====================
BURNING DESIRE
February 1959
Vol. 15 No. 9
From the Grass Roots
A Minority of One
LIVE AND LET LIVE--means that each and every one of us is entitled to his or
her
own opinion. I had a rather humbling experience not long ago and I am now
aware,
I think, of a responsibility when I form an opinion . . . and a still
greater
responsibility when I express it. It was humbling to realize in a moment of
self-analysis that all too often my so-called opinion had been not so much
an
opinion as an expressed burning desire to be the vociferous voice of the
minority, I further realized that all too often that minority consisted of
one--myself. Therefore my so-called opinion, in all too many cases, was the
expression of my own arrogant, dogmatic, opinionated self-confidence and the
desire to take exception to and belittle any thought or idea that did not
find
its inception, in my own intellectual genius.
Needless to say, the foregoing has given me much food for thought and I hope
marks another milestone along my AA road to eventual growth.
Phil W.
Jackson Heights, New York
=================
BURNING DESIRE
January 1961
Vol. 17 No. 8
It Comes to Us
[excerpt]
Those of us who were less disabled, were likely to parry, evade and brush
off,
even as I did. Then perhaps we kicked it around too, even as I did. But in
the
beginning and in the end, it was the fellowship that came to us when needed.
It
is a good thing to remember, once learned. After all these years of sobriety
I
am certainly grateful to the speaker who happened to say that "AA came to
him."
He learned that early in the game. He had only been sober nine months. This
little experience, of great moment to me, may not have such an impact on
others
but it served to show me for perhaps the first time that my whole approach
to
sobriety was negative. The fellowship came to me. Sobriety came to me. The
only
qualification for AA is the desire to stop drinking, a negative desire. I
did
not desire sobriety. I bumped into it through the love and understanding of
the
fellowship when it came to me as I was backing away from alcohol. And but
for
the guiding hand of AA, I would never have found sobriety, or serenity, or
God
as I understand Him. You cannot find things when you are backing up. It is
when
we slowly turn in the direction of the guiding hand which leads us, that our
negative desire to stop drinking becomes the burning desire of a full heart
and
determined mind and spirit, for a sober life of quality. It is as we turn,
that
gratitude leads us to God as we understand Him, for that is what our guiding
hand tells us.
Anon.
Cleveland, Ohio
=========================
BURNING DESIRE
February 1968
Vol. 24 No. 9
Durban Celebrates an AA Birthday
A traveler from America reports on nineteen years of AA in South Africa
[excerpt]
When I sat alongside the bed, he pulled me close. Carefully, in words spoken
from a shattered voice-box, he said, "Bob, I want to tell you something. For
three years after I came to AA all those years ago, I tried every way I knew
to
find the Higher Power, so I could express my gratitude for my sobriety. But
it
wouldn't come. All my efforts to visualize God failed, and night after night
I
was frustrated and tortured by this burning desire to reach the God I knew
was
there. Then one night, quietly and without effort, I said, 'Thanks, pal' to
Him,
and that was that. Yesterday I looked death in the face, and I'm not afraid,
because AA has taught me to accept what I cannot change. He'll take me in
his
time; then I'll find the Object of my gratitude."
Bob Mac.
Sarasota, Florida
==================
BURNING DESIRE
October 1979
Vol. 36 No. 5
Surrender
POWERLESS OVER ALCOHOL. . . LET GO AND LET GOD. . .
[excerpt]
As children, we get on a two wheeler for the first time and fall off. We are
encouraged to get back on and try again. As students, we are urged to study
harder, to do our best! On the athletic field, we are subjected to pep
talks,
urged to have "that burning desire to win" as my old high-school football
coach
used to repeat and repeat and repeat. (It had its effect; we went
undefeated.)
**********************************************
Original message #6472
Burning desire
Thu Apr 15, 2010
"Dolores" (dolli at dr-rinecker.de)
Where does the phrase "burning desire" come
from? Who used it first?
At the beginning of meetings, one often hears the
phrase used, "does anyone have a burning desire?"
What does this really mean? as I often find it
misused by some members to complain about
other members.
