Destroying “The” Vital Principle

I’ll let you read through this and then I’ll tell you what principle could be destroyed…

From page 298 in “The Language of the Heart”

“At this point in our very early experience there remained, however, one missing link – an absolutely vital one. We still lacked a full comprehension of the terrific impact at great depth which one alcoholic talking to another could make. I had partly realized this when my alcoholic friend and sponsor, Ebby, told me about his own drinking, his release from it and of the Oxford Group principles which had made this possible. Still more realization came during my own spiritual experience which had included the vision of a chain reaction among alcoholics, one alcoholic talking to the next. But it was not until I met Dr. Bob that I knew I needed him as much as he could ever need me. This was perfect mutuality, this was full brotherhood. This was the crucial and the final answer. The missing link was then fully forged and somehow we knew this at once.”

The principle is within the last post. When you are given the gift of sobriety and keep it all to yourself, you break the chain reaction of one alcoholic talking to another. You send a message that it’s an alternative to do this by yourself. You take the “we” out of the First Step and replace it with “I.” If the rest of us didn’t say anything about it, it could become as rampant as First Step meetings that have nothing to do with the First Step.

Eventually we could find ourselves back in the stone ages, drunk and dying – or already dead. Because “I” get me drunk. And, to drink is to die.