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I’ve read probably 25 different recovery books. Some are official literature as part of 12-step programs. Others, like Drop the Rock, are unofficial pieces of sobriety literature—written by alcoholics and addicts, about 12-step recovery but not considered official books of any recovery program.
I’ve recently been attending a meeting where we read from a book that I have read from many times before, but it dawned on me that it might be my new favorite book. And that book is… As Bill Sees It.
If you haven’t read it before, it’s selected readings pulled from all sorts of recovery books, ranging from the Big Book to the 12-and-12, and even from the Grapevine, which is a monthly print publication like a magazine.
I fell in love all over again with the book the past few weeks. I like how you can pick out an important word, like humility or shame or resentment, and find many passages from sober literature that deal with that topic. That makes it a good day-to-day guide as you try to wrestle with this thing we call life. Or, you could flip through to a random page and probably find something that helps you out.
But the biggest reason I am so into that book lately is that I find the readings to be pulled from many of the best passages of sober literature. If this were a music album, it would be the greatest hits collection, which means every single reading is an absolute banger, as the kids say.
It reminds me of football highlight videos that coaches and players put together. You never see a quarterback’s highlight reel that has interceptions or fumbles or yelling at a coach on it. It’s all touchdowns, avoiding getting hit, impressive passes and celebrations.
That’s kind of what I have been enjoying about As Bill Sees It. There are definitely chunks of sober literature that I tune out from during meetings. One prime example is “To Wives” in the Big Book. I am not a fan. In my opinion, it’s a pretty dusty old reading, written mostly by men 80 years ago, where alcoholism is discussed in a very 1940s way, with men being alcoholics and wives having to contend with them. I’ve heard people say they’re offended by that chapter. I wouldn’t say I am offended, but I just don’t find it helpful to my recovery and I also cringe a bit at meetings for all of the women sitting there trying to get sober and having to listen to it.
Luckily for As Bill Sees It, there are no passages from some of the weaker areas from recovery literature. It’s nothing but the hits, and who doesn’t like the hits?
This newsletter is a place of joy and laughter about the deadly serious business of sobriety. So, as I will often do, let me close with a joke:
HERE'S HOW A FEW PROFESSIONAL DRUNKS drank, before they got sober:
The computer whiz got pixil-ated.
The paratrooper took one drop too many.
The short-order cook got fried.
The aquarium owner got tanked.
The laundromat attendant was three sheets to the wind.
The gun dealer got loaded.
(Credit: AA Grapevine, January 2004, by Bob M. of Rochester, Minnesota)
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