‘Pop-AA’ – The Easier – Softer Alcoholics Anonymous

In our little Big Book Study we were on page 89 which talks about “Working with others.” I was taught that working with others means being a Good Samaritan – you know, being a newcomer chauffeur, making coffee, sweeping up after meetings. Yes I am old enough to have even cleaned a few AA ashtrays in New York City where I first joined the Fellowship.

Doing these things is a wonderful experience. It is participatory and proactive work. We know that newcomers benefit greatly from that kind of “out of self” activity. I know that I did.

But is it the “working with others” that the co-founders discovered was key to permanent sobriety?

I was TOLD that the “work” prescribed in the Big Book was “old-school” and that most of it could not be performed “these days” that many ideas in the Big Book was antiquated so they had to be reconsidered – so I needed instead to play the Good Samaritan and just be helpful in any way I could. “Put out a hand” - whatever the hell that means. I think I means just being friendly and giving out phone numbers in the church parking lot. Stuff we should be doing anyway – just to be civil – not part a “Program”.

Then I realized that the folks who had converted the “working with others” prescribed in the Program to these more modern methods weren’t really Twelve Steppers. “You know that Big Book was written in the 30’s and things have changed. We can’t do what they did back then.“

Oh and here’s my favorites: “The rehabs have taken over. We don’t get that work anymore.” Really? The rehabs are taking alcoholics through the Twelve Steps and the “clients” are having spiritual awakenings as the result of the step they take in rehab?

You’re kidding, right?

Keep dreaming and YOU WISH! What a great way to excuse yourself from working with other alcoholics. I suppose they also think that AA is nothing more than a “ongoing – outpatient treatment” facility for the Treatment Industry.

That’s what the Treatment Centers use AA for – do they not? I wonder how much money they send to AA for that. Nothing! It is called Theft Of Services - and AA, by it’s own Traditions, being the altruistic Fellowship it is – cannot object.

I figured, “Well if just being a nice and helpful guy” - combined with “putting the plug in the jug” were all that was needed – then why is it that I HAVE to do it in AA? I can be nice, helpful, and exert my will ANYWHERE. Why should I have to “go to meetings” too? The answers where incredible. “There’s magic in the coffee pots”, is a gem – of course my Mr. Coffee at home could be as “magical”, no?

There are folks in AA who actually have convinced themselves and others that bringing cake and making coffee and baking cookies is STEP TWELVE. Astonishing! (See: Coffee & Cake 12 Stepping)

I was brainwashed and ‘more fool me’.

Yes, the ‘Pop-AA’ fellowshippers had a way of making my un-recovered and still aching ass feel guilty if I didn’t “go to enough meetings”. They tried to instill fear in me that if I didn’t do it “their way” that I would drink and die.

The problem is that “their way” was NOT the way of the co-founders who had found a solution to alcoholism. What those fellowshipers had found a solution to was something other that “Our description of the alcoholic” It was THEIR own “Description of the alcoholic” – and the two descriptions just did not jive. In many instances they are 180 degrees apart form each other.

For example, (i)AA proposes that no matter what an alcoholic cannot WILL himself sober – that help must come from God and that help is permanent if spiritual principles are followed. They have no choice in the matter of drink.

(ii) Pop-AA meeting hobbyists say that they stay sober by willing themselves NOT TO DRINK – no matter what. They CHOSE not to drink a day at a time – and can either take or leave spiritual principles – they will STILL not drink if they stick with other people.

Those two ideas are exact opposites of each other.

Many of the folks I encountered we “Fellowshippers” staying sober by “just not drinking” and going from meeting to meeting, day by day, for support and human aid. They didn’t HAVE a Program or if they did it was this newer and supposedly improved program that gave great lip service to some major AA principles but was practiced sporadically, at best, and not at all at worst.

Oh sure, I bumped into the occasional – read that as “hardly ever” - recovered alcoholic who HAD had a spiritual awakening as the result of the steps and who WAS willing to carry the “this” message to me by taking me through the steps – but as many alkies, a good ol’ 90-in-90 provided enough relief so that the path of LEAST RESISTANCE – which is middle-of-the-road solutions based sobriety provided by “just showing up” – was FAR more attractive than taking the drastic and arduous actions prescribed by the co-founders in the big Book, “Alcoholics Anonymous”.

