Why the Traditions Protect the Steps – Mike L.

These people are going to all leave and tell me I have to go away 20...after? Oh my gosh. 45 minutes, you can do it. 45 minutes. We're gonna fall asleep by that time. I'll fall asleep at the sound of my voice at home. I'm a recovered alcoholic. My name's Mike. I have a home group out to Breakfast Men's meeting we meet Saturday at 7 AM Pacific Time. sponsor. I'll tell you, alcohol was removed from my life on the 1st of November 1983 and then I'm going to tell you that's important only in the sense that I don't want y'all to be a slow learner as I was. It's hard to understand why Alcoholics Anonymous is still here. and I'm glad I don't know I see how many there's a lot of people wow they keep coming in the traditions I love it 32 people wanting to hear now watch them all start dropping we don't have foul this week we do the worlds of secrets it's a tradition meeting why are the traditions important why should I stay what do I need to hear these silly traditions for today for me spiritual progress not spiritual perfection for me ensuring that Alcoholics Anonymous is here my grandkids actually Val's grandkids, I'm not going to probably have any really, Val I know has kids, grandkids I see and maybe that grandkid will have some kids anybody else thinking about the future of Alcoholics Aneurys let me read something that's in the big book it's in the back of the big book and it's the AA Appendix 1 it says to those now it is called Alcoholics Anonymous has made the difference between misery and sobriety anybody okay with that one? that's a truism for me and often the difference between life and death AA can of course mean just as much to uncounted alcoholics not yet reached 1982 I was not yet reached 2005 I was not yet reach therefore no society of men and women ever had a more urgent need for continuous effectiveness and permanent unity we alcoholics that we must work together and hang together else most of us will finally die alone the 12 traditions of alcoholics known as R-E-A-H-3 the best answers that are experiences yet given to those ever-urgent questions how can a best function and how can aa best stay home and so survive so so when i say how can they function how can any stay home special here's alcohol what you're not right see that box knows i'm I'm not lying. I am telling you that. She's got five snows. And in that is our message, right? Our message on how to recover from a seemingly hopeless state of mind. In fact, they call this we can recover. We can be recovered from that hopeless state of mind and body, seemingly hopeless. So this program needs to function when we all get together. It needs to stay whole so that uncounted Adipahaliks like me can find us. That's what the traditions are for, that's how the traditions work. I can work the steps of the program and say I'm done. Hey, hey, I've had a spiritual experience. Now I can go help others. If there is no group, how am I going to help someone? If there's no group that's attracting alcoholics, how am I going find an alcoholic to work with? The traditions ensure that the groups of alcoholics and non-alcoholics through the experience now these traditions were born out of the experience and the mistakes that were came from the same place as their steps experience Bill wrote these down now the steps were a little bit you know known I mean he just took those from different places right he wrote it for AA as he did the traditions There's no way that, as it says in AA conservation, and by the way, I will be pretty much quoting when I quote something. If it's not AA-approved literature, just ignore it, unless it's my experience, you know, just ignore it. And hopefully I won't, because I can only rely on AA literature to show me an alcoholic how to live in this world. how to live with me and with you so that together we can save lives yes each others and others those traditions help us get together with two alcoholics come together that's why that's my identification is vital alcoholics when two alcoholics get together. We now have a message for other alcoholics. I know, I'm supposed to talk on tradition for a while. I know. I can't help myself. I love the traditions so much, I just probably go off on little tangents about the traditions. And I will tell you this, that in the two days as I mentioned, so I got separated from alcohol in 1983. As I said, 2005 was another date we were all here because of these traditions see I was dying I thought this was a program of sobriety in the foreword to our first suggestion it says it's a way of life how does he write it it says because I missed that I thought this was staying sober we are sure that our way of living has its advantages for all this is a way of living alcoholics and pharmacists in those 12 steps are not just designed to help us stay sober else we would say stay sober and you're great people could have one page God's over, you're done there's a lot more than that in there and in fact the key part in there is about carrying the message to the alcoholic is self-centeredness. My selfishness, self-centredness is the root of the troubles. So how do I get out of the