Twelve Drawings

One Mark at a Time

In case you are wondering, these are hand-drawn pen and ink illustrations. Someone probably has a computer that can duplicate this stipple and hatching effect, but I am patient enough to continue by hand.

Pen and ink drawing have been a staple of popular art for centuries. I hope the artform will always endure—despite the advent of new computer software. There is a rather timeless quality about pen and ink drawings that can blur the lines between historical periods. That timelessness is an effect I deliberately try to achieve. Why? Becauase if I had one wish, it would be to help the younger reader see beyond the antique-sounding vocabulary found in recovery literature like the Big Book. Within that "grandfatherly" writing can be found very specific, definite, and practical instructions for those who wish to be freed from alcholic and addictive insanity. May you find them now, if you need them.

Progress Not Perfection
I use 9 x 12" paper and a medium Waterman fountain pen—like the one seen in the drawing called "Difference"*. You will probably notice pencil sketch marks here and there on the drawings. I try to erase them because they are distracting to some people. To be honest, I draw mostly for God and thankfully He has the job of being perfect, not me.

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*TRIVIA: As far as I know, "Difference" is the only drawing that could not have been drawn back when the Big Book was published in 1939. In that drawing, a stalk of broccoli is being held several inches above a photograph. In that photograph is the image of an exploding atomic bomb...a sight the world did not see until 1945. It's okay if you thought the photograph shows a stalk of cauliflower instead—my beloved late mother thought that, too.

Drawing Attention to "Old-School" Twelve Step Words

I am not a professional artist and these drawings are not for sale. They are the result of a spiritual experience that has re-formed me. For twenty years, my drawing pen produced nothing but senseless doodles. The day I looked down and saw the first Serenity Prayer drawing appear under my pen, it was as surprising as if the family dog suddenly stood on its hind legs and calmly recited Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet.

At that time, I had been in recovery for perhaps a year. I was surprised when more and more drawings sprang forth—it was inexplicable. Where were they coming from and where were they going? Then I remembered that people in Twelve Step meetings commonly offer "personal shares" or short talks. I recognized that my drawings were my own form of personal share. Not special; just different.

"Old School"

My ink drawings are out of step with a world of colorful, high-resolution, PhotoShop images. To be honest, the reason I create old-school pen and ink drawings is because I don't know how to create anything else. The archaic style seems appropriate, since the subject is old-school Twelve Step recovery. Whether you know or care about alcohol or addiction recovery, I hope you will glance through these illustrations. Downloads are free IF they are for your PERSONAL use only. There are four completed sets of TwelveDrawings, which are:

• Twelve Words from the Serenity Prayer - this title is self-explanatory

• Twelve Steps - one key word from each of the Steps

• Twelve Promises - one key word from each of the Promises

• Twelve Metaphors - metaphors (or verbal imagery) used in the Big Book of AA.

A fifth set of TwelveDrawings is in the works now. If my Higher Power wills it, that set should be finished by January 2013. The working title is "Twelve Words from Page 37 in the Big Book of AA" (I know, not very exciting is it?). If you are not in a Twelve Step program, that set will make even less sense to you than the previous ones. I apologize in advance for that, but please feel grateful if you do not NEED a Twelve Step program.

If you're wondering where my ideas came from, they came after some prayer and meditation. Sometimes, the emerging illustrations startled me. Certain drawings (like "Courage") made my eyes brim with emotions every time I saw them. Other drawings made my hair stand up as if God was pressing nearer to see. How could I not continue after that?

I would like to point out that few of the drawings are entirely symbolic. There are no mythical or Biblical images like a sword-yielding Angel hovering magically above a mountain path. I wanted each drawing to contain things I have seen in real life—or reasonably might. That was important to me, because that's how Recovery was for me: drawn from real life. So, there is a fairly ordinary looking squirrel in the Twelve Steps "Ready" drawing. His energetic leap is a visual reminder of a leap of faith I took in Step 6: feeling exhilerated and entirely READY for whatever was coming next. 

