Where I got sober, we had five signs across one wall (as I recall; it's a little hazy. It's been about 8563 days, after all), all in a sort of Gothic font - red letters on a white background - that had "the slogans", as they were called.

The five "slogans" were

Live And Let Live
Easy Does It
But For The Grace Of God
Think Think Think
First Things First

and I recall spending a surprising amount of meeting time talking about them. They kept coming up; they seemed to be important, but I was never sure why. It seemed to me that four of them indicated attitudes that I was to take, and the fifth (Think Think Think) was an action that I was supposed to do.

I recall that somebody said "Live Easy But Think First", that being a sentence created by taking the first words of each slogan and ordering them in a syntactically (and semantically) sensible matter.

(I remember that my sponsor at the time told me "Do you see that last one there? "Think Think Think"? That doesn't apply to you. When it does, I'll let you know." It's been twenty-three years; he hasn't let me know yet).

As time went by, I found out that three of these slogans were in the Big Book; I wasn't sure where the others came from, but - since they were on the wall at the meeting house - I figured that they must be good ideas. I learned that the "suitable for framing" prints themselves could be purchased through the Grapevine, and that meant - to my understanding - that they must be solid, hard-core Conference Approved you-betchas, and that I'd best listen to them.

Well, I don't listen to all of them any more. And I don't listen to any of them in the same way.

First off, I became aware of just where the three slogans that are in the big book are located - they are at the end of Chapter Nine, "The Family Afterward". In other words - these slogans represent attitudes that I am supposed to assume as I assume this spiritual path as a way of life - they are NOT mentioned earlier in the text, when I'm being directed through the Steps before entering that way of life.

I suspect that this may have something to do with the peculiar role that the Steps have taken - as seen by many in the Fellowship - in the intervening years; once upon a time, the Steps were something that were to be grasped "with all the desperation with which a drowning man grasps a life preserver" - now, they seem to have been relegated to some sort of background process, with the idea that going to meetings, hanging out with sober people, and talking to one's sponsor (about WHAT?) are "the program", and the Steps are something that are supposed to be done whenever one gets around to it. In the meantime, "Easy Does It".

So I'll talk about the three slogans from the Big Book later; today, I'd like to talk about the other two, because (see) "they ain't in my Big Book" :)

I understand that "not being in the Big Book" is not an indictment; there are a lot of things that are true and good that aren't in the Big Book. "Two plus two equals four", "you can't roller skate in a buffalo herd" and "keep your weight forward and your belly-button downhill" are all good and true, and none of them are in the Big Book.

But none of those sayings are slogans that are being proposed as part of a comprehensive program aimed at a spiritual awakening designed to guarantee a profound personality change sufficient to bring about recovery from alcoholism. That's what the Big Book is supposed to be; it's supposed to provide everything that we need to get this job done. So, when phrases or slogans or ideas get added to that program after the fact, then perhaps they should at least be inspected for validity, or (at least) consistency.

And the two non-Big-Book slogans just do not cut it, to my way of thinking.

To one of them, my objection is fairly basic, and that is "Think Think Think". And it's true that my sponsor told me that that didn't apply to me, but that's not the problem here - the Big Book says that, by Step Eleven, God will direct my thinking, and it tells me in there to think quite a bit; it also tells me how to think.

But this slogan is (always?) used to mean "Think the drink through - think about what will happen if you take that drink" - in other words, it is asking me to rely upon a mental defense.

What does the Big Book say?

"At a certain point in the drinking of every alcoholic, he passes into a state where the most powerful desire to stop drinking is of absolutely no avail. This tragic situation has already arrived in practically every case long before it is suspected.

"The fact is that most alcoholics, for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink. Our so called will power becomes practically nonexistent. We are unable, at certain times, to bring into our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago. We are without defense against the first drink.

"The almost certain consequences that follow taking even a glass of beer do not crowd into the mind to deter us. If these thoughts occur, they are hazy and readily supplanted with the old threadbare idea that this time we shall handle ourselves like other people. There is a complete failure of the kind of defense that keeps one from putting his hand on a hot stove."  -- page 24

" the actual or potential alcoholic, with hardly any exception, will be absolutely unable to stop drinking on the basis of self-knowledge. This is a point we wish to emphasize and re-emphasize, to smash home upon our alcoholic readers as it has been revealed to us out of bitter experience." -- page 39

"Once more: The alcoholic at certain times has no effective mental defense against the first drink. Except in a few cases, neither he nor any other human being can provide such a defense. His defense must come from a Higher Power." -- page 43

 So much for "Think Think Think". It's basically a slogan that is telling me to rely on something that the Big Book says will not, can not, work - the problem being that, when folks try this and then it doesn't work, they have little choice but to say "AA didn't work for me", since it was the AAs who told him this silliness in the first place.

Then there's the other one - and it's really sneaky (I'm going to step outside the fourth wall here and add this phrase - "....to my way of thinking". I don't really see any reason to do that, since - OBVIOUSLY - this whole blog is being written from my viewpoint. But, since I'm going to talk about a slogan that has God's name in it, I have to be very, very careful) to my way of thinking, because it almost sounds like good AA doctrine. When I hear this one elaborated on, it's in the context of "If it weren't for the Grace of God, I'd be drunk, like those other folks who aren't sober - there, but for the Grace of God, go I".

And - apologies to anyone who finds this offensive - no, I don't think that that's what's operative here at all. It sounds all humble and everything, but it actually seems to me to be one of the most arrogant statements that a person can make.

Again - this is just the way that I see it - but my own conception of a Higher Power doesn't include a God who will shed his Grace on one man, and not another.

So there must be something else operative here.

What might it be? How about this? "Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path".

I have little doubt that it is the power of God that is keeping me sober; but my Big Book tells me that that power can only save me if I am willing to take certain actions and attitudes - twelve of them, to be precise. Why is one member of AA sober, and another out there drunk? Because one of them thoroughly followed the path, and the other one didn't do so.

So this slogan is pretty sneaky, in that it promotes the idea that my sobriety is the result of unearned favor or merit (Grace) and has nothing to do with my own effort or willingness. And that's a thought that will kill a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, as sure as a gun to the head.

So, once again, I find that those things that we've added to our "AA Folklore" just don't suit me; I can't see that they add to the Program as outlined in the Big Book, and they seem to me to actually be misleading.

Funny about that.