>> Welcome to Sober Sunrise, a podcast bringing you AA speaker meetings with stories of experience, strength, and hope from around the world. We bring you several new speakers weekly, so be sure to subscribe. If you'd like to help us remain self-supporting, please visit our website at sober-sunrise.com.

Whether you join us in the morning or at night, there's nothing better than a sober sunrise. We hope that you enjoy today's speaker. >> >> I I did attend Dale Carnegie.

Yes. I did. I failed.

>> >> That will become obvious. And um There there there's um an old Greek philosophy that often uh in the interest of what we call politeness truth suffers. So, if you want to make the trade to be popular, that's your business, of course.

You know, my business is I'm going to share the truth as I see it. I would love to be able to tell you how it is. At one time, I was smart enough to do that.

I am no longer that smart. So. Is that so?

Well, I'm Tom Flynn, I'm an alcoholic. Hi, Tom. And uh my home group is the same as Gina's, the Harbor City Speakers Meeting in downtown Baltimore, right near a public market.

And we have uh wet drunks in our meeting. Ours is a full-service AA meeting. If you come to our meeting, it looks like a UN bus broke down in front of the meeting.

That's what it looks like. Bill and Ian and all has been there. I really want to thank Ian and Gina, you know, for the beautiful way and personal way and the courage with which these ladies presented themselves.

It takes courage. We know that. I salute you.

Thank you. Um The topic that has been selected for me is love and service. With your permission, I'm going to be critical of our service structure in Alcoholics Anonymous, but no alcoholic has a right to criticize AA, I think, or any of our positions or habits without offering a solution.

Okay. Without offering a solution. So, I'm going to touch on that very lightly.

Or you may see it as being heavy. Just depends on how much weight you give to it. I am an alcoholic.

I am sober through the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, good sponsorship, and a God I thought who wanted absolutely nothing to do with me. That is what I'm sober through. I've been surrounded by joyful, happy people since I have got here.

And I have stayed around those people since I have been with you. I do not hook up with a lot of vexatious people who have a lot of petty problems that consume most of their petty lives. There's enough of them to go around to satisfy their own desires.

They don't need me. You can see them in most meetings back by the door. I call them the fire marshals.

That is if the building was to burst suddenly into flames, they would guide the rest of us to safety. And I'm sure that's the reason they're there. I used to sit with them back there and criticize the speaker, too.

That's how I know what's going on back there, having been a member of the FIRE MARSHAL GROUP. SO, WHEN I GOT A SPONSOR, he said the sick ones sit up front. I immediately knew he was talking to me.

>> >> And I've been sitting up front ever since. And I've never been in a fire, either. >> >> I guess that's okay.

Now, in the history of mankind, it is not unusual for principles to operate in various societies, including Alcoholics Anonymous. We are not an organization, we are a fellowship or we're a society, but an organization we are not. Often in societies, the form will eventually take precedence over content.

That's what happens. All societies have to be cautious of the form taking precedence precedence over substance. Substance, yeah.

Substance, yeah. Got a T in there at the end, right? That's what this is about.

Now, let's make it real clear. AA has one primary purpose and one primary service. One alcoholic, you, talking to another alcoholic, me, for one purpose, to lower my your my sense of difference enough, see, to take some steps I don't believe in.

To take some steps I don't understand. How can you do these things if you don't believe in them and you don't understand them? You must be willing through desperation to follow a person who has already done them.

So, intellect is not needed in the recovery process. It is needed in the excuse process to say why you cannot get sober, of course. But it is not needed in the recovery process.

So, if you're in the midst like I was when I got here, they said I was in the midst of an intellectual seizure. Paralyzed by fear of making a mistake. And I talked to my sponsor.

He says, "How long you drink, Tom?" Uh 27 years. Wow, we. He says, "It's a little late to worry about a mistake." >> >> And he was right.

I've been living a mistake for 27 years and all of a sudden I'm going to be like the driven snow, you know. Yeah, right. So, that's the only service we have.

Now, there are groups and structures within AA which are designed to support that primary service. To support it, not to be a substitute for it. And that's where I draw the difference.

They all men service. You see them. They got a folders and papers.

And what the hell is this? What do you service to Washington or something? Crazy, you know.

Whole bunch of papers, you know. It's a paperwork. Paper Paper don't work.

What the hell is this? What language is this these people talk, you know? I don't know what the hell that crap is.

