Qualities of Virtue

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The BIG BOOK BUNCH

We are the Big Book Bunch group of Alcoholics Anonymous. Our origins are the Students of the Big Book group, which has met in Woodland Hills, California since December of 1985. Our goals are to live the spiritual process through which sobriety is obtained and enhanced, and to publish (at no charge) our experience for other recovering alcoholics. We have absolutely no affiliation with any organization or cause other than our membership as individuals in A.A..

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In the Friday evening Students of the Big Book meeting in Woodland Hills we read pages xi through xxx and 1 through 164, paragraph by paragraph (the critical 184 pages), plus we also read Appendix 2, Spiritual Experience, as part of the format. Each paragraph is discussed until we have looked up all the misunderstood words and have run out of things to say about it. This process takes about 12 months through page 164, whereupon we start again.

For the first several years, reading Chapter 8, To Wives, was a belabored experience, so we latched onto "Patience, tolerance, understanding and love are the watchwords." From this, the affectionate acronym PLUT arose, and whiners were urged to "get PLUT".

Well, we continued to find character traits that contributed to sobriety, and they were added until we had SHPLUCKT, for which the sources are set forth below. One of our members posted SHPLUCKT on the Lamplighters list server on the Internet, and he got some "suggestions" that he explain its derivation. In the process, as might be expected, he come up with some more words, and we now have, would you believe, GSSSHHHPLUCKTTM!

Some enduring value has come from our experience, however. Firstly, we extracted some positive traits to express in our daily lives rather than those distasteful "defects of character" which need to be expurgated.

Secondly, we realized that there are different classes of these principles. In one class are the principles underlying the steps: surrender, hope, commitment, etc..(See our topic entitled "Principles" for more.) In another class, that which is presented here, are those principles of thought and behavior which enable us to have productive and meaningful relationships with our fellow human beings — an ability universally lacking among alcoholics.

We began to call these, respectively, the Principles of Recovery and the Suggested Virtues of Relationships.

Finally, we contrived an acronym to remind ourselves of the virtues we endeavor to practice.

If you feel up to it, and perhaps you should, you can remember the fifteen (how did that manage not to be twelve?) suggested virtues of relationships with this simple pronunciation of GSSSHHHPLUCKTTM.

Now, that was simple, wasn’t it. Try it again… Ge-SHPLUCK’-TeM. Just remember, 3S, 3H and 2T.

Why did we call these virtues? We looked it up in our dictionary, and we decided it reflected our intent faithfully:

KCPGMS He may be kind, considerate, patient, generous; even modest and self-sacrificing. On the other hand, he may be mean, egotistical, selfish and dishonest. But as with most humans, he is more likely to have varied traits. [Big Book page 61, line 5]

K It may be that both will decide that the way of good sense and loving kindness is to let by-gones be by-gones [Big Book page 82, line 6]

C The rule is we must be hard on ourself, but always considerate of others. [Big Book page 74, line 20]

STCH We should be sensible, tactful, considerate and humble without being servile or scraping. [Big Book page 83, line 26]

SCH These things will come to pass naturally and in good time provided, however, the alcoholic continues to demonstrate that he can be sober, considerate, and helpful, regardless of what anyone says or does. [Big Book page 99, line 10]

H Your job now is to be at the place where you may be of maximum helpfulness to others, so never hesitate to go anywhere if you can be helpful. [Big Book page 102, line 23]

PTUL Patience, tolerance, understanding and love are the watchwords. Show him these things in yourself and they will be reflected back to you from him. Live and let live is the rule. [Big Book page 118, line 13]

TUL All members of the family should meet upon the common ground of tolerance, understanding and love. [Big Book page 122, line 6]

LT We do talk about each other a great deal, but we almost invariably temper such talk by a spirit of love and t olerance. [Big Book page 125, line 15]

TLU If they sense these things, they will not take so seriously his periods of crankiness, depression, or apathy, which will disappear when there is tolerance, love, and spiritual u nderstanding. [Big Book page 127, line 6]

H In fact, he may say almost anything if he has accepted our solution which, as you know, demands rigorous honesty. . [Big Book page 145, line 7]

H For he knows he must be honest if he would live at all. [Big Book page 146, line 31]

the BIG BOOK BUNCH

The "Suggested" Virtues of Sound Human Relationships