Bill's Story (Continued)
 
C: Immediately the idea (changed) from religion to spirituality. This began to make sense in Bill's life. Bill said: (p. 12, par. 4-5) 'That statement hit me hard. It melted the icy intellectual mountain in whose shadow I had lived and shivered many years. I stood in the sunlight at last.'
'It was only a matter of being willing to believe in a Power greater than myself. Nothing more was required of me
than to make my beginning. I saw that growth could start from that point. Upon a foundation of complete willingness I might build what I saw in my friend. Would I have it? Of course I would!' Now surly, surly, this is when Bill took Step Two. Step Two had never been written. But surely Bill began to believe in a Power greater than himself, that could solve his problem, that could restore him to sanity, that could do whatever needed to be done. He said it was only a matter of being willing to believe. You don't really have to believe.
Even the atheist can become willing to believe. The people who were agnostically inclined like I am, we always did believe. We just acted as if we didn't. I look back in my life today, and don't think there's ever been a time in my life that I did not believe in a God of some kind, some Power greater than human power. Ebby said, Bill, that's all you got to believe. You don't have to worry about religion. You don't have to worry about somebody else's ideas. Why don't you choose your own conception of God, as you understand Him. Immediately, that made it spirituality rather than religion.
J: Okay, at this point, Bill was able to, believe, or take Step Two. He says: (p. 12, par. 6) 'Thus was I convinced that God is concerned with us humans when we want Him enough. At long last I saw, I felt, I believed. Scales of pride and prejudice fell from my eyes. A new world came into view. '
Through talking, and looking at Ebby, seeing Ebby, Bill was able to come to believe. Remember though, he began drinking on Armistice Day. Remember the sequence of events. He got out of the hospital that summer of '34, started drinking on Armistice Day, early November.
Now it's the... end of November, when Ebby comes to see him. It's the end of the month, and he's been drinking probably three weeks. He was in pretty bad shape. He tries to-although he has taken the Second Step--he tries to start working the program of action. He tries to start going to some meetings with Ebby, to start working the program. But he's in the grips of active alcoholism. Remember, he's chronic at this
point. He can't really stop drinking. He goes to some meetings with Ebby.
Once there was a story about how he was on the way to one meeting with Ebby. He had to go through Twenty-third Street where there were a lot of bars on the way to the meeting. He got bar hopping. He met this third drunk in the bar, this Finish sail maker. He was setting on the bar telling him about what a great thing he had found. Drunk. You know what I mean? (laughter) This guy said, oh, that sounds good. I believe I'll go with you. They both went down there, and Ebby had some problems.
Ebby had to take them and talk to them. He said, Bill went out--after Ebby gave them some sandwiches and coffee in the kitchen--Bill went back out into the meeting. He said, he made the damnedest talk you ever heard. You know, he just took over. For some reason or another, he said, that night on the way home Bill didn't stop at the bar. He went on home, and he went to bed. This was about three days... before he got down so bad that he had to go back to the Towns Hospital to be gotten off the alcohol for the last time. (p. 13, par. 2) 'At the hospital I was separated from alcohol for the last time. Treatment seemed wise, for I showed signs of delirium tremens.'
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