AUG 27, 20 .. MY OWN PERSONAL GOODBYE TO CLANCY ..

This may be a poor way to begin here BUT.. if you haven't heard of Clancy, you must be very new in the program.

Clancy Imislund (he always gave his name when he spoke) dated his sobriety to October 31, 1958. This past Monday the 24th of August, 2020, Clancy passed away while hospitalized with various physical conditions. I believe that while hospitalized, Clancy contacted Covid-19 which, at his age of 93 years and coupled with other serious underlying health issues, was basically a death-knell.

Clancy spoke all over the world and all over the United States and Canada. He founded the Pacific Group in Brentwood California in the Los Angeles metro area.

Below is a link that will give you much more information.

https://www.addiction-programs.net/news/pacific-group-aa-southern-california/

During my own travels I have attended meetings at the Pacific Group. Of course now, with Covid-19, the Pacific Group meets on line on zoom.us.

What a show the live and in person meetings at the Pacific Group were. Possibly 1,400 people would attend on Wednesday evenings and oh-my, you had to plan to stand in a very VERY LONG line before you entered the meetings.

In short : Clancy was a famous celebrity in A.A.

Like any human being who touches tens-of-thousands (maybe millions in Clancy's case) of people, Clancy certainly has his detractors and critics.

I myself did not agree with Clancy's one-time-position on some serious medical issues that fell outside of A.A. We in A.A. are not doctors. We in A.A. can not prescribe medications. At one time (and he finally did-change-his-position) Clancy, from the podium would say : "If anyone is taking medications such as anti-depressants and psychiatric medications, they are NOT working the A.A. program."

What happened? Some people in-the-rooms of A.A. stopped taking their medically prescribed medications and committed suicide as a result thereof !

I myself am bi-polar and experience depression and its opposite, manic behavior. All of my own first cousins successfully commited suicide. Their mother (my Aunt) was my mother's twin sister.

I had personal friends who had Clancy as their sponsor and they were taking anti-depressants. Clancy 'fired them'. One said back to him : "You can't fire me for this Clancy."

Finally A.A. came out with the below pamphlet. You may want to read it carefully.

https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-11_aamembersMedDrug.pdf

O.K. 

The Time Has Come For Me To Personally Canonize Clancy.

No one can bad mouth Clancy to me without hearing the below story.

In the summer of 1998, I was living in remote, interior Alaska, some 160 or so miles West of Fairbanks.

At the time (the summer of 1998) I had heard Clancy (I got sober in California where I lived for some 33 years) speak live and in person and via tape cassettes and C.D.'s a fair number of times.

And I was puzzled by one line he often used in his talks (at least back then).

Clancy used to say : "If your problems begin after you stop drinking then you are an alcoholic of my type."

So little-ol'-me up and wrote the mighty, the famous, the world reknown celebrity, Clancy Imislund, a letter in-care-of the Midnight Mission in Los Angeles.

And?

Count with me .. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.

In eight (8) days after I penned a hand-written letter to the mighty, the famous, the world reknown celebrity, Clancy Imislund, I received back from Clancy the following:

1. A two page personal hand-penned letter.

2. A cassette tape of one of his talks that Clancy said best explained what he meant when he said :  "If your problems begin after you stop drinking then you are an alcoholic of my type."

Ladies and Gentlemen. Boys and Girls. Officers and Men. Management and Union. 

No one bad mouths Clancy to me without hearing the above story.

Yes-Oh-Yes. He and I got-to-know one another to the extent such a celebrity can do so. He would always 'tear up' when I told him the above story.

I repeat : No one bad mouths Clancy to me without hearing the above story.

Yes, being a writer, I wrote Clancy fairly often.

Below is my last letter to him.

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A promise made is a debt unpaid.. Robert Service

And? I promised myself I'd write you!

Thursday, August 13, 2020

Who'da thunk we'd see year 2020? I guess we stopped-in-time.