The man who originally Twelve Stepped me into the spiritual solution died suddenly and I needed a rudder by which to steer. I gave up the spiritual approach in favor of the easier-softer-way. I was a fool.

Experience tells me that there was probably a good and “Godly” reason why the recovery path is just this way many of us – rife with mistakes that kills other alcoholics while some of us get through alive. Some of us so not. None of us do this perfectly – maybe if only so we can tell the story as I have just done.

Peace,

Danny S

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"Not Drinking" Is Secondary

I can hear it already. “Well if I don’t stay sober then I can’t help anybody.”

And now that you ARE sober you’re searching out other alcoholics and taking them through the steps , right? Puhleeze!

Just bear with me for a moment, OK? Sparky?

Some attitude I have, huh?

Have you ever wondered how folks who say they “practice these principles in all their affairs” manage to do it without “working with others” – with no one to sponsor and they aren’t looking either.

“Working with others” IS Step Twelve.

I don’t wonder. The world is full of liars. Even in AA.

Chapter Seven is a living, visible and experiential set of instructions that brings incredible joy and meaning to our lives. Especially since by now in the process WE HAVE RECOVERED! That means “We have been given the power to help others”. Our lives and daily activities are NO LONGER focused on NOT DRINKING. Something new happens.

Watch: “These men had found something brand new in life. Though they knew they must help other alcoholics if they would remain sober, that motive became secondary.”(159:2)

Sobriety is SECONDARY? Holy smokes!

I was always told that my SOBRIETY CAME FIRST! No wonder I couldn’t stay sober – even after years of meetings and “Keep coming back” and “Just show up.”

“It was transcended by the happiness they found in giving themselves for others. They shared their homes, their slender resources, and gladly devoted their spare hours to fellow-sufferers.” (159:2)

I couldn’t stay sober because I hadn’t helped others and I couldn’t help others because I had not been given the power, and I hadn’t been given the power because I had not had a spirtual awakening and I had not had a spiritual awakening because I had not taken the twelve steps and I had not taken the twelve steps because I had not been shown HOW and I had not been shown HOW because no one else knew how and no one else knew how because they had been told all we have to do is “Keep Coming Back” and we all just kept coming back, just not drinking a day at a time until finally the insanity of the next first-drink came and smacked me broadside like a runaway freight train – and I was sitting down on the tracks – not doing a damned thing except making coffee, mopping the floors and “sharing” in meeting after meeting after freakin’ meeting.

What a fucking mess! No wonder we can’t recover anymore. No wonder we want to save face by changing the promised of being recovered alcoholics to “recoverING” alcoholics. No one is actually experiencing full recovery anymore – like we used to – not in the average AA group – not anymore. The outside treatment organizations have fully infiltrated our “recover speak” and have managed to get most of us to eschew the steps as originally practiced. And why not? KEEP COMING BACK has come to mean “Keep coming back to rehab” and bring your checkbook or credit card !

Speakers in meeting now BRAG about how many times they’ve been in rehab – many dozens of times for a lot of them – as if it shows how “bad” and qualified they are to be in AA.

Shit, all that proves is that REHABS DON’T WORK.

WOW. How different was the experiences of our co-founders – such a contradiction to today’s status quo, ‘Pop-AA’ thinking and half-measured, treatment center, fee based “addictions counseling” propaganda that has leeched like a failing septic tank into our once effective, growing and God centered Fellowship based on the teaching and practice of the Twelve Steps.

Peace,

Danny S

"Not Drinking" Is Secondary

I can hear it already. “Well if I don’t stay sober then I can’t help anybody.”

And now that you ARE sober you’re searching out other alcoholics and taking them through the steps , right? Puhleeze!

Just bear with me for a moment, OK? Sparky?

Some attitude I have, huh?

Have you ever wondered how folks who say they “practice these principles in all their affairs” manage to do it without “working with others” – with no one to sponsor and they aren’t looking either.

“Working with others” IS Step Twelve.

I don’t wonder. The world is full of liars. Even in AA.

Chapter Seven is a living, visible and experiential set of instructions that brings incredible joy and meaning to our lives. Especially since by now in the process WE HAVE RECOVERED! That means “We have been given the power to help others”. Our lives and daily activities are NO LONGER focused on NOT DRINKING. Something new happens.