Thanks, Dolores
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++++Message 6844. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: the next right thing
From: hdmozart . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/2/2010 10:02:00 AM
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The next right thing - the earliest Grapevine
article containing the entire phrase was:
==================
August 1987
Vol. 44 No. 3
A Comrade In Odessa
[excerpt]
Suddenly, I remembered a neat idea I had heard at a meeting a few years
back:
there was a bulletin board in the hotel lobby for the posting of tour group
itineraries. I hadn't seen any personal messages on it, and didn't even know
if
I would be breaking some Soviet law by doing so, but this trick had worked
for
another AA member once, and it seemed like the next right thing to do.
S. C.
Evanston, Illinois
==================
But the phrase "right thing" is used in 204
Grapevine articles:
==================
November 1947
Vol. 4 No. 6
And a Mother Wins Back Her Son
[excerpt]
With that as a stepping stone, I am slowly building a structure in which I
can
live with myself. As the structure rises I find many of the bricks and
stones
are placed imperfectly and have to come out and be reset. I make mistakes,
but I
am soon aware of them and make an honest effort to rectify them. Many times
I am
not honest with myself. But when I am not, that which goes hand in hand with
honesty--conscience--asserts itself immediately. And to live with myself I
have
to do the right thing
J.Y.
Chicago, Illinois
==================
March 1948
Vol. 4 No. 10
Friendly Follow-ups By Mail Help Newcomer Get Started
(Following are excerpts from a letter from an A.A. to a new member with whom
he
had had several talks before she returned to her home in another
city--another
example of doing 12th Step work by mail.)
[excerpt]
The 50 per cent who want A.A. and make it stick right from the start prove
that
it isn't necessary to go through more hell. I think it proves also that this
bunch considers from the start that it is his or her job to make A.A.
work--NOT
A.A.'s job. A.A. has already proved that it offers everything needed to make
and
keep you sober--in 50,000 demonstrations including me and other A.A.s whose
stories you have heard, including doctors, psychiatrists, clergymen, men,
women,
youngsters, oldsters, college professors and individuals who can barely read
and
write (at some stage that last includes all drunks!). The only requirement
apparently is that you can feel pain--or worse, despair--and want to stop
feeling it.
Going back to the slippees: The 50 per cent who have slips after coming into
A.A. don't realize fast enough, it seems to me (based on my two and
one-half-year slip after reading the A.A. book but before I knew there were
groups), that we got drunk on deeds, wrong acts, and that we get and stay
sober
on deeds, the kind that jibe with A.A. principles. I think that they
think--and
I thought--that some kind of magic has taken place and now you are wrapped
in
cellophane and can't be damaged. Lady, it only seems so! (It does seem so. I
think that's because we go around only negatively charged--that is, just not
doing wrong things and not positively doing right things.
Bill McA.
Manhattan, New York
=======================
April 1948
Vol. 4 No. 11
Mail Call for All A. A.s at Home Or Abroad
Ballyhoo" Viewed with Alarm
To my way of thinking you people are doing a fine job with your paper. You
are
sure doing the right thing for A.A. when you publish articles like the one
by
J.F.H. that appeared in the February issue of The Grapevine.
I view with some alarm the "ballyhoo" that is being made for A.A. Although
nothing can hurt us, the continued effort to make A.A. a "by-word" is not
good.
Articles restating the plain simple purpose of A.A. as outlined in the "big
book" are very good at this time. Keep up the good work!
I'm on my way to seven years of A.A. sobriety and I can and will do all I
can
for it because it saved me and has given me a new concept of life.
W.O.R.
Hoosick Falls, New York
=================
December 1949
Vol. 6 No. 7
Mail Call
MY husband has been a problem drinker since long before I knew him. Thanks
to AA
he is today sober, clear headed, adjusting himself to a world that had
seemed
alien to him without alcohol.
I have always had faith in God, but I did not really know how to draw Him
into
my daily life so that He would be a part of it. I really tried everything I
could think of to get my husband either to stop drinking or at least to cut
down
on it. He got into worse and worse trouble. For a year he tried to stop
drinking, but couldn't. Always (so he told me) he would think of the time
when
he could drink again. Finally he lost his driver's license and sold our car,
which had been our greatest pleasure, for we are both stone deaf, and have
been
from childhood. Sometimes I wonder how it happened that with me I could
accept
my deafness, but my husband could not. He rebelled against it. We both speak
well, orally, and read the lips quite well.
