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Chapter Five of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous is perhaps the most well known text within the AA Fellowship. It might even be well known outside of the world of 12 step fellowships. These are the opening words to the chapter known as HOW IT WORKS:

“Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program………….”

The first time I went through the big book, page by page, I was taught the old fashion way. We started at the first page, that blank page at the very beginning and we went sentence by sentence as we studied the book. We had pencil and highlighter and dictionary at our side as we read. When we came upon any sentence that was an instruction, it was highlighted. Important words, whether in an sentence of instruction or not, were circled. Any word we did not readily know the meaning of was looked up in the dictionary and using a pencil, we wrote its definition out in the margins of that same page.

The final result was a Big Book well studied and understood. To quote the old coggers, we read only the black part of the book. When we were done reading, studying and analyzing the pages of the Big Book, I had a thorough understanding of all the instructions and all the testimony that you can find in the Big Book.

When you read in earlier postings that I state I know this program inside out and have done all the instructions as written, the reason those statements are so cockey are (1) I no longer believe in the necessity of 24 hours 7 days a week humility and (2) because I have fucking studied this Big Book THREE TIMES OVER in the above described fashion.

The notes scribbled in the margins, highlighted sentences, and circled words makes my tattered book look more like a copy of the Kabbalah than a 3rd edition printing of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. So when I say I followed the Big Books instructions as written, I mean as those instructions are written.

So now that you understand a little bit more of my “AA training”, let’s move on to the point of todays posting. 

who has thoroughly followed our path

Now, what does that mean?  Hmmm? Well it means [those] WHO HAS THOROUGHLY FOLLOWED OUR PATH. Yeah, its the dumb guy approached there. Right out of Cleveland Ohio. But hey, if simple works, then we use it. So that is what that sentence fragment means. So looking again at the full sentence and not just the last fragment:

Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path

Fail? Fail what? The AA program is what. Who rarely fails the AA program? Those who thoroughly followed our path. OUR PATH? Is that the AA program again? Well it could be, but more likely its meaning is more of followed the program as we layed it out for you. And hence a path that is followed rather than just a direction heading or a goal reached. I am sure some will argue these points with me. But I dont really care. On this I am right and there will be no room for discussion on this paragraph.

So with that knowledge that those who thoroughly follow [Bill and Bob’s] path rarely fail, and you find yourself failing to get the results as written out in the Big Book, what should you do? THIS IS WHAT YOU DO: You try again at following the instructions as laid out in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, but this time you follow the instructions even more to the letter than you did before. Why? Because that is the instruction in How it works.

When months turned into years and years gathered into 5 years and then a decade and so on, when I was not living the life I had read about in the Big Book, I followed these instructions. Because those are the instructions written in the Big Book! And not only that but the most well respected men of our local AA fellowship all agreed in this approach. If things are not going well for you in your life, if you are not getting the life promised in the big book, then you need to reapply those steps and instructions as written out in the book. Get back in to the book!  Back to basics.  This was how I was taught in AA. Those are the sentiments I held when things went badly or even not as well as I thought they should have gone.

If you are not happy with your life then you should do something about it. And for the members of Alcoholics Anonymous that something is follow the 12 step program as written out in the Big Book of Alcolohics Anonymous.

Many times you have read other readers’ comments in previous postings, where AA members stated they “knew better” and worked only those steps that “mattered”. These commentors used the program ”only where drinking and using” were involved. They knew better than to use the whole program in every portion of their lives.

Well I did not know better. I did not do as those smarter commentors knew.  Why didnt I know?  Because I was following the instructions as written in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous.  THAT’S WHY.

For you folks not part of the 12 step fellowships, or brand new to the sober life, when you need to decide which guy, Harry or one of the commentors, is telling the truth about the STEPS, you now know how I worked the steps.

Still sober as of 8:30pm today,
this is Harry A saying good night.