So I'm having an email discussion about the Second Step with another OA.

And it's an interesting discussion, because she says that she's shaky on this Step. So I asked her if she knew where the instructions were - after all, the Steps aren't "states of being" or nebulous spiritual locations - they are ACTIONS. Or are they?

So I have to admit it here - when I asked my friend if she knew where the instructions were for the Second Step, it was actually a trick question. There AREN'T any instructions for Step Two :)

...nor for Step One. It's actually just one more example of how well written the Big Book is.

(Yes, I'm aware of the apparent contradiction with having a brand-new blog named "Clear Cut Instructions", and starting out with the first regular post talking about a lack of instructions. But bear with me here, please :)

Have you ever wondered why the Twelve Steps are never listed until we get to Chapter Five? It's a pretty good question, if you think about it; right off, in Chapter Two, the book tells us that its whole purpose is to enable you to find a Power greater than yourself that will solve your problem, and later verbiage makes it plain that the Twelve Steps are the path that we follow to find that Power. So why wait until pages 59 and 60 to list those Steps?

Let's go back to the part of Chapter Two which I've misquoted to name this blog -

"Further on, clear-cut directions are given showing how we recovered. These are followed by three dozen personal experiences."

So the Big Book does what my Speech teacher said to do. She told our class that we should first tell them what we're going to tell them, and then tell it to them, and then we should tell them what we told them. The Big Book does this, too - it tells us what it's gonna tell us, and then it tells us.

It says that it's going to tell us more about alcoholism in Chapter Three (which just happens to be entitled "More About Alcoholism") and then there is a chapter addressed to the agnostic (Chapter Four, which is - you guessed it - "We Agnostics" :)

Then it says that, further on, clear-cut directions will be given showing how we recovered. So it's not going to give those clear-cut directions until at least Chapter Five, which just happens to be "How It Works".

Now most AA groups read the first two-and-a-half pages of Chapter Five to open meetings - they call it "How It Works", although it really isn't how it works - or, at least, it's not how we work it:) ...in fact, we stop that public reading right when the Big Book gets to talking about how we work it.

At the end of the traditional How It Works intro reading, we get this bit of info, in which the Big Book then summarizes what it has told us so far:

	(a)	That we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives.
	(b)	That probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism.
	(c)	That God could and would if He were sought."

So there it is again - a description of alcoholism (the Doctor's Opinion, There Is A Solution and More About Alcoholism) and a chapter addressed to the agnostic. Yep, that's Chapter 3 and Chapter 4. It mentions "our personal adventures before and after" - I read that as referring to Bill's Story and the stories of Jim, Fred and Roland in Chapters Two and Three.

So the Big Book is basically referring here to everything that you have read before you get to Chapter Five - and it says that what you have read so far should make these "three pertinent ideas" clear to you.(N.B. - I once heard a newcomer reading How It Works, and she misread that as "three permanent ideas". I liked that :)

The next thing that the Big Book says is something that we DON'T read when we read "How It Works" as a group - it tells us where we are in the Program at this point:

" Being convinced, we were at Step Three¹, which is that we decided to turn our will and our life over to God as we understood Him. Just what do we mean by that, and just what do we do?"

So - if we have read everything in the book up to this point, and we are convinced of (a), (b) and (c), then we are at Step Three. So, according to the Big Book, the way to work the first two Steps is to read the Big Book and ask myself if I am convinced of these "three pertinent ideas".

This point can be driven home by reading the original manuscript of Chapter Five, which says this after listing the Three Pertinent Ideas:

At this point, the Big Book begins giving me "clear-cut directions" - at this point, I begin taking ACTIONS. But the first two Steps don't involve any real "actions" - they involve reading, reflection and acceptance. Honesty is certainly necessary at this point, and open-mindedness, but willingness to take actions has yet to be required.

In those first two pages of Chapter Five, there's a pair of qualifications which my friend Harlan calls "Step Zero", but I decided a while back to refer to it instead as "Step 2.5":

"If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it -- then you are ready to take certain steps."

Obviously, we can't start out the Big Book (Step 0) with such a qualification, because until you've read the description of alcoholism you don't really know what's wrong with you, so how can you be ready to go to any length to get it?...and it's not made clear until Chapter Four just what we have (a spiritual answer) so how can you be sure that you want what we have?

It's not until you've already understood these vital points - i.e., it's not until you've taken the first two Steps - that you can, indeed, be sure that you want what we have, and that you are willing to go to any length to get it - and now you're ready to take certain steps; to do certain ACTIONS, and they start with Step Three.

So the instructions for the first two Steps don't exist at all; however, one can, indeed, know if one has worked them by asking oneself - "Have I read the Doctor's Opinion and the first sixty pages?..if so, am I convinced of the Three Pertinent Ideas?"

...
¹The Big Book here introduces a convention for indicating that it is telling us the directions for a particular Step - it gives the name of the Step, capitalized, in italics. Yes, I know - in this excerpt, it isn't in italics. That's because the whole excerpt is in italics, except for this part, which makes the non-italics the italics, if you take my meaning :)