So Sue Me

The logical place to continue this blog would be at "Bills' Story,'  but I have nothing to say at this point. More to come later. So I will jump into the text starting with "There is a Solution."

We, of Alcoholics Anonymous, know thousands* of men and women who were once just as hopeless as Bill. Nearly all have recovered. They have solved the drink problem.

*At the time this was written, the word "thousands" may have been a bit of hyperbole, as was the term "women," but there were certainly several hundred. 

That they were as hopeless as Bill seems obvious, but the sentence that jumps out at me is that  "{[T]hey have solved the drink problem." Notice that the phrase "have recovered" is equated with "have solved." So for those who debate (ad nauseum) about whether or not we have "recovered," it should be apparent that solving the problem (the "obsession of the mind") is tantamount to having recovered. Enough said.

We are average Americans. All sections of this country and many of its occupations are represented, as well as many political, economic, social, and religious backgrounds. We are people who normally would not mix.

It was important to note that at that time alcoholics were not equated with "average" Americans. There was a general consensus that alcoholics were not average, that they were a breed apart, not fit for contact with the population at large.This was an uphill battle that was fought for quite a long time (perhaps not until the treatment industry needed insurance money. Pardon the cynicism).

It is common around the program to infer that we were people who would normally not mix with each other, but I think in the context of the paragraph it means we were people who would not mix with "average Americans."

But there exists among us a fellowship, a friendliness, and an understanding which is indescribably wonderful. We are like the passengers of a great liner the moment after rescue from shipwreck when camaraderie, joyousness and democracy pervade the vessel from steerage to Captain's table. Unlike the feelings of the ship's passengers, however, our joy in escape from disaster does not subside as we go our individual ways. The feeling of having shared in a common peril is one element in the powerful cement which binds us. 

This harkens back to the comments I made in "The Doctor's Opinion, but it deserves to be reiterated that Bill describes it a as "indescribably wonderful." We are bound together with a powerful cement that arises out of out of our joy of having escaped a common peril. And it persists precisely because we are privileged to continue seeing that rescue time and again.

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