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Dr.
Bob's Last Message
Delivered at the first
international conference of
Alcoholics Anonymous at Cleveland, Ohio in 1950.
My good friends in AA and of AA.
I feel I would be very remiss if I didn't take
this opportunity to welcome you here to
Cleveland not only to this meeting but those
that have already transpired. I hope very much
that the presence of so many people and the
words that you have heard will prove an
inspiration to you - not only to you, but may
you be able to impart that inspiration to the
boys and girls back home who were not fortunate
enough to be able to come. In other words, we
hope that your visit here has been both
enjoyable and profitable.
I get a big thrill out of looking
over a vast sea of faces like this with a
feeling that possibly some small thing that I
did a number of years ago, played an infinitely
small part in making this meeting possible. I
also get quite a thrill when I think that we all
had the same problem. We all did the same
things. We all get the same results in
proportion to our zeal and enthusiasm and
stick-to-itiveness. If you will pardon the
injection of a personal note at this time, let
me say that I have been in bed five of the last
seven months and my strength hasn't returned as
I would like, so my remarks of necessity will be
very brief.
But there are two or three things
that flashed into my mind on which it would be
fitting to lay a little emphasis; one is the
simplicity of our Program. Let's not louse it
all up with Freudian complexes and things that
are interesting to the scientific mind, but have
very little to do with our actual AA work. Our
12 Steps, when simmered down to the last,
resolve themselves into the words love and
service. We understand what love is and we
understand what service is. So let's bear those
two things in mind.
Let us also remember to guard
that erring member - the tongue, and if we must
use it, let's use it with kindness and
consideration and tolerance.
And one more thing; none of us
would be here today if somebody hadn't taken
time to explain things to us, to give us a
little pat on the back, to take us to a meeting
or two, to have done numerous little kind and
thoughtful acts in our behalf. So let us never
get the degree of smug complacency so that we're
not willing to extend or attempt to, that help
which has been so beneficial to us, to our less
fortunate brothers. Thank you very much.
Robert Holbrook Smith was born in
St. Johnsbury, Vermont
November 16, 1950 to August 8, 1879
Dr. Bob on Tradition Eleven
"We need always maintain
personal anonymity at the level of press, radio
and films."
Dr. Bob, co-founder of AA,
commented on tradition eleven as follows: since
our tradition of anonymity designates the exact
level where the line should be held, it must be
obvious to everyone who can read and understand
the English language that to maintain anonymity
at any other level is definately a violation of
this tradition.
"The AA who hides his
identity from his fellow AAs by using only a
given name violates the tradition just as much
as the AA who permits his name to appear in the
press in connection with matter pertaining to
AA.
"The former is maintaining
his anonymity ABOVE the level of press, radio
and films, and the latter is maintaining his
anonymity BELOW the level of press, radio and
films-whereas the tradition states that we
should maintain our anonymity AT the level of
press, radio and films."
Reprinted from the February
1969 Grapevine in Our Anonymity AT the level of
press, radio and films. |
