Hello World
Welcome to ClearCutInstructions.com, a blog where I can talk about all of that BigBook stuff without concerns about "anonymity at the public level", as nowhere will you find any reference to my actual identity.
As of this month's Grapevine, I have learned that GSO (AA's General Service Office) has decided that blogs are "public media". Thus, a blog that discusses recovery in a twelve-step fellowship should contain no full names or photographs.
I've got a blog that I've been keeping for four years as an online diary; I often talked about meetings and Steps and my sponsor and such, as I had the notion that a blog was like a conference call; one actually had to GO THERE, intentionally, and read what was going on, and one had the option to comment. It was a conscious act, and it wasn't "broadcast", so it didn't seem to me to be a public medium.
But GSO says that it is one. "But Brutus says he was ambitious, and Brutus is an honorable man".
You know what? I don't agree with GSO. However, that doesn't give me the option to just flaunt their opinion. Every movie star that ever got sober at Betty Ford and then decided that "anonymity at the level of press, radio and films" didn't apply to them no doubt disagreed with GSO's recommendations (even if they'd never actually heard of GSO). And, of course, I've always hemmed and hawed about how they are flagrantly breaking traditions; well, I suspect that if GSO says that I'm breaking traditions, then I'm better off changing what I"m doing than I am trying to change their minds.
So I've created this site.
Now I'm going to go through the long, slow process of going through well over a thousand old blog posts and pulling out those that reference AA (or OA or Al-Anon) directly, and then deciding if I think that those posts are worth importing into this blog and format - or, perhaps, it will make more sense to simply edit some of them for the objectionable content and leave them where they are.
The title of this site is a misquote, just like "Play it again, Sam" and "We don't need no steenkin' badges!"
I'm misquoting from that blurb that you'll see down in the footer - it's from Chapter Two in the Big Book. It tells us that it's gonna tell us about alcoholism, and that there will be a chapter to the agnostic, and then
"Further on, clear-cut directions are given showing how we recovered".
I always misquote that as "Clear-cut instructions" - well, I have up until now. I'll bet that I get it right from here on out :)
(You know, I've often been guilty of misquoting the Big Book. I reckon that this particular example might be persistent enough to give me some humility : )
At any rate - for the purposes of discussion, then, you can call me Jim P. If you post any comments, please follow anonymity customs as you understand them or interpret them (Lord knows I have no desire nor intention to attempt to enforce any traditions :)
There's only one real rule here - if you don't consider the Big Book to be the temporal authority on how to work the Twelve Steps, then you don't wanna hang out here. If you decide that you need to inform the rest of us as to how the Big Book is wrong - over and over, out loud, repeatedly, ET CETERA- then I'll just throw you in the "blacklist" file and your comments will go nowhere. Sorry about that, but as my wife's sponsor says, we need to keep folks from shooting holes in the lifeboat.
Hi Jim,
Glad to see you decided to go with the "anonymous" Program oriented blog - looking forward to continuing to read your thoughts and musings.
Alan B.
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jim, i'm so glad you've emailed me a link to your blogs! let me know where your old site it, and i'll read your thousand posts.
-rachel
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Dude,
First thanks for sharing the new blog. I like it...it will be a great place to share program without having to be concerned about GSO issues.
Second, I barely have time to do one blog...even though one of my best friends have suggested that I might want to start a second....her idea, not mine....So my question is...where on earth do you get the time to do two?
Time management tricks are always of interest to me...wait, I know...you must type 200 words a minute! That must be it! :D
Huggles, CD
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Christy -
Actually, you're not far wrong - I do, indeed, type amazingly fast. I mean - for a guy who only had two typing classes.
When I was in college, with a Computer Science major, I did the hunt-and-peck thing, until Ethel told me to take a typing class; they were offering a six-week evening class at a local high school
I think I made it through two of the classes - maybe three - and by then I had picked up on the learn-a-letter-and
cover-it-with-black-tape method. I don't know what else they taught; I took that bit home with me, and pretty soon I was clickling along at what seemed to me to be an amazing speed; I can't type as fast as I can think, but I can type faster than Silas can talk (intelligibly).
And producing verbiage is not at all difficult; that's one thing that Pucketts do well.
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Hey there, Charlie!
Thanks for giving me the heads up on your new blog spot. The occasion has, in fact, inspired me to make this, my first post to a blog, ever. (There are probably only a couple of us left out there, now!)
I, for one, will miss the personalized stuff. It felt kind of lonely opening up to this very nondescript, pictureless page. Will you be maintaining the other site, but pulling out Program references . . . or will you be discontinuing it? (Hmmmmm . . . I'm not sure if asking questions on a blog is good form, or whether one is just to contribute their comments, then go send an e-mail. Feel free to inform me on proper blog etiquette. :))
Anyway, it's good to have a place for some good ol' straight-shootin' Big Book and 12-Step talk to be goin' on. I can appreciate the wisdom from Ethel's sponsor. I can't imagine enough of you won't flow over to keep the non-anonymous masses (and, dare I say, even some of the anonymous ones) amused and engaged!
Perhaps this little tradition episode is just HP's way of having you revisit some of the information you've been putting out into the universe in the last few years. The "whys" are His business.
Hugs,
Jan D.
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Well, poop my britches and call me Fred - it's Jan!
....I was sort of hoping that this might pull you out of hiding.
Yes, I'm gonna keep "the other blog" (see how easy that is?) going - I don't have much choice in that. My mouth - via my fingers - often leads its own life.
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Well I'm not going to monkey around. I have been sitting around waiting to hear from you & my butt's getting sore.
Well I will not monkey around and get right to the point. This is not going to be a dogs' day, but a dog wagging day.
I have a point to make, actually two points, this is a special day and you are a special guy. So Happy Fathers' day to all fathers. God bless you, he certainly has too. Blessed me too. Would not be possible without the Big Book and His guidance and power.
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