Unity and the 12 Traditions – 12 Traditions – Part 1 of 2 – Sandy B.

I'm a real alcoholic. My name is Alvin. Yeah, he's got the literature. It's always an honor and a privilege to be asked to do anything that's connected to this fellowship. It's a lifesaver for this alcoholic. All right? And I take the unity today a lot more serious than I did when I first got here. and even when I got into the step work when I hit that wall the traditions didn't mean a whole lot to me everything else was more important to me at that time than the unity of this fellowship guess what this unity of this fellowship is a lifesaver okay you know how we parrot each other sometimes we'll read the traditions and we'll read the steps and, you know, while common welfare should come first, my personal recovery depends on it. Well, my personal recovery depends on it, my unity with you and your unity with me. Outside issues I've come to find out personally don't belong in our fellowship. It's divisive and at any given time, I'm heading in one direction or another, either divisiveness or immunity. There's no third door. I have my selfishness, but real sacrifice is does this fellowship outweigh my personal wants and needs? That's why traditions 2 through 12 all come back to tradition 1. my recovery depends on it now am I just parroting you or is that true and each individual has to answer that for him or herself and that's what I had to do it's true because if I insist on being right with another alcoholic whether it be in bunches or one-on-one, if I insist on being right, I'm wrong. Even if I'm right. It's divisiveness. At some point I have to surrender to it. It doesn't mean I change my ideas or I'll just believe anything I hear. It just simply means to me it's not worth it. My divisiveness with you has no place in this thing. You know, when I came to Alcoholics Anonymous before I got here, I had a different fellowship. And they sat with me around the bar stools. I did a lot of narcotics. That was a different scholarship. Boy, was that a different membership. But it wasn't until I hit a bottom in Alcoholics synonymous before I got here, hit that bottom, that I had hoped that there was a fellowship for me somewhere down the line. And I'm going to tell you something. I was out there for 20 years, and I had never heard of Alcoholics Anonymous. That tells you how engrossed I was and who I hung out with. I had never heard of AA until I came out of treatment center on May, in May 8th of 1984. And they told me, they said, there is a fellowship. And the fellowship came to bring a message to the Ballard Care Unit. And I had ever heard that message. I said, my God, they used and drank like I did. they thought and felt like I did like that exercise in Bill's story and that's when it hit my heart it got from my head to my heart I belong here I got it the first time and it wasn't by virtue that I got here I got that booty kicked so I had hit a bottom coming out of three near death experiences around alcohol and other things that I was ready as Freddy when I got here. In fact, in the treatment center, they was betting I'd be back in a week. I was so chatty and I was so excited. And they just said, he's full of you know what? But they didn't know. That ass was sore. I was reddy. So I get here in this fellowship and God, I found everything I've looked for first of all, as important as I am I'm not more important than you as a whole. I am important now I'm just a close second really, I'm a close second. Without this unity of this fellowship I'm trying to do this dance alone and it's been proven there's failure involved when I tried to do it like the Lone Ranger, right? And these traditions came into play, obviously, through trial and error. Bill Wilson and those guys went through the same stuff that a lot of us go through today. And it's not the forces from without that's going to destroy us. It's the forces form within. The way I see it, Alcoholics Anonymous is just a cross section of our society and our society can spill over into our fellowship and that's where the traditions come in I don't sponsor and stop my sponsorship at the step work we roll right into the traditions because he doesn't have to navigate the unity of this fellowship on his or her own that is my responsibility I felt as a sponsor to introduce them to the traditions. It's like, if it's just about the step work, which is the base of that equilateral triangle, well then I'm leaving 24 spiritual principles on the table. The traditions just don't begin in here among us, right? It's in my home, at work, at play if everywhere I go to be inclusive and not exclusive so I get a chance to sacrifice but again real sacrifice for this alcoholic is stuff that I really won't want to do I have a better idea and you don't want to play with me with my good idea So I'm going to find another home group. And eventually I'll get rid of that home group because I can't have my way. I got a better idea. Real sacrifice is giving up something, isn't it? So the question for Alvin, am I willing to sacrifice for the good of the whole? I thank God for my sponsor. He says, Alvin, don't underestimate unity in this fellowship. And don't be so pompous and self-righteous and all spiritual like you're better than anybody else in this in this fellowship. He was full of good news when he was telling me the