selfishness and self-centricity? I practice those steps. I live those steps and the principles of those steps so that I can be abused to God in others. Here would be the message. So I moved out of selfishness and self‑centeredness to self‑sacrifice. And if I want to grow spiritually, continue to grow spiritually, the steps are not, I'm not done. I'm not done Yes, I've got to continue my 12-step work But the unity of Alcoholics Anonymous is the most how does it say in 12 and 12? The most cherished quality our society has. The unity of alcohol is not honest. It's the most cherished quality. Not Mike's sobriety, not Mike's wonderful ambitions or his honesty or any other thing about me. It's about us together and unified around something that is bigger than all of us. In fact, maybe here, it then goes on to say And we believe there isn't a fellowship on earth which lavishes more devout care upon its individual members. Surely, there is none which more jealously guards the individual's right to think, talk, and act as he wishes. Holy Toledo! That's a lot of liberty. That's all I want to say. That's not a lot potential... I don't know what the word would be. Confusion? Anarchy? But this ultra-liberty is not so risky it says in our A comes from H because people, we wonder how can we function under this liberty under this ultra-liberty, under the fact that I can do what I want in AA the traditions starting with number one of unity leading to four and I'm getting into four right here but I will tell you as it says and this is where four comes in age 105 and A comes of age A comes of age is the history of our traditions and the history of I heard someone say the other day learning about the traditions without A comes to age is like learning or doing the steps without the big book and I over and over just like with the big books, I read both of them over andover again Because I want to continue to learn and grow spiritually. And here's where Tradition Forward talks about, because again, all this responsibility, all this liberty, I can do what I want, right? How do I unify with all that? Because we have two authorities in our box. Anybody ever hear of that? We have two authority, just two. And they're very effective, it seems. They're very affected. One is benign and the other maligned. There's one there is God. There's God it says very simply says I Am waiting for you to do my little Where's that one coming in the steps? They may like the steps to know the steps and we just love the steps with all we do step step steps It's always a step step step God's will right Step three The other authority is named John Barley Corp That references alcohol, if you're unaware. And he says, guess what he says Tom? You had better do God's will or I will kill you. I believe that. I believe John Barley. I believe alcohol will kill the alcoholic. So those authorities are the only two that I have to worry about, if You will. there's no human authority these traditions give us those guardrails give us that experience that leads us to that peace that there's only two authorities it's the unification you and me unifying around this message all of this message is vital and we need to unify it around anything I do to disunify am I practicing a spiritual principle am I thinking of self sacrifice so this tradition I'm going to read the original form known as the law reform it says with respect to its own affairs each AA group should be responsible to no other authority than his own conscience. But when his plans concern the welfare of neighboring groups also, those groups ought to be consulted. And no group, regional committee, or individual should ever take any action that might break the effect of AA as a whole without conferring with the trustees of the General Service Board on such matters. Our common welfare is paramount. Where'd that common welfare come from? I saw that somewhere else. Oh, up in Tradition 1. Hence our common welfare comes first. But individual welfare falls close thereafter. Again, it goes back to, it may put my individual second to the common welfare, but remember as an individual, I can do what I want, I can say what I wanna, I connect how I want. But I also have to do that knowing that our common welfare, our unification. So me spouting off whatever I want to spout off because it's my right to do it. I can say what I want. I can do what I like. Is that good for the common welfare? Is that great for the alcoholics who still suffer? Next month you'll hear about what a group has in its mind. What the group's primary purpose is. Is that good for the alcoholic to still suffer? It's me part of the group, doing what I want, stating what I wanted. Is that going to help the alcoholic who still suffers? Questions I ask myself. Spiritual principles I take forward into my groups. Now, I hear a lot of people saying, traditions are for the groups. Who's the group? Me! This member. I'm a member of a home group. I am part of the conscience. We read about the conscience, and the conscience is spoken of God's word, because it says that our group consciousness is produced in two. There's only one ultimate authority. A loving God is he can