the world for that matter, have

their own traditional ways of recognizing sobriety birthdays.

Some offer "pins" to be worn on the lapels of jackets (remember

them)?

Others simply have a cake, much like a real birthday

combinations of all of these and further adornments that show

the support of family, group and fellowship.

In some locales, recognition is in increments of months, years

or sets of years-every five years-in others it is much more

personal and not brought before the group at all and between

sponsor and sponsee.

Ken Ring, Dist. 18 Archives Committee Chair

Archivist/Historian Alano Society of Minneapolis, Inc. "2218"

From: "Robert Stonebraker"

Date: Sun May 9, 2004 1:15 am

Subject: RE: [AAHistoryLovers] Re: Chip System

Could someone please give me the history of celebration

of sobriety. I have not been able to find this in the

BB.

Here is a post on this subject I saved for history

Lovers:

Chips, Medallions and Birthdays

The traditions of chips, medallions and birthdays vary

in different parts of the country and I thought it

would be interesting to look up some of the history on

them.

Sister lgnatia, the nun who helped Dr. Bob get the

hospitalization program started at St. Thomas Hospital

in Akron was the first person to use medallions in

AlcoholicsAnonymous. She gave the drunks who were

leaving St. Thomas after a five day dry out a Sacred

Heart Medallion and instructed them that the acceptance

of the medallion signified a commitment to God, to A.A.

and to recovery and that if they were going to drink,

they had a responsibility to return the medallion to

her before drinking.

The sacred heart badges had been used prior to A.A. by

the Father Matthew Temperance Movement of the 1840s and

the Pioneers an Irish Temperance Movement of the 1890s.

The practice of sobriety chips in A.A. started with a

Group in Elmira, N.Y. in 1947 and has grown from there.

The celebration of birthdays came from the Oxford Group

where they celebrated the anniversary of their

spiritual rebirth. As we have a problem with honesty,

A.A. chose the anniversary of the date of our last

drink.

Early celebrations of birthdays resulted in people

getting drunk and Dr. Harry Tiebout was asked to look

at the problem and he commented on this phenomenon in

an articled titled "When the Big "I" Becomes Nobody",

(AAGV, Sept. 65)

"Early on in A.A., I was consulted about a serious

problem plaguing the local group. The practice of

celebrating a year’s sobriety with a birthday cake

had resulted in a certain number of the members getting

drunk within a short period after the celebration. It

seemed apparent that some could not stand prosperity. I

was asked to settle between birthday cakes or no

birthday cakes. Characteristically, I begged off, not

from shyness but from ignorance. Some three or four

years later, A.A. furnished me the answer. The group no

longer had such a problem because, as one member said,

"We celebrate still, but a year’s sobriety is now a

dime a dozen. No one gets much of a kick out of that

anymore."

The AAGV carried many articles on chips and cakes and

the following is a brief summary of some.

Feb. 1948, Why All the Congratulations? "When we start

taking bows (even on anniversaries) we bow ourselves

right into the cuspidor."

July, 1948. Group To Give Oscar for Anniversaries.

The Larchmont Group of Larchmont, N.Y. gives a cast

bronze camel mounted on a mahogany base to celebrate

1st., 5th and 10th anniversaries.

"The camel is wholly emblematic of the purposes of most

sincere A.A.s, i.e., to live for 24 hours without a

drink."

August 1948. The Artesta, N.Mex. Group awards marbles

to all members. If you are caught without your marbles,

you are fined 25 cents. This money goes into the

Foundation Fund.

June 1953, We operate a poker chip club in the Portland

Group (Maine). We have poker chips of nine colors of

which the white represents the probation period of one

month. If he keeps his white chip for one month he is

presented with a red chip for one month's sobriety.

The chips continue with blue for two months, black for

three, green for four, transparent blue for five, amber

for six, transparent purple for nine months and a

transparent clear chip for one year. We have our chips

stamped with gold A.A. letters.

Also at the end of the year and each year thereafter,

we present them with a group birthday card signed by

all members present at the meeting.

