Why Principles Must Come Before Personalities – George G.

I'm a grateful alcoholic. My name is George. We're going to review Tradition 11 first, and then we're going to talk about Tradition 12, and I'm going to review Traditon 12 today. We are going to try and finish it up tonight. Before I start, I want to thank this group for the opportunity anytime I serve in any capacity in Alcoholics Anonymous, I consider it an honor. I can never give back what was so freely given to me when I got here by the people that were here before me, and i always carry them in my heart when I do something. Going to Tradition 11, the long form reads our relations with the general public should be characterized by personal anonymity. We think AA ought to avoid sensational advertising. Our names and pictures as AA members ought not be broadcast, filmed or publicly printed. Our public relations should be guided by the principle of attraction rather than promotion. There is never a need to praise ourselves. We feel it better to let our friends recommend us. Going to my favorite little pamphlet is the 12 Traditions Illustrated. It talks about that AA, there's a little picture of someone sitting down on a chair and someone talking to him and a wife standing behind him says, ours is not a secret society. We carry the message anywhere we can. And then on the bottom is a picture of a guy with a spotlight and a camera, but we must ever be aware that self-appointed messiahs speaking for AA through public media can do us great damage. And there's a picture of a man walking down with a package and a girl near a lamppost, someone knocking on someone's door, and then there's half of the page and the other half of page is a cutout part where they show how we should speak at the level of television or film, how they arrange the lighting, the spotlight. It's very interesting that it should be shadowed. You should never see the personal face of anyone. In the 11th tradition, it says, alcoholics who have recovered through our program are themselves the strongest attraction that AA has. When people are asked what led them to seek AA help, the answer given most often is an AA member. The chances would be slim if all of us had remained completely in hiding. But many of us have chosen to tell our friends, neighbors, employers, co-workers, doctors, or spiritual advisors that we were in AA. And when we do so, we are not breaking our anonymity in the meaning of this tradition. I know, I shared back, I think it was two weeks ago, when I was talking about the 11th tradition or 10th tradition, where there's somebody that I work with who used to say all the time, I used to stay up saving a seat for you. And lo and behold, some 10 years later, he found the room. Now, I don't know if I'm the one who planted that seed, but all I did was carry the message I was taught to carry. He found someone else. I don' t know if he's in the program today or not, but I know that those days that I spoke to him had helped keep me sober. And that's, you know, I don''t know how we carry that message. I know how I carry that messag. Suppose a sick alcoholic never has a good fortune to meet an AA. How is such a person going to find us? The search will be difficult if the local group thinks it should be anonymous too. The tradition is talking about personal anonymity. Remember, alcoholics have been attracted to AA if they don't know why it exists or if they have a distorted, unfavorable impression of its members or of its program. Giving the general public an accurate picture of AA is the chief job of the public information committees. In addition, they often carry the message to certain groups from police officers to personnel directors whose work includes contact with active alcoholics. There's a whole bunch of special interest meetings we call in AA, lawyers, doctors, nurses, IPNs. There's is a whole lot of different slant on that and there's a purpose for them because I know if I was a school teacher which I'm not and I walk in here and I saw some of my parents I would be very uncomfortable lending my kids go to school and a lot of people who do that or a lawyer or a doctor you know and I happen to know some doctors in the field and it would be kind of embarrassing if they're sitting in a meeting and somebody walks over to them and says I can't go to that doctor they're an alcoholic how are they gonna operate on me probably with a lot more clarity than if they were drinking but that's my opinion we don't have an opinion on that and that's why I have special meetings for those kind of people and they're attracted to those meetings. There's very few of us that get the opportunity or the privilege, and it is a privilege, to go speak in front of the professional people. Some of us have had that opportunity. And then it talks about how to be anonymous on the television level. It tells us about, it shows a picture of an interviewer and a shadow of another person. We see most of these anonymity breaks at the level of famous people. You very rarely see a person with 45 years in Alcoholics Anonymous on a talk show. You see someone with