Our service is to carry the message to the alcoholic. So therefore, me, when I come, I have got to develop a message through the practice of the steps, to prayer and meditation, and then I'm not allowed to stand in the front of a mirror to see what a wonderful job I got. I got to go get a new guy right away.

I see guys with six-place cars coming to meetings. "Oh, Tom, I'm grateful." No, you ain't. You're relieved that the damn pain stopped.

You ain't grateful. "How do you know I'm not grateful?" Where's your G man? You What's your G man?

Gratitude man. Gratitude's an action word. If you're grateful, you got a new man with you.

I call him a G man. >> >> That's all. Just for short of it.

Let me see what you're doing. Where's your G woman? You grateful?

Who of us having this terrific good news? THERE IS LIFE WITHOUT BOOZE. AN ABUNDANT LIFE WITHOUT BOOZE.

WHO, HAVING HAD THAT experience and that message, would want TO KEEP IT A SECRET? WHY? YOU'RE BURSTING WITH THE JOY.

IT HAS to come out. That's what I'm talking about. That's what these gals are giving, there's enthusiasm.

Of course she's cold, but she's enthusiastic. I KNOW AMTRAK ANNIE. >> >> I WON'T TELL YOU WHY WE CALL AMTRAK, but maybe if you I'll tell you AFTER THE MEETING.

>> >> SEE? THEY AREN'T PERFECT. I KNOW THEM.

>> >> If you girls want to take driving lessons on how to drive railroad tracks, you see Annie. Tell her. She will show you how to do it safely.

That's her message. See? Now, is there anything to substantiate those opinions?

I've given you opinions. That's all. Only my opinion.

But my opinion is somewhat experience. I've been with you guys since 1980. And I sponsored a couple guys, you know.

So I have some experience with those things. What's the point, Tom? The point is that a lot of you experienced people when people say, "Well, I'm in a service position." It doesn't affect you.

But how about the new person coming through the door? They believe your only type of service we have is some committee meeting or a district meeting. Now, I don't know I I guess Virginia has better ones in Maryland.

I assume they do. I pray you do. Uh I've been to some of the meetings in Maryland where they have an hour discussion whether or not the next flyer should be on a letter size stationary or legal size stationary.

Now, I think that's overdoing it a tad. See? I don't call that service.

I call that big shot ism. Going to be my way or no way. Time-consuming.

It's wrong. It's not AA. I don't know what it is.

Let some sociologist figure it out. But it ain't AA, that's what I know. It ain't one alcoholic talking to another alcoholic for the sole purpose of recovery.

We're going to We're going to send out a perfect >> >> a perfect flyer to a bunch of imperfect people. Wow. THAT MAKES A LOT OF SENSE, DOESN'T IT?

>> >> WHAT THE HELL IS THIS? Get off the boat. It's crazy.

Here's another thing. I want to talk briefly on sponsorship. Which in my opinion is the greatest form of service AA produces.

Weak sponsorship is terrible. Oh, I don't want to tell him that. I'm going to hurt his feelings.

PEOPLE HAVE BEEN LYING TO HIM ALL HIS LIFE, AND HE'S BEEN LYING back to him. That's the reason HE'S IN THE NUT house for your vicinity. And if you don't TELL HIM THE TRUTH, YOU MIGHT AS WELL TAKE THE NEXT BED.

WHY WOULD YOU LEAVE? YOU'RE AS GOOFY AS HIM. You're not helping him.

My sponsor told me the truth. He says, "I'd rather STAND ON YOUR TOES THAN STEP ON YOUR GRAVE." I understood what that meant. You are the weaknesses in sponsorship.

We don't move our people into the steps quickly enough. When a man or woman comes to me and the blowtorch is on their butt, that is the one to anything. They get into steps now.

Why? Because it's easier to move wet concrete. Don't let it set up.

Now you NEED A JACKHAMMER. WEAK SPONSORSHIP. WEAK.

In the interest of popularity. That's not a spiritual concept. You know?

Not spiritual. Moses wasn't popular. They try to He was up there on the top doing a job on the top deck and the guys down there WERE MAKING JEWELRY.

>> >> YOU KNOW? YOU KNOW, WE ALL KNOW WHAT HAPPENED to Christ. What happened to to Muhammad?

They run him out of Mecca. He had to escape out of Medina. So don't worry about popularity.

You know? It's not important. It means a lot of people agree with you.

That's all. That's what popularity means then. How about the years ago when everybody believed that the earth was flat?

