March 21 in A.A. History

In 1881, Anne Ripley [right, 1915], Dr. Bob S.’s future wife, was born in Oak Park, Illinois. She was the only daughter and the oldest of four children, her brothers being Paul, Charles, and Joseph. Dr. Bob once said of her, “For some reason, we alcoholics seem to have the gift of picking out the world’s finest women.” Bill W. referred to her as a “founder” of A.A. and “the mother of our first group in Akron [Ohio].” He described her as a woman who possessed a deep faith in God and an unwavering love for those who suffer.

In 1913, a memorial service for Bertha Bamford, who had died in November 1912 and was Bill W.’s high school love, was held in the chapel at Burr and Barton Seminary by the YMCA and YWCA associations of the school (Bill was president of the former, while Bertha had been president of the latter). A short article [left] on page 2 of The Bennington Evening Banner stated, “Many glowing tributes were paid to Miss Bamford’s memory by students of the upper classes and teachers.”

In 1915, Frederick Harold “Hal” M. was born in McDowell, North Carolina, the first child of Fred Harold and Louise Emma Clarke M. He sobered up in 1964 and became known as “Dr. Gratitude” for the custom “Attitude of Gratitude” pins he designed and gave to members.

In 1966, Edwin “Ebby” T. [right], from the last photo taken of him], the man Bill W. called his sponsor, died sober. He spent the last two years of his life at McPike’s Farm on Peaceable Street, a pioneering treatment facility for alcoholics located in Galway, New York, just 25 miles north of his hometown, Albany. Ebby’s caretakers believed he had given up after the death of his dear brother, Ken, in January 1966. Although he fell ill, Ebby resisted going to the hospital until he seemed to realize it was the end. “Well, we all have to go sometime,” he admitted before suffering an apparent stroke. He was rushed to a nearby hospital in Ballston Spa, but by Sunday night, he was in a coma. Ebby died of a stroke (cerebral thrombosis) at 1:00 a.m. on Monday and was later buried in Albany Rural Cemetery.

March 20 in A.A. History

In 1960, the weekly half-hour radio program, The Catholic Hour, aired Part I of “Alcoholism: The Problem and the Hope” with Marty M. [right, 1964] and an unnamed staff member from the General Service Office.

In 1961, having written to Dr. Carl G. Jung on 23 January and received a reply dated 20 January [left: these two letters], Bill W. wrote a second letter to Jung:

    Your observation that drinking motivations often include that of a quest for spiritual values caught our special interest.… Years ago, some of us read with great benefit your book entitled Modern Man in Search of a Soul. You observed, in effect, that most persons having arrived at age 40 and having acquired no conclusions or faith as to who they were, or where they were or where they were going next in the cosmos, would be bound to encounter increasing neurotic difficulties; and that this would be likely to occur whether their youthful aspirations for sex union, security, and a satisfactory place in society had been satisfied or not. Neither could any amount of resolution, philosophical speculation, or superficial religious conditioning save them from the dilemma in which they found themselves.

    Bill also remarked that Jung’s words “really carried authority, because you seemed to be neither wholly a theologian nor a pure scientist,” and he observed that Jung “spoke a language of the heart that we could understand.”
    He further wrote about his experiences with LSD, noting that many members of A.A.…

    have returned to the churches, almost always with fine results. But some of us have taken less orthodox paths. Along with a number of friends, I find myself among the later.

    Bill cited the Canadian research of Humphry Osmond, the man who introduced Huxley to mescaline in 1953. Osmond reported that 150 hardcore alcoholics were “preconditioned by LSD and then placed in the surrounding AA groups.” Over three years, they achieved “startling results” compared to similar individuals who were not treated with psychedelics but only participated in A.A. “My friends believe that LSD temporarily triggers a change in blood chemistry that inhibits or reduces ego thereby enabling more reality to be felt and seen,” Bill told Jung.
    “Some of my AA friends and I have taken the material (LSD) frequently and with much benefit,” he added, noting that the powerful psychedelic drug ignites “a great broadening and deepening and heightening of consciousness.”
    Bill informed Jung that his first LSD trip in 1956 reminded him of a mystical revelation he had experienced after hitting rock bottom in the 1930s and ending up in a New York City hospital ward for hardcore alcoholics. “My original spontaneous spiritual experience of twenty-five years before was enacted with wonderful splendor and conviction,” he wrote.
    He received no reply from Jung, who suffered a stroke just days after receiving the letter. Aniela Jaffé, a Jungian analyst and colleague of Jung, responded to Wilson on May 29, 1961, stating, “… as soon as Dr. Jung feels better and has enough strength to begin again his mail, I will show it to him.” Jung died a week later.