I hope you enjoy looking at the drawings. I hope they may make some small difference in your own recovery. Regardless, please take what you need and leave the rest.

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NOTE: All of the drawings and written material are protected by ©opyrights and I take those rights seriously. You may download whatever drawings or text you want for personal use. Any other use or reuse will require specific permission, obtained in advance by writing to [email protected] . National Twelve Step Organizations welcome and will be charged nothing for the use of my art. All Twelve Traditions will be maintained.

January 2013

I have begun a new series of TwelveDrawings titled "ReligiousOrNot". Here's why.

The Twelve Steps were published in the year 1939 in a book titled Alcoholics Anonymous (known commonly as the Big Book). Among its 500-plus pages, the word "God" appears nearly 300 times. I speak for myself when I say that any book which contains that many references to God seems likely to be a very, very religious book. A nit-picker might easily argue against my assumption. There are many books which examine that word from a purely historical, academic, or cultural perspective without promoting any religious beliefs. And there are many books which might mention that word in passing while attacking any or all institutions of religion. But still, I believe that where there is smoke there is fire. Likewise, where a book positively weaves the name of God into so many of its pages, there is bound to be some sort of religious message being delivered.

Or so I once believed.

Now that I have spent more than a decade reading and using the book Alcoholics Anonymous, I no longer believe the word "religious" applies to it. If you agree with me, there are many of us. If you disagree, there are as many (or more) who feel as you do. You may also fall into the sizable "Frankly I don't care either way" category. That's fine. Reasonable people often disagree.

For those of us interested in the question of "Religious or Not?", how are we to settle our differences? When lawyers disagree on the meaning of an important word, they agree to turn to a volume called called Black's Law Dictionary. I had never heard of it until a friend and law professor mentioned it. The book is so authoritative that even the Justices of America's Supreme Court turn to for an indisputible definition of any legal term. Want to see it? Here is a link http://www.blackslawdictionary.com

As it happens, the Big Book's author, Bill Wilson, attended law school. He passed all of his courses but his drinking took a turn for the worse and he never practiced law. Bill likely knew of Black's Law Dictionary but he also knew that only a fraction of his intended readers—the lawyers—would know of it. So, if Bill Wilson's readers wanted to look up the meaning of a word like "religion", he knew they would turn to a commonly available dictionary. Since I wanted to interpret words just as Bill's earliest 1939 readers did, I acquired the most authoritative dictionary for American English in his day: a Webster's New International Dictionary Second Edition, published in 1934. (The Third Edition would not be published until the 1960s).

I opened my enormous old Webster's and looked up the word "religion". There I found a definition that is longer than any other I have ever found since that day. It read as follows:

Religion n. - The service and adoration of God or a god as expressed in forms of worship, in obedience to divine commands, esp. as found in accepted sacred writings or as declared by recognized teachers and in the pursuit of a way of life regarded as incumbent on true believers.

Whew! I labored to read and understand it. Some words came quickly while others came slowly. I knew the job of defining religion would be challenging, but this one must have kept Webster's lexicographers, etymologists, and editors working overtime. This definition seemed to ramble endlessly, which thwarted my ambition to create just one illustration for this very important word. I had been prepared for a tough assignment, but not for this!

Intimidated, I backed down from the original concept. I let several months pass while I ruminated. Finally, I reapproached the definition but this time examinging just one word at a time. My previous illustrations had focussed on the words Bill Wilson used in writing the Big Book. However, Bill Wilson had absolutely nothing do do with writing this Webster's definition. Still, the definition seemed relevant because when anyone used the word "religion" in Bill Wilson's day, this was the most widely accepted meaning and therefore its words deserved consideration. I sifted through the long passage and selected what I thought were the 12 most crucial words. I then looked each one up in the 1934 Webster's:

Service n. - the occupation, condition, or status of a servant, now esp. a domestic servant.

Adoration  n. - act of paying honor to a divine being

God (or a god) n. - the Supreme Being (or a being of more than human attributes)

Express v. - to force out by pressure

Worship n. - courtesy or reverence paid to merit or worth

Command n. - act of directing authoritatively

Writings n. - specif., act, art, or product of forming letters and characters on paper, wood, stone, etc. to record the ideas which characters and words express, or to communicate them by words or sounds.

