Episode Details

Seventeen years sober, Charlie thought he had already experienced what AA could offer. Then deeper Big Book work showed him he had spent all those years in the cheap seats without knowing there was a skybox.

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Charlie, sober since March 22, 1985, shares a funny and direct Alcoholics Anonymous talk about the difference between staying away from alcohol and treating alcoholism. He remembers discovering drinking at sixteen, regular blackouts, crashing his mother's car into a parked police vehicle, pawning his family's belongings, entering treatment, and making promises to his father that he sincerely meant but had no power to keep. AA gave him physical sobriety, but over the following years he repeatedly hit a wall and settled into a meeting-based program while dishonesty, self-will, isolation, and the bedevilments continued operating underneath his life. Surviving a plane crash briefly sharpened his gratitude, but the deeper change began when a sponsor took him back through the Big Book and showed him the material he had missed between willingness and inventory: selfishness and self-centeredness were the root problem, and alcohol had been his solution. Charlie describes revisiting inventory, completing long-delayed amends, practicing Steps Ten and Eleven daily, sponsoring other men, and helping build Austin's Primary Purpose Group around line-by-line Big Book study. His message is directed to the person with years in AA who is no longer feeling the fire: the full program is still available, the best years can still lie ahead, and nobody has to relapse before beginning again.

Charlie P. from Austin, TX speaking at Summer Serenity at the Beach in Destin, FL - August 26th 2010

Music: Deep by KaizanBlu