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reasons you will soon discover -— is alive and happy and is probably a better
and more popular doctor than ever before. What save his life and reputation? What force made him into a new man? It was simply religion, brought home to him in a way he could use it. Simply the new habit of living his religion, and the discovery that he could utilize the power of prayer. We used to see Dr. X around a lot. He was cheery, straightforward, friendly, and successful. His field was a particularly intricate form of surgery and he did well at it. Then for quite a while we missed him. I saw his wife now and then, and noticed—even a man can things like that—that she seemed a little shabby and not especially happy. We began to hear ugly rumors. That's bad for any doctor. We heard he was losing
his practice. When a doctor begins drinking, not many people are willing to trust their own lives to his skill with a knife. Last year I met Dr. X for the first time in several years. He was a new Dr. X. Straight as an Indian. Clean eyes. An honest I-can-lick-the-world- look in his face. He gripped my hand in a vise and said hello in a way that gave you something to tie to.
had
happened to him and wondered what he would do. "I don't drink" he said evenly. "Some men can take a drink or two drinks and stop. I can't . I had that ability once, but not now. If I'd take as much as a swallow of alcohol now, I'd disappear-and you wouldn't see me for three weeks." From him and others I got his whole story, a bit here, a bit there. Here it is.
while he was able to keep the matter a secret. But he missed a couple of appointments and got into some trouble. First his competitors knew it. Then his friends around the hospital got wise. Finally even his oldest patients began to leave
him. He had always been dignified and aloof, and when he was straight you hesitated to go up to him and tell him he was drinking too much. Usually he drank alone,
silently, hungrily, in a sodden fashion of one who wants to forget. Just a deadly, steady sopping up of the poison. It was ghastly. In his saner moments he must have known the way he was headed. But a stubborn pride-and pride pf the sort in a wayward person is a terrible thing- held him from seeking help.
room
one evening. It was a simple affair. Not dress-up at all. Here was a factory foreman who looked happier than almost anybody in town. When the time came to talk he told how he had been cured of drunkenness by prayer. His wife told how unbelievably happy their life was now. They didn't have much money-you could see that-but they had something that money alone had never brought them. They had love and self respect, and they had each other. Dr. X was surprised to find that everyone in this little group had some sort of a fight to make and had won. He began to look at these people in a new way. They had been weak and now they were strong. Unconsciously he began to envy them. He surprised himself by starting to say something. He admitted he had a tremendous hunger for liquor. And sometimes it got him down. He found that just merely talking about his trouble seemed to bring relief. As long as you conceal your difficulties, no one can help you. But once you bring your trouble out in the open, you can invite help and encouragement from friends. And you can benefit by the strengthening power of prayer. Merely getting on his knees and asking for help wasn't the whole story of Dr.
X's reformation. Many a drunk knows there's a wide difference between promising to straight and sticking to it!
who
had just started to climb back to sobriety and respectability, had the ability
to help other desperate and disheartened drunks to live decent lives too. In fact, that's a big part of the cure. When Dr. X gets an inebriate started on a new life of decency, he sees to it that the man gets on his feet now and then and talks to other people in the same predicament. Telling yourself and the world that you're going to go straight helps you to remind your subconscious mind that you are going straight. There have been a lot of ex-drunks that have come within Dr. X's influence since that fateful night he was turned back from a drunkard's grave. Forty-three of them, no less, owe their new lives to him. He'll leave a party or a dinner, almost leave an operation, to go and sit up all night with some drunk he probably never saw before but who knows he needs help. He has worked out a little system. Usually he puts the drunk to bed in a hospital, where he can sleep off his liquor quietly but can't get any more. There the sick man-for a drunk really is a sick man- receives regular care, and
hot meals, and also some measure or discipline and restraint. There he has privacy and time to think. "But you can't do much for a man until he hits bottom and back up. Can you?" I asked. "A man doesn't have to hit bottom, but he has to come close enough to see where
he is going if he doesn't stop drinking" replied Dr. X quietly. "And he's got to
want to be helped before with him or for him." When a drunk in the hospital starts to sober up, Dr. X closes the door and starts to talk to him. "I know where you hide your bottles," he'll say. "I know every sneaky little thing you do to get liquor when you're not supposed to have any. I've been there myself. And I want to tell you, my fine young friend, it's getting you nowhere. You're rotten. You're ashamed of yourself. Now let's do something about it." So there in that white, silent hospital room they read the Bible together. Then
they pray. Very simply. First the Doctor, then, falteringly, the man himself. He finds his voice gain in confidence. He finds it easy to talk to God, and talk
out loud. He finds a huge load is lifted off his chest. He begins to feel he could hold his head up again. He gets a fresh look at the man he might be. The whole idea becomes real and feasible to him. He becomes enthusiastic and eager about going straight. He promises to read the Bible, and Dr. X leaves him. Then, like as not, this sick man slips up and badly. Success is not that easy.