They all agreed, right? They were all wrong. Just because a lot of people believe something, it doesn't have any idea anything to do with the quality of the idea.

It has to do with the masses of acceptance. Nothing to do with the quality of the idea, with the truth in it. What do we suggest?

That's what I started off. Stronger sponsorship. Did you ever in Maryland, my God, they're going to have a workshop.

I love that word. Workshop. You have people come there Jesus, with thick glasses, clipboards.

Jesus Christ. >> >> GET OUT OF THE SCHOOL, WILL YOU? YOU WERE FAILING WHEN YOU WERE THERE, TOO.

THIS IS NOT something to study. You know, your navel is something to study. If you want to sit in the park look down AT YOURSELF, YOU KNOW, LOOK AT YOUR NAVEL.

I CALL THAT the run co group. The royal order OF NAVEL CONTEMPLATORS. THEY SIT BACK AND then Yeah.

Run co group. Yeah. There's things to do.

Our big book repeats it over and over. The value of action. It doesn't say, "Here are the steps we studied." It doesn't say, "Here are the steps we understood." "Here are the steps we agreed with." "Here are the steps we took." Informed, uninformed, in agreement or disagreement, UNDERSTANDING OR NOT UNDERSTANDING, we did them.

That's what it says. "Here are the steps we took." That's service when you provide that to your new person. What the response I talked to please read.

I know all this crap cuz I made all the errors. Oh, Wally, shouldn't I wait for the fog to lift? Come on, I didn't want to do the steps.

He says, "You got to do the steps just to lift the fog." Yeah, he didn't buy into that. And I did the steps. I later I did them unfogged.

I mean, you can do them more than once. It's okay. It's okay.

It's like brushing your teeth. Sure, brush your teeth good, but do it again tomorrow. >> >> IT'S OKAY.

IT'S THAT SIMPLE. THIS IS what we do. Strong sponsorship, God inspired sponsorship.

God inspired. Sam Shoemaker gives us directions for sponsorship. I love Sam Shoemaker.

I knew his wife, Helen. She was a classy gal. Sam was a classy guy, but he never outshone Helen when it comes to class.

I knew Helen. I knew her secretary, too. Helen's father was um senator from New Jersey, Smith.

What was his name? Alexander Smith. She was a thoroughbred.

Helen Shoemaker. Classy gal. What did he say?

Sam, the husband. When you see the man with the problem, put his hand in him in the hand of him who has all the answers. Go home.

Do not stick around and play God. That's how we sponsor. You gradually let your person become God reliant and remind your pigeon that you have feet of clay, as my sponsor has done with a 100 times to me.

And as I've told men I sponsor, and there's one, two, >> >> three. It's about four or five, I don't know. Here.

Oh, there's one sitting here. Yes, one. Hi, Al.

>> >> They generally sit in a group case you got to throw something at me. Go home. Don't play God.

Is how we approaching service today working? No. Will it change unless we examine it?

No, it's just like us. >> >> What do we have to examine? Why is it when we have these so-called workshops on traditions in Maryland, hardly anybody shows up?

Why is that? Did you ever ask yourself why? Did you ever say, "Well, they're not interested in traditions?" Bull.

What do you think the problem is, old bastard? I'll tell you what I think it is. We take these tremendous traditions and we present them in THE DULLEST POSSIBLE FASHION POSSIBLE.

DULL. DULL. DULL.

WHO WANTS TO SIT THROUGH 3 HOURS OF DULLITY? BUT SOME UP HERE, ONCE YOU GET FINISHED, YOU GO CLEAN TRASH. GET HIM THE HELL OUT OF HERE, TOO.

That's us. We do this. When I say we, that includes me.

Representing life-saving life-enriching principles by dull people. Who thinks this is something to study? They're the kind of people to take a beautiful rose, to take a scalpel, and cut it all apart, and explain it to you.

But it looks like a pile of garbage when they're done with it. >> >> Mhm. It's your fault, my fault.

Let's put it where it belongs. Let's don't do this workshop business. A workshop.

I want to work. I was working on myself. I was WORKING ON MY MARRIAGE, AND I GOT DIVORCED.

I was working on my job and I got fired. I was working on my retirement plan and I went broke. I was WORKING ON MY INTELLIGENT understanding and wound up in a big hospital with no knob on my side of the door.

And it wasn't no architectural oversight either. >> >> So, forget about working on it. >> >> God solves the problem.

If God solves the problem, there's nothing for me to work on. He won't solve it unless I give it to him. Why didn't you solve this years ago?