Teacher n. - one who makes to know how

Pursuit v. - to seek

Way n. - direction of motion, progress, facing, pointing, etc.

Incumbent n. - one who is in present possession of a benefice (note: “benefice” is a temporary land holding) or of any office

True adj. - steady in adhering to friends, promises, allegiances, or the like

Maybe you would have chosen one or two different words. But bear in mind that I am an illustrator and I chose words that would benefit from what the ancients called "illumination" (i.e., visual embellishments or decorations which invite the reader to linger or reflect on particularly meaningful words or text.)

Regardless, I had found the basis for a new set of Twelve Drawings. I gave the new set a working title of "ReligionOrNot". I chose that name to reflect a long-running debate about whether people in Recovery are "religious" or not. Even outside of Recovery, I often hear people describe their own beliefs as "spiritual, but not religious". I also chose this name to acknowledge the biggest question of all......."Does it even matter whether we agree that Recovery is religious or not, as long as it works?"

You can ask that question yourself. Or not. If someone asks me today, I confidently answer "doesn't matter". But my trusty Webster's dictionary has shed much new light on my view of Twelve Step recovery. So I am open to being proven totallly wrong. I have begun the new set of drawings and will continue at my usual glacial pace. (I draw in my spare time and spare time is hard to find.) Please check my Twitter profile at @TwelveDrawings if you wish to see new drawings—like "Command"—as they are completed.

Thank you for reading. And please keep coming back to whatever religion, belief, spiritual experience, and/or program of Recovery nourishes your spirit.

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TRIVIA: There are five prior sets of TwelveDrawing.com series, including Serenity Prayer, Twelve Steps, Twelve Promises, Twelve Metaphors, and Twelve Insanities. All but the last set are already posted on this website as of this writing. The Insanities will be added when I begin a monthly rotation which showcases just three sets of TwelveDrawings at a time.

What about the other definitions?

People who see my drawings often ask why I always illustrate the first definition only. Why not pick one of the other definitions for that same word? Good question. In elementary school, my teachers said that when the dictionary contains several definitions for the same word, the first definition is the most popular one. The others are correct too, but they are not currently as popular as the #1 definition. Here is an example taken from Webster's online dictionary today:

2a : marked by steady dispassionate calmness and self-control <a cool and calculating administrator>

2b : lacking ardor or friendliness <a cool impersonal manner>

2c of jazz : marked by restrained emotion and the frequent use of counterpoint

2d : free from tensions or violence <we used to fight, but we're cool now>

3 —used as an intensive <a cool million dollars>

At first, it seemed reasonable to base my drawings on purely modern definitions. The language in the Big Book of AA certainly looks and sounds much like the English of today. But further reading of my musty 1934 Webster's New International Dictionary revealed that the older definitions #2 and #3 (below) were very different from their 2012 counterparts.

"COOL" (adjective in year 1934)  1: moderately cold

2: producing or giving a sensation of coolness

3: not ardent, warm or passionate

The first definitions matched, but if I strayed off into other definitions, there were significant differences. I became concerned about which definition would be most relevant to Bill's thinking. The first one? The one I liked the most? Or maybe all of the definitions at once? I asked a reference librarian to explain the differences between a modern dictionary and one written in 1934. She did a wonderful job which I will summarize as follows:

• COLLEGIATE DICTIONARY: The dictionaries that most people have on their shelf are "collegiate dictionaries". Traditional collegiate dictionaries were edited down to a length that was convenient for students to carrying to and from school. (Today's portable electronics make it possible for students to carry any amount of information, without worrying about size and weight.) Collegiate editing typically involved eliminating rare words and/or obscure definitions. Most collegiate dictionaries arranged definitions in order from the most common definition to the least—just as my grade school teachers told me.