March in A.A. History, day unknown

Origins of A.A. in Barbados: Information about the beginnings of Alcoholics Anonymous in Barbados has been imprecise and often contradictory. The "founder" has been reported as either a Californian or a Canadian.
    The most reliable accounts suggest that in the early 1960s, an American named Ed A. from San Diego, California, who had previously been exposed to A.A. in the U.S., was living and working in Bridgetown, Barbados. Ed, a former professional tennis player, often worked as an umpire at local tournaments and was a member of the exclusive Barbados Yacht Club, which was restricted to white members. He struggled to stay sober, threatening his job.

    In March 1962, Ed visited the offices of the Advocate, Barbados’s principal newspaper [right: front page, Dec 1966]. He met with Ian Gale, the editor, expressing his interest in raising awareness about alcohol-related issues and suggesting a notice or column on alcohol abuse. He indicated that Barbados needed an A.A. program. Mr. Gale referred Ed to journalist Tony V., known for his heavy drinking and previously advised to reduce his alcohol consumption.
    In their first conversation, Ed requested that someone write an article on alcohol abuse in Barbados, including statistics, and expressed his desire to start an A.A. program.

    As a result, Mr. Smith the Headmaster of St. Matthias Boys School in Christ Church, was contacted. He agreed to provide a meeting place for the first regular A.A. group in Barbados, in the annex of St. Matthias Church [left: late 1800s, c. 1965]. A donation of $3 was given weekly to the sexton for opening and closing the church. Early members included Ed A., Tony V., Robert, Cyrus, and Bert E.
    Despite claiming to have brought A.A. to Barbados, Ed A. struggled to maintain sobriety. After umpiring a tennis match at Bachelors’ Hall, St. James, he drunkenly announced he was the President of A.A. in Barbados.
    Bert, a salesman, got sober but relapsed when his pigeons won a competition. He later sobered up again and became a committed A.A. member.

March 18 in A.A. History

In 1905, Clinton T. “Duke” P. was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to George W. and Frances Thompson P. In 1918, the family moved to Kansas City, Missouri. Duke graduated from the University of Missouri in 1926 and from the Kansas City School of Law in 1932, the same year he married Catherine “Katie” Northern.

    In 1938, Duke was introduced to Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) by Charles “C.J.” K. and Eddie B., and was admitted to Akron City Hospital in Akron, Ohio, with “acute gastritis.” It was there that he sobered up and was visited by members of the Akron A.A. Group. Dr Bob S. became his sponsor. In 1940, Duke led the first A.A. meeting at 2222 Maumee Rd. [upper right: house; lower right: aerial view with house at lower left] in Toledo, Ohio.

    Duke served in the U.S. Army from 1942 to 1945, continuing his service in the Army Reserve before retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel. He then became a distinguished salesman for Proctor & Gamble. In 1988, Duke and Katie moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where they lived out the rest of their lives.

In 1947, the Dallas (Texas) Central Office opened and held its first Board meeting, even though there were only two A.A. groups in the area. The Central Office was located on Akard Street in the Davis Building [left, c. 1931]. It was a musty old office and a little cluttered.

    Dick P. was the director. He suffered physically from a Jamaica Ginger [right] poisoning^* during Prohibition, but that didn’t stop him from answering the phone, coordinating 12th-Step calls, or sharing with a friend or stranger over a cup of coffee. He even sold some literature.
    The location of the office would change a few times over the next several years, but always stay in the Downtown Dallas area.

---

^*Prohibition Era Jamaica Ginger was usually homemade or produced illegally, made with available ingredients, resulting in varied quality and potency. Homemade versions often included fresh ginger, sugar, water, and high-proof alcohol like moonshine. The quality and safety of such bootlegged Jamaica Ginger were questionable, with risks of contamination or harmful ingredients. Despite these risks, ginger liqueurs remained popular during Prohibition, often used in cocktails to mask harsh flavors of low-quality alcohol.