January 1955, Charlotte, N.C. "When a man takes "The

Long Walk" at the end of a meeting, to pick up a white

chip, he is admitting to his fellow men that he has

finally accepted the precepts of A.A. and is beginning

his sobriety. At the end of three months he exchanges

his white chip for a red one. Later, a handsome,

translucent chip of amber indicates that this new

member has enjoyed six months of a new way of life. The

nine month chip is a clear seagreen and a blue chip is

given for the first year of sobriety. In some groups a

sponsor will present his friend with an engraved silver

chip, at the end of five years clear thinking and clean

living.

March 1956, The One Ton Poker Chip. Alton, Illinois.

Author gave friend a chip on his first day eight years

ago (1948) and told him to accept it in the spirit of

group membership and that if he wanted to drink to

throw the chip away before starting drinking.

October 1956, Bangor Washington. Article about a woman

who sits in a bar to drink the bartender sees her white

chips and asks what it is. She tells him. He throws her

out as he does not want an alcoholic in his bar. She

calls friend.

April 1957, Cape Cod, Mass. Group recognizes 1st, 5th

and 15th anniversaries. Person celebrating leads

meeting. Person is presented with a set of wooden

carved plaques with the slogans.

July 1957, New Brunswick, Canada. Birthday Board.

Member contributes one dollar for each year of sobriety

July 1957, Oregon. Person is asked to speak and is

introduced by his or her sponsor. The wife, mother,

sister or other relative brings up a cake. The Group

sings Happy Birthday. The wife gives a two or three

minute talk.

April 1959, Patterson, N.J. People are asked to give

"three month pin talks."

And that's a little bit of info on chips, cakes and

medallions.

From: "Robert Stonebraker"

Date: Sun May 9, 2004 1:33 am

Subject: RE: [AAHistoryLovers] Re: Chip System

In 1975, when I first came to AA in the Los

Angeles area of Southern California, this was

the custom:

· No beginner's chip was given, but you had to

hold up your hand if you had less than 30 days

sober.

· Then embossed poker chips on chains were

given: White for 30 days, Red for 3 months, Blue

for 6 months, and Yellow for 9 months. They had

“God grant me the serenity” stamped on the

back.

· It was the custom to carry all these

accumulated tokens till you got one year.

· No tokens were given for number of years, but

there was always a birthday cake and singing of

“Happy Birthday.” Followed by singing

“Keep coming back.” Then the candles were

blown out.

· This custom was still in effect at some of

the meetings I attended out there last year.

Bob S., now from Indiana

From: "Kimball Rowe"

>

Date: Sat May 8, 2004 7:52 pm

Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] Chip System

The "chip" system used in Germany consisted

of poker chips and pie pans (originally).

They used poker chips with 5 colors, white,

green, red, yellow and blue. They were given

for beginners, 2 months, 3 months, and 6

months. There was no 9 month chip, and there

was no 18 month chip. Metal chips started at

one year.

SURRENDER - The white chip was called the

surrender chip since the international color

for surrender is white. It was given to all

new comers (1-30 days). It is said that if

you chose not to surrender, then the white

could stand for the color of the sheet that

they cover you dead body with.

GO - The green chip was called the "GO" chip

since green is the international color for

go. It was given at 30 days and implied that

the owner should GO to more meeting, GO get

a big book, GO read your big book, GO take a

step, GO get into service, GO get into

action, etc. It is said that if you don't

take these simple suggestions that green

could also symbolize the color of your liver

as they perform the autopsy.

STOP - The red chip was called the "STOP"

chip since red is the international color

for stop. It was given at two months and

meant for us to STOP our stinking thinking,

to STOP using our character defects, STOP

taking others inventory, STOP ducking

responsibility, etc. It is said that if you

persisted in your old ways, then perhaps red

could be the color of your windshield as you

are ejected from the car in an alcohol

related car accident.

CAUTION - The yellow chip was called the

"CAUTION" chip since yellow is the

international color for caution. It was

given at three months because at three

months a member knows just enough about

sobriety to be dangerous, so CAUTION is the

watch word. It is said that if you do not

practice caution during this time that the

color yellow could reflect the color of your

eyes as jaundice sets in.

