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The main ideas from the information are: - God will not desert us in times of adversity, including health issues. - In Step 4 of AA, we must take responsibility for our own mistakes, even if the situation involved another person. - AA is not a new religion, but borrows principles from ancient sources and can be accepted by people of various faiths. - Able leadership is important in AA, but it should not overshadow the principles of the program. - The belief that we can control our lives through willpower is proven false by the consequences of alcoholism. - The virtues of AA fellowship are not earned, but forced upon us by alcoholism and later accepted due to their effectiveness. - Sobriety alone is not enough, as the harm caused by alcoholism goes beyond just drinking. - True belonging and kinship in AA comes through open and honest sharing of our conflicts and experiences. - Unity in AA is essential for its survival and to help those who are still suffering from alcohol 221. God will not desert us. Word comes to me that you are making a magnificent stand in adversity. This adversity being the state of your health, it gives me a chance to express my gratitude for your recovery in AA. And especially for the demonstration of its principles you are now so inspringly giving to us all. You will be glad to know that AAs have an almost unfailing record in this respect. This, I know, is because we are so aware that God will not desert us when the chips are down. Indeed, he did not when we were drinking, and so it shall be with the remainder of life. Certainly he does not plan to save us from all troubles and adversity, nor in the end does he save us from so-called death, since this is but an opening of a door into a new life, where we shall dwell amongst his many mansions, touching these things I know you have a most confident faith. Letter 1966. 222. Who's to Blame? At Step 4, we resolutely look for our own mistakes. Where had we been selfish, dishonest, self-seeking, and frightened? Through a given situation has not been entirely our fault. We often tried to cast the whole blame on the other person involved. We finally saw that the inventory should be ours, not the other man's. So we admitted our wrongs honestly and became willing to set these matters straight. Alcohol's Anonymous, page 67. 223. One Fellowship, Many Faiths. As a society, we must never become so vain as to propose that we are authors and inventors of a new religion. We will humbly reflect that every one of A.A.'s principles has been borrowed from ancient sources. A minister in Thailand wrote, we took A.A.'s 12 steps to the largest Buddhist monastery in this province, and the head priest said, why, these steps are fine. For us Buddhists, it might be slightly more acceptable if you have inserted the word good in your steps instead of God. Nevertheless, you say that it is God as you understand him, and that must certainly include the good. Yes, A.A.'s 12 steps will surely be accepted by Buddhists around here. St. Louis old-timers recall how Fr. Edward Dwelling helped start their group. It turned out to be largely Protestant, but this fazed him not a bit. A.A. comes of age, one page 231, two page 81, and three page 37. 224. Leadership in A.A. No society can function well without able leadership at all its levels, and A.A. can be no exception. But we A.A. sometimes cherish the thought that we can do without much personal leadership at all. We are apt to warp the traditional idea of principles before personalities around to such a point that there would be no personality in leadership. Whatever, they would imply rather faceless robots trying to please everybody. A leader in A.A. service is a man or woman who can personally put principles, plans, and policies into such dedicated and effective action that the rest of us naturally want to back him up and help him with his job. When a leader's power drives us badly, we rebel, but when he too meekly becomes an order-taker and he excuses no judgment of his own, well, he really isn't a leader at all. Twelve Concepts, page 4142. 225. The Answer in the Mirror While drinking, we were certain that our intelligence, backed by willpower, could rightly control our inner lives and guarantee us success in the world around us. This brave philosophy wherein each man played God sounded good in the speaking, but it still had to meet the acid test. How well did it actually work? One good look in the mirror was answering us. My spiritual awakening was electrically sudden and absolutely convincing. At once, I became a part, if only a tiny part, of a cosmos that were ruled by justice and love in the person of God. No matter what had been the consequences of my own willfulness and ignorance, or those of my fellow travelers on Earth, this was still the truth. Such was the new and positive assurance, and this has never left me. 112 and 12, page 37. Two grapevines, January 1962. 226. Humility for the Fellowship, too We as AA sometimes brag of the virtues of our fellowship. Let us remember that few of these are actually earned virtues. We were forced into them, to begin with, by the cruel lash of alcoholism. We finally adapted them, not because we wished to, but because we had to. Then, as time confirmed the seeming righteousness of our basic principles, we began to confirm because it was right to do so. Some of us, notably myself, confirmed even then with reluctancy. But at last, we came to a point where we stood willing to confirm gladly to the principles which experience, under the grace of God, has taught us. AA comes of age, page 224. 227. Is sobriety enough? The alcoholic is like a tornado rearing his way through the lives of others. Hearts are broken. Sweet relationships are dead. Affection has been uprooted. Selfish, inconsiderate habits have kept the home in turmoil. We feel a man is unthinking when he says that sobriety is enough. He is like the farmer who came up with his cyclone cellar to find his home ruined. To his wife, he remarked, Don't see anything that matters here, Ma. Ain't it grand the wind stopped blowing? We ask ourselves, what do we mean when we say that we have harmed other people? What kind of harm do people do to one another anyway? To define the word harm in a practical way, the result of instincts and collisions, which cause physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual damage to those about us. 1 Alcohols Anonymous, page 82. 2, 12, and 12, page 80. 228. The beginning of true kinship. When we reached AA, and for the first time in our lives stood among people who seemed to understand, the sense of belonging was tremendously exciting. We thought the isolation problem had been solved, but we soon discovered that while we weren't alone anymore in a social sense, we still affected many of the old pains of anxious apartness. Until we had talked with complete canter of our conflicts, and had listened to someone else through the same thing, we still didn't belong. Step 5 was the answer. It was the beginning of true kinship with man and God. 12 and 12, page 57. 229. Day of Homecoming. As sobriety means long life and happiness for the individual, so does unity mean exactly the same thing to our society as a whole. Unified we live, disunited we shall perish. We must think deeply of all those sick ones still to come to AA. As they try to make their return to faith and to life, we want them to find everything in AA that we have found, and yet more. If that be possible, no care, no vigilance, no effort to preserve AA's constant effectiveness and spiritual strength will ever be too great to hold us in full readiness for the day of their homecoming. One letter 1949, two talks 1959.