He has led many to the AA Program and way of life. It seems to us strange,
and
maybe someone of you readers can help us, but while nearly all of the people
have come to my husband for help in understanding the AA way of life, they
have
one by one reproached him for being so deeply religious, then gone to drink
again while he stays sober. Is there something wrong in the way we talk to
these
people that sends them away from us, when we try so hard to help them? We
don't
know how others talk, for we cannot hear them, and trying to follow speeches
is
difficult unless they are talking to us directly.
We would be glad to hear of someone with a problem similar to ours, who has
worked it out. We wish to do the right thing by those who come to us for
help,
and not send them away empty-hearted.
M.E.L.
Brewer, Maine
============
April 1950
Vol. 6 No. 11
The Need for Prayer Is Great
[excerpt]
To pray I do not think I must conform to "time," "place," or "posture."
Eloquence seems to be out of place and may savor of insincerity. My need
should
rather be my eloquence. My shortcomings my recommendation. Simplicity the
keynote. Ceremony does not attract me. I seek to pray for forgiveness for my
daily faults, both of omission and commission. I pray for daily strength and
power to do the right thing, for guidance, for strong faith that brings
serenity. In this way, and only in this way, will I progress and allow the
spirit of AA to possess me, rather than I merely possess it.
O. S.
Burwood, N. S. W.
================
June 1950
Vol. 7 No. 1
Is This Trip Necessary
AA DAYTON
[excerpt]
"The H-bomb hangs over us," says our editor friend. All humanity lives in
the
midst of alarms. Everything, except the right thing, has been tried.
Mac
Dayton, Ohio
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++++Message 6845. . . . . . . . . . . . Montana - Georgia connection
From: gvanrobinson . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/30/2010 2:48:00 PM
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14th National Archives Workshop
Macon, Georgia
Thurs. Sept. 23 - Sun. Sept. 26, 2010
http://aanationalarchivesworkshop.com/
I am excited to be traveling to Macon GA at the end of this month to attend
the
14th Annual National AA Archives Workshop. What is also exciting is, at the
end
of the event, I will have the opportunity to invite everyone there to come
to
Montana in 2011 to attend the 15th Annual version of the workshop.
Believe it or not, there is some historical significance to this trip and to
the
invitation. In August 1942 a fellow named James C. moved from Atlanta, GA to
Billings, MT and made one of the initial contacts with Alcoholics Anonymous
from
the state of Montana. His letter was the first to discuss the possibility of
starting an AA group in the state.
In advance of my trip, I would be very interested in gathering as much
information as I can about early AA in Georgia, especially the early groups
in
Atlanta. I know that Bill Wilson visited Atlanta on July 31 1942, just
shortly
before James C. moved. In fact James mentions meeting Bill in his letter to
AA.
Any information - ANY! - is welcome and greatly appreciated. Of particular
interest is, of course, any information pertaining to James C.
Thanks for any help received and we'll see you all in Macon, Sept. 23rd -
26th.
Gerry R
Area 40 Archivist
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++++Message 6846. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Author of Forewords
From: Jim . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/31/2010 9:24:00 PM
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This could be wrong, but I've been told that Barry L. wrote the foreword to
the
Third Edition.
--- In AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com, Tom Hickcox wrote:
> The Fourth Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous has a preface and four
forewords.
>
> Are there any hard data that show who the authors of these are?
> I note that the Foreword to the Fourth Edition was immediately
> changed, presumably as a result of the brouhaha from equating online
> meetings with face to face meetings. I have no idea what the
> approval process was for this change, which would be another question.
>
> So, please, what do the records show of the authors to the preface
> and forewords?
>
> Tommy H in Baton Rouge
>
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++++Message 6847. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Irma Livoni letter of December 6
1941
From: planternva2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/31/2010 12:34:00 PM
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Does anyone know the reason those people wanted
to kick Irma out of the L. A. group?
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++++Message 6848. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Irma Livoni letter of December 6
1941
From: Jim M . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/1/2010 5:25:00 AM
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The letter can be viewed here reproduced in html to look like the original
to
the best of my ability:
http://www.silkworth.net/aahistory/irmal1941.html
A few years ago, if my memory serves me correctly, the daughter or possibly
the
grand daughter had the original letter in question.
Most certainly, it was a family member who had the original letter at the
time
of the email I received. I usually save all emails having to do with AA
history,
but I have yet to locate the email I received from her. She emailed me
because
she thought the letter might be of interest to me and to possibly post it on
silkworth.net with her permission.
