Big Book Study - Post #2
Good morning everyone!
Let's turn to page xi, the Preface to the Third Edition, and look at
paragraph #2. This book is identified as "the basic text for our
Society." A basic text is a book which can convey knowledge ? in
other words, a text book.
Turn to page xiii, the Foreword to the First Edition. The first
paragraph is where we want to draw our attention. Bill realized that
there is strength in the collective voice. Hence, "... are more than
one hundred men and women who have recovered..." (There's that word
"recovered" again!) The fact of the matter is that we are more likely
to listen to one hundred than to just a single voice.
"To show other alcoholics PRECISELY HOW WE HAVE RECOVERED is the
main purpose of this book." A powerful statement! Note that the
capitalized words in the sentence above were capitalized in the
first edition of the book. Subsequent editions italicized these
words.
This is where I usually share my story about my Aunt Pat's strawberry
shortcake. It goes something like this:
"My Aunt Pat makes a wonderful strawberry shortcake. I look forward
to it every time I see her out in Newton, New Jersey. After years of
visits I finally asked her for the recipe which she gladly gives to
me. I went home, followed the directions as they were written and
viola! the strawberry shortcake I have always loved!
"Then my ego gets involved. I think a little more sugar in the
whipped cream would improve it. Maybe frozen strawberries. Or let's
use Cool Whip instead of real whipped cream. I make the cake using
my version and it isn't as good, in fact I am disappointed."
The Big Book shows us a specific recipe for sobriety and, if we
follow it carefully, we will get all the benefits of The AA Program.
If we change the recipe we will get something else and we will be
greatly disappointed.
With our next post we will go to page xv - the Foreword to the
Second Edition. Thanks again, and don't forget to pass it on!
And by the way, the Big Book online with page numbers can be found at
http://www.aainsa.org/bigbook/ .
Have a great day!
Jim
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group...g/message/8372