Friends of Bill Wilson? enter here

My mama always said "if you can't say something good about something, don't say nothin' at all" Ditto to you, Chai Tea, take it where somebody cares. Those of us seriously within AA don't deserve flippant criticism.You haven't got enough AA experience to fill a thimble, yet you carry enough bitterness & resentment over that AA guru to rival Niagara Falls. May you find your own peace one day.

Who the hell is Bill?

Well if Babs is reading you wrong, and I'm reading you wrong, maybe it ain't our reading that's wrong, Chai Tea - maybe you look brittle and bitter coming on a "Friends of Bill W" thread just to throw stones.

snood wrote:

Well if Babs is reading you wrong, and I'm reading you wrong, maybe it ain't our reading that's wrong, Chai Tea - maybe you look brittle and bitter coming on a "Friends of Bill W" thread just to throw stones.

well then snood, what can I say? both of you are wrong....

ya'll seem to be really tense about this.

in addition, since you don't ever have anything pleasant to say to me snood, even in pm's, perhaps you shouldn't get yourself upset my reading my posts. I wouldn't want anyone accusing you of not keeping quiet if you don't have something nice to say.

I know how important it is for you to be civil. In truth snood, you're tiresome and old news. All you do for me is make me give a small sigh of "oh great more of the same" you're schtick is boring.


Moving on....
pertaining to the post above mine, I can't help but feel that both people addressed are having an outsized reaction.

It's exactly what I was talking about....

bab, I do have a question for you...without going back and reading, I remember you throwing some figures out there about how half of the people this, and some other % or number that....

where exactly did you come by these figures?
Surely you can't begrudge me asking that.

snood will do nothing but make nasty remarks to me from here out, but he's pretty much ignorable anyway.

but you, I'm asking as a knowledge seeker, these numbers you speak of, where exactly did you get them?

I have no hidden agendas, so it's right out there that when people can toss off all kinds of "facts" without the data to support them, I tend to be skeptical.

Now, if being skeptical makes me an unhappy person in your eyes, so be it. Again, after my initial comment, I have no need to qualify my happiness or quality of life to you.

BTW, another cult like behavior, siting fabrications, heresay, the "well it sounded good", and so forth as fact. If someone questions these "facts", they are not simply asking a question, they are undermining the entire system.

Don't you see bab that's exactly what you did? You took my one post, and tore into me as if I was the devil himself.

What I mostly saw is that you mostly communicate in slogans (sorry, but another cult thing) rather than invidual thoughts.

I'd like to hear from you to further discuss as intelligent, civilized people.

One last thing....if you look around A2k, you will find me mostly light hearted and sometimes thoughtful....there are others here that mostly get their kicks out of being contemptuous, mean and unkind. Yet, you compliment that one, and give me grief.

The reason? I expressed an opinion that was my own, instead of simply coming on and saying....

Wow, I can't believe it, I've been sober one day at a time for over 19 years!

If I had done that, you would have been all hugs and kisses. But, I would have been the same person I am right now. You just don't like it that I commited the sin of questioning. Gosh, I'm tripping all over myself with this cult stuff.

Not to mention the gratuitous insults from the peanut gallery. That falls under the "humiliate the other person, so they won't question again." catagory.

At least I'm making this thread interesting.

Merry, I'm surprised by your comments. Kinda giving carte blanche to someone whose intents aren't pure to keep coming back, don't you think? Coming back until they find someone to take advantage of someone either sexually, economically or phychologically. Some people are so fragile when they first get sober, they are easy targets.

Chai Tea wrote:

Merry, I'm surprised by your comments. Kinda giving carte blanche to someone whose intents aren't pure to keep coming back, don't you think? Coming back until they find someone to take advantage of someone either sexually, economically or phychologically. Some people are so fragile when they first get sober, they are easy targets.

My dear Chai, where in the world did I imply that I approve of "giving carte blanche to someone whose intents aren't pure"? I have no idea what anyone else's intents are. Coming to meetings for social reasons is not the same as 13th stepping.

I know one old geezer, sober for more than 30 years now, who, I'm sure, comes to meetings only to get away from his wife and to meet old drinking buddies -- now sober, like himself. For him, the AA meeting has become a substitute for the neighborhood bar which he no longer frequents. That's innocent enough. So is coming to a meeting just for the free coffee. No harm in that. Some folks come to meeting to meet and chat with folks whom they don't see in any other social situation.

The implication in that post of mine is that any true alky who comes to meetings solely for these social reasons has probably not really gotten the message, thinks that AA is a great place to chill and hardly (if at all) hears what is being said. These are the people that should keep coming. They haven't gotten the message yet but, hopefully, will do so in time if provided enough exposure.

In case you haven't noticed, there is a difference between not drinking for a period of time -- even a long period of time -- and actually being sober.

Walter, Merry Andrew, Babs, (and anyone else who considers themselves a Friend of Bill W's),

On another thread I told a member "I had no idea" - about the fact that she was a recovering alcoholic. She seemed to think that, because I had posted on this thread in interaction with her and others, it was disingenuous to suggest I didn't know she was (or used to be, I can't speak for her) an alcoholic.

Truth is, if you'd quizzed me about who was a recovering alcoholic on A2K a few days ago, I would've drawn a blank. I would not have remembered any of your names. I'm ashamed to admit it, and I am going to try to commit the ones of you to memory who have identified yourselves on that other thread - because its important to my sense of community here on A2K to feel like I'm among people 'like' me.

The last time I posted on this thread was 8 months ago. If it's disingenuous of me to say I "had no idea" about what was written here then, you'd really think I was a lying sack of **** if we attended a meeting together every week for a month and I was still drawing a blank about your name - but that happens with me sometimes. I don't mean nothing by it. I'm actually a very loveable guy :wink: .