Bill Wilson was introduced to Dr. Robert Smith who was not able to get and stay sober for any length of time despite his best efforts. Robert Smith told Bill that he would (reluctantly) give him 15 minutes. Robert told him that he had taken the cure, been to therapy had been prayed over, that he had been sliced and diced more than a Christmas turkey. What possibly could he tell him in fifteen minutes that would keep him sober?
Bill Wilson’s reply I am not here to keep you sober, I am here to keep me sober, they ended up speaking for six hours: that was the first meeting of Doctor Bob and Bill Wilson.
Dr. Bob was indeed intrigued but was not yet convinced that a life run on self will could hardly be called a success and the illusion of control is the last to let go.
Bill stayed in touch and could sense a breakthrough with a kindred soul who also had the same liken affinity for the spirits.
After several weeks of sobriety, Dr Bob felt he could safely go to the American Medical Association convention in Atlantic City. He was drunk before the train left the Akron station, and a mighty bender ensued. Upon his return, he dried out for several days but was still having the shakes when his sober friend Bill gave him his last drink – a bottle of beer – to steady his nerves so he could perform surgery that afternoon. After the surgery Bob said “I am going through with this” spent the balance of his first day of sobriety making amends (still smelling of alcohol) to people he had harmed. He never had another drink.
That was Dr. Bob’s last drink. I believe the humiliation of having Bill see to his needs so that he could operate as a doctor in his surgery was the last nail in his drinking career.
Eighteen days later (as some historians say) he had reaffirmed all Six Steps of the Oxford Group and agreed in principle to the “The Four Absolutes – Honesty Unselfishness Love Purity, And told Bill that the only way they were going to keep this thing (sobriety) was they had to give it away.
The two men of destiny went to Akron’s City Hospital June 26, 1935. And there met Bill Dotson, the “Man on the Bed,” was AA number 3. … His date of sobriety was the date he entered Akron’s City Hospital for his last detox, June 26, 1935.
When two or three are gathered with no other affiliation they can call themselves an A.A. group.
When two or three are gathered in my name I shall be amoungst them.
The painting done in 1955 is an iconic description of A.A. in the throws of gestation. “The Man on the bed”. The fellow in the foreground has a book in his hand, 4 yrs before the publication of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. The only book that was allowed in the hospital usually was a bible. The cast of characters were most interesting, Dr. Bob, Bill D. (lawyer) and the chief architect of A. A. Bill W… So to start this thing of ours we had a doctor, a lawyer, and an Indian chief. Bill D. was number three in recovery, proving that the power of one drunk talking to another still to this very day remains our most powerful tool of persuasion.
See you on the radio
Joseph
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