In 1951, Cliff W., [left] who had gotten sober in 1941 in Los Angeles, California, was elected as the first Southern California Delegate to the General Service Conference. Before getting sober, in March 1940, Cliff had invited a stranger who knocked on his door into his home. The man, Mort J., [below right] had just left the residence of Kaye Miller, a non-alcoholic who had been trying to start and sustain A.A. meetings in Los Angeles, but who was giving up and moving to Hawai'i. Cliff’s name and address, originally submitted by his wife, were among the leads Mort had retrieved from Kaye’s wastebasket. Mort had expressed a desperate need to talk to someone about his alcoholism to help him stay sober. Although Cliff had no interest in quitting drinking at that time, he felt sympathy for Mort and agreed to listen.

March 17 in A.A. History

In 1938, John D. Rockefeller Jr. [near right] replied to a memorandum from Willard S. “Bill” Richardson [far right] on February 23rd, which had outlined the work and success of A.A. and requested $10,000 [~$225,000 in 2025] over two years. In this reply, John D. stated,

    … What has been accomplished according to these records in regener­ating human life is almost miraculous. I do not wonder at your interest in the work.
    On the other hand, much as I would like to do what you gentlemen want me to do and agree to contribute $5,000 a year for two years to the support of the work, as you know it is contrary to our office policy to undertake the entire responsibility for any enterprise, or even a fifty per cent responsibility, unless we expect to carry it indefinitely or to its conclusion. This policy I am sure you agree has been proved, by our long experience, to be a wise one. I feel that it would be a mistake to deviate from it.
    However, because of the interest of yourself and these other friends in the matter, I will provide a total of $5,000 for this enterprise. Because the service for which this sum is to be used is closely related to the Riverside Church, the friends who present the request to me being officers of the Church, I am making the contribution of $5,000 to Riverside Church as a non-quota item of of the Benevolent Department, understanding that it will be dispensed for the object mentioned in response to your requisition.
    From my standpoint it is understood that the money can be spend during one, two, or three years, as may seem to you wise, but that in any event you will not look to me for a further contribution for this object.…

March 16 in A.A. History

In 1940, the Alcoholic Foundation^* relocated from 17 Williams St. in Newark, New Jersey, to a two-room office at 30 Vesey St.^† [right, c. 1940] in lower Manhattan, New York City. Most of the draft-lined yellow pages and draft manuscripts of the Big Book were discarded before the move, including the first draft of the Twelve Steps, a huge loss for the A.A. Archives.

     Rent was $650 a year [~$14,750 in 2025]. The recently hired Lorraine Greim, Ruth Hock’s non-alcoholic assistant, received a raise from $12 [~$272 in 2025] a week to $15 [~$340 in 2025], because she had expected to work in Newark when she was hired. Bill Wilson affectionately referred to her as “Sweetie Pie.”

---

^*Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age dates this move—incorrectly—to February 1940.
^†On 11 September 2001, 30 Vesey Street was nearly destroyed when the World Trade Center buildings collapsed.

In 1940, Ruth Hock [left] became the first National Secretary of the Alcoholic Foundation, effectively making her the first National Secretary of Alcoholics Anonymous.

In 1975, the first 12-step meeting conducted in Japanese took place at the Kamata Catholic Church [right] near Haneda Airport in Tokyo, in the district of Ōta. This event marked the beginning of Alcoholics Anonymous in Japan and initiated the practice of the Twelve Steps, the foundation of the A.A. recovery program. Following this, A.A. events were held throughout Japan. 

In 2000, Nancy O. [left] founded AA History Buffs on egroups.com. After at least 444 posts to the group, she somehow lost the password and subsequently moved the group to Yahoo Groups.

March 15 in A.A. History

In 1941, the first A.A. group in Connecticut was established in New Haven, which led to the formation of additional groups in surrounding towns. Alex P., a Westport resident who attended the New Haven group, managed inquiries in his area. Soon, a group was started in Westport. In October, New Haven sent a team to Bridgeport to establish a group there. Soon, a group was started in Westport.

