I was attending an meeting today and the subject was the 3rd tradition. After we read the 12&12, and as I listened to others speak, I thought, how lucky we are. We have this tradition, which lets each and everyone of us into the fold, regardless of what’s wrong with us.
The story of Ed, the atheist, and the man, who had an addiction worse than alcoholism, being welcomed…well, in Ed’s case, it was borderline…but it opened the door, which the groups themselves wanted to close. Like the book said, they feared letting any and all in, because they were all afraid , not only what people might think, but that they might all lose their fragile hold on sobriety. This tradition not only proved this was not true, but must have saved countless lives of those who might not have met up to the standards originally set up by early AA. One woman pointed out that she had four of the seven restrictions set forth by early AAers. What chance would she have had to survive? I looked at her, while she was saying all of this and thought of how much I have admired her through these years. She exhibits good solid sobriety and has been of invaluable help in leading others through their early years.
But one man from NJ spoke and said that is important as this tradition is and lauded the wide latitude it offers, he said it is not a license to violate the 1st and 5th traditions. Those he said are just as important and must be honored as much as we honor the third. It’s important that we all remember this and not think we can do anything we want or say anything we want. It’s about alcohol and not drinking. Simple, once we clear the doors.
Just some stuff I was thinking. I was also thinking about a young man, a friend, who is on this list. He was hospitalized last Saturday with something the doctors could not put their fingers on. They probed and studied him, doing all kinds of tests and finally came up with, what they thought was the problem. He was sent home and I just got a call from him and he’s back in the hospital with worse symptoms than before. Please keep him in your prayers.
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