December 8

December 8 – AM          Page 568, Spiritual Experience, Appendix II

“There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance-that principle is contempt prior to investigation,”

– HERBERT SPENCER

December 8 – PM         Page 154-155, A Vision For You, Chapter 11

One dismal afternoon he paced a hotel lobby wondering how his bill was to be paid.  At one end of the room stood a glass covered directory of local churches.  Down the lobby a door opened into an attractive bar.  He could see the gay crowd inside.  In there he would find companionship and release.  Unless he took some drinks, he might not have the courage to scrape an acquaintance and would have a lonely week-end.
Of course he couldn’t drink, but why not sit hopefully at a table, a bottle of ginger ale before him?  After all, had he not been sober six months now?  Perhaps he could handle, say, three drinks—no more!  Fear gripped him.  He was on thin ice.  Again it was the old, insidious insanity—that first drink.  With a shiver, he turned away and walked down the lobby to the church directory.  Music and gay chatter still floated to him from the bar.
But what about his responsibilities—his family and the men who would die because they would not know how to get well, ah—yes, those other alcoholics?  There must be many such in this town.  He would phone a clergyman.  His sanity returned and he thanked God.  Selecting a church at random from the directory, he stepped into a booth and lifted the receiver.
His call to the clergyman led him presently to a certain resident of the town, who, though formerly able and respected, was  then nearing the nadir of alcoholic despair.  It was the usual situation:  home in jeopardy, wife ill, children distracted, bills in arrears and standing damaged.  He had a desperate desire to stop, but saw no way out, for he had earnestly tried many avenues of escape.  Painfully aware of being somehow abnormal, the man did not fully realize what it meant to be alcoholic.*

* This refers to Bill’s first visit with Dr. Bob.  These men later became co-founders of A.A. Bill’s story opens the text of this book; Dr. Bob’s heads the Story Section.