Big Book Study

[bluidkiti]

Big Book Study - Post #6

Good morning!

First, let's answer the question posted yesterday concerning "Pot"
in the Big Book. Here it is, on the old doggerel--the way Bill
remembered it (an abbreviated version):

"Here lies a Hampshire Grenadier
Who caught his death
Drinking cold small beer.
A good soldier is ne'er forgot
Whether he dieth by musket
Or by pot."

Beer or ale was sold by the "pot" or small cask hundreds of years
ago.

Bill's Story, page 1 - Bill's Story was put into the book as a means
of identifying an example of the disease in action and to outline
the spiritual experience.

Bill was born in East Dorset, Vermont in 1895 and was brought up
primarily by his grandfather. You can visit the Wilson House in East
Dorset and actually stay there. Bill and Lois are buried nearby.

Bill served in World War I. Then, during the Roaring 20's he
discovered Wall Street. The profit he speaks of on page 3 was a
sizable sum in those days. At this point in his story, he still has
no clue of his alcoholism. He begins to have an inkling near the
bottom of page 3:

"My drinking assumed more serious proportions, continuing all day
and almost every night. The remonstrances of my friends terminated
in a row and I became a lone wolf." His friends questioned his
drinking: that's a sin in every alcoholic's book! Who needs them,
right? He began to drink alone.

Bill continued to ride the bull market of the 1920's, but in 1929
the market crashed. He was disgusted by those jumping out of the
windows of high finance. He was better than that -- he would just
get drunk.

In the last paragraph of page 4, Bill is handed an ego puncturing:

"We went to live with my wife's parents." [At 182 Clinton Street in
Brooklyn]. That would crush most egos and Bill had quite an ego when
he made all that money. By now Bill has no illusion. He is a drunk
existing to drink.

By the second half of page 5, Bill has lost all control. He knew he
couldn't "take so much as one drink." He marshaled his willpower and
what happened? He drank again! No effective mental defense against
the first drink. Willpower is no match for the mental obsession to
drink.

At the top of page 7, it is now the summer of 1933. Bill's brother-
in-law is Dr. Leonard Strong. The hospital was Towns Hospital at 293
Central Park West (at 89th Street) on the Upper West Side of
Manhattan. The Belladonna treatment refers to treatment with a drug
derived from the nightshade family of plants and similar in effect
to valium. Hydrotherapy is shower and bath therapy (you do get
a clean alcoholic that way).

Providentially, Bill meets Dr. William D. Silkworth for the first
time. Bill begins to gain an insight into his disease, and a little
self-knowledge.

Did it work? During the summer of 1934, it did not. He got drunk
again and it got even worse. Bill is without hope?powerless. The
miracle is just around the corner?

With our next post we'll start on page 8 with paragraph 1.

Have a great day!

Jim