Look for the Gems

I’m lucky to have had the same sponsor for almost 29 years. I’m also lucky to have met some of the old-timers in my area and to have their guidance, in addition to my sponsor’s. A couple of these men were especially helpful with my appreciation for the Big Book. One guy knew some of the earliest AA members. His sponsor was one of the people who influenced Bill W. when Bill was writing the Big Book. It was said that his ideas on spirituality and God contributed to the wording “God as we understood Him.” One of the other old-timers attended his first six years of meetings in a maximum-security prison in Kansas. These men defined their era of getting sober by the different versions of the Big Book that their sponsors used. The sponsor of one of the old-timers had used the first edition. The other one had used the second edition, which was the current edition when he and his sponsor got sober.