Those nerves that have been accustomed to bossing the mind and the body can't be
straightened out without a last tough fight. The patient begs for just one more
little last drink, and when the nurse refuses, he is angry at Dr. X and may storm about and threaten to go home. Fortunately, the foresighted Dr. X had carefully removed the patient's pants and shoes and locked them up in his own
locker in the surgeons room of the hospital. And then, because he knows the fight the sick man is going through, Dr. X comes
back in time to bring new comfort and new cheer and to again call forth the searching and ever available he;p of prayer. And in a couple of weeks the man, rested and refreshed and with the eyes alight as a result of decent living, goes home to his friends and his family that had almost given him up for dead. "No, I don't dare let you tell about this," Dr. X said to me when I asked him
for a signed interview. "We can't publicize these cures. These men are outside the realm of every day medicine. They have tried everything and have been given up as hopeless. We don't succeed every time ourselves. We can't brag. Every case is a new battle."
"But if word got out that we can do anything at all for a drunk, then derelicts would come into this town by the TRAINLOAD. We couldn't handle them. We couldn't
handle a dozen. Two is a lot. One at a time is plenty. I can't talk to one of these fellows for more than an hour or two without feeling spent and tired, unless I talk like a parrot, and talking like a parrot wouldn't do them any good."
touched me?" and some woman confessed she had touched his rove because she wanted to be cured? Christ felt some of his power pass out from that touch. It's the same way with helping people. You're giving something. It tires you. "We fellows who are doing this sort of thing feel we have hold of something, but
we don't dare use our names in connection with it. Look up the new book Alcoholics Anonymous which we helped write. We studied around for a long while to find how we could tell our story without using our names. That book was the answer. It tells some actual stories -- my own among them -- but no names are given.
Even the publisher doesn't know our names." "But Dr. X," I insisted, "Why not let these drunks pay you something for what
you do for them? After all, they have been a burden to their friends, You put
them back where they can earn a living again and live a decent life. You deserve
any kind of fee you want to charge." "No, we can't commercialize the idea," the doctor said firmly but kindly. "That
would spoil everything. We've got to keep our work as a gift to anyone we are
able to help. "Moreover, I'm not sure we could set up a sanitarium and cure people effectively in any wholesale matter. I'm convinced this idea has to grow, one cure at a time."
him
in for supper and the night" I suggested. "You and your wife have food to buy,
and rent to pay, and overhead expenses in the way of taxes and insurance and shoes for your daughter. It's your own fault if you don't let these reformed drunks help pay their own way."
wife
and I are happier than we have ever been in our lives. We can keep going very
nicely as long as I get a few operations from time to time, as I am doing. I'm
doing a good job of living, and am happy," he ended. Then he handed me his final thought. "I have found that no one can be permanently be happy unless he lives in harmony with the rules set down in the Good Book," he said. "Try it some time! You don't need to wait till you're down and out before you ask for help. There's help waiting for you right now, if you just ask God to help you." - - - - Message #4740, Sun Dec 2, 2007 From "diazeztone" (eztone at hotmail.com)
Dr. Bob appearing in either "Your Faith" or "Faith" magazine during the summer or fall of 1939 that no one has been able to find yet. It was supposed to be a really great article. Even the library of Congress is missing the issue of "Your Faith" that it is rumored to be in. That article is mentioned in "Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers". Anybody know anything about this?
