There is a Solution (Continued)
J: Now, we're very, very close, although we should never known each other. And he goes on to, and Bill had the--to really understand the Big Book--this book was written like a lot of great books. It speaks to a lot of different kinds of people. He had the sheer ability, though God's guidance, to paint pictures. He used parables to teach. He uses this parable of the fellowship like, he said, we're like passengers on a great liner.
In this time in 1939 (that was) the way to travel to Europe. This was a very appropriate illustration, because the way to travel to Europe was on the great ocean liners. On the great ocean liners, he says: (p. 17, par. 2) 'We are like the passengers of a great liner the moment after rescue from shipwreck when camaraderie, joyousness and democracy pervade the vessel from steerage to Captain's table. ' On these great ocean liners there were all types of people on there, but thee. people were separated. The steerage, this was the cheapest way to go. The steerage section was way down in the bottom. You were a peon if you were in the steerage section. You just barely had fare to get over.
The accommodations weren't very good. You stayed down in there. Once a day they said they would take the people from the steerage section and allow them to go up on the fan tail to get some air. The water would spray over on them, but then they had to go back down there. As you came from deck to deck, as you changed, your economic situation got better, and your social background got better, your religious background got better, you could go higher and higher and higher on the vessel. When you got on the uppermost decks, where they had suites and all the finery, those people ate in a special dinning room. And if you were a very special person in that special dinning room, you could sit at the Captain's table.
In fact, the closer you got to the Captain's right hand, that's where--that was prestige on down the table. When you got at the Captain's table, you had the right social
background, you had the right money -- economic background, and you had to have the right religion. You had to have everything. It was a long way from the Captain's table to the steerage section. In fact, these two men should have never met on their journey. Just like we should have never met on the journey of life.
We have nothing in common, none of the ordinary things. But during that night--and I talk about the Titanic all the time-when they hit that iceberg, when they went overboard, when they hit that water, these two people had something in common. They had a common problem. (laughter)
C: They had cold, wet rear ends. That's what they had.
J: That's the beauty of the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. Although we should have never met, we come from so various backgrounds. We were thrown together. The only thing that we have in common, the only thing that we have in common, is that we suffer from the disease of alcoholism. That's about the only thing. That's the only thing we have in common. This is what binds us. You know, this is what binds us together. Suffering and problems are great bonds. (p. 17, par. 2) 'Unlike the feelings of the ship's passengers, however, our joy in escape from disaster does not subside as we go our individual ways.'
I'm sure that night once the ships passengers were rescued and they got back to land, the guy from the steerage section probably said, this guy is too big for me. I don't need to be fooling around with him. And
I'm sure the guy from the Captain's table said, I shouldn't, be associating with this guy. They went back to their (old lives), because their disaster was over.
But we will always be alcoholics. (p. 17. par. 2) '... our joy does not subside as we go our individual ways. The feeling of having shared in a common peril is one element in the powerful cement which binds us.' The fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous is a powerful thing. Remember we said in the First Step that we were powerless. So one of the solutions to alcoholism is the power that lies within the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous.
The fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous is a support group. It's very therapeutic for a new alcoholic to come in amongst a whole bunch of people who have recovered from the same thing he's got, active in his life. It's seeing it. There is a lot of power in the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous, just in the fellowship itself.
But he says that that is not enough. That is just one element in the cement that binds us. Remember, in 1939, they couldn't foresee it. This book was actually written before the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous, because they didn't have but one hundred. They were very fortunate in a way. They couldn't go to ninety meetings in ninety days. They didn't have that many. (laughter)
You know, you can really get hooked on the fellowship, just go to meeting, go to meetings, go to meetings, go to meetings, go to meetings. But the book says that meetings, fellowship is not enough. It's sort of like, you know, Charlie and I say it's just like going to P. T. A. meetings for ninety days. It will not make you a parent. (laughter)
C: There is a process you have to go through. (laughter) There are some steps you'll have to take. (laughter) Many of you may balk at some of them. (laughter)
J: Nor will going to A. A. meetings make you a sober member of Alcoholic" Anonymous. He says, that is not enough. He says: (p. 17, par.
2-3) 'But that in itself would never have held us together as we are now joined.'
'The tremendous fact for every one of us is that we have discovered a common solution.' We have discovered the common solution. Not only do we have the same problem, but what binds us together here today, is that we have the same common solution. Later on in our book, in a few
pages, it's going to tell us that the common solution is a vital spiritual experience, (p. 27, par. 5) which makes the personality changes sufficient to recover.