express himself in our group conscience. So God is expressing himself when I vote and when I'm part of a group. So who are the traditions for? The groups? Each individual member who's part of the group. That's why one home group, one voted. I've all hosted ours. so this tradition again leads me back to that authority that I in the steps has brought me to you the power of God the traditions continue to lead me to the spiritual principles that protect the steps do I want the steps to be here? that's what we're talking about remember the step the alcoholics and arms. The steps are there because the traditions protect them. I want to read something that was and this is going to lead into more specifically on Tradition 4. And it comes from our 67th General Service Conference. It was written by a gentleman named Billy N., General Service Trustee and it reads, AA leaders have a sacred duty to, above all else, embrace all 12 traditions. I do not believe we should ever look for a way around a tradition. I firmly believe that you can't ask a newcomer to observe one tradition while you ignore a few others. I believe it is time for many of the non-voluntary anonymous to stop using the former tradition to break the other traditions. History shows that the fourth tradition was not created as a veto over the others. Rather, it was created to give groups flexibility regarding group customs. If a group breaks a tradition, it is affecting other groups in their years whole. We'll talk about the customs things. Because this tradition really is about our groups making decisions on their own autonomy, regarding their customs. Not regarding the fact that we can break traditions because we're autonomous. Not the fact we ought to, you know, do what we can do what we want and forget any other groups or AA. That's not what it's saying. We have our own customs. Anybody, what's their home group? Anybody have a home group an hour or an hour and a half there's a custom anybody have a speaker meeting or tradition meeting there's accustomed within our group we can decide these things anybody anybody there you know do you have step meetings or just literature base those are customs that that this tradition allows us to be flexible and and do what we want. It talks about, the principle I see in this one is conferring, it's consultation. One of the things I recently learned, and I'm going to give a couple examples too of how this one, well let's give these examples first because I remember I got sober in Seattle and the meetings were an hour and a half. I don't know if they still are obviously, years ago I came down to Portland after about a year and to my surprise they were an hour what's up with that what I did not understand that that's it's in this tradition I just not know at the time I didn't know for many years I went to Chattanooga, Tennessee sometime before 2000. And I don't remember if this is specific, but I do remember my thinking they're sure doing it wrong here. Why are they doing that? That's not AA. But what I do remember now is, oh, they were probably doing something under the custom. you know it may have been who knows maybe they were doing cross talk I don't know but whatever they were doing they were following this tradition and honoring this tradition I think one of the things one of my pals says a guy named Pop not Pop goes to Weasel Pop Tart his traditions are and I'll say this they're not to be enforced they aren't rules there aren't There aren't AAA-traditional police. They are to be enforced. They're to be embraced. Embraced as a loving entity that protects our program. So learning this has just come recently, and as I said, you know, come back to 2005 when I came probably back to dying of untreated alcoholism dying thinking that this was a stay sober program and starting to really work the steps, read the book do the steps out of there and continue that process because the steps again are digits I'm not done you ever heard of the three legacies most of you have probably had recovery unity service I just don't do recovery I have to do other parts if I really want to carry the message of Alcoholics Anonymous because the message of Alcoholic Anonymous is more than just pardon me the steps it's protected the message by our traditions and perpetuated by our service. So I learned that early on, and I didn't even know it. The other thing, so what is talked about, oh, so, what I recently learned, so I'm a GSR for my home general service representative, we have districts, so the groups are the top of the triangle, inverted triangle, so we We go to districts, and I've learned recently through my GSR experience that in order to confer and consult and honor this tradition, I go to my district and I ask about those questions that we don't know. That's the opportunity, the implication that I thought before knowing this, and again, was very recent in the last six months. You know, I have to go knock on the door of every group and ask them about this? Or am I going to have to go to every meeting? Because I was a DCM even before that. So even as a DCN, I was unaware of that piece of consultation and how to do it. But now as a