and has not been answered thanks LD P nw okla
aabibliography.com eztone at hotmail IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 6961. . . . . . . . . . . . Thomas F. Marshall From: Michael . . . . . . . . . . . . 10/25/2010 11:08:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi all, I'm trying to find out more about Thomas Francis Marshall and also the book "Easy Does It: The Story of Mac." (A lot of this is covered in post #4997.) Dr. Silkworth's father was enamored with Marshall and Marshall believed "crisis,
reform and conversion" were necessary for the alcoholic to overcome drinking ...
sound familiar? First question: Do we know who received royalties from the publication of this book? Secondly: I know Marshall was a member of Congress and all that, but there were some interesting allusions in his death notice from the NY Times.
no doubt that he would live, if spared by Providence, to be one of the master-spirits of the country. And, had he been true and just to himself and to the high and noble faculties vouchsafed to him by God, he would have fulfilled all the loftiest expectations entertained of him. But he met in early manhood with a keen and bitter disappointment, which, deeply stinging his sensitive, impatient and proud nature, and blasting, as by a flash of lightning, what he regarded as his great life-hope, caused him to seek relief by quaffing at the poison-fount at which millions of gifted spirits have bowed and died." ........... "But THOMAS F. MARSHALL's spirit did not perish. His genius was like
Greek fire, nothing could quench it. Though he never wholly overcame for any great length of time, even by his most resolute and determined efforts, his one unfortunate habit, he became a very distinguished man." What was his "keen and bitter disappointment"? Also, are we to understand that he was an alcoholic? And that he was never able to attain permanent sobriety? "He never overcame...his one unfortunate habit...." Marshall's biography "A handful of bitter herbs: Reminiscences of Thomas Francis Marshall, 1801-1864, great Kentucky orator" is out of print and hard to find.
Brunswick, MD - - - - Message #4997 From "Chris Budnick" Re: Hugh Reilly, Easy Does It: The Story of Mac Below is the text from the Silkworth biography by Dale Mitchell (p. 95 - 101) regarding arguments for Silkworth writing Easy Does It. As mentioned in the email from Jim, it does indicate speculation about Bill Wilson having authored the book. I had forgotten that point from the Silkworth bio. It's a bit of a long email.
On May 26, 1950, a fictional account of an alcoholic called Easy Does It: The Story of Mac was published by P.]. Kenedy and Sons out of New York City during Silkworth's last full year at Knickerbocker Hospital. The author used the pseudonym Hugh Reilly and, according to the dustcover, "has resorted to a narrative which but barely disguises his true experience." Was this author, indeed, William Silkworth? A number of facts lead to this very conclusion. Easy Does It describes a treatment facility and process that mirrors that of Knickerbocker Hospital during the Silkworth management. It outlines the program of Alcoholics Anonymous to a degree of understanding that surpasses that of most of the active members of the fellowship. The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and some of the then-unwritten Traditions are explained to a level equal to that of the Big Book. Easy Does It presents facts, fictional characters that strongly resemble important people within early M, and medical descriptions unique to the Silkworth treatment program. More important, the alcoholic mind is dissected through the conversations and thoughts of the main char- acter, Mac.
in only a few publications, including the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous and a few Bill Wilson AA Grapevine articles. Some of the information contained in Easy Does It cannot be traced to any of these sources. The author of this book must have lived within the inner circles of the program and maintained firsthand knowledge of specific Silkworth treatment attitudes. Only one man could have known the details outlined in Easy Does It - William Silkworth himself. The characters in the book spoke about the exact same medical descriptions, analogies, and quotations Silkworth used over the years in his writings and speeches. Silkworth's nurse, Teddy, is one of the fictional characters in the book. The character matches Teddy in vivid physical detail and personality. The personality description even corresponds to how Teddy described herself in the 1952 article "I'm a Nurse in an Alcoholic Ward." Silkworth himself could not have been better described in physical detail and personality had his own wife written the book. His glowing white hair, his deep blue eyes, even the way he dressed are the attributes of one of the characters.
