Sober 23 since 9/6/1994 at age 27, Jim gives a funny talk with a strong focus on coming to terms with the delusions of this disease.
His dad came into AA 10 years before Jim. Dad fired him 4 times.
Jim shares a humorous story about playing cards in the lake on a half-submerged picnic table then becoming aware they were in the middle of a Bass Tournament with a table stacked with beer bottles.
Does a great tie-in to the last page of Step One in the Twelve and Twelve p.24.
"Why all this insistence that every A.A. must hit bottom first? The answer is that few people will sincerely try to practice the A.A. program unless they have hit bottom. For practicing A.A.'s remaining eleven Steps means the adoption of attitudes and actions that almost no alcoholic who is still drinking can dream of taking. Who wishes to be rigorously honest and tolerant? Who wants to confess his faults to another and make restitution for harm done? Who cares anything about a Higher Power, let alone meditation and prayer? Who wants to sacrifice time and energy in trying to carry A.A.'s message to the next sufferer? No, the average alcoholic, self-centered in the extreme, doesn't care for this prospect -- unless he has to do these things in order to stay alive himself.
Under the lash of alcoholism, we are driven to A.A., and there we discover the fatal nature of our situation. Then, and only then, do we become as open-minded to conviction and as willing to listen as the dying can be. We stand ready to do anything which will lift the merciless obsession from us."
His wife spoke to this same group in 2016:
(43 min) (10 MB) (id#2083)