You wouldn't let go, Tom. You were busy. You had the busies.

>> >> You wouldn't let go. You didn't trust me. You asked for me to remove it, but you had fixed it yourself.

Now that I've endeared myself to all you who have been participating in service, but I've offered some solutions, which gives me the license then to express my opinion if I offer an alter alternative. Let's have things like this where traditions are put forth by interesting people. Hey, there's a good idea.

Right? You got some experience with these traditions. You got some experience with these traditions.

Are you happy about it? Yeah, I really like the traditions. The unity means everything to me.

Man, before I got here, you know, I was all crapped up. AA was in good shape. I was in terrible shape.

Unity is important for me. Hey. I'm in terrible shape.

AA is in good shape. They don't need me. I needed you.

That's your first tradition. Unity. It's interesting.

It's not boring. BY PEOPLE WHO experience it. What do we present?

We present the traditions like some solemn GUY DOING A TRAVELOGUE FOR CHRIST'S SAKE. WHY DON'T YOU GET A NATIVE >> >> that's lived there with them. A travelogue.

We have to improve ourselves from within and we do this by openly criticizing ourselves of which I am one of ourselves, right? You agree to that? I'm one of ourselves.

Yeah. This is what we have to do. We start with our basic service.

See? Where are we flawed in passing this message on? WHY DO SO MANY PEOPLE COME here and leave?

There's no problem at the front door of Alcoholics Anonymous. There's a PROBLEM AT THE BACK DOOR. WE DON'T HOOK THEM WHEN THEY'RE HERE.

How do you hook them? By attraction. Walk into a AA meeting.

I was about 4 days out of the nut house. Some guy celebrating 5 years sobriety. He wasn't brand new.

Yeah, he says I'm 5 years sober. LIFE SUCKS. I'm hanging in there.

MY WIFE IS A MY BOSS IS A JERK AND I'M really good driving everything you AND IF YOU WANT WHAT I HAVE, I'M 3 DAYS OUT OF THE NUT HOUSE AND I DON'T WANT THAT BUM ASS. THERE AIN'T NO HOPE. DID I COME HERE 5 YEARS TO LEARN HOW TO BE a professional bitcher?

Get off it. That's the problem. No hope.

We started meeting 6 years ago in South Baltimore near a live market where wet drugs in there and all that bull. We got no parking lot. None.

Got no air conditioning. None. STREET LIGHTING IS POOR.

DIRECTIONS ARE TERRIBLE. RIGHT? I think last Thursday night we had 153 people in there.

A lot of THEM WERE FROM PENNSYLVANIA AND A lot from uh Virginia. Some from Delaware AND A COUPLE FROM NEW JERSEY. WHY IS THAT?

ATTRACTION? It certainly isn't our exclusive parking lot, which is none. This is my experience.

We have a FANTASTIC MESSAGE. I'M NOT ONLY SAVING THE MAN AND WOMAN'S LIFE, BUT INCREASING THE QUALITY OF LIVING. WOW.

AND THEN WE HAVE THE THE WONDERFUL GIFT TO PASS THIS ON TO GOD'S OTHER KIDS. MY GOD, THE CHURCHES WOULD GIVE HALF OF THEIR STUFF THEY GOT TAX EXEMPT TO JUST GET RID OF THAT BILL TO DO THIS. What do YOU THINK THE GREAT UNIVERSITIES WOULD give and the great hospitals?

I mean, you you know, and the good there's lot of good medical people. WHAT WOULD THEY GIVE TO HAVE WHAT WAS GIVEN TO US? They would give up their diploma.

Sure they would. And their 401Ks. Sure they would.

What are we doing with it? Are you a faithful trustee for the gift? Am I a faithful trustee for the gift?

Or do you have the busies? Oh, you don't know how busy I am, TOM. I SAW YOU WHEN YOU CAME OUT OF THE NUT HOUSE.

YOU DIDN'T SEEM TOO BUSY TO ME. DON'T LET THE THINGS AA give you get in the way of your AA recovery. Well, you're a son of a ain't you, Tom?

Yeah, but I've never stabbed you open in the chest. >> >> Tom, I don't think that you're qualified to talk about love. Let me tell you one of the greatest expressions of love, it's like gratitude, you got to G, man.

And love is similar to that, but greater. One of the greatest expressions of love, a wise man said this, greater love than this no man or woman has than they lay down their life for their friend. Now, most of the shallow type things that are taught, we believe it's taking a bullet for a friend.

