September 21

September 21 – AM          Page 15-16, Bill’s Story, Chapter 1

We commenced to make many fast friends and a fellowship has grown up among us of which it is a wonderful thing to feel a part.  The joy of living we really have, even under pressure and difficulty.  I have seen hundreds of families set their feet in the path that really goes somewhere; have seen the most impossible domestic situations righted; feuds and bitterness of all sorts wiped out.  I have seen men come out of asylums and resume a vital place in the lives of their families and communities.  Business and professional men have regained their standing.  There is scarcely any form of trouble and misery which has not been overcome among us.  In one western city and its environs there are one thousand of us and our families.  We meet frequently so that newcomers may find the fellowship they seek.  At these informal  gatherings one may often see from 50 to 200 persons.  We are growing in numbers and power.*

*In 1996, A.A. is composed of over 95,000 groups.

September 21 – PM          Page xxviii, The Doctor’s Opinion

We believe, and so suggested a few years ago, that the action of alcohol on these chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy; that the phenomenon of craving is limited to this class and never occurs in the average temperate drinker.  These allergic types can never safely use alcohol in any form at all; and once having formed the habit and found they cannot break it, once having lost their self-confidence, their reliance upon things human, their problems pile up on them and become astonishingly difficult to solve.
Frothy emotional appeal seldom suffices.  The message which can interest and hold these alcoholic people must have depth and weight.  In nearly all cases, their ideals must be grounded in a power greater than themselves, if they are to re-create their lives.