Chuck “C” A New Pair of Glasses

Chuck “C” was a Beverly Hills alcoholic who got sober in 1947 and died sober in 1984. He quickly became the most prolific AA speaker in California, and later speaking with his wife Elsa (one of the founders of Alanon) all over the world. He was a successful businessman providing fixtures for large grocery chains. He was only one of two California AAs along with Clancy I. to be known by first name, last initial. He had planned his retirement on a promise from his boss to buy out his interest but who ultimately reneged on his promise. So, Chuck drove from Laguna Beach and his home on the hill to his downtown Los Angeles office every day for the next 15 years. A lifelong smoker, his emphysema hastened his death. Chuck left behind a book that was published shortly after his death. A New Pair of Glasses is based on a series of lectures he delivered at the Pala Mesa Retreat Center in 1975. The book has sold over 500,000 copies without any promotion but never adopted as official AA literature.

Chuck’s most unique contribution to AA was his definition of the underlying problem of alcoholism, which he described as the feeling of conscious separation, and for which a sense of conscious unity was the answer. The result is sobriety and the ability to live comfortably, peacefully, and joyfully with oneself. Critical also was his view on prayer-“…if I am praying right, it’s not something for me. It’s that I might be some value to you. In AA, we don’t tell, we share. Without sharing, without caring, there would be no recovery in Alcoholics Anonymous.”

Nothing in the 29 years of Chuck “C.’s” sobriety would indicate that his life would ever be manageable again. “So, either one is going to run his life and take the consequences thereof, or one is not going to run it and take the consequences thereof-and they don’t mix.”

Chuck developed a unique view of a business. “But, I didn’t have any competitors because I wasn’t competing with anybody. I was just helping my people do things they need to have done because I wanted to.” Previously to AA, he thought his only option was to “out-think, outperform and outmaneuver to eke out a miserable living out of an unfriendly universe.” In times of financial stress he renewed his commitment to making “…twelve step calls” on business.

“God doesn’t intrude where he isn’t wanted, so he never keeps me from making mistakes. He loved me enough to allow me to make my mistakes, that I might sooner run out of my resources and come back home where I belong. My business is to do his business, and his business is to take care of me.” “Uncovering, discovering & discarding is the process by which this happens. And it’s a continuous process because the higher we go, the more we have to discard, and the more we discard the freer we become, it’s amazing.”

I was privileged to know Chuck C., and although he wasn’t my official AA sponsor, I called upon him occasionally when I had a particularly tricky problem to deal with. As did many, I met on one occasion with Chuck in his living room, where he sat in a large chair overlooking the Pacific Ocean. His guidance for our two-hour meeting was that he would listen to everything I had to say without interruption if I would do the same for him. I strung out my tale of woe, and he never said a word. Then without even referring to what I said with any particularity, he laid out his thoughts on why the solution to my problem was in pursuing “conscious unity” with God and my fellow man. It wasn’t a hard sell because my experience with AA was simply that for me. It was the home I was always seeking, even though on the surface, my family’s upbringing, love, and understanding were never lacking-I just couldn’t connect with it.