Just what the hell are we doing here? That was a question I was prepared to bring up today. However a man, who “was coming back” trumped my suggestion and the meeting focused on him.
Why would I ever think of bringing up a subject like that? Because I was reminded today by a friend of mine what AA was like, when I came in. Meetings were often filled with a hundred people or more. They were huge. And what was it that drew them to these meetings? The solution to our problem with alcohol.
When I came in, the meeting did not stop to recognize the newcomer or the man or woman coming back. The subject of those meetings was the Steps, the BB, and often the Traditions.
People who came to these meetings wanted to hear how these Steps worked. Everything was focused on what the Fifth Tradition said. That the group’s primary purpose was to carry the AA message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
When, as a result of the introduction of rehabs, people who came in began to want to talk about their problems. That’s what rehabs taught them. That somehow AA was a place for group therapy. As a consequence the AA message was pushed aside in favor of discussing problems and not the solution. That’s when attendance at meetings began to fall off. And that’s when the in and out of sobriety began.
Bill W. in one letter to the Grapevine lamented the state of meetings, because instead of Step study meetings, AA seemed to be phasing into “discussion” meetings. Any subject was fair game. Relationships, work problems, anything became a group’s favorite topic. But not the solution to our problems with alcohol.
I’ve often felt the same way Bill did. I know others, who have acquired a certain amount of sobriety, which dates back to those days, who have expressed the same dismay. Where did all those sober people go? What happened to the program as we knew it?
Does anyone coming in ever read or study the BB? Work the Steps; the solution to our problems with alcohol and a whole lot more?
The spiritual life is not a theory, the Ninth Step in the BB reminds us. It has to be lived. Who’s really interested in the spiritual life today? Instead we have become a haven for the maladjusted to life, who aren’t concerned with the solutions spirituality can bring into their lives, if only they would follow the suggestions given to us at one time.
Today it would be almost impossible to tell someone to shut up and listen. Take the cotton out of your ears and put it in your mouth. You know how to drink, but you don’t know how to stay sober. We do! That was said to me in a meeting by an old timer. It worked. To what lengths are you willing to go to stay sober? Any was my response. And I did. Thank God I heard those things and paid attention.
I would like to think that AA would be here for those of my children and grandchildren, who someday may show the results of what they will probably inherit from me. It’s not whether or not they witness me drinking, it’s all about genetics. The disease.
That’s what the First Tradition talks about. Where would the alcoholic be, if there was no AA? Where indeed.
Anyway just thinking about this. Oh, and I did just that this morning. I said pretty much all the above. Doesn’t matter to me what people think about me. It matters only to me that this program saved my life and I know it can do the same for others, who want it.