Bill W VIDEO on Traditions I – "Menacing Forces"

Have you ever wondered what Bill W was like in AA meetings? No he didn’t hold young newcomer “Chickies” at his sides – popping LSD tabs, bragging about how he “STARTED” AA while Lois stayed home whimpering in her bed. Now you can see and hear him as he holds a table meeting and talks about our Traditions. Sit back. Listen. Learn. More to come during the week. This is the real deal. ENJOY!

Tradition One

Our A.A. experience has taught us that:

One – “Each member of Alcoholics Anonymous is but a small part of a great whole. A.A. must continue to live or most of us will surely die. Hence our common welfare comes first. But individual welfare follows close afterward.”

In addition to taking the steps, we are told to

This is PART I – Part II is HERE

join a group, get involved and participate in the Fellowship. But we don’t really know why at first, do we?

The truth that without a group we cannot recover, is not immediately apparent to many of us when we first become AA members. For some of us it may NEVER be understood and therefor appreciated. “I can get sober as long as I have God” is a familiar cry – and for many there is no doubt that this is absolutely true – but the temptation for social analysis is great.

It is unfortunate that sociology fails to explain how complete anarchy does not pull us apart, given our structure. What such analysis cannot reckon is the inherent gratitude for new life that every drunk who has escaped death shares, and the new Power which flows and guides such individuals.

I believe it is in great part recognition that unity of many germinates a spirituality of collective individuals. The profound principal behind “Whenever two or more are gathered in my name” become operative. Our group conscience after all serves the purpose of letting God enter to express Himself. This has guided us. What
should be anarchy, does not emerge.

A quiet human voice of many, rather than the single personality of one seems to have a Power within it to deflate individual egos. Individual deflation being necessary to become healthy and to recover, the similarly deflated AA group is able to speak truth for all its members as no individual can on his/her own.

While we have no monopoly of recovery through divine means, if we are to recover through God vis a vi Alcoholics Anonymous then it is through individual commitment to an AA group that we participate in the process. It’s why we call this a WE Fellowship with a Program that continues to foster the “WE” of our individual recovery.

It is getting away from ourselves and moving toward others that is a measure of ego deflation the group provides.

More video of Bill and the Traditions later in the week.

Peace,

Danny S

* This article was written several years ago. I don’t know what I meant by this statement. I think I may have been paraphrasing Bill W, but I am not sure – but I am sure it made sense to me last the time. Please see the comments to this article below for more on this. In the meantime I rescind the remark until I figure out what was meant. Thanks. Danny S