March 14 in A.A. History

In 1906, Sylvia B. [right, 1923] was born in Washington, DC. She would marry and later divorce Philip K. Despite the divorce, she would continue to use his last name and, as Sylvia K., become the first woman in Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) to achieve “permanent” long-term sobriety, which would begin on 13 September 1939, in Chicago, Illinois. Her story, titled “Keys to the Kingdom,” is in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th editions of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous.

In 1942, the New Jersey Group of Alcoholics Anonymous held an anniversary dinner at the Hotel Suburban [left], located at 141 S. Harrison St. in South Orange, New Jersey, with Bill W. as the featured speaker. Tickets were priced at $2.50 [$49 in 2025 dollars].

In 1949, Dr. Bob S., knowing he was dying of cancer, wrote to Bill W. [far right] concerning the General Service Conference idea,

    Have been feeling quite painfully ill… Do not have the feeling that this [conference] is a particularly guided thing to do now. Maybe I am wrong, but that is the way I feel. Why don’t you see if can get the boys to put across this committee and let it go at that.

March 13 in A.A. History

In 1887, James “Jim” R. was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Mary Fisher and Joseph R. He was the first son and the third of eight children. He would get sober on 7 June 1933, more than 18 months before Bill W., and would co-found Alcoholics Anonymous in Baltimore in June 1940.

In 1895, Henry “Hank” P. [right: as a young man] was born in Marion, Iowa, to Mary Giffen and Daniel P., a family that had lived in the area for several generations. He was the second of three children and the first son.
    In November 1935, Hank would become the first person in New York City to achieve sobriety with the help of Bill W. He is considered by many to be the “forgotten” co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, particularly for his role in writing and publishing the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous. His story in the first edition of that book was titled “The Unbeliever.”

March 12 in A.A. History

In 1992, Dr. C. Nelson Davis [right: from his obituary], 88, died at his home in Malvern, Pennsylvania. He and Dr. C. Dudley Saul had been early supporters of Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) and had traveled together to lecture on its behalf after recognizing the benefits of a 12-step program for recovering alcoholics.

    In 1946, Dr. Saul had helped establish the 4021 Clubhouse at 4021 Walnut Street [left] in Philadelphia, one of the first A.A. clubhouses. That same year, they had opened the C. Dudley Saul Clinic in Philadelphia, where Dr. Davis served as Physician-in-Charge. This clinic was the first private treatment center for alcoholism in the United States and is now known as the Malvern Institute.

March 11 in A.A. History

In 1891, James McCready “Mac” H. was born to Joseph Andrew H., a dentist, and Elizabeth Fishburn H. in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles [~50 km] south of Pittsburgh. In March 1940, he would help found Alcoholics Anonymous in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In 1851, American Weekly published “Dr. Bob: His Only Monument Is a Plaque, but the Thousands He Helped Rescue From Alcoholism Will Never Forget Him” [right: article and accompanying image] a memorial tribute by Booton Herndon.

In 2020, The Cochran Collaborative published “Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12‐step programs for alcohol use disorder” [left: cover] by John F. Kelly, Keith Humphreys and Marica Ferri. Their research was intended to

    … evaluate whether peer‐led AA and professionally‐delivered treatments that facilitate AA involvement (Twelve‐Step Facilitation (TSF) interventions) achieve important outcomes, specifically: abstinence, reduced drinking intensity, reduced alcohol‐related consequences, alcohol addiction severity, and healthcare cost offsets.

They looked for existing studies and included

    … randomized controlled trials (RCTs), quasi‐RCTs and non‐randomized studies that compared AA or TSF (AA/TSF) with other interventions, such as motivational enhancement therapy (MET) or cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), TSF treatment variants, or no treatment. We also included healthcare cost offset studies. Participants were non‐coerced adults with AUD [alcohol use disorder].

They concluded:

There is high quality evidence that manualized AA/TSF interventions are more effective than other established treatments, such as CBT, for increasing abstinence. Non‐manualized AA/TSF may perform as well as these other established treatments. AA/TSF interventions, both manualized^* and non‐manualized, may be at least as effective as other treatments for other alcohol‐related outcomes. AA/TSF probably produces substantial healthcare cost savings among people with alcohol use disorder.

One anonymous writer on Substack titled a post that referred to this study as “Guess What? AA Works.”