truth. Right. And I didn't like it. You should have seen me when I went through the steps for the first time. I was a walking big book. Mr. the AA, right? And I would talk down at other alcoholics and at other meetings. Now guys, I am not proud to say what I'm saying, but that's true. I took the best of what God had given me and claimed it as my own. That's what self does. Yeah, God, I know this is your show, but I'm going to take my role and claim it. I had to learn how to sacrifice for the good of the whole. Now, would I help him if he needs help or any of you? And I got the time? Yeah, I'll help you. But what about if it's inconvenience? I really don't want to do it. but I do it anyway that's sacrificing for the good of the whole now there's nothing wrong with doing it if I got the time let's face it that's all a part of it right but when it's inconvenience is when I feel I feel that power of God deep down within me and almost always you know he had a better idea than I did. I never have to be alone again and that's what you have given me and I owe it to AA and this program and this way of life to carry this message to other alcoholics, not from the spiritual hilltop but from a place where my life depends on it. My life depends on this and if I violate my sponsorship, I can't keep a confidence then I'm not as close to a drinker as I'll ever be because I won't be able to sponsor you so I have to learn how to keep a confidence what do I do with my integrity when nobody is watching me right yeah I can talk a good game but what do I do when you're not watching me am I in practice do I still admit my wrongs again am I just a small but important part of the greater whole and I am and I've learned how to do that with grace with God's grace and power and the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous it's God's way of disciplining this selfish self-centered alcoholic, and I still got it. Now, having arrived, right, I get to practice, right? And I've learned that from this program and the people in it. And in fact, the ones I don't think have much to offer me, they're my messengers too because they teach me what not to do if I'm paying attention. I have a voice in AA, but so do you. and I need to respect that. That's how we come to a group conscious. We hear God's voice in each and every one of us if I'm listening. You know how we only half listen because I'm only thinking about what I'm going to say to convince you that I have a better idea? Uh-uh. I need the help of God. I need you to learn how to listen, not just hear you, but listen to what you're saying. again. It's a collective consciousness and God is in the center of it. And again, I'm just a small but important part of it and I'll take that and run with it. Thank you. My name's Kenny. I'm an alcoholic. I brought all my material. I got my big book up here. I got mine 12 and 12. I've got some other notes and stuff on their traditions and I brought those up here to intimidate alvin so i learned that from uh from an attorney friend of mine that i worked with for a long time and he would sit and have his stuff stacked up and he would he would flip through his notes as if he was looking for things and uh and it was an intimidating process so i might actually pick my books up and read something i don't usually like to do that but Um, but for the traditions, I think it's important that, uh, that I do my best job here. So, um, one, I want to say, you know, what a blessing it is for Alvin and I can get asked to do this for one is that, um. Alvin got sober in 84. I got sober 1989. And, but when I got sobre, I don't know that, that, and I'm not speaking for Alvon, but you know we both had something in common i was barely sober but we both had something common and that's that we were both suffering from untreated alcoholism i think that's fair right okay man so we both so we got dalvin and i got to go through the steps together we got to do it go to workshops together we gotta go through the steps together and so we've been we've been together on this path for a long long time and uh and what a blessing so um i think about things on the traditions i think about one is that the steps were designed to protect us to protect alcoholics anonymous from us i think that's important that that the last of the 12 steps is having had a spiritual awakening that for us to function well in Alcoholics Anonymous you've got to go through the steps that's what the steps were designed for that's why they were prominent in the book the traditions are designed to protect us from the group and and and uh to make sure that the groups aren't out doing things we've got the traditions for that and then of course the concepts protect us form a world services and the general service office we're protected that way um in the in the traditions the thing that i think the best thing that I could could spend my time on is just like my personal experience because just like the steps the traditions are easy to get carried away with in our minds in a place where it becomes It's just this big intellectual, it's just a new level of the intellect that I've got. Now I'm the, and I've been there. I can speak from this, from experience of coming into AA and working the steps and then really going into being a GSR. If you want to learn about the traditions, go become a GS?. Put a couple