Chuck C – “Charles Axiom Chamberlain” (1902-1984)
Chuck got sober in January 1946. He continues to have a major impact and influence on the recovery community. Chuck’s book, A New Pair of Glasses, was published and released in 1984, just months before he died of emphysema. A New Pair of Glasses has become a favorite of many AA members and continues to offer a powerful message focused on the solution to recovery for alcoholics.
In the book, Chuck explains that in the human life, there is only one problem and there is one answer:
The Problem:
Now I am convinced in my own mind,…, that there’s only one problem in this life. One problem that includes all problems, and one answer that includes all answers… I am totally convinced that the only roadblock between me and you and me and my God is the human ego. The only roadblock there is. I further believe that the best definition you’ll ever hear of the human ego is, “The feeling of conscious separation from.”… From what? From everything. From God. (I like these three words: Life, Good, God, which to me are synonymous words.) Conscious separation from God, from each other, and eventually from ourselves… And that’s the human ego. The seat of all the obsessions of the mind. That’s where they come from.
It is also my total conviction that there is no possibility under Heaven to satisfy the human ego. It is a Divine impossibility.
The Answer:
I think maybe if we listened, we sort of established the fact that our problem actually is a living problem, and we have to have a living answer. It’s my opinion that there isn’t a living answer for the non-alcoholic or the alcoholic alike, that does not include a personally satisfactory, conscious partnership with the living God that made us in the entire business of living. In the entire business of living…
Walking alone is not normal, is not natural. Most of us have walked alone for most of our lives. I walked alone for forty-three years, wanting so badly to be a part of, and always apart from. That is not normal. To be away from the Father’s house is not normal. It’s just as natural as breathing, to come home to the living God that made us. That’s the normal state. Being away from home is not normal. So our problem is conscious separation from and our answer is conscious unity.
Surrender:
Now I’ve got a little diagram here, something that will show what I’ve been talking about. That circle I draw, in my thinking, represents the Universe and everything in it. All there is – there ain’t no more. That’s it.
Those three words in the circle, “Life, Good, God,” insofar as I’m concerned, are synonymous. They all mean the same thing. So that’s it – that’s all there is, there ain’t no more. The line represents the feeling of conscious separation from, and as we said before that’s human ego. That’s the only roadblock between you and me and God. And there am I out in left field, all by myself. I spent forty-three years out there. Now that’s very real as an experience, but it is not reality. We also said that human ego could not be satisfied, but in surrender ego goes by the boards, temporarily. Unfortunately, (but I believe fortunately) it doesn’t remain gone. We’ll have to surrender forever, and as far as I’m concerned there will never be a time when we don’t have to continuously surrender. When ego is gone, you wake up in the middle of the circle and you’re now part of – not apart from – Life, Good, God. There is no life apart from God. God is life and we are alive, so God is that which we are.
In Him we live and move and have our being. Now that’s the truth of life.
-Excerpts taken from Chuck C’s book A New Pair of Glasses
Here you can listen to Chuck C. speaking at the 1955 AA International Convention in St. Louis.