That's a lot of crap. That's what's taught. It's garbage.

The truth of the matter is this, if you're busy, and a woman calls you for help, and what you're doing is very important to you and your family, you see, you may have to lay down your life and go help her. And you may have to do that more than once. A bullet you take once.

But love requires laying down your life time and time again. To help someone that you're able to help. That is the expression of love.

It's a continuous ongoing thing. That's how I see The big book touches on it in the chapter seven, the first two sentences chapter seven. How many people Why do we have poor sponsorship?

You sit in a meeting. How many OF US HAVE HEARD THIS KIND OF GARBAGE? YEAH, my life is going down the toilet, and but I've been going to 19 meetings a day, and I'm doing all, you know, and nothing's changing, you know.

And I'm doing a little voodoo on the side, you know. Or damn, doing some nice show on candles. Practical experience has shown that nothing will so much ensure immunity from drinking as intensive work with others.

Intensive, not when I have time. And just cuz I missed the point, they hit me again. I love AA because they make it clear.

I love clarity. They make it clear. This works when other 19 meetings a day ACTIVITIES FAIL.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT. Working Now, we're back to service again, ain't we? Working with others.

>> >> Intense. Laying down your life. That is what love's about.

Love's not a warm cuddly feeling. That's affection. I love Well, uh I'll just let that slide.

It's a beautiful crowd. But, I think there may be hardening the arteries in the wrong place. That's what I worry about.

This isn't a sports program. What is love? Love is a conscious extension of oneself.

Ah. You mean getting out of yourself? That's exactly what I mean.

Conscious. You don't mean I was swept off my feet. Love is a conscious extension of oneself.

For the purpose Oh, it's got a purpose, too. You mean it's got nothing to do with moon June and spoon? No, that's Hallmark.

Conscious extension of oneself for the purpose of enriching one's own or another's spiritual growth. I love that for love. Did you ever go when you're a kid and talk to parents and say what's the difference between love between me and my brothers and me and some woman?

Well, that's two different kinds of love. How about a parent? That's another kind of love.

How about between me and God? Well, that's another kind of love. LOVE'S ALL FRACTURED ALL OVER the damn place, right?

Love is a conscious extension of oneself for the purpose of enriching one's own or another's spiritual growth. It describes the love between me and my brothers and sisters and me and between me and a woman and me and God. I love it because it encompasses all those activities which represent love in its various forms.

Now, the Greeks have five different words for love. They've got it fine-tuned down, you know. Some languages have three or four words for love.

We just have one. That's okay. Long as we expand on it.

See? Um there's something that I love the best I've ever read. Allow me, please, to read it to you.

It talks about accomplishments and all those things, see? And it's the wisdom of the ages. It's older than the age.

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.

It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice in wrongdoings, but rejoices in the truth.

It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end.

As for tongues, they will cease. As for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part.

But when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. But when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part, then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide.

These three, and the greatest of all these is love. That's where love is. It's exactly that.

I cannot do these things and avoid service. The service I have described. One alcoholic working with another alcoholic to give the life-saving, life-enriching, soul-enriching experience.

That is what love and service is about. It is not the only thing that what love and service is about, but in my experience, it is the first thing or the primal thing. There are many other ways to support this to happen.

You know, many ways. But this is the thing that must happen in order for love to occur. A perfect willingness to give everything away.

Everything. In total trust that he who loves you ultimately will take care of whatever you have to have. Not what I have to want, but what I have to have.

That's all. It's very simple. And that's what we are all about here in Alcoholics Anonymous love.

Tolerance for others. A lot of people do a lot of things that Well, there's a lot of unreasonable people in AA. They won't do things my way.

Hey. Yeah. God has many faces.

Like you look at you. I look at you saying it's the great reality within you. Look at all the faces I'm looking at and I see the faces of God.

God has many faces. How obvious do you want it? I'm looking at Look around at you.

You can see that God has many faces, many ages, many genders. I had the privilege one time to talk to Mother Teresa. I uh There's a house in Baltimore.

I never told you guys that. I uh They got some people who are terminally ill with this HIV business. And a real old girl, Virginia, she's a trained nurse, real smart.

She would go over and help those people. But she needed some guy dumb that could carry boxes, you know. She recognized my talent.

>> >> And I would go over and and do that kind of stuff there, see? So when Mother Teresa several years came to Baltimore, she had some her nuns were there, too. And she came here for that reason to renew their vows.