six months who may have a new movie or a new book or is a sports figure and they're the ones who usually break their anonymity because if they knew what anonymity was really about, they wouldn't be on those shows. There's a whole bunch of shows that are on TV today and I don't want to mention names because I don�t want to affiliate us with them which is another problem of an anonymity break. There�s a lot of shows on. There's a lot of things that you see on TV where there's a whole lot of movies that are very good for us, but we need the public information but we don't need the affiliation. So it becomes a very tricky thing when we talk about how we're attracted and what the difference between attraction and promotion is. Going to the tradition worksheet on Tradition 11, the short version is our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion, we need to always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films. One of my favorite things is what Dr. Bob says. He says he uses his full name, he says it's just as wrong to use your full name and it's in one of our pieces of literature at a closed meeting, at an open meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous as it is to use you're full name at an Open Meeting of Alcoholic Anonymous because an Open meeting is open to anyone and people will care who you are, and they can pass judgment on you by your story or whatever you're discussing in a closed meeting for Alcoholics Only, and people need to find you. And how many Dr. Bob S's were there in Akron? And he always talks about that story. So, you know, the only place we're anonymous, and I always talk about this, is amongst the outside, the public. Press, radio, press, radio and films. I don't want to be that anonymous that my own home group doesn't know who I am. I don't want to be that anonymous that if I'm in trouble someone in this room doesn't pick up the phone and either call my sponsor or confront me. That kind of anonymity is the kind of unanimity that we lost a lot of members over the years. So when we get to the AA checklist, it says do I sometimes promote AA so frantically that I make it seem unattractive? Am I always careful to keep the confidences of other members in AA? Am Am I careful about throwing any names around, even within the fellowship? There's a lot of people we know. Some of them are pretty famous. Some of they have pretty important people. And if I throw their name around, well, I know so-and-so, what I'm doing is I'm promoting them and look at me and that's a form of gossiping about someone without realizing it because what we're doing is making us look better. I mean, if I sat in a room and I knew that somebody was a banker or somebody was just a bad person at one of the stores, I'd probably want to sit next to the banker in case he can do something for me later on. That's about that promotion. When we walk in here, we're all equal. It goes back to that first tradition. Am I ashamed of being recovered or recovering alcoholic? What would AA be like if we were not guided by the ideas of traditional living? Where would I be? Is my sobriety attractive enough that a sick drunk would want such quality for himself? That's pretty much pretty simple questions, but now we're going to move right from that into the tough one. Because we're talking about anonymity at the level of press radio and film. In Tradition 10, we have no opinions. That's a form of anonymity. Now we're getting to get to Tradition 12, where it tells us that anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions. Every mind has placed principles before personalities. Now I don't know about you, but when I came here, it was personalities first. It wasn't principles first. because I wasn't clear enough to know what a principle was. And one of my favorite things that I had a very good sponsor, and I like to say that, who made it very clear to me that there's a book called The Dictionary, and it's very important to get one of them. And anonymity, if I read the dictionary definition of the word anonymity I probably wouldn't know what it meant. Because what it says, it says one, a state of quality of being anonymous. An anonymous person, some find poetry attributed to an anonymities now if I had to read that I have no idea what you're talking about but as an adjective I found a very good one there's a whole bunch of them a form or by a person author whose name unknown or withheld an anonymous letter I've seen a lot of those having no no name I like that one a lot lacking individual characteristic characteristics unexceptional and donating a denoting an organization which provides help to applicants who remain anonymous and in it and this is right out of the dictionary says alcohol it's anonymous so we made it and that's not a promotion that's letting someone know how anonymous we are great definition for me of anonymity is without name we hear it in the rooms a lot random acts of kindness do something without telling someone you're doing it for them do a a little something for somebody, open the door, say hello. Those little things without saying