She sent me a scanned copy of the letter she had in her possession and I did
my
best to duplicate it on silkworth.net in html format just as it appeared and
the
way it was typed out on the scanned copy.
I have many back up copies of my web site done over the years and many
emails to
sift through. When and if I am able to locate it, I will post the original
email
I received from the family member about the Irma Livoni letter that the
family
member sent me.
And as I mentioned, the letter can be viewed here reproduced in html to look
like the original to the best of my ability:
http://www.silkworth.net/aahistory/irmal1941.html
Yours in service,
Jim M,
http://www.silkworth.net/
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++++Message 6849. . . . . . . . . . . . 1946 March of Time tonight (Sun.
Sept. 5, 2010)
From: BobR . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/5/2010 4:48:00 PM
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If anyone happens to be up at 11 pm tonight EST (Sunday September 5) Turner
Classic Movies is presenting the March of Time feature from 1946
on Alcoholics Anonymous
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++++Message 6850. . . . . . . . . . . . Sterling Parker
From: schaberg43 . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/5/2010 9:45:00 AM
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For an ongoing research project, I am trying to locate any and all
information
on a man named STERLING PARKER -- who accompanied the Wilsons to and from
Akron
on their October, 1937 visit.
He almost surely lived in New Jersey.
Any information over and above that would be greatly appreciated.
Best,
Old Bill
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++++Message 6851. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: 1946 March of Time tonight (Sun.
Sept. 5, 2010)
From: Chuck Parkhurst . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/6/2010 3:22:00 AM
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Members
I missed this on Sunday night. Does anyone know if it is showing again on
Turner or available through any media. Can it be purchased from anyone,
loaned from any AA service structure groups or libraries? Also, if anyone
has feedback on the actual feature, that would be great.
In Service with Gratitude,
Chuck Parkhurst
-----Original Message-----
From: BobR
Sent: Sunday, September 05, 2010 1:48 PM
Subject: 1946 March of Time tonight (Sun. Sept. 5, 2010)
If anyone happens to be up at 11 pm tonight EST (Sunday September 5) Turner
Classic Movies is presenting the March of Time feature from 1946
on Alcoholics Anonymous
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++++Message 6852. . . . . . . . . . . . Sterling area and U.K. 1st edit. Big
Book
From: lanhamcookj . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/6/2010 4:05:00 PM
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From G.C. the moderator:
I will defer to the experts on this, but surely the reference in the
following
question is not to a place called "Sterling," but to a printing of the Big
Book
made for sale in the U.K. and those other parts of the world which used the
British pound sterling as their official currency (instead of the U.S.
dollar or
the Mexican peso or Australian dollar or Indian rupee or whatever). See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_sterling
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterling_silver
One point raised in your question has me a bit curious. Did they in fact
simply
use the plates from the U.S. version and keep the American spellings? Or did
they re-set the type in the U.K. and convert to the British spelling of
words?
So for example, does your U.K. edition spell the word "color" or "colour"?
"center" or "centre"? "defense" or "defence"? Etc.
- - - -
THE QUESTION:
I have just bought a UK first edition, 2nd impression - printed in 1956 in
Aylesbury, england. It mentions the Sterling area in a brief paragraph
explaining how to contact AA and that the book was printed for distribution
in
the Sterling area acknowledging 'the American co-founders, the Alcoholic
Foundation and General Service Head Quarters of New York. It's marked as a
14th
printing (1951) so I'm guessing they were able to use the plates for that
edition ... I'm no expert on print! I'm aware of towns in the US called
Sterling
but can find nothing in the UK with that name - we have Stirling in Scotland
but
no Sterling .... anybody know anything about this and anybody know where
Sterling is? - I'd love to get in touch with the local intergroup and/or
archivist to find out some more - Help, anybody?
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++++Message 6853. . . . . . . . . . . . AA''s birthday: Jim Burwell said
June 15 for Dr. Bob''s last drink
From: lanhamcookj . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/6/2010 4:32:00 PM
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I've been listening to a 1957 share by Jim Burwell entitled
Jim-b-bbhistory1957,
it's on the XA speakers website. There (15mins 40 secs) he clearly and
unequivocally states that Dr. Bob's last drink was June the 15th 1935 - I've
also heard (not sure where) somewhere that the only AMA convention being
held at
Atlantic City in 1935 ended the week after June the 10th. I'm wondering why
is
AA's birthday always stated as June 10th? Any clues anybody?
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