Page 201 - The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

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186 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
around and said to Doc—I don’t think he knew I heard
him, but I did—he said, “Well, I believe he’s worth
saving and working on.” They said to me, “Do you
want to quit drinking? It’s none of our business about
your drinking. We’re not up here trying to take any
of your rights or privileges away from you, but we
have a program whereby we think we can stay sober.
Part of that program is that we take it to someone else
who needs it and wants it. Now, if you don’t want it,
we’ll not take up your time, and we’ll be going and
looking for someone else.”
The next thing they wanted to know was if I
thought I could quit of my own accord, without any
help, if I could just walk out of the hospital and never
take another drink. If I could, that was wonderful,
that was just fine, and they would very much appre­
ciate a person who had that kind of power, but they
were looking for a man who knew he had a problem
and knew he couldn’t handle it himself and needed
outside help. The next thing they wanted to know
was if I believed in a Higher Power. I had no trouble
there because I had never actually ceased to believe
in God and had tried lots of times to get help but
hadn’t succeeded. Next they wanted to know would
I be willing to go to this Higher Power and ask for
help, calmly and without any reservations.
They left this with me to think over, and I lay there
on that hospital bed and went back over and reviewed
my life. I thought of what liquor had done to me, the
opportunities that I had discarded, the abilities that
had been given me and how I had wasted them, and
I finally came to the conclusion that if I didn’t want