GSR... Yeah, there's a story behind that, Joshua, and I'll tell you it later. Yeah, how could you get DCM before GSR? How do you know that much? It says a story. But it is very simple. If my group, and as it says here, if any group breaks the tradition, it is affecting other groups and the AA as a whole. But I can find these things out of my district. I can talk to other groups. I could talk to the DCM and find out things I don't know. My group, in its consultation and discussion, comes across issues that may be needed to be questioned of other groups around us. You ever hear that I hate even to say some of these nonsense sayings, but I'll say it anyway, because it's so, a resentment and a coffee pot. Everybody hear about that? You know what you do with a resentment and a coffee pot? Let's go across the street. We're going to start a new meeting. I got my coffee pot, I got a resentment on this meeting, we're going to start a meeting, same time, same day, and affect other groups today as a whole. Now, let's say they didn't take it that nearsighted, maybe it moved four days later and a new different time. But you can see that the idea we have behind that too is maybe even before doing that I resolved the conflict in my group. How do we do that? Through conscience. Tradition too. Business meetings. We don't have business meetings. Maybe you ought to start one. Maybe you out of habit. Just saying. Because again, these traditions have a process for me to, again, safeguard my message of recovery. And if I do these things, practice the spiritual principles and the traditions, what's the ultimate result? It's making sure that message to the uncounted alcoholic is still there. and by the way that coffee pot and resentment how's that promoting our most cherished quality our society has remember what that is Adrian you remember what that is you probably do right unity permanent unity how would something like that so they get that saying sorry I just said I just can't help myself sometimes it's just you know these sayings that AA has they float around not AA they float about they're just you know so if our unity is the most cherished quality I need to consult with others and I have those resources as a member of the home group That's the beauty of a fellowship, of a world-like fellowship. If we're all practicing the same principles, we're going to get the same answer. Do we want 52,000 different answers? Do you want anarchy, actual anarchy? Everybody doing their own thing? I mean, we could, but Bill was asking us through these spiritual principles To avoid that, to avoid anarchy, to avoid personal recovery coming before our kind of welfare, preventing personal ambitions directing our actions. So as I talk about that, I talk about responsibility, right? The thing that comes in. I mean, because we have all this freedom that I talked about earlier, too. Say and do whatever I want to do. I means, if I did something on screen, you'd probably turn the video off, so I can't do certain things. But certainly there are some things that I ought not be doing. Changing the language of our literature when I read it. reading non-AA literature in an AA meeting these are the things that do I have the freedom to do it? yeah is it the responsible thing to do? no because again the freedom to do doesn't mean I do with great freedom brings great responsibility And as it says in the 12 Traditions, let's see if I can find it quickly, because I love this pamphlet. I don't know where I put it, of course, because there's so much literature. The 12 Tradition Illustrated, great resource for the traditions, because it's got pictures and very few words. I know Gerilyn loves that because she can barely read so she just goes for the pictures all day long but in that it does say as always freedom brings responsibility. Fourth tradition is like the fourth step it suggests that the aid group should take on a signatory of itself asking about each of its independently planned actions would this break any tradition Like the individual member who chooses to make the steps, his or her guide towards happy sobriety, the wise group recognizes that the traditions are not hindering technicalities. They are true guides towards the chief objective of all AA groups. So this responsibility, if we say this for the groups, right? What have we already said about the groups? Who makes up the groups. So I have great responsibility because of that great freedom to honor those who came before me, whose experiences they left for me. They left for Me to follow. They didn't leave for Richard to follow or for Vera in my view or Patrick. No, for Petitico. I think I said that right. they left them for me and if we each had that attitude we'd come together in unity to ensure that this message stayed the same but again too many think that great freedom that they've been given is they might as well use it in AA to break traditions to do what they want But again, we have that opportunity. We have that incision in the flesh so we can act and think and do what we want just to promote unity, our most cherished quality. And if we don't believe in unity, we're on the road to Hannah. We're onthe road to