look at what I'm doing is very important to how anonymity works. In our literature it's gonna talk about that anonymity is really true humility at work. And all the steps talk about humility and anonymity about humility, another form of it. So in 1948 Bill wrote in The Grapevine the grapevine, our mainstay that anonymity is a spiritual base, the sure key to all of the rest of the tradition. It has come to stand for prudence and most importantly for self enfacement. True consideration for the newcomer if he desires to be nameless. Vital protection against the misuse of the name Alcoholics Anonymous at the public level and to each of us a constant reminder that principles come before personality. such is the wide scope of all embracing this all embracing principle in it we see the cornerstone of our security as a movement a deeper spiritual level that points us still to greater self renunciation i talked about the first uh when i got here and we started this journey a bunch of weeks ago uh i talked About the first five are about affirmations we affirm certain things And the next seven are about denunciations of other things, money, property, prestige, organization. There's a whole bunch of things, outside opinions. And when we denounce these things, each one of them is asking us to give something else up. It's another form of sacrifice, all 12 of them. But in the first five, we're reaffirming that we want unity over self-importance, that there's a loving God. And it goes on, at a glance, the 12 traditions will instantly assure anyone that giving up is the essential idea of all of them. In each tradition, the individual or group is asked to give up something for the general welfare. Tradition one asks that we place the common good ahead of personal desire. Tradition two asks that wir listen to God as he may speak in our group conscience. Tradition three requires that we not exclude no alcohol from AA membership. Four implies the abandonment of all ideas of a centralized human authority or government. But each group is enjoined to consult widely in matters affecting us all. Tradition five restricts the A group to a single purpose, carrying the message to other alcoholics. Tradition six points to the corroding influence of money, property, and personal authority. It begs that we keep these influences at a minimum by separate incorporation and management of special services. It also warns against natural temptation to make alliances or give endorsements. Tradition 7 states that we best pay our own bills. The large contributions for those carrying obligations would not be received. The public solicitation using the name Alcoholics Anonymous is positively dangerous. I just lost myself. How about that? Okay, Tradition 8 forsuers professionalizing the 12-step work, but it does guarantee that a few paid service workers and unquestioned amateur status. Tradition 9 asks that we give up all ideas of expensive organizations. Enough is needed to permit effective work by our special services and no more. This tradition breeds democracy. Our leadership is one of service and is rotating. Our few titles never clothe their holders with arbitrary personal authority. They hold authorities to serve, never to govern. Back to Tradition 2. Tradition 10 is an empathetic restraint of serious controversy that implores each of us to take care against committing AA to the fires of reform, political or religious dissension. Tradition 11 asks that our public relations, that we be alert against sensationalism and it declares that there is never a need to praise ourselves. Personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films is urgently required, thus avoiding the pitfall of vanity and the temptation through broken anonymity to link AA to other causes. Tradition 12 is the mood of humble anonymity, plainly enough, comprehends the preceding 11. The 12 points of tradition is a little else than specific applications to the spirit of the 12 steps of recovery to our group life and our relations with society in general. The recovery steps would make each individual AA whole and one with God. The 12 Points of Tradition would make us one with each other and whole with the world about us. Unity is our aim. and that was written in 1948 and it's probably the most simplistic form I've ever seen of Tradition 12 because when you start reading Tradition 12, in the 12 and 12, there's a whole lot of other things that go on in here it talks about the very first two things, it says that spiritual substance of anonymity is sacrifice, because A is tradition repeatedly asks us to give up personal desires for the common good We realize that the spiritual sacrifice, which is well symbolized by anonymity, is the foundation of them all. It's AA's proved willingness to make these sacrifices that gives the people high confidence in our futures. At the beginning, it wasn't that way. The anonymity breaks was based on fear. People wanted to run about and tell everybody how good they were doing. There's a story in here about the panhandler. We talked about him a little earlier. There was all these things about