• UNABRIDGED DICTIONARY: An "unabridged dictionary" (like my 1934 Webster's) strives to present every known definition of every word. Because it contains so many more words and definitions than a collegiate dictionary, the book itself is much larger and heavier. In fact, an unabridged dictionary is so large that libraries often mount them on a strong pedestal. The first definition listed in an unabridged dictionary is not the most popular one; rather it is the oldest one. The written introduction in my 1934 dictionary confirms this on page xiii: "In general the arrangement of meanings of words of many meanings in the Dictionary has been according to the following practice. The earliest meaning ascertainable is always first, whether it is literary, technical, historical, or obsolete. Meanings of later derivation are arranged in the order shown to be most probably be dated citations and semantic development."

If the first definition is the oldest one, might the word be too old to be useful? No. If that first definition is so old that no one uses it anymore, it is clearly labeled as "obsolete" or "archaic". I disregarded those definitions.

Today, most Americans probably don't give much thought to how old their word definitions are. Abandoning aside the "stuffy" formality of their grandparent's school days, today's American now favor word choices that are creative and expressive—sometimes at the expense of the word's precise definition. During Bill's school years (in the early 1900s), written English was much more formal than it is today. He attended private school in New England and later studied law in New York. In both instances, enormous importance was placed on choosing precise words with meanings that could not be misconstrued by others.

Bill's expert use of precisely defined words probably contributed to the effectiveness of the Big Book of AA. Alcoholics and addicts are notoriously slippery in their evasive use of language. (i.e., "You expected me to REPAY you? But you never actually SAID it was a LOAN. Hey, I thought you were my FRIEND. Geez, you don't have to make a FEDERAL CASE out of it!")

I suspect that Bill knew the Big Book would have to pass two very severe tests. First, it needed to speak to alcohlics in a way that bypassed their habitual distortion of other people's words. If Bill had used slang or any other loosely defined vocabulary, alcoholics could have found the loopholes they needed to dismiss him and his message. Secondly, the writing needed to survive the changes in meaning that words inevitably undergo over many years. Bill needed words with enduring meanings.

In both cases, Bill would have been wise to use the #1 definition from an unabridged dictionary. This would prevent the alcoholic from skipping through all of the definitions, looking for one that contradicted Bill's intended meaning. It would also ensure that for many decades to come, an interested Big Book reader could find an unchanging definition* for the words that Bill W chose with such care and committed to writing when so many lives depended on his success.

About the Artist
This artist remains anonymous. Maybe that sounds intriguing or mysterious, but it shouldn't. In Twelve Step recovery, anonymity is the spiritual basis of all Twelve Step Traditions (see Tradition Twelve). So while my identity is not really a secret, I am remaining anonymous to please the Higher Power that got me sober.
          The particular programs I belong to remain anonymous as well. Each Twelve Step group deals with a distinct "Problem", but their common "Solution" is found in its original form in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. Thanks to the "Big Book Comes Alive" recordings by Joe and Charlie, that has become very clear to me. (More about Joe & Charlie here http://www.twelvedrawings.com/blog/2011-12/who-are-joe-charlie )
          Please enjoy. Take what you need and leave the rest. — TwelveDrawings

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Note the "Artist's Comments" Below Individual Illustrations
As time permits, I am adding Artist's Comments to each drawing. There is not text with every drawing yet, so you may have to poke around to discover all of them. My comments explain exactly what that image meant to me in my recovery, for whatever that is worth. If you do not wish to read the comments, I suggest you not scroll down and, instead, simply enjoy the drawings alone.

The Doctor's Opinion begins on p.xxiii of the Big Book Alcoholics Anonymous. The doctor in question was Dr. Silkworth who suprised many readers by writing: "...true alcoholism is a manifestation of an allergy." (p. xxvi)

I have heard addiction experts—even some belonging to AA— who minimize or totally ignore Dr. Silkworth's use of the word "allergy". Some physicians hint that Dr. Silkworth made a misdiagnosis based on inferior medical knowledge. Others suggest that he was employing some sort of metaphor. (A "metaphor" is the application of a word or phrase which is not literally applicable. Example: "Laziness is a CANCER spreading through society.") I studied the history of the medical term "allergy" and I believe that today's skeptics misunderstand Dr. Silkworth's use of the word.