---

^*Manualized here means “refers to interventions that follow a standardized, structured approach. Specifically, [such interventions]:
    1.    Follow a session-to-session outline
    2.    Offer treatment based on standardized content
    3.    Deliver content in a linear or modular fashion
    4.    Ensure the same treatment is delivered across time and different sites”

March 10 in A.A. History

In 1886, Frank S. Shaw, a descendant of Mayflower passengers, was born in Bath, Maine, to William and Jane Stinson Shaw. He would join the Wall Street firm J. K. Rice, Jr. & Co. in 1914 and eventually become a partner. Shaw would remain with the firm until two years before his death in 1959, when he retired for health reasons. He would become a good friend of Bill W. and an early supporter of Bill’s stock market theories. Shaw would marry Elise Valentine, a close childhood friend of Lois W.

In 1916, the day after Pancho Villa [near left] raided Columbus, New Mexico, and the U.S. Army post at Camp Furlong, killing 10 civilians and 8 soldiers, President Woodrow Wilson [center left] ordered an armed force under Brigadier General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing [far left] to Mexico for a “punitive expedition” aimed at capturing Villa and preventing further raids.
    As a result, the sophomore class at Norwich University, including Bill W.—all of whom had been expelled following a hazing incident in February—was readmitted and mobilized in June.

In 1939, Hank P. returned home to his wife, Kathleen, at 344 N. Fullerton Ave. [right] in Montclair, New Jersey, after staying at Bill and Lois W.’s house at 182 Clinton St. in Brooklyn during a 10-week separation.

March 9 in A.A. History

In 1953, Works Publishing, Inc. was renamed Alcoholics Anonymous Publishing, Inc. [below: paperwork involved with name change].

 

March 8 in A.A. History

In 1862, Governor Horatio Seymour of New York pardoned Jeremiah “Jerry” McAuley [left], who was released from Sing Sing Prison. The 26-year-old intended to connect with Christians, but he found their “wavering, unstable, half-and-half faith staggered me.” The lessons he learned during this period significantly influenced his approach when he later founded the first rescue mission in North America.

In 1944, The Christian Century published “The Church and the Alcoholic,” an article by Rev. Alson Jesse Smith^*. In it, he likened Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) to a call made by Sebastian Franck^† in his 1531 book, Von dem greulichen Laster der Trunkenheit (The Horrible Vice of Drunkenness) [right]:

It [drinking or drunkenness] is too deeply rooted and sin has become a habit. All would have to be reborn and receive new heads. Yes, a new world would have to come.

    Smith argued that A.A. offers such “new heads.” Until now, Von dem greulichen Laster der Trunkenheit had been an obscure work on the topic of drunkenness.

---

* Alson Smith [right, 1936] (12 Aug 1909–17 May 1965) was a liberal independent scholar, a Methodist Episcopal minister, and a freelance journalist who consistently reported on the far right beginning in the 1930s.

† Sebastian Franck [left] (20 Jan 1499–c. 1543) was a 16th-century German freethinker, humanist, and radical reformer. Despite being an ordained priest, he combined the humanist’s passion for freedom with the mystic’s devotion to the religion of the spirit, and came to believe that God communicates with individuals through a portion of the divine remaining in each human being. He dismissed the human institution of the church and claimed that theology could not properly claim to give expression to this inner word of God in the heart of the believer. For example, he wrote, “To substitute Scripture for the self-revealing Spirit is to put the dead letter in the place of the living Word…” and “God is an unutterable sigh, lying in the depths of the heart,” which Ludwig Feuerbach called “the most remarkable, the profoundest, truest expression of Christian Mysticism.”

March 7 in A.A. History

In 1940, the first meeting of the Philadelphia Group of A.A. was held at the home George “Bud” S. [right: Bud’s high school yearbook photo], located at 1212 Arrott^* Street in Northeast Philadelphia. Bill and Lois W., and 15 others, attended this open meeting.

---

^* While all sources mention Arnott Street, no such street exists in Philadelphia. The closest street name is Arrott, which is ¾ mile (1.2 km) long, running between the 4600 and 4700 blocks from Frankford Avenue northwest to Adams Avenue in Northeast Philadelphia. The 1940 Census records confirm that 1212 Arrott Street was the residence of George and Laura S.

