There is a Solution (Continued)
C: On page twenty-five in the last paragraph. It says: (p. 25, par. 4) 'If you are as seriously alcoholic as we were, we believe there is no middle-of-the-road solution. We were in a position where life was becoming impossible, and if we had passed into the region from which there is no return through human aid, we had but two alternatives: One was to go on to the bitter end, blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable situation as beat we could'
J: Step One.
C: (p. 25) 'and the other, to accept spiritual help.'
J: Step Two.
C: The prevailing thought in A. A. today is that you better not talk too much about God, or you might run the newcomer off. The Big Book doesn't mind talking about God at all. The Big Book finally gets us down and tells us that we've only got one of two alternatives: to drink until we die' or to accept spiritual help, one of the two.
Those turn out to be Step One and Step Two. An old sponsor helped me out in this area a lot. He said, Charlie, you don't need to worry about running the newcomer off by talking about God. He said, because if you do then whiskey will put him right back in here if he lives long enough. I believe that's absolutely true.
I think somewhere we've got to face the fact that human power does not solve the disease of alcoholism, that it comes about through spirituality. We only have but one of two alternatives: to drink until we die, or accept spiritual help, Step One and Step Two. He's going to repeat this over and over and over as we progress through the book. Joe.
J: As Charlie said, this is the first time he is actually setting us up for Steps One and Two. He'll do that throughout these earlier chapters. This is the purpose of it to give us Step One and Step Two.
