Thank you people for this thread and your responses. It makes me smile to realize what a path and journey it has been for me. My sponsor and I talk about this type of thing quite often. I am excited to say I feel the EXACT same way.
There is a lot of strange things going around the rooms these days. A lot of the big book's meaning has gotten misconstrued over time. Somewhere a long the line AA shifted to a "lovey-dovey" mind-set. Treatment centers and their pat on the back approach to alcoholism I believe may be a part of it, but who really knows. Terms and phrases like "Meeting makers make it" have come about. The only damn thing meeting makers do is...make meetings. It should be STEP takers make it.
The first step is past tense. We admitted we WERE powerless over alcohol and our lives HAD become unmanageable. The second step is worded as gradual. CAME TO BELIEVE that a power greater than ourselves (for me, God) COULD restore us to sanity. Note it doesn't say "would," however. It does beckon that it will happen over time, though. It does not state "Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves would and keep us restored to sanity."
And the damn trigger thing is spot on, Paul. Triggers are basically and outside influence that forces one to drink. Forces one to drink? BS. Alcoholism is an internal spiritual affliction. The concepts just clash. They are excuses, that's it.
The program is as "How it works" states, simple. It is as confusing and difficult as one makes it out to be. And believe me, I made it pretty damn difficult for myself for a very long time. The big book clearly lets us define ourselves as alcoholics in chapter 3, informs us of our spiritual malady in chapter 4, then tells us how to overcome our spiritual malady in chapters 5 & 6, then how to remain spiritually fit and pass it along in chapter 7. Today I can see there is a distinct difference between remaining powerless, and acceptance.
I know this isn't in the first 164, but screw it:
"And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing or situation -- some fact of my life -- unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment.
Nothing, absolutely nothing happens in God's world by mistake. Until I could accept my alcoholism, I could not stay sober; unless I accept life completely on life's terms, I cannot be happy. I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and in my attitudes. "