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Rule Number 62 and Other Bits of AA's History

Bill W. and Doctor Bob were highly articulate letter writers. They predated Twitter, of course, where writers go to become non-writers. But I predate Twitter, too, so I thoroughly enjoy their interesting and witty written discourses. 

Many of their letters addressed concerns sent to them by various groups in the very early days of AA, as members tried to figure out what worked - and what didn't. 

They knew that one alki talking to another alki, along with the surrender of self to a Higher Power, did work, and soon adopted suggestions for cleaning house, making amends, and working with others. Groups all used the Holy Bible for behavioural references. After all, there was no Big Book in those first days, weeks and months, and no written Steps or Traditions. 

  

AA's first alcoholics could only gratefully share their message of hope and example, but from that bare bones agenda new groups grew like wildfire.

Dr. Bob, with the help of nurse Sister Ignatia at St. Thomas Hospital is said to have personally treated more than 5,000 alcoholics there at no cost, visiting those patients every day in addition to his regular practice. Bill Wilson called Dr. Bob the “Prince of Twelfth Steppers.” 

Unlike Dr. Bob, who lived a productive, but quiet life, Bill was able to write with real authority those words read at every meeting: We are NOT saints.

Bill wrote (most) of the Big Book and 12 & 12 in powerful prose that changed, and continues to change, millions of lives for the better, but he continually struggled to become the man he wanted to be. 

Bill could make powerful speeches at conventions, even as his eyes looked for the prettiest women in the room. Close AA friends were sometimes even deployed to distract him from chatting those women up. Bill willed percentages of his royalties from ongoing Big Book sales after his death to his wife, but also to his mistress.

AA members tried to deify the founders almost from the beginning, but neither man would have any of it.

Bill W.'s long-lasting depression was said to be caused by his ongoing personal battle with human failings that troubled him deeply. He never set himself up as a role model, and in every way discouraged others from doing so. 

Around 1955 Bill began recording recollections of his life, tapes used posthumously to publish “My First Forty Years.” Following the main text you’ll find this:

There will be future historical revelations about Bill’s character and behaviour in recovery that will be interpreted, by some, as direct attacks on the very foundation of AA. Bill often wished he could be just another AA member with no trace of notoriety. But such revelations will, in the end, only reinforce Bill’s humanness and, most important, the extent to which Bill acted to the best of his ability to protect AA from himself.

In "The Three Legacies of Alcoholics Anonymous" we find:

Even as early as 1945, the solution of group problems by correspondence had put a large volume of work on Headquarters … . It seemed as if every contestant in every group argument wrote us during this confused and exciting period.The basic ideas for the Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous came directly out of this vast correspondence.

Bill was the catalyst for spreading AA's doctrine. He believed it the answer to saving alcoholics worldwide and worked tirelessly to get that message out. Both he and Dr. Bob initially had concerns about promoting "the God thing" too much, fearing it would keep alcoholics away. They were taken firmly to task for this by Henrietta Seiberling.

(Henrietta Seiberling was a member of the Oxford Group, the Christian fellowship that inspired the founders of AA and inspired many of our practices). Hers was a strong voice in the early establishing of AA's principles.)

"Well, we're not out to please the alcoholics," Henrietta told them. "They have been pleasing themselves all these years. We are out to please God. And if you don't talk about what God does, and your faith, and your guidance, then you might as well be the Rotary Club or something like that. Because God is your only source of power." 

The two men finally agreed and Henrietta then said: "It is my great hope that they will never be afraid to acknowledge God and what he has done for them.

(A worried Father Dowling, Jesuit Priest and early supporter of AA, also said:“This is one of the most beautiful things that has come into the world. But I want to warn you that the devil will try to destroy it.”)

Bill W. was born in the late 1800s and his writings reflect that earlier time. Much of the "sexist attitudes" women object to in AA literature (and I was one of them) is due to that. My best advice is to just get over it and use the information in there that keeps all of us sober, no matter what.

 

After all, many churches remain very sexist even today, denying women positions granted only to men. We seem to mainly accept that, sometimes forgetting that in AA our voices, and the service positions we hold, equal those of any member there.

Bill W.'s powerful spiritual experience left him with no doubts about the reality of a God (see  Bill's Story in the Big Book), but he was up against many atheist and agnostic early members. Bill saw they believed in each other and their groups, having been unable to stop drinking on their own. Together they had become more powerful and so could accept the group’s power being "Higher" than their own. 

That same alcoholic spirit of rebellion showed up in power struggles between members in many of the earliest groups. Many thought the anonymity of AA went too far. Others wanted to appear on radio (and later television) to promote AA. And here's where we get our beloved Rule 62, after one member wrote the following to AA Headquarters:

You told us that outside enterprises can be fine and very helpful. But you also said that they could not be mixed with A.A. I figured that they could be, and should be. Well, you folks at Headquarters were right and I was wrong.

With his letter, the promoter sent us a card, which he had already mailed to every group in the United States. It was folded like a golf scorecard, and on the outside was printed, Group so-and-so, place so-and-so. When it was unfolded it read: Rule No. 62: Don't take yourself too damned seriously.

In 1945 work began to codify group experiences into a set of principles which could offer tested solutions to problems of living and working together, and to the world outside of AA. 

A code of traditions could not, of course, ever become rule or law, but it was hoped they might act as a guide for all members, especially for A.A. groups still suffering growing pains.

In the book "Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age" we find this from Bill W, a reminder that tough as our times appear to be, they lived through tough times, too - and stayed sober:

As by some deep instinct, we have known from the very beginning that, no matter what the provocation, we must never publicly take sides, as A.A.'s, in any fight, even a worthy one. All history affords us the spectacle of striving nations and groups finally torn asunder because they were designed for, or tempted into, controversy. Others fell apart because of sheer self-righteousness while trying to force upon the rest of mankind some millennium of their own specification. 

In our own times we have seen millions die in political and economic wars often spurred by religious and racial differences. In many self-governing countries we are now seeing the inroads of ignorance, apathy, and power-seeking upon democratic systems. Their spiritual resources of right purpose and collective intelligence are waning. Consequently, many a land has become so helpless that the only answer is dictatorship. 

Happily for us, there seems little prospect of such a calamity in A.A. The life of each individual and of each group is built around our Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. We very well know that the penalty for extensive disobedience to these principles is death for the individual and dissolution for the group. An even greater force for A.A.'s unity is in the compelling love that we have for our fellow members and for the principles upon which our lives today are founded.

Our fellowship has summed up all the above far more briefly:

The Steps protect me from myself; 

The Traditions protect A.A. from me.

And also:

The steps protect me from suicide.

 The traditions keep me from homicide.

We are all familiar with the Steps of AA. 

It's also a very, very good idea to also learn - and live by - our Traditions.