Did the Doctor make a misdiagnosis?  I seriously doubt that. Dr. Silkworth personally treated over 5,000 patients for all sorts of alcohol problems. He diagnosed only the most severe cases as suffering from an "allergy". Perhaps our difficulty in understanding him arises from OUR current use of the word. Most people I know think of an "allergy" as some sort of histamine reaction (i.e., hay fever, pet allergies, poison ivy, bee allergies). Because that type of allergy reaction is so well known today, I assumed that this definition of allergies has been around for centuries. Not so. The medical term "allergy" did not exist before 1906. An Austrian doctor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clemens_von_Pirquet) invented the term to describe patients who safely tolerated a vaccine for a period of time, but who later experienced a dangerously different reaction to later doses of the same vaccine. That Austrian doctor published his findings and the term "allergy" was soon widely known among physicians of Dr. Silkworth's age.

Did the Doctor use the word "allergy" as a metaphor? I used to think so, but now it seems totally unlikely. It is clear that Dr. Silkworth offering his opinion as a physician, not as a poet or creative writer. A physician has no reason to employ a precise medical term like "allergy" unless he is describing that exact condition. A doctor would cause unnecessary confusion if he ever wrote, "Alcoholism is LIKE an allergy." The chance of being misinterpreted would be enormous. An educated person like a physician could easily think of clearer examples if they were striving to find a metaphor. My conclusion is that he was speaking literally.

I believe Doctor Silkworth used the term "allergy" according to the  medical definition in use at the time. I am not a doctor but it appears to me that Dr. Silkworth was describing those drinkers who drank safely at first, but who eventually experienced a dangerously different reaction. He wasn't referring to itching or sneezing. He was describing people who drank at 20 years old with no serious physical problems but who experienced inexplicably different reactions later. Many respectable citizens were almost dead of horrifying and seemingly incurable alcoholism by middle-age. Same substance; different reaction. In 1939 (when the Big Book was written) the correct diagnosis for that reaction was an "allergy".

I could be completely wrong, but I suspect that the Doctor's Opinion in the Big Book is rooted in solid science, not in metaphor or misdiagnosis. Regardless, I am grateful for the pioneering work performed by Dr. Silkworth and countless others in the early days of Twelve Step recovery.

God bless you and keep you,

TwelveDrawings


 

My sponsor always encouraged me to look up Twelve Step words in the dictionary. I was not enthusiastic. Reading dictionaries is something I try to avoid. But I followed his directions and I am glad I did. His request unleashed a love of recovery-related words and led to my series of drawings related to the Twelve Step.

At first, I looked up words using a recent dictionary. Then one rainy day, I ducked into a used book store and I noticed a Websters Dictionary that was published in 1934*. The date caught my eye because I remembered Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill W. got sober around that time. Always perplexed by the quaint language used in the Big Book, I opened the old dictionary to read the OFFICIAL definition for some Twelve Step words. I flipped idly to a word I was having trouble with at the time: “God”.

Webster’s 1934 definition of “God” was “a being of more than human attributes or powers”. It struck me at once that these words were similar to Bill W.’s phrase “a power higher than human power.” It was not identical—the words were different—but the essential meaning was the same. Curious, I looked up some other words from the Steps. In every case, the very first definition of each word seemed to reinforce Bill’s writing while also offering some fresh insights into several familiar words.

Did Bill W. write the Big Book with a dictionary open in front of him? I strongly doubt it. At that time, the meanings of most words were commonly known. In the 1930s, the correct meanings of words did not change as quickly as they do today*. Words were chosen for their exact meaning—much more so than in today's culture. So, if Bill W. described something as being "cool", he was referring to its temperature, not its fashionable attractiveness.