years in at general service and go into some, and you'll be forced to learn the traditions. That's the way I really tell my guys to do it. And I'm the same way as Alvin. When we're done with the steps, I usually send them on their way to go find somebody else to work with. But very quickly, most of them come back and say, there's got to be something else. What are we going to do? And then I'll take them through the traditions or some other work that we do. But so, you know, if you want to learn about the traditions, go into general service. Go find a commitment at area. That's the way that I did it. You know, that's the ways that people sat me down is I went to GSR orientation, you know, and they made sure that we had our time in the steps. So in the traditions. A couple things that have been on my mind is that like in the third tradition, you know um that you know this is this is so important because i can become and i have been there where i became rigid and unloving in alcoholics anonymous and then i become the guy that's beating other people over the heads with the traditions and what they should be doing and if people aren't following it then it drives me nuts and i get to a place exactly what alvin was talking about and i like that so much about you know i can get to a place in my home group where i'm like this is it i'm out of here this is this is just i can't and it's really the ego separating me from the very thing that will save my life the ego will get in there and start convincing me that i got to find another home group because these guys are all screwed up and they're not following the traditions and um so on the on uh um on the third tradition i'm gonna i just want to show you something on the history of the traditions this this is uh this is the forward to the first edition so we have this idea the traditions came out in 1947 in uh in a group of writings in the aa grapevine and um 12 points to uh somebody correct me here but it's 12 points that guarantee our success of the future or something like that that's the that was the first name before they narrowed that down and became the 12 traditions and then the book came out they were passed in 50 and by 55 they were in our our 12 and 12 but in the forward to the first edition just to point out that this has always been a part of alcoholics anonymous since the very beginning these things these ideas these concepts this is the forward as it was first written in 1939 and the first printing written before that um it is important that we remain anonymous that sounds to me like tradition 12 and they tell you why they're anonymous when speaking publicly about alcoholism we urge each of our fellowship to admit his personal name designating himself as a member of Alcoholics Anonymous that's like Tradition 11 we very earnestly ask the press also to observe this request, Tradition11 we are not an organization in the conventional sense of the word that's 6, 8, 9 and that there are no dues or fees whatsoever, like Tradition 7. The only requirement for membership is an honest desire to stop drinking. That sounds to me like the Tradition 3. We are not allied with any particular faith, sect, or denomination, nor do we oppose anyone. You know, that sounds a lot to me liked our Tradition 10. So when I look at this stuff and I think about that, that in the in the from the very beginning most of the traditions are here there's there's other references to them in our big book so they've been a part of who we are since forever that we realized up front that we needed protection from uh you know they knew that people had already had that experience before they wrote the book that people are going to go a little nutty and people will go kind of hachibu on different ideas and start heading off in a direction and we've got to have some way to control that that there was going to be no dues or fees you know that that tradition seven is such an amazing thing because what that really tells me is that the traditions are you know a because of that because that we have protected ourselves from money and property and prestige we did ourselves a huge favor because what that did for us is it made us into a group that's unlike any other group other than these other anonymous groups are unlike any other groups because in most groups you want to try to get the people who are the most influential and the most the highest status the people that have the most money those are the people that you want to join your organization if you start a non-profit you're going to go after these philanthropists and these kinds of people that that's who you want but in aa instead of being upwardly mobile we're downwardly mobile in aa because of our traditions like we we were not interested in any of that all of that stuff is set aside because we're interested in the alcoholic you still suffers and we're not going to get distracted by all of this other stuff um i'll uh um in uh in tradition 12 there's a piece that this guy who was a close guy with with the fellowship of the spirit too that but he would uh he would tell he had told me one time And that, you know, the spirit of anonymity, right? Anonymity is the spirit of all of our traditions. Like what does that mean? What does that means that we're spiritually, that non-autonomy has anything to do with my spiritual condition? And it's really