disunity. Disintegration. The fourth tradition also talks about, as I mentioned, about inventory, similar to the fourth step. So as a group and taking group conscience, having business meeting group conscience means we have that opportunity as we do it to take our group inventory, to get our group sense of what we should and should not do. What we ought and ought not to do, in other words. And how to correct. If you read about the poor tradition in some other, in the literature, it talks about the building of a three-story education rehab and loan center. Can you imagine AAs running a loan center? they did that they thought that they should do that so that's the story in the fourth tradition the group had the right to do that guess what happened after a few I don't know was it a few days a few months weeks years oops it burned down Mount Linder and the chief architect as they said you know came up with that saying don't take yourself too damn serious. Made a mistake. We get to learn from that mistake. And these traditions are all about learning from the mistakes of those who went before us. After all, anybody want to learn for their own personal mistakes? I do. But I keep making them over and over again. What's that called? Oh, insanity, right? Then I stop I don't take myself too serious. I know that loving God and the spiritual principles of my Alcoholics Anonymous is the answer to all my problems. Spiritual principles are the answers to all my problem. So the same with traditions, my group, groups, again there's that little caveat if we have groups that meet and do group inventories or do groups, you know, conscience meetings or consider actions, they have the opportunity to make the mistake and correct it just as they did with that lone sample. So this part of tradition, again, a lot of them parallel some of the principles in the established. But again, going back to the traditions are there for us to embrace. If we choose that obligation that we have, the obligation to honor our most cherished quality, to honor the fact that we need to permanently be unified, or else what did it say most of Most of us, they say. Something kind of yucky, wasn't it? The difference between life and death. And, you know, the disintegration of a group today or the disintegrating of my group may not kill me, may not put the principle behind it. If I sit back and allow that, i'm sitting back and possibly killing the next alcoholic that makes i'm looking for an answer now as i and i'm going to wrap up a little bit which maybe you'll send you know that may not let me but i'm gonna see if i can wrap up um you know i've been talking a lot about i mean these traditions but you know especially for the other ones in unity what What do I do? What have I come to learn over the last few years in studying the traditions? Getting over cold, so I had to clear my throat. You didn't even hear that. What I've learned about these traditions and how they're embraced is through education. It's through trial and error. And again, the education. Just like I take people through the steps out of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous and get educated about that so I can carry the message to the next alcoholic so that I can be of use to God and others. If I carry the messages of the traditions which I do today through the AA Comes of Age and other AA literature, I better prepare others and myself to practice these spiritual principles and these traditions they're for me, they're not for the groups they're from me to go out and talk about you know surprisingly I think we have one net since I started that's pretty good but you know one net people usually in tradition meetings you know, drop off like fives. But today, because I think this is true, I can't believe those in AA want to understand, learn, and experience the traditions because they do care about AA. They care about the future of AA. They don't want to stomp on our traditions anyway. They don' t want to ignore them. They don''t want to think they're for someone else. they want to think fully of it and act as if it were for them these traditions are a sacred obligation that have been given as a member of the Fox to love, honor, and respect to cherish as if my life and life after me depend on it and oh yes they all do so as we go out let's start to educate ourselves more about our traditions learn more about it And I don't think my learning on these is ever going to end. In fact, they're more important to me and I'm not saying by much. The principles behind these are more important to me today than the steps are. Than the principles behind the steps. Because if I didn't have you if I did not have the group of others I wouldn't have anything. That's what I've learned in these last few years. And when I say few it's not many. I want to thank you all for the opportunity and I bow for the opportunity to talk about our sacred traditions love of Alcoholics Anonymous for me runs deep and I need to keep learning why AlcoholicsAnonymous is here was here when I called in back in 2005 and continue to come in here to learn about AlcoholicsAnalymous so thanks Val, God bless you all Thank you.