When to do a set of steps and how often ?

It's becoming evident to me that what my group does isn't too popular amongst other A.A. groups.

I'm not all big on slobbering over a guy who once took me through the work and following him around the ends of the earth like an unfed puppy dog.

Some of you, on the other hand, think me or my group is whacko because we do steps yearly.

I'm having a good discussion with Danny about this now. I'm working to respect and understand his side and he's doing likewise with mine. I suppose there's a right and a wrong motive for doing steps... but not to seeking God. If we're doing these steps to fix a relationship or get a better job or to get the IRS off our back, woe is us, right? The 11th Step says, "We ask especially for freedom from self-will, and are careful to make no request for ourselves only. We may ask for ourselves, however, if others will be helped." Is getting our resentments, fears, harms done to others cleared up and cast away a selfish end? To ourselves? To our group? To the newcomer prospect or suffering bleeding deacon in our group? I don't think so.

I think I understand people who don't feel the need to do an inventory just because a group or a person or a calender tells you to.

But I decided into a group who does it, sort of like clockwork... or as the seasons change. Our group decided up front that this is what we will do. There have been some who have decided out... of the group or out of the process...until it's time for them. No biggie.

We find the time of September to the end of November a good time... a good season... to kickstart the middle-work and get it over and done with. It also makes for good topics. One of the good things about giving a 5th step is the opportunity to hear a 5th step too.

People are busy during Summer. After summer is over, people are ready to settle in and get their feet wet. We do a set of steps and are done with amends by the time Thxgiving and Christmas and New Year comes along. Then we do an awesome spiritual retreat after the Super Bowl.

When working with newcomers or folks who need steps, we get them in the steps and free of sponsorship immediately.

You know the funny thing about the people who do A.A. tapes? The people who do A.A. tapes. It takes an incredible ego to do that stuff. If anybody tells you otherwise, they're a liar.



We believe that the alcoholic ego grows right up alongside the recovered alcoholic. So if anything, the steps become more vital. The path narrows. This is what I've been told and it reconciles with my experience.

Dr Harry Tiebout was ambivalent to the "disease model" for alcoholism. I personally think it's bullshit. I believe alcoholism to be a spiritual malady for me... the real alcoholic.

I don't care if you believe in doing the 12 steps yearly or not. What I'd like to learn more about is why you do and what you get from it and why you do NOT and what you get from that. To me, doing steps yearly is quite natural. It's simply what we do. But when it's time to do the work again, I go out on my own... and decide for myself, if this is what I will continue to do... or not. We question the whole deal. I question the whole deal; Maybe I'm an alcoholic. Maybe I'm not. Maybe I need God. Maybe I do not. When once I decide from there, I'm either in or out. Are you in or are you out?

Based on work with 250 alcoholics during his first 10 years at Blythewood, Tiebout developed the following conception of the alcoholic mind:

"In the normal individual there is a tendency to create some privacy for his inner life, for his motivations, reflections and emotions, so that they are not completely accessible to the environment. Normally this attempt interferes only slightly with the freedom of movement of outgoing and incoming stimuli and impulses. The boundary which the normal individual sets up between himself and the environment may be called a floating or diffuse boundary. In incipient alcoholism, however, it appears that the boundary is drawn somewhat tighter than is usual, and that with each stage of further development of the alcoholism more and more gaps are closed until the alcoholic seems to have erected what may be called a barrier which permits only a minimum of interplay between the inner self and the environment."

Penn & Teller on A.A.

I've been hooked on this show Penn & Teller : Bullshit.

We got 3 months of free Showtime and when I got the chance, I checked in to see if there was a new Nurse Jackie or Penn and Teller. I've not seen this Penn and Teller before and liked the show so well, I found myself renting back issues from Seasons 2 and 3. Season 1 was unavailable, so I haven't seen it yet.

Let's go to the 2nd Season disk 3. Guess what the topic was? That's right; 12 Step Programs.

