Big Book Study

[bluidkiti]

Big Book Study - Post #18

Good Morning, everyone!

*Paragraph 2 on* *page 60* - original text in (parenthesis) and my editorial
notes in [brackets]:* *

"Our description of the alcoholic, [found in the Doctor's Opinion and
Chapter 3 - More About Alcoholism] the chapter to the agnostic, [Chapter 4 -
We Agnostics] and our personal adventures before and after" [Chapter 1 -
Bill's Story] make clear (are designed to sell you) three pertinent ideas:

(a) That we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives. [This is Step
1.]

(b) That probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism. [This
is the first half of Step 2.]

(c) That God could and would (can and will) if He were sought. [Step 2,
second half.]"

At this point we have completed Steps 1 and 2. Notice how we go directly
into Step 3 here in *paragraph 3*: "Being convinced, we were at Step Three,
which is that we decided [remember that our decisions must be followed up
with action in order to make them meaningful - Step 4 is the action] to turn
our will [our thoughts] and our lives [our actions] over to God as we
understood Him."

*Paragraph 4 -* "The first requirement is that we be convinced that any life
run on self-will can hardly be a success." In the preceding chapters we see
that self-will has little effect regarding our drinking. Now we examine how
that is true regarding our lives as a whole.

Read through to *page 62 paragraph 1*:

"Selfishness - Self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our
troubles." This is an important point. Our troubles weren't the product of a
poor upbringing, horrible parents, being the member of ____ (fill in the
blank with any subset of society). We had a difficult time of it due
to "Selfishness
- Self-centeredness." "...we have made decisions based on self which later
placed us in a position to be hurt." We have discovered that WE are usually
the reason for the suffering we have had to experience. We were not the
unwitting "victims" of life that we frequently portrayed ourselves to be. I
was astonished when this was pointed out to me.

*Next paragraph -* "So our troubles, we think, are basically of our own
making. "...we alcoholics must be rid of this selfishness. We must, or it
kills us!" So, it isn't always booze that kills us - selfishness will kill
us indirectly. Throughout the book we will discover that bottles are only a
symbol, that our problem runs deeper than the drinking itself.

Tomorrow, we will pick up with the end of page 62 and touch upon that
spiritual structure that we have been building.

With love,
Karen H.