SESSION 2

First, an explaination!

Why do we go slowly, doing this work sentence by sentence? Why can't I just do all of it now? Tell me how you got better; I'll do the same thing and we can all go home.
We go slowly because the remote possibility exists that I just may be constitutionally incapable of being honest with myself. Somewhere in this first step I will need to write out the facts that I need to see in order to convince me that I am indeed an alcoholic and that I cannot manage my own life. I need to begin to be able to see the things that are keeping me from God.

Listen to Joe Hawk's second tape.

Introduction to Bill Wilson and his disease. The first eight pages of Bill's Story.

At this point, we are only looking at Bill's disease. NOT his recovery.
I can use the first 8 pages of Bill's story as a tool to look at my life. If I can identify with Bill, maybe I can identify with people at the meetings.

I'm not a stockbroker, or a millionaire. I didn’t fight in the First World War or live through prohibition or the depression.
But do I (did I) think, drink or feel like Bill did?

The second assignment

Check off each sentence in the first eight pages that I can relate to.
Then go back and rewrite each of those sentences I have checked using my own experience:
This is an example from my writing out my own first step.
"I was excited when I first left home and gone away to college. I had found freedom and felt very grown up. Here was fellowship, love, applause, moments sublime with intervals hilarious. I was part of life at last. Liquor played a part right from the start. I ignored or forgot the somber stories about alcohol and alcoholics in the family. Like how my great grandmother sold the family jewels for liquor money, or how she died from a broken neck after failing down the cellar stairs, drunk."

You don't necessarily have to do it this way. It's just an example of how I did it. The important thing is that you begin to write out your own story, and Bill's story can help.

What are we doing?

We are slowly writing out our first step.
We are getting ready to ask a very important question about ourselves. The question is found at the top of page 17:

Am I as hopeless as Bill was?

An honest answer to this question can be found in our own stories. We are using Bill's story as a catalyst to help us write our own.
One of the most difficult parts of the recovery process is putting words down on a blank piece of paper.

We're using Bill's words to give us a boost while also keeping us going in the right direction.