Watch: “These men had found something brand new in life. Though they knew they must help other alcoholics if they would remain sober, that motive became secondary.”(159:2)

Sobriety is SECONDARY? Holy smokes!

I was always told that my SOBRIETY CAME FIRST! No wonder I couldn’t stay sober – even after years of meetings and “Keep coming back” and “Just show up.”

“It was transcended by the happiness they found in giving themselves for others. They shared their homes, their slender resources, and gladly devoted their spare hours to fellow-sufferers.” (159:2)

I couldn’t stay sober because I hadn’t helped others and I couldn’t help others because I had not been given the power, and I hadn’t been given the power because I had not had a spirtual awakening and I had not had a spiritual awakening because I had not taken the twelve steps and I had not taken the twelve steps because I had not been shown HOW and I had not been shown HOW because no one else knew how and no one else knew how because they had been told all we have to do is “Keep Coming Back” and we all just kept coming back, just not drinking a day at a time until finally the insanity of the next first-drink came and smacked me broadside like a runaway freight train – and I was sitting down on the tracks – not doing a damned thing except making coffee, mopping the floors and “sharing” in meeting after meeting after freakin’ meeting.

What a fucking mess! No wonder we can’t recover anymore. No wonder we want to save face by changing the promised of being recovered alcoholics to “recoverING” alcoholics. No one is actually experiencing full recovery anymore – like we used to – not in the average AA group – not anymore. The outside treatment organizations have fully infiltrated our “recover speak” and have managed to get most of us to eschew the steps as originally practiced. And why not? KEEP COMING BACK has come to mean “Keep coming back to rehab” and bring your checkbook or credit card !

Speakers in meeting now BRAG about how many times they’ve been in rehab – many dozens of times for a lot of them – as if it shows how “bad” and qualified they are to be in AA.

Shit, all that proves is that REHABS DON’T WORK.

WOW. How different was the experiences of our co-founders – such a contradiction to today’s status quo, ‘Pop-AA’ thinking and half-measured, treatment center, fee based “addictions counseling” propaganda that has leeched like a failing septic tank into our once effective, growing and God centered Fellowship based on the teaching and practice of the Twelve Steps.

Peace,

Danny S

Tolerating Intelopers

This recovery deal is a life and death thing. Hearing watered down baloney from people who have no idea what they are talking about – no experience to back up their garbage can certainly be a Step Ten exercise.

Not because I care about my experience being contradicted – I don’t give a tittly- toot about that – but because alcoholics freaking’ die when they hear and follow crap solutions from crap spewing Pop-AA club-housers and meeting goers. Seriously.

I know a lot of people read this blog – from all over the world – India, all through the UK, Israel, Korea, Scandinavia, European countries and that means that some folks are going to think I’m an asshole. (One or two – MAX!) It’s in the numbers. Sometimes they’d be right – broken clocks are right twice a day aren’t they – and I am a frail human being.

But Goddamn it – how much bullshale do we have to endure while watching our fellow alcoholics die at the hands of people calling themselves AA “SPONSORS” who haven’t got a clue of the responsibility that goes with that. And who insist upon hating this blog and sending me silly ad hominem attacks. It is silly and it is a waste of time.

I’ll say it again – only those who recover can sponsor others. RecoverING alcoholics have no recovery to offer.

Being a good Samaritan isn’t what this program is about. Many of us want to believe it’s about that but that is only when we have nothing else to offer. This Program is about finding God, experiencing the miracle of recovery then getting similarly lost people to God so He can work His miracle on them, fix them up and then pass the process onto others. It goes on and on. It’s got nothing to do with just not drinking or using and becoming a tax payer.

Unless you redefine “sponsorship” to mean being a phone, meeting, coffee & life-coach buddy. But that isn’t what Step Twelve s is about and it isn’t what “working with others” is about either.

Recovered alcoholics who do NOT sponsor others do not stay recovered. Nor are they practicing these principles in all of their affairs.

Step twelve means to take others through the steps – THAT is the only help we are qualified and prescribed to pass on as the result of having a spiritual awakening as the result of the steps.

It is an epidemic inside of our own Fellowship – that so many people have NO IDEA what Step Twelve means.

