A couple of weeks ago, during the Friday morning Big Book Study, we talked a bit out the fact that, in Chapter Seven, the Big Book changes mood and person, from first person plural declarative (in the past tense) to second person imperative. In other words, it stops saying "We did this" and "We did that", and starts saying "You do this - you do that".

I've noticed it before, but never really thought too much about it. But, for some reason, on this particular morning, it really struck me.

It is very obvious just where and why the Big Book uses the first person plural, past tense - it's because of that bit in Chapter Two, where it tells us how the first 100 are going to pass this message on to us -

"It is the purpose of this book to answer such questions specifically. We shall tell you what we have done"

So they are going to tell us what they have done - this means that, with few exceptions, Bill and his buddies are going to give us leadership by example, all the way up through Chapter Six. Every now and then they will break out with specific advice, but usually they keep things in the tone of "here are the things that we have done", with an understanding that, if I want what they have, then I'll be willing to do what they have done.

But, right at the first paragraph of Chapter Seven, it switches to the imperative mood -

"Carry this message to other alcoholics! You can help when no one else can. You can secure their confidence when others fail. Remember they are very ill."

When I finally got to thinking about why they do this, it hit me like a ton of bricks - it's because I am now one of the we!

See, all the way through the first eleven Steps, they are telling me what they have done, as a result of which they have had a spiritual awakening; at the start of Chapter Seven, it is assumed that  I have now actually done the same things that they have done, which makes me one of them; at that point, I become one of them -I become one of "us".

From that point on, the book is talking about how I will meet another alcoholic, and how I will carry the message to him - and, as I note from the directions, that message-carrying follows the same format that the Big Book used to carry the message to me.. So, at that point, I am now telling him what I have done.

But that alone wouldn't force a change of mood - the book could go right ahead and keep saying "We have done this - you do it too". But, as it happens, that's not actually the case. You see, the First 100 didn't go out all alone to carry the message; with the rare exception, they actually acted together in carrying the message, and the contacts were already in place, so they can't say (for instance) anything like this -

"Perhaps we were not acquainted with any drinkers who wanted to recover. We could easily find some by asking a few doctors, ministers, priests or hospitals"

No, they have to say -

"Perhaps you are not acquainted with any drinkers who want to recover. You can easily find some by asking a few doctors, ministers, priests or hospitals"

(italics mine - jim p)

....So, when Chapter Seven tells us to go out, alone, visiting these professionals or institutions to seek out drunks, then they are telling us to do something that they, as a group, hadn't done - they hadn't been alone. Thus, they had to drop the "we did this...we did that" format of using their own examples, and go out on a limb by giving us instructions to do things which many of them had never done - because we would not have the benefit of direct contact with them while we were getting started.

(yes, I know that some of 'em did do just that - Clarence in Cleveland comes to mind - but still, it wasn't their normal way of doing things, so simple rigorous honesty forces them to shift from "we did this" to "you do that" : )

Of course, nowadays, very few of us are all alone in some remote place with just a Big Book in our hands. So we don't have to follow those exact instructions for finding other drunks, as it just so happens that most communities will have gatherings of drunks most nights of the week.

But it still helps me, when I am having my first talks with a prospect, to pattern them after those first and second visits outlined in Chapter Seven, because - after all - now I have stopped being "you" and become "we", which makes the guy on the bed the new "you" :)