July 2020

The AA slogans are the chosen theme for this month’s Roundabout. Apart from the newcomers who have found Alcoholics Anonymous online during the Covid-19 lockdown, most of us can remember when we first saw the slogans. It was as we tried to steady our nerves as well as our shaking hands before that first meeting began.

These snippets of wisdom are tips on how to actually change if we want what is on offer in AA and they are short enough and memorable enough to penetrate even the most befuddled of minds.

Whilst derision and contempt is the first reaction to the slogans for some,  the longer we stick around, the harder we listen and the more we get into action, the more we come to fully appreciate the profundity of their meaning. My initial, contemptuous reaction to the slogans serve as a timely reminder of how close-minded I was. I particularly bristled at ‘Keep It Simple’ but now know that my best days in recovery are when I keep things as simple as possible.

The cartoons within this month’s magazine deserve a very special mention. Back in 1980 they were introduced in the following way:

‘In this issue we introduce Who-o-o Me, the owl who has a slogan ready for every occasion. Our slogans are, in a way, condensed A.A. wisdom and we hope that this feathery character will be appearing regularly with an “instant” A.A. message.’

For the next year or so readers of Roundabout would often see the Who-o-o Me owl grasping one of the slogans in his beak and all of us on the editorial team hope you get as much pleasure from seeing these newly digitalised cartoons as we have.

We would especially like to ask the Fellowship if anyone can recall Ron D who was responsible for the cartoons. If anyone has any information please email the editor at: roundabout@aamail.org

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Contents

2       Sub-Committee Notice Board

3       Editorial

4       Extracts From AA Literature

5       Article From The Roundabout Archives

6       The AA Slogans

7       The End Of Isolation

8       The Path Was Always There

9       Slogans, Sayings And Acronyms

11     One Day At A Time

12     Going Through The Steps Again   

i-iv     AA Conference Approved Books

13     The Roundabout Interview

16     There But For The Grace Of God

17     The Slogans 

19     Now I Can Laugh

20     Beyond My Wildest Dreams

21     That Was The Week That Was

23     Subscribe To Roundabout