In 1941, a Boston newspaper reported that anyone struggling with alcoholism was more than welcome to attend the weekly A.A. meeting at the Jacoby Club, located at 115 Newbury St., every Wednesday at 8 PM. Boston’s first A.A. meeting had taken place two nights earlier at the same location. 

In 1941, Ruth Hock, National Secretary for the Alcoholic Foundation in New York City, responded to a letter from Dale A. [left] written four days earlier, advising him to connect with Dave W., also from Seattle, with whom Ruth had been corresponding for nearly a year. She suggested they start an A.A. group in Seattle, which Dave would soon do, although without Dale and with two other men. Dale would attend his first A.A. meeting in July and, shortly thereafter, establish a meeting in his home, eventually being recognized by many as the founding father figure of Seattle A.A.

In 2002, Clinton “Duke” P., 98, died in Jacksonville, Florida. He had been a pioneering member in Akron, Ohio, and had played a key role in establishing A.A. in Toledo, Ohio.

March 6 in A.A. History

In 1940, the Alcoholic Foundation in New York City responded to Margaret D. of Seattle, Washington, who had written to them about her husband on February 11, nearly a month earlier. She would later play a role—though details are scarce—in the establishment of Seattle’s first A.A. group.

In 1942, Bill W. [left] wrote to the Adjutant General of the U.S. Army requesting a commission “as a procurement or quartermaster officer, or to engage in some form of intelligence or morale work.” He noted that he had “served in the World War [I] as an artillery officer” and, from 1920 to 1924, worked in “the insurance department of The New York Central Railroad” and at “The U.S. Fidelity & Guaranty Co.… as a criminal investigator.” He described his work as an independent field investigator “of large industrial companies” from 1925 to 1930, detailing the skills and knowledge required for the job, and stating that his “income ranged from $5,000 to $20,000 [~$85,500–358,000 in 2025] annually.” Bill concluded his pre-A.A. period by noting, “From 1931 to 1934 my earning power was poor due to [the?] depression and other causes.”
    In 1934, he “took an interest in the cure of alcoholism which resulted in my becoming the founder of… Alcoholics Anonymous which has since made possible the recovery of some 5000 cases of alcoholism of the most acute kind.” He predicted that A.A. “will probably clear up some 5000 new cases during the current year.” He mentioned that A.A. was “nationally known through much newspaper and magazine publicity” and that A.A. “enjoys the highest medical standing as well.” The book he authored, Alcoholics Anonymous, “earns him about $7000 [~$135,500 in 2025] annually.” He also pointed out, “In addition, I have handled the public relations of [A.A.]…, have done a very large amount of personal work with individuals, and am an experienced public speaker.”
    Finally, he listed four business references—Frank Shaw, Dick Johnson (of Greenshields & Co.), Clayton Quaw (of Quaw & Foley?), and Rudolph Eberstadt—as well as two personal references—Williard Richardson and John Wood.

Supporting A.A. in Ukraine

[Note that this post was written in March 2022, shortly after the full-scale invasion of the Ukraine by the Russian Federation.]

An A.A. friend sent me a very well-done flyer for an online A.A. meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine. It's shown to the left, but I've removed the Meeting ID and Passcode; I don't want to make it that  easy to attend. When I first saw it, I thought, "I only wish that we could do something similar for all the Russian alcoholics, who must also be terribly distressed at this time" (especially those in the Russian military).

This flyer was immediately followed by a less well-done message, shown below, purporting to be from "Ukrainian AA Service Center and the Ukrainian AA Service Board" to "the AA World Community." I was skeptical. This looked so much like a myth that I expected to find it debunked at Snopes ("the internet’s definitive fact-checking resource"). I did not. But I did find an article titled, "UKRAINE: New Crisis, Grimly Familiar Disinformation Trends", which said, in part, 

It is a grim measure of the frequency of crisis events in recent years, and the ubiquity of online disinformation, that when a major story breaks — a terrorist attack, a mass shooting, or an act of war — the writers and editors at Snopes can typically predict what comes next. Recycled videos and photographs, stripped from their proper context, and the same old tropes, all designed to inflame or confuse, or even amuse, the reader.

This is followed by a "grim overview of the familiar disinformation trends and recurring memes… in the opening days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine."