promoting themselves. Bill Wilson is one of the greatest breakers of this. And Bill goes on to talk about Dr. Bob. And Dr. Bob was probably the most humble of people in our fellowships because when Dr. Bob was dying, his friends thought it would be a great idea and to put up some kind of thing for him. It said, for a long time, Dr. Bob and I have done everything possible to attain the tradition of anonymity. But before he died, some of Dr. Bob's friends suggested that there should be a suitable monument or mausoleum erected in honor of him and his wife and something benefit the AA founder. Bob declined with thanks, telling me about this a little later. He grinned and said, for heaven's sake, Bill, why don't I get buried like other folks? Just very plainly. Last summer, I visited the Akron Cemetery where Bob and Ann lied. Their simple stone never said a word about Alcoholics Anonymous. This made me so glad I cried. did this wonderful couple carry personal anonymity too far that they so firmly refused to use the words alcoholics anonymous even on their own burial stone. For one thing, I don't think so. I think this is a great and final example of self-effacement which will prove more permanent worth to AA than any spectacular public notoriety or fine mausoleum. We don't have to go to Akron, Ohio to see Bob's memorial what Bob's memorial really meant it's visible throughout the length and breadth of AA let us again look at the true inscription the one word only which is AA's have been written and that word is sacrifice now by sacrifice we practice anonymity it's also a humbling act to review And we've got to go over Tradition 12 like we did Tradition 11. The long form of Tradition12 is much more interesting than its short form, like most of them. Tradition11 reads, And finally, we of Alcoholics Anonymous believe the principle of anonymity has immense spiritual significance. It reminds us that we are able to place principles before personalities, that we ought actually to practice a genuine humility This is the end of our great blessing, may never spoil us. What we shall forever live in a thankful contention of him who presides over us all. In Tradition 12, in the 12 traditions illustrated, it shows a picture that says, well first it says that let us always remember that anonymity is not taking credit for our own or others' recovery, it is humility at work. and there's a nice picture of a big building with anonymity thing over here and then there's a little article and I'd like to read this because it again talks about what we're giving up in each of the traditions like we give something up in each one of these steps as we learn who we are anonymity we observe is AA is a root of a simple expression of a humility when we use the 12 steps to recover from alcohol we each gain and achieve real humility to put self-respect on a solid base of truth rather than fantasies about ourselves. When we used the 12 traditions to work together in AA, we were all trying to retrieve humility as individual members by recognizing our true place in AA as a fellowship and by recognizing AA's true place in the world. Tradition one reminds each of us that we are not recovering on our own, that we should control our personal desires for ambitions in order to guard the unity of the group and of the fellowship. We ought, tradition two, never fancy ourselves as big shots in AA no matter what office we hold. All of us are just alcoholics together and our groups are not entitled, tradition three, to rule on the qualifications of other alcoholics the same help that we have had. Yes, the group needs humility too. It may make its name public, but in the spirit of anonymity we should see that whatever group is merely a bigger part of the whole which is tradition for carefully in every enterprise to consider welfare of all groups that make up AA in both group and individual activities. We should remember the full name of our fellowship is. It does not represent an established religion nor is it a new religion. We are not evangelists or gurus about to save humility. We are anonymous alcoholics trying to help other alcoholics, which is Tradition 5. In the rising battle against alcoholism we ought let our pride in AA mislead us into thinking our fellowship with other agencies in order to bid for the share of power, prestige funds in keeping with Tradition 6 and 7 in mind, we will instead direct all our efforts towards AA's own unique purpose, which is to carry the message that all of us still suffer. When we go on a 12-step call, we should not tell ourselves how noble we are for doing such a valuable work without pay. The meaning of the 12-stepped work cannot be measured in money, Tradition 8. We have received advance pay for it in coin of far greater worth our very lives. In this same tradition, it is suggested that service centers maintain AA humility by paying its employees decent wages rather than considering AA such a virtuous outfit that employment here is a favor. When we are given special responsibility within AA Tradition 9 defines these as opportunities to serve, not titles to flaunt. The