Big Book History (continued)
C: Thank God only one of the three come true. The three
things they decided that night--the only one that came true was the
writing of the book. The book was to give to the person in Arizona, the
person in California, the one in Oklahoma, the one in Florida, the same
information that all forty of those people had had to learn themselves in
order to recover from their disease. Because they knew they would not be
able to see everybody on a one on one basis. They were all in the
Northeastern part of the United States.
But the book was to be written in the same sequence,
the same information, the same knowledge that those forty people had all
used also. All forty of them had recovered basically on three pieces of information. Number one: What is the problem?
Of course they told Bill to write the book. They said
Bill, you know more about it than anybody else, after all you're the one
who started this thing. You've been sober longer than any of the rest of us, and at that time it was about three years.
They said, now Bill, this is not to be your book. This book is to be the
collective knowledge and experience and wisdom of all forty of us. When the book is completed, it
will carry the message of how we recovered from our disease, so other
people can apply it in their life in the same manner. And by putting it
down in the written form, it will remain the same. It will not become
garbled, nor will it be lost in the future.
They reserved the right to read each chapter as it
was written. They said, Bill, we will read it. We will delete what we
don't like. We will change what we want to, and we'll add in whatever we
think is necessary. And whenever the book is through, it will be a
compilation of the knowledge and experience of all of us, not just one
alcoholic.
Now, as we read and study the book this weekend, I
think this is what we basically need to keep in mind: that the book was
written to present this information in the same sequence that they had to
know it also.
We're going to find certain parts of the book will
deal with what is the problem, and certain parts will deal with what is
the solution, and certain parts will deal with the practical program of
action necessary to find that solution. The same sequence that the first
forty--who later turned out to be one hundred by 1939--the same sequence
they had to know it.
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