But, as I said, I only later looked on Snopes. First I searched the Internet. To my surprise, I immediately got a hit that looked very promising. It was on the aa.lviv.ua website and looked like this:

Since I don't know what I presumed was Ukrainian, and not having much patience, I immediately had the page automatically translated into English. It is indeed Ukrainian, and here's the English translation I got:

It was only later that I noticed that an English translation of the message follows the Ukrainian on the original, one click further down. I felt stupid and impatient for not looking.

Ultimately, I decided I'd check into the Kyiv online meeting and see if there was some way I could be helpful. I tried to log in a few minutes before it was to start. Due to the meeting having reached capacity, it was impossible to get in. It then occurred to me, If I'm having this much trouble getting in, there are probably Ukrainians who are also unable to get in. It horrified me to think that I could have had a part in disrupting their meeting. If, by some miracle, I had been able to get in, I sure hope I would have realized that the meeting was at capacity and left. But even if I had, my spot would have been filled by a non-Ukrainian.

I tried joining after the meeting was over. It was bedlam. It appeared that most people were unmuted and there were multiple conversations going on at the same time. I saw one man, who appeared to be that single Ukrainian member. He appeared to be quite stressed out. I also saw some A.A.friends of mine, which was disappointing. I only stayed a minute. The last thing they needed at that point was yet one more non-Ukrainian A.A. to join the fray.

Tonight, I learned from a reliable source that only one of the seven or eight regular Ukrainian group members was able to get into the meeting (presumably, the Zoom host). No doubt, many of the attendees had good intentions, although I'm also pretty sure some did not. Clearly, many also didn't think through the consequences of their actions.

And then, very late last night, My friend said that another friend of hers had found a Facebook post about the A.A. meeting in Kyiv earlier, shown at the left. It was so disheartening to read. Yes, many non-Ukrainians—maybe hundreds of them—got to feel good for a minute. Meanwhile, seven or eight locals never got to their meeting.

God As We Understand Him?

 I recently read Bill W.'s essay, “God As We Understand Him: The Dilemma of No Faith”, in The Language of the Heart (originally published as “The Dilemma of No Faith” in the April 1961 issue of the A.A. Grapevine). He begins this essay by saying, “The phrase ‛God As We Understand Him’ is perhaps the most important expression to be found in our whole AA vocabulary.”

For a long time, I've been vaguely uncomfortable with this wording, even though I knew what it meant the first time I heard it. In the last few years, but not in my early sobriety, I've sometimes heard newcomers asking about this expression, “How can anyone understand God?”  in a way that led me to think that perhaps this was an impediment for them. I realized my discomfort is just that. Perhaps understanding is not the best word. I think “God As We Conceive of God” is closer to the intended meaning. It will be interesting to see how the proposed plain language Big Book^* (i.e., Alcoholics Anonymous) will deal with this phrase. If at all.

---

^* If you don't know what this is or what it means, check out Advisory Action #28 (on p 7) in this document: Conference Advisory Actions of the 71st General Service Conference, a list of all such actions adopted at the 71st General Service Conference last April.

19,560 days

Yes, I am still sober, still above ground. My posts slowed down drastically and then stopped altogether because I feared it would become too easy to identify who I was from my posts, due to circumstances of my life. Already, my brother had figured out this was me. For those who don't realize it, I was doing my best to respect Tradition 12. My brother already knew I was a deeply involved member of A.A.

Future posts will probably be less personal, on the whole. I hope this is, at least in part, because I have less interest in myself and more interest in others [v. Alcoholics Anonymous, p 84].

A.A. in these times of pandemic has been a great experience for me personally. Since mid-March 2020, I've attended online meetings on every continent that has them (Antarctica does not, due to insufficient bandwidth). I've been regularly attending meetings all over the US and Canada, as well as in Australia and South Africa. It has also become much easier to find workshops, conventions, conferences, and meetings that focus on topics like Traditions, Concepts, The A.A. Service Manual, and A.A. history. These are topics that I love learning about. I've been sober almost 29 years, been involved in General Service for 25½ of those years, but I sometimes think I've learned more about General Service in the last 16 months than in all the time before. Maybe not. Maybe it just feels that way.

Eighteen years

Still here, still sober, even if I'm not posting. Yesterday I celebrated 18 years of continuous sobriety.