humility of the fellowship itself is to safeguard by Tradition 10 which is the refusal to set ourselves up as general authorities swinging our collective weight around in the public arena and then in 11 we do not want to sell the program by the surefire remedy in terms of promotion campaign or dramatize it by identifying no noted people in AA thereby implying that recovery has been for each of us an individual accomplishment. As Tradition 12 reminds us, that some of the strongest than other human personalities to rely upon. Our principles come first and they are not of our own invention. They reflect eternal spiritual values. With this tradition both as individuals and as a fellowship we We humbly acknowledge the dependence of a higher power than our own. This we owe to our future, to place our common welfare first, to keep our fellowship united for AA unity depends upon our lives and the lives of those to come. To look at the review real quickly in the long form as I read the long-form in the questions in the checklist, and there's a whole bunch of questions we can ask ourselves about Richard's Tradition 12. Why is it a good idea for me to place the common welfare of AA members before the individual welfare? What would happen to me if AA as a whole disappeared? When do I trust AA's current servants who do I wish had the authority to straighten them out? is my opinions and remarks about other AAs and my implying membership requirements other than the desire to stay sober. Do I ever try to get a certain AA group to conform to my standards, not their own? Have I a personal responsibility in helping AA group fulfill its primary purpose? And that is my part. Does my personal behavior reflect the Sikh tradition? That's a good one. Do I do all I can to support AA financially when it's the least time I anonymously give away a Grapevine subscription? Do I complain about certain AA members' behavior, especially if they are paid to work for AA? Who made me so smart? Do I fulfill AA's responsibilities in such a way that it's to please privately even my own conscience, really? Do my utterances always reflect the 12th tradition, or do I give AA critics real ammunition? Should I keep my AA membership a secret or reveal it in private conversation when that may help another alcoholic, and therefore me? Is my brand of AA attractive so other drunks may want it? What is the real importance of me among... then among, what is the real importance of me among more than one million AA's? Those are the questions that come out of this. I want to end with something that has been really caught my attention and it comes out of our concepts which we don't talk about very much but on page eight of our 12 concepts, the book on concepts, there's a little saying and if anybody wants to look it up it's number 273 and is out as Bill sees it And I held on to this when I first got here because in one of our traditions, it talks about how I have to look at things that unless we follow our steps and our traditions to the best of our ability, we almost sign our own death warrant. Our drunkenness and disillusion are not penalties inflicted by people in authority. They come from our disobedience to spiritual principles. And I believe that is one of the keystones that keeps me here today because I know that to be a truth. And what it says in here on 273, it's called compelling love. And love and service is what Dr. Bob said this is really all about. The life of each AA and each AA group built around the 12 steps and 12 traditions. We know that the penalty for extensive disobedience to these principles is death for the individual and dissolution for the group. But an even greater force for AA's union is compelling love for our fellow members and for our principals. If I have a compelling love, unconditional love, no matter what I think about someone personally, but if I show up there and they ask for help, I was taught that really early on, it doesn't matter what you do. It doesn't care what I feel or want. It matters what I do. And in the 12th tradition, more than any other tradition, it asks me to give up my personal desires to be of service, which is unconditional love. For me, that is service and love at its finest. To sit with a drunk in the middle of the night or to chase someone around a parking lot in a car because they want to kill themselves or to call a cop. Those are things that some of us get the privilege of doing. Not everybody gets to do that. And some of these people stay in AA and some of them don't. But what it does do is it teaches me how to give of myself with no expectation in turn, not to put a price on any of this, to do this openly and freely. one of the greatest gifts that I think any alcoholic can have is one alcoholic helping another and when we do that we sit in the basis of all our steps and all our traditions and all out concepts they all come out of that and they all comes from a place of love and that's where we find a God who we hope will preside over us until he no longer needs us and with that I thank you for these last couple of months and that is it Thank you.