what it means is that when I'm working with a new guy and I had a new guide down in my room this morning at eight o'clock in the morning my eight o'clock a.m thursday guy um and and he's sitting there on the couch and we're reading the big book together and i've said a prayer that god worked through me and carry the words give me the words guide my thoughts and my actions and my words with this guy and so this this process is happening and in that process i'm anonymous in that process it's about the message it's about you know my experience that I can help to share with another person but I'm anonymous in that process so I'm trying to kind of hit on some of these things because the thing that really gets me the most is when people you know you got to have these experiences for yourself you know you can't you got to get into the traditions get into where their application look at traditions and have some experience so that you can have some story or some connection to tell some new person that this is what's going on with the traditions and um so uh you know there there's no uh that that we have this uh attraction rather than promotion in aa because of our traditions and one of the things that happened for me like this is my attraction rather than promotion story and the that i was at a place in my sobriety just as many years ago it was one of the first conventions that i ever got asked to speak at and i was that the puke was barely dry on my shoes you know i mean i was i was you know not the most uh you know the i was there were probably a lot of people that were more qualified to speak at the everett convention which is what this was the ever convention when that was going on um but i had like the the you know the the just like this afternoon i had like the premier thursday 4 30 spot you know and so this guy came that i got sober with and he'd been so kind to me when i first got sober i got sober on june 8th and there was a big picnic that happened in june that year for the fellowship hall that i was going to and and he took me around to everybody and and he was saying, oh, this is Kenny. And he was using that junkie pride against me, you know, to try to make me feel a part of. He was telling everybody, oh this is Kenny, he's got seven days off of heroin, you know, and I was like, well, yeah, that's right. That's right, you know. And because, you know, I was not well, and he knew it, so he was so kind to me in those kinds of ways. And through the years, I saw him start to change and um and i was i was changing too so i'm up at this podium i'm in my suit my tie i got a nice haircut you know i'm pretty polished and here he comes and he he keeps getting more and more and more tattoos sober and i'm thinking man you know like you know i hope he's not just going to be one of these guys that just kind of flames out or something And then he joined this motorcycle club, and it was an outlaw motorcycle gang, a real one-percenter guy. And he's wearing his colors. He's got all these tattoos. He's still a guy that I � and I just talked to him a couple weeks ago. I went up to the powwow, the seafair powwow. And he was one of the dancers, a big Native American guy, just a beautiful human being, just a gorgeous man and a beautifulhuman being. and is that my time? The balance is keeping me. But anyways, the... So anyways, I was thinking in my mind, I'm thinking that I've got better, and poor Malcolm is getting... I shouldn't have said his name. I didn't mean to do that. And this poor guy is getting worse. I'm getting better, and he's getting worse, I'm thinkin'. and well good for me you know that's that feels pretty good i'm going to be one that makes it and so when we got when i got done speaking there was a line a short line of people that came up and thanked us and he was in the line and he came up and he could see what was going on this selfishness and self-centeredness and this he could See what was happening that my ego was was working on me and he just came up and he shook my hand and he said you know what i can help people that would never talk to you and it just melted me you know just like and i looked out and there was him in his colors and there which was her property of him you know on her jacket and all of the guys were there and I looked outside the door and all these motorcycles are lined up and I like saw this really beautiful thing, you know, that this is a program of attraction and I'll tie in our seven-step prayer that says that, you know we ask God to remove those things that block us from our usefulness to him and to our fellows. That's it. and uh um and then i'm going to move on to the controversial stuff so i told alvin when we met we met on on monday and i told Alvin i said Alvin I'm a little I'm just I'm Just not a singleness of purpose guy you know that's this it's not been and uh and and i heard him out and he almost convinced me but he hasn't quite got me yet but um and uh but i just thought i should somehow it just came to me that i should say that that um one of my great spiritual mentors and he was joking when he said it oh but only a little bit joking and he said kenny i don't think you have an ounce of singleness of purpose in your whole being you know he was and um and so what i mean by that is it that i understand the singleness of purpose in aa and i respect that and when