Subj : RE: ALCOHOLISM, POLITICS AND AUSTRAL
To   : Howie Coombe
From : Phil Runyan
Date : Wed Oct 17 2001 12:32 am

Hi Howie,
 HC> Dear Phil, in regards to this message to me,.

 >HC> Alcohol, Politics and Australia, any thoughts?
 > Yes. ;-)


 HC> Are you prepared to tell me what they are?
 HC> either here or in a private message?

Actually, my thought at that moment was something along the lines of 'I wonder 
how long it will take for this message to go the round trip'. I know a guy in 
NZ and it can take weeks for snail mail to go one way. I also know a guy who is 
supposed to be in Australia but as I understand it's a fairly large place so I 
won't even ask if you know Marty.... but if you do tell him Pinky and Heavenly 
from Arizona say "hello". (Marty is also a New Zealander but last I heard he 
was someplace in Aus. working... hopefully the steps as well).

Politics? hmmmm.... I'm not sure I want to touch that here. I've found the 
steps to be of great benefit while trying to deal with everything. I'm 
someplace in between the "bomb them with butter" idea and the "nuke 'em 'til 
they glow then shoot 'em in the dark" camp.

Alcohol and associated isms: Yep. I've got those ;-) I've only been in the 
program since 1986 and just the last 14 years have been continuous sobriety... 
or at least drug/alcohol free. I frequently get into the debate about sobriety 
being as much a state of mind as it is an abstinance from a substance. AAMOF I 
read a really good article just this morning that was related to that (sorta, 
kinda, maybe). The synopsis is that there are 3 kinds of AA. Strong, medium, 
and weak. Strong being the type that works all of the steps, practices the 
principles in all of their affairs, has a deep and profound spiritual 
experience, and tries to carry the message. Medium AAs do some of the steps, 
practice some of the principles, may have had a spiritual awakening, and 
sometimes carry the message. The weak ones generally just go to a lot of 
meetings and get recovery through osmosis. The author contends that members 
then become either strong AAs who have a profound change of life or weak AAs 
who have a difficult time maintaining long term sobriety. That's very 
simplified and I'll post the article if you or anyone else would like. 

I'm also grateful that this echo has been maintained on the backbone for all 
this time with so little traffic. When I first got the BBS running (sometime 
last century) there was quite a lot of traffic, but that was before everyone 
could, or even wanted, internet access. I liked the old days because of the 
sense of community the local bbs gave and that it really seemed like we were 
doing something 'special'. Reaching across the country and around the world 
extending our local community into a greater community of people with common 
interests. It seemed that there were fewer "posers" in the old bbs days and it 
wasn't like every 12 year old with a phone line was participating. Yes, I'm 
going all misty eyed for the good old days :-)

Things my sponsor told me:
.... that a person can carry the message in 2 minutes. Everything past that is 
ego.

.... that once a person comes into AA they never have to drink again.
If they do it's because they want to.

.... if you work the steps as suggested you won't ever have to drink again.
If you do it's because you quit working the steps.

l8r,
p.

--- Maximus/NT 3.01b1
 * Origin: CyberSupport Hq/Co.A (pvt) (1:114/428)

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