SERENITY - The blue chip was called the

"SERENITY" chip, as it resembles the color

of the a peaceful sky. It was given at six

months. It is said that if you don't do what

it takes to achieve serenity that the color

blue could refer to the emotional state of

your loved ones as you disappear into an

alcoholic oblivion.

After the plastic chips, a disc of aluminum

was cut our of an aluminum pie pan and the

number of your sobriety year was stamped

onto the soft aluminum. The aluminum chips

have since been replaced by "store-bought"

metal chips with anniversary years on them.

Kim R.

From: "Gerry Silver" [67] >

Date: Sun May 9, 2004 9:37 am

Subject: Fw: Chip System

I read with interest the comments of Ed Ring

re Medallions, and that they first surfaced

in the Minneapolis area in 1965.

In the early 1950's a Group in Brandon,

Manitoba, Canada began using copper chips to

recognize years of sobriety. They were

almost as large as a large penny (for those

who remember what a large penny looked

like), they were blank and then stamped with

the members initials and the number of years

of sobriety. A number of these early chips

are

hanging on the wall of the Wheat City Group

in Brandon today.

In the mid 1950's, groups in Winnipeg,

Manitoba began to use a heavy copper oval

medallion about 1½" x 1". There was a

raised AA on one side, and the flat reverse

was used to engrave the members' name (with

last initial), dry date, and group name.

This type of medallion soon became widely

used in Western Canada.

I still have my first medallion from 1959,

although can't find it this minute.

Gerry Silver

From: "wilfried antheunis"

[68] >

Date: Sun May 9, 2004 3:37 pm

Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] Fw: Chip System

[69]

From:.The History of A.A. in Ontario:

The medallion as we know It today was thought

of and designed by Tom G. the acting manager

of our A.A. Toronto Office in April 1946.

Little could he have known that his simple

idea would come to mean so much to so many In

such a short time.

From: "Jim K."

Date: Mon May 10, 2004 12:46 pm

Subject: Re: Fw: Chip System

In a twist on the chip system Long Islanders

once had the following tradition:

When there was still smoking in meetings on

Long Island, and in particular in Suffolk

County, people were issued lighters at their

first anniversary. A Zippo with your

sobriety date and your name and a single

star. With each subsequent year a new star

was added. Some would also bear a slogan of

the member's choice.

Non-smokers, few indeed back in the 70's and

80's, were given a

medallion.

Then the meetings went non-smoking, as

did I.

Jim K

The Into Action Group

Manhattan, NY

And I would add to the above, that I was

told in New

York in 1965 -- where we then did not have

chips, only a cake on the first anniversary

-- that some sponsors

gave a marble to their sponsees, telling the

sponsee to carry it in his pocket and throw

it away if he decided to take a drink. "Then

you will have lost

all your marbles."

Nancy

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++++Message 1802. . . . . . . . . . . . Principles Meditation Card

From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/13/2004 2:27:00 AM

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The following is a compilation of previous posts. No

further posts on this subject will be approved.

Nancy

From: "David G."

Date: Sun May 9, 2004 9:40 pm

Subject: Principles Meditation Card

[72]

Good Day All,

While attending an AA Area function, I purchased a

meditation card, from a vendor, which listed "The

Principles of the Program."

Step One-Honest

Step Two-Hope

Step Three-Faith

Step Four-Courage

Step Five-Integrity

Step Six-Willingness

Step Seven-Humility

Step Eight-Brotherly Love

Step Nine-Justice

Step Ten-Perseverance

Step Eleven-Spiritual awareness

Step Twelve-Service

I've seen these around for years and usually buy some

to just pass along.

Does anyone know where and/or when these originated?

Thanks, Respectfully,

David G.

Illinois-USA

From: "Kimball Rowe"

Date: Mon May 10, 2004 8:28 am

Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] Principles Meditation

Card

I have a card like that, that has the principles on one

side and the gifts on the other. The gifts were

received as the result of taking the step.