i'm at the podium i talk about my alcoholism and i will tell you that that if you took all of the drugs out of my story completely as if they never existed you would have a low bottom drunk alcoholic you know i mean i i drank alcohol um you know as it's described in the book and the hopeless alcoholic the type whom you know all other methods had failed and i went on to do that to use the i used um and and for people that have been in that place it's one of the most horrible places you can go where you're trying to drink yourself off of a narcotics addiction and trying to trying to do narcotics to drink herself out of alcohol withdrawals it's it's as it's hideous you know and so um so i don't take that so far as to be offended actually the thing that offends me is when somebody comes up and says um says something like well i i'm you know that's an outside issue or something because i just you know i really wonder if we're really doing people a favor when we do that because i remember people that came into the program and it took them a long time to get there they needed that space sometimes two or three years where somebody would come in saying i'm an addict and somebody could have run them out and they didn't and they said well no i'm a addict alcoholic okay well that's a little bit better but you're still not really where we want you to go and then and then well i'm uh alcoholic and an addict in a powerless over where where uh i'm powerless over work cocaine takes me or whatever you know those kinds of things and uh um and i i really believe and maybe someday it's going to take some kind of a huge group conscience in aa that maybe will never happen but i just say that because i think it needs to be addressed out front that that uh you know a lot of the people that are coming in today are are not pure alcoholics and so um i keep my message clean and i'm making sure that they know that i'm an alcoholic and and that I know a lot about the drinking game. And other than that, I don't walk too fine a line. So that's my time. Thanks. Yeah, we have some extra time. So at this time, we'll open it up for those that would like to share some of their own experience with the traditions or those that have questions for the speakers. We ask that you consider only coming to the mic once throughout the weekend to give those an opportunity that might not otherwise be inclined to share. And please limit your share to three to four minutes so that many more people may have an opportunity to share, so we're going to open it up for anyone to share their experience with the traditions. Thanks. So you talked about protecting. Oh, yeah, hi, I'm Laura. I'm an alcoholic. You talked about protection, and I found that a curious use of the word, but when you talked a little bit more, I understood. but you were saying that the 12 steps protect the individual, the traditions protect the groups, and the concepts protect our general service structure. And I wonder whether you could go a little bit more in depth about that. I don't know how much more in-depth I can go on that other than to say that the twelve steps are really designed for us to have a spiritual awakening. That's, that's, this is our treatment for alcoholism. That's what the 12 steps are. This is AA's treatment for alcoolism is to go through the 12 Steps and having had a spiritual awakening. So if we've done the step work and we've don those things we're probably not going to bring a lot of harm to AA. So the Steps protect AA from me. That's protecting them. The 12 traditions keep the group so that when I go to an AA meeting in Seattle, Washington and I go to an AAA meeting in the Tri-Cities or something, everybody's going to be practicing this set of principles. We hope that keep things kind of in alignment and keep the groups from hurting Alcoholics Anonymous they protect Alcoholics Anonymous and then the concepts for world service the concepts are designed to protect us here individuals and groups from GSO and the central office that's what the concepts are really I mean you can practice these principles in your life and I didn't get a chance to share much on that but but you know I've done a lot of that putting these principles into my life but yeah that's how i describe the 36 spiritual principles when i'm sitting down with a new guy and i kind of tell him about what's going on and the these 30 these 36 spiritual principles 12 steps 12 traditions 12 concepts it the traditions to me has a lot to do what keeps me in discipline the way god disciplines me to help alvin get out of alvin and be a part of the greater whole. The way that I am protected from that is if I'm taking these steps in practice, because in that equilateral triangle for me, those other two sides in equal rest on my practice and step work. I have a real good chance of being in unity with you and supporting GSO and all the others that support, that make carrying our message possible. That's what the seventh tradition is for example, right? It's making it possible to do 12-step work. Not only in the community, but on the world stage. But my part, I'm going to be a lot more effective if I take him with me. If I take God with me, there's a good chance I'll be a part of this thing called Alcoholics Anonymous because if I got a weak recovery program and I can't be trusted I can not be of maximum service