Ironically, reading those older definitions renewed my personal identification with the Steps. I still continue the habit and have collected and shared dozens of helpful word definitions. You might try it yourself. Your local library will probably have an enormous Webster's Dictionary somewhere in the back room (if libraries still HAVE books whenever you read this). Chances are, the librarians will be very pleased if you ask to see it for yourself. 

My point is simple. If you want to better understand any word, why not read its definition in a dictionary that was current when the writer wrote it? Keep It Simple.

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* Words changed meaning very gradually in Bill W's day. Dictionaries were updated every two or three DECADES, not every year. This is from Merriam-Webter's website: "Since they were first released, Webster's International Dictionary and Webster's Collegiate Dictionary have been updated and revised many times. New editions of the unabridged appeared in 1909 (Webster's New International Dictionary), 1934 (Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition), and 1961 (Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged). Addenda sections, featuring words that came into use after publication of the 1961 edition, have been added regularly, most recently in 2002." (source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/commitment.htm)

You may read references on this site to "Joe & Charlie". Who exactly are Joe and Charlie? They are two long-recovered alcoholics who traveled the world for several decades, sharing their common-sense insights into the Big Book of AA. Because all Twelve Step programs are derived from the AA Big Book, I suspect their recordings might help anyone in ANY Twelve Step program....not just AA.

The Big Book Study (officially called "The Big Book Comes Alive") recordings are not conference-approved literature. Any sponsee interested in listening to the series should ask their sponsor first. I can recommend the talks with confidence because many long-sober speakers have openly given credit to Joe and Charlie with their own recovery. I have heard people say said they never really "got" how Twelve Step recovery works until they heard the free-wheeling and good-natured recordings of Joe P and Charlie McQ. I know that was true for me. 

To say it more clearly, Joe and Charlie's talks saved my life. When I first got into recovery, I could not really grasp what I was reading and I did not get sober. I was about to give up and go back out there. My kindly mother startled me by mailing me a complete set of the recordings. At first, I scoffed. Then, I listened. Honestly, I doubt I would be alive today if I had not heard that Old-School message carried directly to me by Joe and Charlie's talks.

Joe and Charlie inspired my habit of looking up recovery-related words in the dictionary. Listening to two rough-hewn men casually discussing the Latin roots of the word "resentment" was stunning at first (i.e., I was startled to learn that to "resent" meant to "feel again". I had always inventoried my resentments as if the word meant to simply feel angry. With a new and more historically accurate definition in mind, the resentment inventory became much more powerful for me.) Bringing such mental discipline reading the Big Book had never occurred to me. Joe and Charlie's lifelong search for recovery in the Big Book still inspires me today through their recordings.

This website is dedicated to the tireless work of Joe and Charlie, and the others behind the scenes who helped them carry their Message to thousands like me.

Joe McQ passed away October 25th, 2007. Another gentleman (coincidentally named Joe) continued presenting the Big Book Study with Charlie P until the latter died in April of 21, 2011. All three of these men gave voluntarily of their time for many years, helping others gain a better understanding of the practice and history of Twelve Step recovery.

Listening to Big Book Study recordings cannot change the importance of thoroughly reading the Big Book or your own recovery program's literature. But because the complete series of recordings lasts many hours, I believe only the most devoted sponsor could duplicate all the careful review of the Twelve Step process that is presented in these talks. 

If you go looking for these recordings online or elsewhere, you will probably find numerous versions of them. The exact content of Joe & Charlie's discussions changed surprisingly little over the years—I notice that recordings from the 1980s sound remarkably similar to talks given decades later. I suspect the pair saw many lives being saved by their original talk and made a strenuous effort not to change it for fear of "spoiling" its good results.

•  Here is a link to FREE MP3 downloads up-to-date Joe & Charlie Big Book Studies: http://silkworth.net/freestuff.html 

•  I personally got sober while listening to an old 1987 recording. As mentioned earlier, the core material is the same over all the years of recordings. I just happen to enjoy the original Joe McQ who can be heard in his full vibrancy at http://downloadaaspeakers.com/joeandcharlieplus.html NOTE: I downloaded the "PLUS" recording specifically because it contained the 1987 I first listened to. NOTE THAT THIS "PLUS" RECORDING IS NOT FREE but perhaps you can find it somewhere else for free if you search more thoroughly than I did.