They think they do but they have not embraced or understood the importance of the prescribed method of “helping others” is. They just make it up as they go along – whatever they think is good in the moment – make the coffee, drive a newcomer to a meeting, become the “greeter” – hell I know people who think that just “being nice” to people is STEP TWELVE, carrying the this message.

I have bad news for them. Your SUPPOSED to do that stuff anyway. Dufus! As a social human being! That is not not the this message.

Then enough similar people who haven’t experienced what’s in that Big Book either go along nodding their heads – “Uh huh – Uh huh” – and I swear we can hear the marbles rattling around in those skulls because they’re just hypnotized Pop-AA zombies with their OWN Program that is not even CLOSE to the Twelve Steps – but some sort of cafeteria style hybrid.

The poor REAL alcoholic comes along, hears that stuff, tries it and dies. Meanwhile the chicken shit drug/alcohol abuser - not alcoholic – with the chicken shit ‘sponsor’ who also got sober through non-spiritual means stays dry, gets a job and starts getting laid on a regular basis and now all of a sudden, “AA WORKS!” God help us. Apparently nothing could be finer than to be in her vagina – not even a spiritual awakening.

THIS IS THE FELLOWSHIP HE CRAVES.

Culpability lies with THAT middle-of-the-road solutions person who proposed non-spiritual means in the first place – like what is given in books such as Living Sober. That has got to be the most disgustingly insipid bit of AA “Conference Approved” drek that AA Publishing, Inc. has ever produced. Living Sober does NOT contain the solution to alcoholism. The Twelve sand Twelve does NOT contain the solution to alcoholism. The Big Book DOES contain the solution to alcoholism – in its entirety. No further authentication is needed.

You push books like those on a newcomer BEFORE bringing him to the solution in the Big Book and very often he is as good as murdered. Anyone who has not experienced this themselves – who doesn’t take people through the steps and watch to see who dies and who lives and what they did to get what they got have NO IDEA and may differ in their opinion – but opinion are no match against experience – I’ve been through it more than once. Too many times and not enough times – depending on the result.

Please look at this: (From the 53rd General Service Conference of AA)

“The basic responsibilities in a sponsorship relationship are to work the Twelve Steps as outlined in Alcoholics Anonymous, read the Big Book, the Twelve Traditions, the Twelve Concepts, and other Conference-approved literature.”

There isn’t much unclear about that is there?

So, to answer my first question: How much bullshale do we have to endure? Apparently a whole lot. All we can do is ask God to show us how to show patience, tolerance, kindliness and love toward all – even POP-AA interlopers who kill real alcoholics.

Peace,

Danny S

Tolerating Intelopers

This recovery deal is a life and death thing. Hearing watered down baloney from people who have no idea what they are talking about – no experience to back up their garbage can certainly be a Step Ten exercise.

Not because I care about my experience being contradicted – I don’t give a tittly- toot about that – but because alcoholics freaking’ die when they hear and follow crap solutions from crap spewing Pop-AA club-housers and meeting goers. Seriously.

I know a lot of people read this blog – from all over the world – India, all through the UK, Israel, Korea, Scandinavia, European countries and that means that some folks are going to think I’m an asshole. (One or two – MAX!) It’s in the numbers. Sometimes they’d be right – broken clocks are right twice a day aren’t they – and I am a frail human being.

But Goddamn it – how much bullshale do we have to endure while watching our fellow alcoholics die at the hands of people calling themselves AA “SPONSORS” who haven’t got a clue of the responsibility that goes with that. And who insist upon hating this blog and sending me silly ad hominem attacks. It is silly and it is a waste of time.

I’ll say it again – only those who recover can sponsor others. RecoverING alcoholics have no recovery to offer.

Being a good Samaritan isn’t what this program is about. Many of us want to believe it’s about that but that is only when we have nothing else to offer. This Program is about finding God, experiencing the miracle of recovery then getting similarly lost people to God so He can work His miracle on them, fix them up and then pass the process onto others. It goes on and on. It’s got nothing to do with just not drinking or using and becoming a tax payer.

Unless you redefine “sponsorship” to mean being a phone, meeting, coffee & life-coach buddy. But that isn’t what Step Twelve s is about and it isn’t what “working with others” is about either.

