One of the most important aspects of my getting sober was identification. Without that, I’d probably have been lost.
From the very first moment in this program, at my first meeting, I listened to the members, who spoke. Whether men or women, I could identify with what they were saying. It’s been true ever since. When I go to meetings and members talk about alcohol, their drinking, and the solution they have found in here, I identify.
In the BB there is a statement about how we are people, who ordinarily would never get together. But here we are. Why? Because we identify with each other. We have the same problem(s). We talk the same language. We have a common disease and a common solution.
I can read the BB and identify with what is being said in there. I read the 12&12 and the rest of the AA literature and there I am. I read the stories in the BB and stories from the earlier editions. Guess what? It’s still the same. It’s me over and over and over.
My thinking is that once we get together, it’s hard to get most of us apart. As long as we keep identifying. The danger is, I think, that, when we become complacent, we might find ourselves withdrawing from the program. Personality conflicts, resentments, our egos and our pride, can make us walk away. And we stop identifying and find ourselves alone again.
Then it’s hard to get back, because we know that we all know and pride can stifle us. I know because early on I felt that way.
Anyway, as I was reading a story from the BB of a very early member, I totally identified, almost down to the smallest detail. It makes me grateful to know that after all that hell we have to go through to get here, that when we do, we find ourselves sitting in these rooms.We find salvation, a solution, through those just like us.