to you. Not through perfection but through trusting that power and putting that into practical application this alcoholic need power to do that. So the 12 steps are not to be underestimated and I'm not correcting you, Kenny. I'm just making a statement. They are not to be underestimated. He has my permission to correct me. But it all rests on the 12 steps. My chances are much better if I'm practicing recovery and especially when you're not watching me. Thank you. These are two people that have been part of my sobriety for 32 years. Alvin is my sponsor. Kim took me to my very first conference in Ocean Shores 32 years ago. So this is a real special thing for me. But this is something I'm not real super proud of, but I also know that the traditions are important. And the experience I had was you've probably heard it in Alcoholics Anonymous, all you need to start a new meeting is a resentment and a coffee pie. Both. my home group uh it got started by a friend of mine and i and was and it was because because what we're kind of talking about is that the the traditions i felt and i had been through you know work with alvin on on the traditions and we had gone through a traditions workshop and it was a fairly large group and people were just not doing the deal they just weren't like following the traditions every time it It seemed like we came up to a chance to not follow one. We didn't try to get informed and then try to follow it. They just kind of did it the way they wanted to do it and shot from the hip, and there was a couple of people that were real strong personalities. And what I found was that I was being distracted on being of service with other alcoholics in that meeting and being of surface in the business meetings. And so I was spiritually sick in two ways. You know, because I'd go to my home when I felt like I wanted to be at home. I felt that I was at home, and I didn't feel like I was at home there. And I didn' t feel like I could be of service to other alcoholics because I was so distracted by it. And I don't like to admit it, but by this resentment that was going on inside of me and what was going on in that meeting. So I bailed. I got the coffee pot, and I got the thing you pull down and started a freaking meeting. And it's still going to this day. It's been going for probably seven years now. I'm not saying that because I did something and I started the meeting and, you know, those guys are over there and I'm over here now, you know, and I was going to pull some people from that meeting and start, you know. I didn't do any of that stuff. I just started a meeting to close the Alcoholics Anonymous meeting for alcoholics. I'm kind of a single purpose, singleness of purpose kind of guy. I'm coming around the other way a little bit as far as that goes. But what I do know is that I feel like when I go there on a Sunday evening, we started in an area where there wasn't a lot of AA meetings on Sunday nights. It's a small meeting between 15 and 20 people. But I feel good about it. I feel great. We just had a woman that come there. It was mostly guys. She just got a year. She didn't come to that meeting every Sunday. That makes me feel good. It wasn't that it made me feel so good to go start my own meeting, but the fact that there's someone that's coming there and we got to be of service to her and there's a couple other people the same thing but i'm just really grateful that they're they're that the people that came before me care about their traditions and care about what we do and what we don't do in aa because there's stuff that we kind of don't know and that we shouldn't do i that's just what i believe and i just wanted to share that experience about the coffee pot and resentment you hear it but it happens traditions are really important not only in meetings but how i am in all my relationships whether it be with my family members my husband people on the street um people at work and i have to ask myself you know what tradition am i working on in in any given situation because it's my attitude that needs to change it's not i'm not there to change your attitude but although i'd like to you know but i i just wanted to read uh one of their readings It's one of our newest daily readers. It's a little time for myself, some traditions, and it's February 15th. Al-Anon's 12 Traditions are wonderful tools, not only for meetings but also in my home. Tradition 2 states there is one authority, God, as expressed in our group conscience. Even though my husband or I might be in charge of a particular task or event, I don't report to my husband nor does he report to me. We each report to our respective higher powers. When my husband is not pleased with me, I can let it go more easily if I feel my actions and attitudes reflect the will of my higher power. If not, it's up to me to change and make amends if I have caused harm. Today's reminder, to keep my serenity, I must admit I am powerless over others, including their opinions of me. Remembering I can look to my higher Power for guidance gives me greater peace of mind. And I like the question that it ends with in this daily reader. How does being accountable to a higher power help my relationships? Thanks. My name is Pete Alcorn Caddick. So, I remember going through the steps and I had a spiritual awakening. and I would go into meetings and I was like