Hi Clancy.. My wife and I are getting updates at the conclusion of the Pacific Group's zoom meeting each Wednesday. A nice benefit. I'm not your peer (you have no peers) but am in the (getting to be very) small line behind you. At age 83 (Sept 5 will make it age 84) I've a real taste of the addage : Getting old is not for sissies. And my journey down the road of (call it) sobriety commenced Saturday 5 May 1970, so no, I'm not a peer, but I've gotten mine so-to-speak. It's odd, and more than a tad disconcerting, when I fall into (call it an emotonal hole in the world of the spirit) a depression. Odd because all I've done to assist others does not come racing to the forefront of my mind to rocket me into a giddy and gloriously happy mind set. So I pray, and God reminds me that, by experiencing what I do, prepares me to fully and to totally understand my fellow mates on this road of mental challenges!

And? I politely thank God and get out and get on with helping others. To wit? Writing this note to you Clancy will suffice as one example! And? I know you clearly and you fully understand! And you applaud! Lord God, to whom I continue to give thanks, your former Ally, Gene Duffy, San Francisco, Tuesday Downtown, February 25, 1986, some 400-600 people, Grace Catherdal, Nob Hill, spoke live to me in the front row, first seat on the aisle, at my very first ever A.A. meeting. Thank God I have you to write Clancy!

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Rest In Peace Clancy.

I for one .. Love You

JUL 31, 20 .. ACCEPTANCE

In both the Third (page 449) and Fourth (page 417) editions of the Big Book are writings about acceptance.

I partially quote :

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.

 

It took me a very long time before I could embrace the above philosophy.

The story of my accepting the above words began in late July of 1988 when I was in Akron, Ohio, visiting the home of Doctor Bob. At that time (it is no longer the case), on the dining room wall, were photographs of long time A.A. members. I asked one of the staff to point out the photo of the man who wrote the above words about acceptance. I was told that his photo was not posted because he was alive, and living in California. I mentally filed this information in my brain.

In March of 1990, I was attending a 'round up' in San Angelo, Texas. The key speakers at the 'round up' were from the Canyon Club in Laguna Beach, California. During the weekend, I casually said to one of the speakers, "I understand the man who wrote the story Doctor, Alcoholic, Addict (in the third edition of the Big Book) lives in California." He immediately replied,"His name is Doctor Paul. He and his wife Max (who is mentioned by name in the story Doctor, Alcoholic, Addict) live in the Laguna Beach area. Doctor Paul is a member of the Canyon Club along with several of us here this weekend. If you are ever at the Canyon Club on a Wednesday evening, you may see him as he is a regular attendee of that meeting."

Fast forward to June 1992. I was in a Friday night speaker meeting in San Francisco (where I was living at the time) and as is often the case in meetings, when attendees visiting the meeting were asked to identify themselves, one man said, "My name is Fred. I am from Laguna Beach, California."

After the meeting ended, I dashed through the crowd to find Fred and, as I introduced myself while shaking his hand I said to him, "Fred, The Canyon Club is in Laguna Beach and I have heard that the gentleman who wrote the story Doctor, Alcoholic, Addict is a member. Further I was told that if I was at a Wednesday night meeting I might have a chance to meet him."

I continued to hold his hand. He paused, and said to me as he gestured to a lady on his right, "And this is my wife Max!"

Because of his 'fame' within A.A., when he introduced himself, he used the alias Fred so as not to give-himself-away to the large crowd.

That is how I met Doctor Paul. As the fate of human-chemistry would have it, we two bonded and became friends. 

The first time I visited them in their home, I said to Doctor Paul, "I have a lot of trouble accepting what you wrote in the Big Book that acceptance is the answer to all of my problems today." 

Instantly he said to me :

"Acceptance does NOT MEAN APPROVAL ! "

"What is ... IS !  You very well may not like whatever you have an issue with but, if you are powerless to change it, until you accept it you will be unhappy and frustrated to no avail ! "

What a difference his words have made in my life as to acceptance.

Our Serenity Prayer states :

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. Courage to change the things I can. And wisdom to know the difference.

What a gift being able to actively interact with Doctor Paul for approximately ten years was in my life.

"Acceptance does NOT MEAN APPROVAL ! "