Walk a Mile in Their Shoes – Bill W, NY, May 1938

PART ONE

You are Bill Wilson. It is May 1938, in NY. At three-and-a-half years sober, you have decided to begin writing a book to define and explain this new method of recovery from alcoholism.

There are many obstacles. The big problems include:

  1. You are out-of-work with no financial resources.
  2. Your writing experience at this level is zero.
  3. There is near-total lack of support for the project (even animosity) from the Akron contingent.
  4. There is no agreement with regard to what such a definition/explanation should entail. You do not even have an outline for the book at this point.

You have no way of knowing now that the first three problems listed above will work themselves out in the big picture:

  1. Financially, the book will make it to press (barely) in April 1939 on the basis of some gifts, some loans, and sales of shares of stock written on stationery-store stock certificates.
  2. Your writing skills will improve quickly and dramatically with practice.
  3. At this point, you can simply leave the opposed Akron contingent out of the loop - your letter to Dr Bob, informing him that writing has begun, will not be written for almost another two months (late June 1938).

To start, the only plan is to write two chapters: a) your own story and b) an introductory general explanation chapter (working title: 'There Is a Solution').

So, you dive right in, beginning logically with your own story. After two false starts, you have what you consider to be an acceptable draft of 'Bill's Story'.

'There Is a Solution' involves more of a challenge, particularly with regard to the place of God in this method of recovery. The New Yorkers split from the Oxford Group about a year ago, but you personally still believe in their providential God, who intervened and restored your life. Your recovery as presented in 'Bill's Story' is God-centered. Your vision of a program is one that is accessible to all alcoholics – but you believe that non-believers and sceptics will eventually acquire a faith such as yours.

Your #2 man (Hank P) is in loud and fierce disagreement with a spiritual emphasis to the book. Hank P has a strong personality, and is omnipresent. It is in the small office of his failing business (and with his secretary) that the book is being dictated and typed. Hank P is not a disbeliever, but more of a deist believing in a general power of the universe. He wants to emphasize the medical and psychological aspects, and fears that talk of God will drive away alcoholic readers at the outset.

There are two other two main players in NY recovery at this time, and they are polar opposites: Jim B (a militant atheist) and Fitz M (a preacher’s kid and fundamentalist Christian). There will be no pleasing everyone in NY with 'There Is a Solution'.

And there will be no pleasing anyone in Ohio. Dr Bob and his followers in Akron still consider themselves primarily members of the ultra-religious Oxford Group. Potential members of the Oxford Group’s 'Alcoholic Squad' must make a public surrender on bended knee to even join, and then must dedicate themselves to the Oxford Group’s Four Absolutes (Honesty, Purity, Unselfishness, and Love). This Alcoholic Squad is men-only; the few women who appear are supervised by the wives. You realize that, in Ohio, non-mention of the Oxford Group will be offensive, and that even 'God as you understand Him' will be considered an unacceptable dilution.

Dr Bob, your first success and subsequent good friend, is somewhat of a benevolent dictator in Akron, taking control of the lives of his recruits. Yet the success rate in Ohio is much higher than in NY. Dr Bob is tireless and effective in finding and recruiting alcoholics to the Oxford Group.

Further clouding the situation, the extent of the hostility toward this book project became very clear on your last trip to Ohio (March 1938). Dr Bob remains your friend and apologist (you did, after all, get him sober), but the rank-and-file of the Alcoholic Squad want nothing to do with this book - pointing out that Jesus didn’t have printed materials; word-of-mouth sufficed.

And it is no secret that you are distrusted personally in Akron, as many believe you intend to profit from the book. Indeed, without knowing it, they are correct in this suspicion: 1/3 of the stock shares in the publishing company set up by Hank P have been set aside for you as Author (and another third for Hank P as Business Manager). Both Bill W and Hank P saw nothing unethical in this setup; they believed that they should be compensated in the sense that the head of the Red Cross is salaried. Bill W's fervent desire to help the suffering alcoholic is above question. But no one in Akron knows anything of these business arrangements.

'There Is a Solution' is supposed to be a definition and explanation of the movement. On the face of it, it seems a hopeless task to reconcile such conflicting points of view, amid such distrust.

You are Bill Wilson. What are you going to do? How will you approach the subject of God in the second chapter? Will you adopt a firm stance on the place of spirituality, or try to compromise with some kind of middle-road position?

End of PART ONE

© 2021 T.Jack