DISCLAIMER: Neither of the above sites endorse my site, nor can I guarantee their current availability. Naturally, you may do your own search for Joe and Charlie Big Book Study on your browser.

May we meet you as you trudge the Road of Happy Destiny. God Bless you and keep you until then.

I confess I am a LITTLE obsessed with the historical roots of words that Bill W. used in writing the Twelve Steps. (You may roll your eyes at this without offending me.) Words can have very vague or very precise meanings, depending on who is using them and when. For example, lawyers choose words for their precise meanings. Bill W studied law for more than two years. He passed every class, but for some reason Bill never took the bar exam and so never earned the right to be called a "Lawyer".

Still, his legal training must have come in handy when Bill began writing the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. Bill knew that the lives of his alcoholics were on the line when they read the Big Book. He was painfully aware that words could be slippery things, especially in the hands of alcoholics who were well-practiced in evasion and denial. When Bill re-examined the six Oxford Group tenants that helped him get sober, he reportedly found there too many loopholes in the wording; loopholes that alcoholics might use to wriggle out of sobriety. So, he recast those six tenants into twelve steps. I assume he did that to close those loopholes using clearer wording.

My point is that I now pay close attention to the precise meanings of words in the original Twelve Step literature because I suspect Bill W. did too. I first got that idea from Joe & Charlie's "Big Book Comes Alive" lecture series. They carefully examined the exact definition of such words as "resent", "believe", "decide", and many others. I went an extra step and found a 1930-era Webster's Dictionary since it contained exactly the definitions Bill had at his disposal.

Have I taken it too far? I suppose it is possible. I have no legal training and much of what I have said above come from my own assumptions. But the process of looking up the precise definitions of Twelve Step words has helped me stay sober for another day. One day at a time.

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TRIVIA: I have read that Bill W. began writing the Big Book of AA under the strict editorial review of some 40 recovered alcoholics. They probably wanted the book to have the continuity and tone that comes from the pen of a single author. Unfortunately, there were countless disagreements about the words Bill W. chose. In a particularly important example, some loved the word "God" because of what it meant to them. Others objected to the word "God" because it meant something different to them. I have no idea how Bill and the group reconciled their differing definitions. It is possible someone pulled out a current Webster's dictionary and read this definition to the group: "God n. - a being of greater than human attributes and powers". Bill did settle on a similar phrase—a power greater than human power—to refer to God. Coincidence? Maybe. But, as a student of the law, Bill knew that choosing words with well-documented definitions was a wise strategy. This would ensure that if anyone raised later objections to the word "God", a dictionary could be used to settle the matter. Plus, there was another benefit to that strategy. In the early days of AA, the Big Book was mailed by the thousands (later millions) to individuals and groups across America. Since AA groups would be initially established in scattered and diverse locations, arguments over Twelve Step writings would have to be settled using locally-available resources—like a dictionary. Do I have any proof that Bill or any AA founder chose words by looking up their meaning in Webster's 1934 Dictionary? I do not. My speculations are just that. Your guess is as good as mine.

This site contains the opinions, impressions, ideas, and assumptions of one person. Through it, I am sharing my experience, strength, and hope in case anyone wants to hear it. Whatever I say is a reflection of my own individual personality and nothing more. 

The original source of information about the Twelve Steps is the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous.  That text was written in 1938 under the close supervision of the first people to get sober using the Steps. To the credit of the later generations of AA members, the basic text of that book has remained remarkably unchanged since its original publication. Whether you are an alcoholic or not, I believe that a study of that literature is valuable to learning more Twelve Step recovery. 

The Twelfth Tradition is "ever reminding us to place principles before personalities". The principles being referred to can be found in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous or in your own Twelve Step group's primary  literature. If you see anything on this website that contradicts the principles expressed in those original writings, please disregard that as an unfortunate—and hopefully forgivable—part of my personality.

Principles BEFORE personalities.