Recovered alcoholics who do NOT sponsor others do not stay recovered. Nor are they practicing these principles in all of their affairs.

Step twelve means to take others through the steps – THAT is the only help we are qualified and prescribed to pass on as the result of having a spiritual awakening as the result of the steps.

It is an epidemic inside of our own Fellowship – that so many people have NO IDEA what Step Twelve means.

They think they do but they have not embraced or understood the importance of the prescribed method of “helping others” is. They just make it up as they go along – whatever they think is good in the moment – make the coffee, drive a newcomer to a meeting, become the “greeter” – hell I know people who think that just “being nice” to people is STEP TWELVE, carrying the this message.

I have bad news for them. Your SUPPOSED to do that stuff anyway. Dufus! As a social human being! That is not not the this message.

Then enough similar people who haven’t experienced what’s in that Big Book either go along nodding their heads – “Uh huh – Uh huh” – and I swear we can hear the marbles rattling around in those skulls because they’re just hypnotized Pop-AA zombies with their OWN Program that is not even CLOSE to the Twelve Steps – but some sort of cafeteria style hybrid.

The poor REAL alcoholic comes along, hears that stuff, tries it and dies. Meanwhile the chicken shit drug/alcohol abuser - not alcoholic – with the chicken shit ‘sponsor’ who also got sober through non-spiritual means stays dry, gets a job and starts getting laid on a regular basis and now all of a sudden, “AA WORKS!” God help us. Apparently nothing could be finer than to be in her vagina – not even a spiritual awakening.

THIS IS THE FELLOWSHIP HE CRAVES.

Culpability lies with THAT middle-of-the-road solutions person who proposed non-spiritual means in the first place – like what is given in books such as Living Sober. That has got to be the most disgustingly insipid bit of AA “Conference Approved” drek that AA Publishing, Inc. has ever produced. Living Sober does NOT contain the solution to alcoholism. The Twelve sand Twelve does NOT contain the solution to alcoholism. The Big Book DOES contain the solution to alcoholism – in its entirety. No further authentication is needed.

You push books like those on a newcomer BEFORE bringing him to the solution in the Big Book and very often he is as good as murdered. Anyone who has not experienced this themselves – who doesn’t take people through the steps and watch to see who dies and who lives and what they did to get what they got have NO IDEA and may differ in their opinion – but opinion are no match against experience – I’ve been through it more than once. Too many times and not enough times – depending on the result.

Please look at this: (From the 53rd General Service Conference of AA)

“The basic responsibilities in a sponsorship relationship are to work the Twelve Steps as outlined in Alcoholics Anonymous, read the Big Book, the Twelve Traditions, the Twelve Concepts, and other Conference-approved literature.”

There isn’t much unclear about that is there?

So, to answer my first question: How much bullshale do we have to endure? Apparently a whole lot. All we can do is ask God to show us how to show patience, tolerance, kindliness and love toward all – even POP-AA interlopers who kill real alcoholics.

Peace,

Danny S

Reading Ain’t Doing

I bought an Ipod. Freakin‘ thing had buttons like I had never seen before. And was labeled like it had been made by an active alcoholic.

No music . . . just staring at the damned thing. . OK so . . . I had to read the directions on how to get the music out of it.

I read the directions completely through. Picked up the headphones, stuck em’ in my fuzzy little ears! (It’s peach fuzz – nothing freaky) AND NOTHING! No MUSIC!

What the Hell?

Am I a moron? 

No . . . I am making a point that is no matter how many times I read the Big Book – back to front – front to back – I can even memorize the thing and give inspiring incantations at meetings or to newcomers . . . . . 

. . . . . but unless I ACTUALLY DO what the instructions say I should do. . . . THERE’S NO MUSIC!

I’ve got to press and turn the right buttons and press in the right places. Unless I do that, the instructions are not worth a damn.

When I sponsor men I don’t sit there and read the Big Book with them. I can take a man through ALL TWELVE STEPS without even having a book. That isn’t to brag – that is to make another point – that The Big Book was not published until 1939 so that’s EXACTLY HOW the co-founders did it. Please don’t email me and tell me it can’t be done.

Teaching a newcomer to read the Big Book without taking him through the work described and expecting him to recover is like reading the IPOD manual with a friend and then wondering why there are NO TUNES!. It can’t work. ANd it CAN kill. 

