Post by caressa on Nov 22, 2007 18:16:58 GMT -5
From "The Three Legacies of Alcoholics Anonymous":
"The [Saturday Evening Post] article appeared in the
March 1, 1941, issue. Jack’s [Alexander] extensive
investigation and his remarkable capacity for sympathy
and rapport with us produced a piece which had immense
impact. By mail and telegram a deluge of pleas for help and
orders for the book Alcoholics Anonymous, first in hundreds
and then in thousands, hit Box 658. … Pawing at random
through the incoming mass of heartbreaking appeals, we found
ourselves crying. What on earth could we do with them? We
were really swamped.
"We saw that we must have help. So we rounded up every
A.A. woman and every A.A. wife who could use a typewriter.
The upper floor of the Twenty-Fourth Street Club was converted
into an emergency headquarters. For days [A.A. office manager]
Ruth and the volunteers tried to answer the ever increasing tide
of mail. They were almost tempted into using form letters. But
experience had shown that this would not do at all. A warm
personal communication must be sent to every prospect and
his family."
Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, pg. 191
I always like reading about the beginning of AA. It never ceases to amaze me how it could start so small and grow and become what it is today and still remain the same.
Some people try to add onto it and only take what they want and leave the rest, but the message is there for those who want it. It is suggested, but there are some darn well betters or you will drink again. I was willing to go to any length not to go back to where I came from. Repeating my time of detoxing was a hell I never wanted to put myself through again.
I am glad that someone carried the message to me when I got here and that it wasn't deluted, glossed over, or changed.
There was one time in my recovery, if I didn't break the rules I bent them very badly. I came to realize that if I wanted to heal and get better, wanted more than to be just sober, I need to work all of the steps and open my mind to a new way of living and be willing to change.
. I will be back looking for Lin and others.