(Remembering AA's Early Friends)
Bill never tired of telling the story of
A.A.s' beginning and giving thanks for our
many early friends. This is how he told it
to the General Service Conference in 1952.
Answer
"You share with me, I know, the thought that
the closing hours of this conference bring
with them a deep and joyous realization. The
realization that at last we are surely on
the high road that stretches straight out
toward our future, toward, we trust, an
everlasting sunrise. We face the sunrise in
high hope, with a confidence that is almost
awesome and with our hearts full of
unspeakable gratitude.
Gratitude to the Father of lights, Who has
delivered us out of our bondage, gratitude
to friends through whose hearts he has
enabled this miracle to be worked, and
gratitude for each other.
This too is an hour that will ever stir
memory. With me, perhaps more than most, the
wellsprings of memory are at flood tide. I
think of a psychiatrist at Zurich,
Switzerland, who had a patient, an American
businessman, treated him a year.
The patient thought greatly of his
psychiatrist, none other than the famous Dr.
Jung. The patient thought he was well, but
leaving the doctor, he soon found himself
drunk. So he returned to Dr. Jung, who yet
unknowing to this day, is one of the
founders of this society. And he said to
this patient, "Unless you have a spiritual
experience, there is nothing that can be
done. You are too much conditioned by
alcoholism to be saved in any other way."
Our friend thought it was a hard sentence,
but like many of us since, he began to seek
such an experience. He found it in the
confines of the Oxford Group, an evangelical
movement of that time. He sobered at once.
There he found the grace to achieve it. It
was then called to his attention that a
friend of his was about to be committed for
alcoholism to an asylum in Vermont. Together
with some other "Groupers," he interceded.
The result was our beloved Ebby, who first
brought the essentials of recovery to me.
Meanwhile, there was a little Jesuit, Ed
Dowling, laboring among his flock, lame and
relatively obscure, he too, was to light a
candle for A.A.
There was a nun, Sister Ignatia, in Akron
who was to become the companion of Dr. Bob,
who as you know, was the prince of our
Twelfth Steppers. She, too, was to light a
candle for us.
Even Francis of Assisi holding for the
principle of corporate poverty, had lit a
candle for A.A. So had William James, the
father of modern psychology, whose book,
"The Varieties of Religious Experience," had
such a profound influence upon us. He had
lit a candle for Alcoholics Anonymous.
Then, too, there were to be couriers to all
the world. Harry Emerson Fosdick, Fulton
Oursler of Liberty, Jack Alexander and the
owner of Saturday Evening Post. They were to
become couriers. They, too, were to light
candles for Alcoholics Anonymous.
But back there in the summer of 1934, the
alcoholics of the world felt as hopeless as
ever. And yet, as you see, a table was being
prepared in the presence of our ancient
enemy, John Barleycorn. Candles were already
upon it, and meat and drink was there, but
the guests had not arrived.
Then came some guests and they partook of
the spark that was to become Alcoholics
Anonymous was struck. Then ensued our period
of flying blind, at the end of which, about
1937 or 1938, we realized that, indeed, a
table had been prepared in the presence of
our enemy. And that the candles upon that
table might one day shine around the world
and touch every distant beachhead.
There were more years of travail in that
pioneering time which ended in 1941 with the
advent of the Post article. Meanwhile, our
book of experience had appeared. No longer
need we travel in person. The message could
be taken through those printed pages to
distant ones who suffered.
Our recovery program was really complete.
Then came the test whether our growing
groups could live and work together, whether
the enormous explosive quality of our
fellowship would find in our principles of
recovery a sufficient containing element.
Soon we came to realize little by little
that we of Alcoholics Anonymous must hang
together or indeed we should hang
separately.
And in that sometimes frightening
experience, the Tradition of Alcoholics
Anonymous was forged. And at Cleveland, in
1950, it was confirmed by our fellowship as
the traditional platform upon which our
society intended to stand.
No body of law was this Tradition. A set of
principles infused with the spirit of our 12
steps of recovery and enshrined in the heart
of each of us - that would be our
protection, we thought, from any blows with
which the outside world would assail us, our
protection from any temptations to which we
might be subjected within.
Such was the Tradition of Alcoholics
Anonymous.
In this period of infancy and in adolescence
this Society discovered that it had to
function. This Conference culminates that
long process of discovery through which we
have learned how we can best act to carry
this message to those who suffer. Yes, the
advent of this conference in full strength
will mark a great day in the annals of
Alcoholics Anonymous.
For me, it marks a time when I must shift
from activity to reflection and meditation
and to the task of acting as your scribbler,
to record the experience of these marvelous
years just past. I realize that I shall be
but a reflector, a scribbler only. I hope
the task will be completed, useful and
pleasing to you -- and pleasing to God.
My heart is too full to say anymore,
excepting au revoir."
