Corey picks up in the examples section, walking through Jim’s slide back into drinking (milk and whiskey, convinced a full stomach would protect him) and the book’s blunt verdict that follows: whatever the precise definition of the word may be, we call this plain insanity. He spends real time on the jaywalker parable, a man who keeps stepping in front of traffic no matter how many times he’s hurt, and finds his own story in it more than once. Then comes Fred, the accountant with the good life and no excuse at all. No HALT, no trigger, just a stray thought over dinner that undid months of sobriety before he even noticed it happening.
The personal material runs deep this week. Corey talks through his own drug court history, holds his mother up as an example of someone who never needed to smash the delusion he had to, and shares a memory of his father’s last words to him, spoken just days before he died. It closes on the doctor’s own conclusion from decades of treating people like them: for most cases, there is virtually no other solution, and the defense has to come from somewhere higher than willpower.
A study offered in the spirit of one alcoholic sharing experience, strength, and hope with another. Next week: Chapter Four, “We Agnostics.”
Read along at home. Reach out any time at wave@dailyripples.com.
Big Book study | more about alcoholism | Jim and Fred | plain insanity | the jaywalker | higher power as the only defense | recovery literature | experience strength and hope | addiction recovery
Disclaimer: This Wave Book Study is an independent recovery study offered free of charge as a teaching aid. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or approved by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. (A.A.W.S.). Passages read and discussed are drawn from the book Alcoholics Anonymous (“The Big Book”), © A.A.W.S., Inc., and are used here for educational and discussion purposes with attribution. This study is not a substitute for the Big Book itself. We’d encourage you to get your own copy and read it. A.A.W.S. has not reviewed or approved this content, and the views expressed are those of the host alone.