Time is of the essence for the real alkie and spending hours, days weeks or god forbid MONTHS reading the Big Book and going to  Big Book meetings without doing the work can be as good a signing a death warrant at worst – ensuring continued misery and unhappiness at best.

Why even mention this? Well, because over the last two weeks or so, I have come across well meaning people sponsoring others by making them read the Big Book. No qualifying. No telling of “what we know about alcoholism”. Just exactly where does it say that this I show to take someone through the Twelve Steps?

Right about now if you are preparing to flame my ass, because you think that I said you shouldn’t tell your protégées to read the Big Book – please re-read what have written.

I NEVER said that.

What I AM saying is that reading the Big Book and Taking The Steps are NOT synonymous activities – and if you are reading the Big Book and calling that “taking the steps” . . then you could not possibly have had a spiritual awakening as the result of taking these steps yourself.

If you had, you would already know how it works and have the power to pass that on as directed in that Big Book.

Peace,

Danny S.

How Much "Time" Ya Got?

Here’s one for the folks who love to flash their sobriety medallions around – or who just cannot resist continuously mentioning their time credentials in meetings. It’s just one more reason that sobriety medallions don’t carry much weight around here. NEWS STORY

Here’s a guy who for all we know, just picked up a new protégée, because that newcomer thought it a good idea seeing “What he had” – and he wanted that too – thirteen years sober and a good job. How scuhroowed might that newcomer be now? Just a thought.

Now, is it likely that he was working with others? Well . . . . eh . . . I don’t know – you can come to your own opinion on that. I do know that, “Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking a intensive work with other alcoholics. It works when other activities fail. This is our twelfth suggestion: Carry this message to other alcoholics!”(89:0)

And that means only one thing: Working with others in teaching and practicing the twelve steps.

It’s nice to be able to handle a knife and fork – – but HAVE WE EATEN LUNCH YET?

This poor fellow must have been starving! It would do good to keep his well-being and perhaps future recovery in our thoughts – and perhaps someone reading this – who may know him – could get the “THIS” message to him.

I would much rather be sponsored by someone with a year or less sobriety “time” who has recovered and practices these principles some someone with thirty years of sobriety “time” and has yet to recover (“still recovering”)

The former would be one of my AA HEROES – the latter – just another hard drinking dry fool.

Peace,

Danny S

MORE

How Much "Time" Ya Got?

Here’s one for the folks who love to flash their sobriety medallions around – or who just cannot resist continuously mentioning their time credentials in meetings. It’s just one more reason that sobriety medallions don’t carry much weight around here. NEWS STORY

Here’s a guy who for all we know, just picked up a new protégée, because that newcomer thought it a good idea seeing “What he had” – and he wanted that too – thirteen years sober and a good job. How scuhroowed might that newcomer be now? Just a thought.

Now, is it likely that he was working with others? Well . . . . eh . . . I don’t know – you can come to your own opinion on that. I do know that, “Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking a intensive work with other alcoholics. It works when other activities fail. This is our twelfth suggestion: Carry this message to other alcoholics!”(89:0)

And that means only one thing: Working with others in teaching and practicing the twelve steps.

It’s nice to be able to handle a knife and fork – – but HAVE WE EATEN LUNCH YET?

This poor fellow must have been starving! It would do good to keep his well-being and perhaps future recovery in our thoughts – and perhaps someone reading this – who may know him – could get the “THIS” message to him.

I would much rather be sponsored by someone with a year or less sobriety “time” who has recovered and practices these principles some someone with thirty years of sobriety “time” and has yet to recover (“still recovering”)

The former would be one of my AA HEROES – the latter – just another hard drinking dry fool.

Peace,

Danny S

MORE

Google for God

Sometimes the course of least resistance is the path taken by an alcoholic who continues to relapse.

All that “God stuff” is hard to take, and along comes someone to tell him, “Hey you can worry about all that God and step stuff later on. Right now just keep coming and everything will be all right”.

And so the relapsing continues and the suffering continues despite meeting and meeting after meeting.

Bill and Bob themselves once said to Henrietta Sieberling, “Henrietta, I don’t think we should talk too much about religion or God.”

