Jeff, just to be clear but i don't think it says drinkie poo in the Big Book! don't want to be accused of misquoting.
i too highly recommend it - yes folks will gripe but it was written SO longgg ago and the tone of the text is just not relevant, blah blah blah, or it's sexist. which totally misses the point! there is a wealth of information to be had, ideas, concepts, stories and it gives the most accurate description of the alcoholic ever. IMHO.
anyways, the boy whistling in the dark bit is out of Chapter 11
A Vision For You.
For most of normal folks, drinking means conviviality, companionship and colorful imagination. It means release from care, boredom and worry. It is joyous intimacy with friends and a feeling that life is good. But not so with us in those last days of heavy drinking. The old pleasures were gone. They were but memories. Never could we recapture the great moments of the past. There was an insistent yearning to enjoy life as we once did and a heartbreaking obsession that some new miracle of control would enable us to do it. There was always one more attempt and one more failure.
The less people tolerated us, the more we withdrew from society, from life itself. As we became subjects of King Alcohol, shivering denizens of his mad realm, the chilling vapor that is loneliness settled down. It thickened, ever becoming blacker. Some of us sought out sordid places, hoping to find understanding companionship and approval. Momentarily we did then would come oblivion and the awful awakening to face the hideous Four Horsemen Terror, Bewilderment, Frustration, Despair. Unhappy drinkers who read this page will understand.
Now and then a serious drinker, being dry at the moment says, "I don't miss it at all. Feel better. Work better. Having a better time." As ex-problem drinkers, we smile at such a sally. We know our friend is like a boy whistling in the dark to keep up his spirits. He fools himself. Inwardly he would give anything to take half a dozen drinks and get away with them. He will presently try the old game again, for he isn't happy with his sobriety. He cannot picture life without alcohol. Someday he will be unable to imagine life either with alcohol or without it. Then he will know loneliness such as few do. He will be at the jumping off place. He will wish for the end.
Quoted with the permission of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Last edited by Dee74; 02-11-2016 at 10:37 PM.
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