Just so you know, I was thinking about the fourth chapter today. The one that contains the solution to our alcoholism and all our other problems. It is the second step. It talks about what’s really wrong with me. It talks about what I need to do about what’s wrong with me.
What a painful period in “my program” that was for me. Reading that chapter raised all kinds of inner turmoil. No wonder I resisted reading that chapter for so long. It was my sponsor, who kept insisting that I needed to read this. If it was up to me, I would have never read it. Even my curiosity was stunted, when it came to this. And, if I hadn’t read it, who knows what would have happened. It’s possible that I might have slipped back out the door again.
At every meeting I attend, I do my best to bring up the word “the solution”. In my experience over the years, I don’t hear this talked about enough, or at all. In the beginning of my entrance into AA, I begain to eventually hear the solution. I believe, again from experience, that there are enough people in the rooms, who need to know that there is a solution. Others may not think they have to hear it, but if they think they don’t, I believe, from personal experience that they’re wrong. Since I have made it a point to keep mentioning it, I can’t tell you how many have come over after a meeting and said that every morning they wake up with a drunk in their bed and have to remind themselves of the solution.
What’s the point? The fifth tradition. At every meeting we should be carrying the message to the alcoholic who still suffers. What’s the message? That there is a solution. I know that’s a hard pill to swallow. The newcomer is probably just there desperate for relief. The man coming back is probably there for a rest from his time out there. The old timer is probably there to keep hanging on by his fingernails. But, it’s still incumbent on us to tell all these, who have come in for some kind of help that there is a solution. Not the problem.
A man, who spoke today, after the subject of the solution had been raised, and said that he didn’t need to be sitting in a meeting listening to someone talk about their anger and resentment, or their family problems, or any other problem. He said that he needed to hear sober alcoholics talking about the solution. That’s what he came to hear. He said he needed to hear about the steps and how they work. He said he came in with the emotional capacity of a twelve year old. He said he had the mentality of a twelve year old. He didn’t know how to live as an adult. He said the twelve steps of AA and the example of those in the room eventually brought him up to speed in some areas in his life. He still had a long way to go, but he had a start. So, he said he needed to hear what worked and not what didn’t work.
Anyway, for a moment, that’s what I was thinking about today.