That's the reason she was here. So Virginia said to Tom, "I want you to meet Teresa." She knew her. So she took me up this house on on um Carlton Avenue, Baltimore.

And well, I'd been there many times. And uh I asked her, "Teresa, what's the toughest thing you ever had to do?" She thought, she turned around. Well, she said, "The toughest thing is to recognize God in his most disgusting disguises." Ooh.

Did that back me off like somebody could have hit me in the chest and backed me back 3 ft. And I says, "Flynn, you better watch out for your arrogance. You better start recognizing God in many various forms.

That's love. Those nuns working with the sickest of the sick and the poorest of the poor and the hopeless of the hopeless, and they're there. You know, and they treat them like they're princes.

That's love. Can you do less? Are you less talented?

Or are you too busy? What's got you so damn busy? Money, property, and prestige?

You've had that before. Did it fill the hole? Of course not.

Why, you think it's going to change? Don't think so. The willingness to let go without knowing the outcome is love.

I got to know how it's going to turn out. No, you don't. You only got to know him who knows how it's going to turn out.

You don't have to memorize a library. Just get a damn library card. You can do that, can't you?

That's love. Looking at the man in the meeting, standing by himself, before you leave. I know you got some friends you want to with after meeting.

So do I. I'm as guilty as you. I ain't pointing no fingers at you.

I'm pointing fingers at us. I'm part of you. I'm part of the we in this room.

How about looking for the guy that looks like he's lost, or the woman who's ashamed, a woman alcoholic, the special shame they feel. Yeah, gray-haired guys know about that. Face doesn't talk about it, but this one does.

Who will wear it, let her know she's not alone. Let her know that other women have done what she had done, and that has never been a barrier between them and God. Here's some good news.

That's love. So, love has many faces, doesn't it? And so do you.

So do you. You are the outward expression of God. When I was drinking, God talked to me directly.

Oh, yes. Yes. He used to say some funny things.

But as I got sober, he seemed to use you to talk to me. He doesn't talk to me directly anymore. So, if I want to hear God, I got to come hear you, don't I?

Or go get drunk again. Maybe he'll talk to me some more, huh? But I don't think I could take another one of them.

Another one of those delusions. So, I've touched as best I could. And I was as gentle as I could could be.

I told you I failed Dale Carnegie. But this is what I feel about service. I think those who are now in service should go to their committees.

And if you had certain feelings or similar to my feelings, speak up. Speak up. And ask them why are our meetings dull?

Why are they not attended by the people who are working with the newcomers? You go to these committee meetings and you You know the guys and the girls in your area who are in the trenches with the newcomers? You don't see a lot of them at those committee meetings.

You see some, but not a whole lot. They're too far out of the trenches. You don't have a big book here, do you?

Who's got a big book? Is that a fourth edition? Let me show you what happens when you're too far out of the trenches.

We need a big book. We got to make this today's language. Rare, rare, rare.

Let me tell you, 2,000 years ago it was dark at night, later in the morning, ice was cold, fire was hot, and water was wet. It was then and it is now. They're principles.

This book is written on principles. See? Alcoholism has not changed, human nature has not changed.

Only the words have changed. But not the intent of the heart. So, don't get too far out of the trench out of the trenches cuz you cannot hear the heart.

Put this old bastard where I tell you I'm going to read it. There you go. Lovely.

This was written by various committees and finally approved by those in quote service on a national level. Our literature has preserved the integrity of the AA message. Yes, that's true.

Sweeping changes in society as a whole are reflected in new customs and practices within the fellowship. It's true. Taking advantage of technological logical advances, for example, AA members with computers can participate in meetings online.

That's like dancing with your sister, AIN'T IT? >> >> WHAT THE WHAT ARE THESE MORONS DOING? SHARING WITH FELLOW alcoholics across the country or around the world.

Fundamentally though, the difference between electronic meeting and a home group around the corner is only one of format. Have you ever heard such stilted in your life? NOW THIS WAS WRITTEN BY SERVICE PEOPLE.

THEY DON'T HAVE A DAMN THING I WANT. >> >> They have been too long out of the trenches. The trench is one alcoholic work with a new alcoholic.

That's where the trench is. THEY'RE TOO LONG IN the headquarters tent. Back on the firing line.

That's where love is. And where there's love, there's service. Thank you.

>> >> Thank you for listening to Sober Sunrise. If you enjoyed today's episode, please give it a thumbs up as it will help share the message. Until next time, have a great day.

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