this this is the way you need to do it this way and I wasn't I was the guy that was well you might need to find a new sponsor you know I was trying to criticize and I Was trying to tell these everybody the newcomers even old timers what they needed to be doing and it wasn't until the traditions came into my life and uh alvin's also my sponsor but the but it wasn't until the traditions came into my life that i stopped like arguing and i stopped the divisiveness because for me i was i was going into meetings and i was judging and i Was I was in turmoil within the meeting within my fellows and I couldn't I didn't want to be there and so I was finding myself just calling Alvin all the time like man this guy he's not following the state he's not doing this right and he's not and then it wasn't until it's like I needed to I need to just accept them for who they are and I also needed to not always want to be right. I felt like a salesman I was kind of selling AA of sorts, because I thought I knew the right way. And the traditions opened my eyes to something that I was just so excited about them, because I would start asking members, I'd say, hey, have you ever been through the traditions? And they'd say no. It's not part of my recovery. You know, 20, 25 years of sobriety. Now whatever, now I remember being like, oh yeah, got them now. i only got like you know three years of sobriety but man it's i'm running up on him now because i know a little something but but it was that moment of like i i don't care what their politics are i don'T CARE WHAT SPORTS TEAM THEY ROOT FOR I DON'T I DON'LL KIT WHEN WE'RE HERE WE'RE HEAR TO TRY TO SAVE EACH OTHER'S LIVES AND IT'S I CAN'T DO IT WITHOUT YOU AND SO IF I I end up storming out of meetings and going to different home groups and switching and just, you should do this. And when I sat in my first meeting, my business meeting after the traditions, I remember there was this woman that was just making all the decisions. And I just had to open it up. Well, I think it should be a group conscience. Like, see, I was bringing in the traditions into this business meeting and I was like, the light was kind of, I Was like, oh, my God. I was kind of shaken because I was like, they might just kick me on out of here because I'm not the leader of the group. I'm asking to ask for the group conscience. And like Alvin says, you know, I am important, but I'm no more important than the whole. And so it got me thinking. And so I just � I got so excited about traditions and I feel like they should be more prevalent in our rooms. So thank you. Thanks a lot. Yeah, I'd like to say a little something that's also very important. Our Seventh Tradition is huge. And sometimes, in my experience, in meetings that I had been a part of, would not use the Seventh tradition to make it possible to do Twas that work. So the collections are taken for barbecues, campouts, dances. It's sort of like living a lie. I'm collecting under the seventh tradition, but I'm going to use a little bit of it over here. Okay? And so it really dawned on me if I know better, I'll do better. And I say this not from so much criticism as it is I learned a lesson about traditions. Understand them, and I'll do better. Understand them and I will do better." And we use that, we use these traditions selfishly if you're like me. Selfish. Right? It's pretty tough to be in a group conscious and the old timers are convincing everybody in the home group that this is the way to go. And so what I would do before I became traditionally informed, I would shrink. I was intimidated. That is not spiritual. I've come to believe through my sponsorship and being informed that we can hear God in all of us if I'm listening. Not the one that I used to do. I got some shit to say, but so I'm going to have to listen to what you're talking about because I've got to get my point across here. I have a better idea. So I had to learn how to listen. I had learned how to hear God's voice in you. And I had to learn how to accept the fact that I got outvoted. My great idea wasn't taken, right? But the group spoke through God's power and consciousness. So I just really wanted to say that. Do as you say and say as you do, and watch out for your collections, if you will, suggestively, that it goes for 12-step work. That's what it's for. I was part of a home group, and I'll say this this year. Now, I was a part of the home group. When we had these little things going on in our home group like the campouts and the picnics and all of that stuff, we as home group members didn't collect on that from a regular meeting. The members in the group dug deep. it was our idea as a group let's support that as a crew thank you I'd rather hear from you if there's anybody out there that has a question or a comment but we still got some time so I thought I'd offer just a couple of things that one is is that in this little package I've got here which I'm happy to share with some stuff out of there there's a couple things in there one is called problems other than alcohol and i've not been a big guy on all of the you know one of the things i think that we've got going on is that central office has become a publishing company and so they they they did they're dependent on kicking out these new books and language of the heart stuff and printing and people subscribing to grapevine and