She told them, “Well, we’re not out to please the alcoholics. They have been pleasing themselves all these years. We are out to please God. And if you don’t talk about what God does, and your faith, and your guidance, then you might as well be the Rotary Club or something like that. Because God is your only source of power.” And finally they agreed. And they weren’t afraid any more. It is my great hope that they will never be afraid to acknowledge God and what he has done for them.”

The God issue was carefully avoided and THEY NEVER EVEN GOT OUT OF THE STARTING GATE!

Is that wild? So how can a sick puking hopeless alcoholic find the answer to his problem?

GOOGLE?

SPONSORSHIP! That’s how — Sponsorship executed by a recovered alcoholic armed with the facts about himself and who explain what he knows about alcoholism – who has had a spiritual awakening as the result of the twelve steps. One alcoholic talking to another alcoholic. Not One alcohols talking to a room of a hundred drunks. Not one knuckle headed Irishman with a penchant for writing who happens to have a Blog. JUST ONE on ONE!

THAT’S HOW. It’s called Twelve Stepping and it IS THE foundation base of sponsorship. And of you’ve been taught that “taking phone calls” before someone drinks, or driving license-less drunks to meetings – acting as an amateur psychologist or “Life Coach” and tossing out fellowship slogans from your mental list was sponsorship – Then I’ll ask you this?

How many alcoholics have you harmed or maybe even killed lately?*

Peace,

Danny S

* Yeah I know. “I don’t have that kind of power.” Right! If that makes you feel better – stick with it.

Looking For A New Sponsor For Christmas?

I have been asked often how to find a sponsor. My answer never varies. Get a sponsor who has experience in taking others through the 12 steps and identifies him/herself as someone who has recovered.

If someone says they are still “Recovering” politely pass, and keep looking until you find someone for whom the Program has actually worked.

If someone is “Still recovering” then either whatever they are doing hasn’t worked OR they may be trying to recover from an illness they haven’t’ got. In either case – you’re screwed.

Disregard how “Nice” or “Knowledgeable” the still recovering person seems. If you want to be that person’s friend, fine – but do not permit yourself to fall under their sponsorship, unless they have recovered from alcoholism. “Not drinking” today does not count. YOU may NEVER drink again and this person’s method may KILL you – as earnest and nice as they seem.

Your sponsor will refer to him/herself as “RECOVERED”

He/she’ll know EXACTLY what to do with you from there and you can trust that without reservation.

Do not let anyone sponsor you whose solution is “Don’t drink and go to meetings”, or “Just don’t drink” or “One day at a time”. These concepts are not part of our Program, but they are rampant never the less. If that is their solution, and it works for them, it may KILL you, if you are a real alcoholic as described in those first 43 pages of the Big Book. And THAT’S the ONLY description that counts in this Program — not mine, yours, Dr, Phil’s or our family’s & friends — not even the old-timer in the meeting who hasn’t cracked a Big Book in ten years other than to read at his turn at the old “Big Book meeting.”

If a potential sponsor tells you aren’t ready to take the steps, RUN! If anyone tells you they did it slowly, therefore so can you RUN! They may not be “one of us”.

If anyone tells you that you ARE an alcoholic, just because you showed up. RUN! We don’t like to pronounce any individual as alcoholic. YOU must ascertain it yourself, by those 43 pages.

This is important –-> Take the 12 steps as fast as you possibly can. It IS a race. You must recover before the next first drink comes along, and don’t let anyone tell you that THEY know when that is for you. You do not have to be prey to arrogance.They don’t know when YOUR next first drink will come along. No one does!

Just because they had the luxury of sitting on their thumbs – getting comfortable in meetings and reading AA literature – you may NOT have that same luxury. Not if you are a real alcoholic. YOU might obsess for your next drink this afternoon! It’s no skin off their back if you do. And you might not live through it. They will.

And then after you have worked the Program in the book, and the desire to drink has left, (That’s a promise that it will), then you will be in a position to go find another alcoholic to work with as your sponsor has done and pass it on to another in the position you are in now.

Soon you will be free from alcohol, sponsoring others and joining us in the trenches. Your life will have become usefully happy and whole.

You could be recovered and enjoying life by the New Year – FREE for the first time in your life!

Too simple? Your DAMNED right it is! Ho Ho Ho

Peace,

Danny S