Daily
Reflections reading October 22nd
What We Know Best
,
stick to thy last/" . . . better do one thing supremely well than many
badly. That is the central theme of this Traditio"Shoemaker n [Five) Around
it our Society gathers in unity. The very life of our Fellowship requires the
preservation of this principle. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS. p.
150
The survival of A.A.
depends upon unity. What would happen if a group decided to become an employment
agency, a treatment center or a social service agency? Too much specialization
leads to no specialization, to frittering of efforts and, finally, to decline.
I have the qualifications to share my sufferings and my way
of recovery with the newcomer. Conformity to A.A.'s primary purpose insures the
safety of the wonderful gift of sobriety, so my responsibility is enormous. The
life of millions of alcoholics is closely tied to my competence in
"carrying the message to the still-suffering alcoholic."
© Alcoholics Anonymous World Services
My thoughts on
October 23rd Reading
The
Three Legacy of Recovery " Unity, Service, Recovery " they are like
the legs of a three legged stool take anyone away and the stool will tip over,
we need all three to survive in our program
Forward
to the 12 & 12 "the steps are a set of principles, spiritual in their
nature, if practiced as a way of life, can expel the obsession to drink and
enable the sufferer to become happily and usefully whole"
The use
of AA principles to changing circumstances in peoples lives, made them send
letters to Bill. W. Asking for his last word on a matter of AA policy, on all
kinds of matters in answering Bill would fall back upon the basic principles of
AA 's Three Legacies Unity Service and Recovery
Tempered
by wisdom, humor, perspective, and regard for the feelings of others, in 1968
when a well-meaning AA wrote to Bill, in deep concern about an influx of
youthful hippies, or flower children to local AA groups, along with their
distinctive manner of dress,
Sexual
behaviors and other unorthodox behavior, including the use of drugs, the writer
feared this particular invasion might be a very real threat to our wonderful
God-given program. Bill's reply was typical of his use of AA principles to meet
new challenges,
He wrote
back about the hippie problem so-called, was very interesting to him, but he
doubt that we need to be alarmed about this situation, because there have been
precedents out of the past all sorts of outfits have tried to move in on us,
including communists, heroin addicts, prohibitionists
Do-gooders,
of other persuasions, nearly all of these people who happened to have an
individual problem with alcohol, not only failed to change AA, but in the long
run AA changed them Bill said I have a number of them among my closest friends
today
They are
among the best AA 's I know, you may also have some people who are not
alcoholics but are just addicts, a great many AA ‘s have taken pity on these
people and have actually tried to make them full-fledged AA 's. of course their
identification with alcoholics is no good at all
AA ‘s
however encourage these sponsors, to bring addicts to open meetings, just as
they would any other interested people in the end these addicts usually
gravitate to other forms of therapy, they are not received on the platform in
open meetings unless they have an alcohol problem
Unfortunately
many groups still deny them in closed and open meetings, even when they are
also alcoholics whose only requirement is to have a desire to stop drinking,
this is a major break down in our unity to serve other alcoholics in their
quest for recovery
Where
are they to go, would NA say they don't belong because of the alcohol, catch
22, unity and service means we refuse nobody the chance to have the same
benefits of recover as we had when we came into the halls of AA, we need to
always be here for them
Bill went on to say there has occurred lately
a new development centering upon hippies. Who have LSD or marijuana troubles,
not so much stronger stuff, LSD was found to be stronger stuff many of these
kids appear to be alcoholics also and they are flocking into AA
Often
with excellent results, four of these kids visited Bills office he saw one
young gal prancing down the hall, hair flying in a mini-skirt wearing love
beads and the works, he thought Holy smoke what now
She told
him she was the oldest member of the young people's group in her area, age
twenty-two they had kids as young as sixteen. Bill was curious and took the
whole party out to lunch, well they were absolutely wonderful they talked just
about as good a kind of AA as I've seen anywhere
I think
all of them said they had had some kind of drug problem but had kicked that
too, when they first came around they had insisted on their own ideas of AA,
but in the end they found AA very much good enough as it was, they needed
change not the program
Bill
said as younger people come into AA, we shall have to put up with some
unconventional nonsense, with patience and good humor let's hope, but it should
be well worth the attempt and if various hippie addicts want to form their own
sort of fellowship along AA lines
By all
means let us encourage them we need deny them only the AA name and assure them that
the rest of our program is theirs for the taking and using any part, or all of
it, Bill ended by saying for these reasons I feel hopeful and not a bit scared
by this trend, of course I'm no prophet
I may be
mistaken, so please keep me posted Bill said he is a highly interesting and
perhaps a significant development. I certainly do not think it ought to be
fought, it ought to be encouraged in what we already know to be workable
channels
To those
now in its fold, AA has made the difference between misery and sobriety, often
the difference between life and death, AA can mean just as much to uncounted
alcoholics not yet reached
No
society of men and women ever had a more urgent need for continuous
effectiveness and permanent unity, the hand of AA should always be there to
insure our own recovery we alcoholics see that we must work together and hang
together, else most of us will finally die alone
This is how AA can best function and how we in AA best
stay whole and so we do survive
God
bless you Al M
Please feel free to mail
suggestions or comments