alcoholism, the Silkworth writings, the allergy theory, and the program specifics of Alcoholics Anonymous. The book uses many phrases that were coined by Silkworth and rarely used by others. The book, which was well received, focuses more on the physical and medical presentation of alcoholism than the spiritual requirements of recovery, yet the spiritual components of recovery are also plainly detailed. Although Silkworth's conversion beliefs are left for secondary conversations between the two main characters, conversion indeed occurs in every case of recovery presented. In accordance with the Silkworth legacy, it is obvious the book lays the ground for a firm base of medical understanding. A presentation of Higher Power and references to God are well placed within the book after the medical descriptions. Had the book been written with a purely AA focus, this might not have occurred. The only reasonable argument against Silkworth authoring the book is that he was an extremely private and humble man. It is said that Silkworth would never write a book about himself that contained such glowing praise for his work. Silkworth always maintained his distance from fame despite the important role he played in the birth of Alcoholics Anonymous. Why would he suddenly step out of character and write a book acknowledging the intelligence and knowledge of alcoholic treatment by a doctor who was obviously himself? We do know that he did nonetheless step out of character and pen a glowing recommendation of himself. The foreword to Easy Does It was written and signed by 'William Duncan Silkworth, Physician-in-Charge of the AA Wing, Knickerbocker Hospital, New York." In this short introduction, Silkworth writes, "The author has long been a close student of the alcoholic problem. He certainly does not write as an amateur." The story describes one of the main characters, Dr. Goodrich, as "a man of exceptional mental and spiritual nature." If it can only be accepted that the Dr. Goodrich character is indeed Dr. Silkworth, then it must be accepted that Silk- worth was still writing a foreword to a book that praised his own work.
Silkworth states, "It deals with a complex subject, discussed from many angles, often challenging, always vigorous and original." At the time, Silkworth was widely respected as an expert on alcoholism and for his Towns and Knickerbocker treatment models for programs and facilities all over the world. This foreword was no small recommendation. Silkworth endorsed only three books in his writing over his many years: Alcoholics Anon- ymous, The Varieties of Religious Experience, and Easy Does It. This places Easy Does It quite high on the suggested reading list from a man generally married to science and Alco- holics Anonymous. The only other reasonable argument against Silkworth as the author is that Bill Wilson was the author. Next to Silkworth, no one else had the experience at Towns and Knickerbocker Hospitals aside from Bill Wilson. No one could have more precisely described Alcoholics Anonymous. No one could have understood the medical facts presented in the book regarding the allergy theory, and certainly, no one knew the true story of Bill's spiritual awakening. How then do we challenge this theory? First, Bill was known to be gregarious and very public. He wrote many articles and was involved in the writing of two books about his life and the history of Alcoholics Anonymous. Not once did he shy from public praise, quite the contrary. Why would Bill Wilson suddenly decide to write a book on Alcoholics Anony- mous and the life of Dr. Silkworth in an anonymous fashion? Second, Wilson regretted not properly thanking Silkworth more directly, and more frequently, long after Silkworth had died. He would not have made these comments had he actually written a book that did indeed provide such praise for Silkworth. When first informed about the possibility that Silkworth authored Easy Does It by a resource- ful woman named Susan in New Jersey, I set out to prove her wrong. My very first phone call made me begin to question my preconcep- tions.
Silkworth's nephew William Silkworth, the first time, we spoke briefly about the project and my desire to find out all I could about the doctor. Her first response was "Are you going to tell them about Easy Does It?"
author of Easy Does It - a rumor that does not start haphazardly in a family history. Adelaide matter-of-factly talked about how she and her husband have always known and talked openly Yüklə 25,47 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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