The Gifts

Step 1 - Willingness - As willing to listen as a dying

man can be.

Step 2 - Open-Mindedness - All you really need is a

truly open mind.

Step 3 - Honesty - Turning our will and lives over to

the care of God, we lose our reason to lie.

Step 4 - Truth - The truth we must now share with our

God and another human being.

Step 5 - Humility - We gained a genuine humility, a

recognition of who and what we are, followed by a

sincere attempt to become what we could be.

Step - 6 - Spiritual Growth - We begin to grow in the

image and likeness of our Creator.

Step 7 - Unselfishness - We stand ready to make amends

and serve others.

Step 8 - Forgiveness - Forgiveness of others makes step

nine possible.

Step 9 - Freedom - Freedom of others, of our past and

of ourselves. Free to seek God in the steps that

follow.

Step 10 - Sanity - We will react normally, even where

alcohol is concerned.

Step 11 - Strength - Sufficient strength to help

others.

Step 12 - Recovery.

If anyone knows where the gifts come from that would be

appreciated too!

From: "J. Lobdell"

Date: Mon May 10, 2004 9:21 am

Subject: RE: [AAHistoryLovers] Principles Meditation

Card

[75]

They originated with a Texas Intergroup sometime around

1951, I think -- there's a copy of the original

Intergroup sheet/flyer/whatever in the Archives in NYC.

They are not GSO literature, and as they date from the

time when the Conference had been established, they are

at most local AA literature. So far as I know "practice

these principles" in Step 12 is intended to refer to

the Steps. -- Jared Lobdell

From: "wilfried antheunis"

Date: Mon May 10, 2004 11:19 am

Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] Principles Meditation

Card

They have been around forever plus a day. The

principles vary from various to other cards. A list I

have dated February 2000 has the following variances;

8. Self-discipline

9. Love

The Big Book uses the word Principle 36 times.

USE OF THE WORD PRINCIPLE IN THE BIG BOOK

Here are the 36 instances of "principle" in the Big

Book.

1 & 2) As we discovered the principles by which the

individual alcoholic could live, so we had to evolve

principles by which the A.A. groups and A.A. as a whole

could survive and function effectively. [Big Book, page

xix, lines 8 & 9]

3) Though none of these principles had the force of

rules or laws, they had become so widely accepted by

1950 that they were confirmed by our first

International Conference held at Cleveland. [Big Book,

page xix, line 27]

4) The basic principles of the A.A. program, it

appears, hold good for individuals with many different

life-styles, just as the program has brought recovery

to those of many different nationalities. [Big Book,

page xxii, line 13]

5) My friend had emphasized the absolute necessity of

demonstrating these principles in all my affairs. [Big

Book, page 14, line 29]

6) We feel elimination of our drinking is but a

beginning. A much more important demonstration of our

principles lies before us in our respective homes,

occupations and affairs. [Big Book, page 19, line 7]

7) Quite as important was the discovery that spiritual

principles would solve all my problems. [Big Book, page

42, line 32]

8) That was great news to us, for we had assumed we

could not make use of spiritual principles unless we

accepted many things on faith which seemed difficult to

believe. [Big Book, page 47, line 23]

9) 12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result

of these steps, we tried to carry this message to

alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our

affairs. [Big Book, page 60, line 3]

10) No one among us has been able to maintain anything

like perfect adherence to these principles. [Big Book,

page 60, line 8]

11) The principles we have set down are guides to

progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than

spiritual perfection. [Big Book, page 60, line 9]

12) We listed people, institutions or principles with

whom we were angry. We asked ourselves why we were

angry. [Big Book, page 64, line 30]

13) Although these reparations take innumerable forms,

there are some general principles which we find

guiding. [Big Book, page 79, line 6]

14) Unless one's family expresses a desire to live upon

spiritual principles we think we ought not to urge

them. [Big Book, page 83, line 13]

15) If not members of religious bodies, we sometimes

select and memorize a few set prayers which emphasize

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