Big Book History (continued)
C: They called a meeting. That night at that meeting
there were approximately eighteen people there. The whole thrust of the
meeting was: what are we going to do with this information so in turn, we
can give it away and help other people?
Thank God that their idea was not that, well, there's
forty of us, already sober and that's enough. We don't need to help
anybody else.
Thank God their idea wasn't that now that we're sober
we'll say home and let the other people go to the devil. The whole thrust
and idea of the meeting was how can we best present this information to
other alcoholics suffering in the United States and Canada, and basically
throughout the world.
That night at that meeting in 1937, they decided to
do three things, all for the purpose of being able to better carry this
message to the alcoholic that still suffers. The first thing they decided
upon, voted upon, and approved that night was that they would build a
chain of hospitals throughout the entire United States and Canada, and
eventually throughout the world, so that all alcoholics wherever they may
be would have the possibility of recovering from the disease.
Maybe the first floor they would have a withdraw
unit, a detoxification unit. Maybe on the second floor a treatment center
where they could carry them through the planned program of action. Maybe
on the third floor a retraining center, where they could train them into
occupations so they could find a job.
Joe and I always laugh about that. We don't know any
alcoholics that need to be retrained. Most of us have got four or five
occupations. (laughter) You damn near have to have if you're practicing
alcoholic. Maybe the top floor would be a live in, work out arrangement,
where they could live and work in a structured environment for an extended
period of time.
The second thing they voted upon and decided that
night was to hire and train a group of paid missionaries to send them out
throughout the world to carry this great message to all who suffered. And
probably some pragmatic individual in the back of the room said those are
great ideas, but where in the world are we going to get the money to pay
for that? And somebody came up with the idea that maybe we ought to write
a book. And if we write this book, we will give all this information that
we have learned ourselves during this two year period from 1935 to 1937.
This book will carry this information to alcoholics throughout the world.
It will be such a great best seller that we will almost immediately make
millions of dollars. Then we'll take that money, and we'll build the
hospitals and hire and train the missionaries.