buying big books and that that's how they're funding but what happens is that we get so much literature that the message is really watered down. So a lot of the pamphlets and things that we have, I wouldn't recommend them to people. But this is one that I do, you know, the problems other than alcohol. Because it says clearly in there, it's pretty clear that a person who is an addict but not an alcoholic can't become a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. It's real clear, that part of it. So I wanted to mention that just because of what I'd said about the singleness purpose. I'm just not a guy that is well-equipped to decide. You know, I read the piece out of the first edition of the book which said the only requirement for membership is an honest desire to stop drinking. And they've been working on that since the beginning because when they got to their distance, they took that word honest out because one, you know, really the truth is is that you're an alcoholic, you're a member of AA when you say you are. And as near as I can tell that they took down, they took out that word honest because they don't want anybody becoming the tradition's police that says well I don't, you know, I just don't know if Laura's, I mean she seems good but I don' t know if she's got the honest, she doesn' t seem honest desire to me or and I'm not trying to pick out somebody but just for an example that that that's what so we've got this deal they're really what it says is you're an a member when you say you are and the other thing is practicing these principles in in all our affairs these not just the 12 steps but the 12 traditions as well because i had this really amazing experience that because i was a sober member of aa i got to work for a company for 17 years worked for the same company for 17 years and the owner of that company died while i was working for him he was a guy that was five years sober when i met him was not sober when he died and not was not sober most of the time when i was working for them but what happened when he died is suddenly i was thrust into this position of having to go to these association meetings and stuff and we had started an association to form a cooperative where a lot of companies would come together and we were all going to share information and share things and and do things to cooperate so that we could split quota up and people would you could send one boat instead of four but the short piece of that is that the only thing i did was i went to those meetings and and i you know i was a guy i had i never went to high school did not have a high school education here i am most of the people that are representing the companies are attorneys and harvard mbas and you know big time guys and there i am and i and so i i had the 12 traditions that's that's it and so I just started talking about that when there would be arguments I would say you know it's going to be important that we have substantial unanimity here that way we don't want to have a six five vote that that's just divisive you know the main thing for us is our unity to hold this group together to have the this common welfare that we have and these people who've never been to an a meeting were like wow who the hell is this guy you know and the long story short they hired me i became the president of that organization and then it was my job to hire somebody to run the organization because we got big enough to where we needed somebody running it full time and i got to looking at the job description and i was like man i'd do this job in a heartbeat and they said well if you want the job it's yours and so i ran this association of companies for for many years and we organized and we did some really really great stuff but that was like all of that was putting the traditions that you know the thing that was going to divert us we had a prudent reserve we never collected more dues we didn't try to all of these things that i got from the traditions i put into my work life and amazing things happen and it happens the same in our family with shannon and i you know that that when we were raising the kids that was the deal you know i wasn't it wasn't a patriarchy in our house you know so um that uh you know we put this into application in our own lives and one of the other things i've got there is there's a piece it's the 12 traditions checklist and so i mentioned a couple things you can get that the 12 conditions checklist is fantastic information and it was designed for the group to take their inventory on whether they're abiding by the traditions or not but many people have started using that to take leur own inventory on where they're at in their personal lives when it comes to the traditions so it's really fantastic for that and then the last thing i'll mention which i don't have a copy of is something that's really good on the traditions is and i've really been anti the the uh the the graphic novel kind of style of some of the you know when when so met alice or whatever when i can't remember how well those those ones for their their little cartoon books you know but one of them that's really really good is the 12 traditions illustrated is really really god if you wanted like a quick lesson on the 12 traditions get that get that pamphlet and and check it out and check out the checklist thanks Thank you for listening.