So Penn and Teller took the advocates of 12 Step Programs- Bullshit! Well of course they would. Penn had Gary Busey represent the Pro-A.A. stance. Then this black guy (Skip Davis) represented the 12 Step Program from San Francisco, so gray-haired lady was the secular representative... this Shirley MacClaine looking lady..., the guy who founded "Back to Basics" (or so he claims... this Wally Patton fellow) was on the show, we heard representation from RR and SOS.

Penn and Teller went to New York to the supposed A.A. building and it was called Interchurch Center. Inside there is much mention of the word "GOD" so... A.A. MUST be a religion... according to Penn & Teller and some dude named Steve Mack... legal researcher. He was "forced" into 12 Step treatment when his employer gave him the ....

...

are you ready for this?


...

hang on...


...


it's coming up...


... given the CHOICE...

to try A.A. or have his fat faced ass fired!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ooooh, forced into A.A. huh? WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wambulance for Steve Mack!

Any way... pan back to this black dude from San Francisco... Pro 12 Step btw... but what's the first claim he makes?

Alcoholism is a disease... Disease disease disease.

Then guess where P&T go with this? That's right! If it's a disease then you're a victim! No repsonsibility!

Sound familiar folks? That's right! Orange, Mike at Blame Denial, Stinkin' Thinkin', etc. I was born this way or I caught it on a toilet seat!

Dr Jeffry A. Shaler? Addiction is a choice. Fine. Alcoholism is NOT an addiction according to A.A.'s cofounders. No. That term came when Big Insurance took on alcoholism for co-pay in about 1991. Then all of a sudden, alcoholism is an addiction.

No, it's not. Alcoholics are NOT addicts. Addicts are addicts. I am an alcoholic, but I ain't an addict. I don't give a fuck what Dr. A says.

DD Strouse substance abuse professional... from San Francisco... That Shirley MacClaine looking lass... she was your A.A. basher.

Then we get a Harvard Psychologist, Lance Stotis? He says alcoholism is purely psychological... there's no gene linked to alcoholism. US Supreme Court said alcoholism is NOT a disease.

Gary Busey says addiction is a disease.

Penn and Teller point out that the A.A. movement started 2 years after Prohibition, where one boozer helps another boozer to go to God... and get sober. Penn says, "Evidently, God was too busy to give it to mankind before then."

Gee, where have I heard that lately? You guys like Penn and Teller too.

Hey. If you don't like A.A., fine. Don't go. Do something else.

Penn claims that leaning on another boozer when the urge strikes seems like a good idea but... "It turned into a cult".

Penn & Teller's one step program; Just stop fucking drinking.

I didn't like the representation for A.A. here. It became a spiritual vs personal choice battle.

Penn says A.A. wants it both ways... a god or a rock or a tree... can be your higher power. So... A.A. doesn't serve Godly people nor does it serve atheists.

There again, not the representation of A.A. that I found in that A.A. book. But what about the meetings? What about them? Have you been to my meeting lately? Come to Southern Colorado and if you're a real alcoholic, you're welcome to check out our meeting... and find out for yourself what you think.

I'm not going to your S.O.S. meeting or your RR meeting or your LR meeting or whatever. I don't need it. You may. But I've decided into my path and I'm glad I did.

If you did check out my meeting, I doubt you could leave there and say that we do not take responsibility or treat alcoholism as a disease or follow a religious dogma of any sort. We don't even worship the book. We don't talk about what the book or the steps say. We talk about our personal recent experience on those principles.

The recently deceased Paul Martin... of Chicago...God rest his soul... would be proud of our little group. He knew what A.A. was about.

He said this, "The alcoholic ego is like a baby... it has tremendous appetite on one end and no responsibility on the other"

Paul Martin of Chicago came to an A.A. convention in Pueblo Colorado several years ago... he laid down the word... that "A.A. is sufficient. If we real alcoholics work the A.A. program by doing and redoing those steps, the obsession of alcohol will be dispelled from our minds, we will become useful and whole and we will be getting what we need which we find is what we truly wanted all along."