At Peace Among Ourselves
February 12, 2009 by Mark
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
From “The Language of the Heart” page 90;
“Our AA Traditions are those attitudes and practices by which we may deserve, as a movement, a long life and a useful one. To this end, none could be more vital than our Tenth Tradition, for it deals with the subject of controversy – serious controversy.”
Sounds familiar… try to remember that Bill wrote this in July, 1948.
“On the other side of the world, millions have died even recently in religious dissension. Other millions have died in political controversy. The end is not yet. Nearly everybody in the world has turned reformer. Each group, society, and nation is saying to the other, ‘You do as we say, or else.’ Political controversy and reform by compulsion have reached an all-time high. And eternal, seemingly, are the flames of religious dissension.”
Sixty years ago and still the end is not yet…
“Being like other men and women, how can we expect to remain forever immune from all these perils? Probably we shall not. At length, we must meet them all. We cannot flee from them, nor ought we try. If these challenges do come, we shall, I am sure, go out to meet them gladly and unafraid. That will be the acid test of our worth.”
If you’re an anti, don’t expect us to run…
“Our best defense? This surely lies in the formation of a Tradition respecting serious controversy so powerful that neither the weakness of persons nor the strain and strife or our troubled times can harm Alcoholics Anonymous. We know that AA must continue to live, or else many of us and many of our fellow alcoholics throughout the world will surely resume the hopeless journey into oblivion. That must never be.”
You can beat up on Bill’s character all you want. He’s dead and can’t defend himself. We’re still here and will. You lose so others may live. We’ll embrace your controversy as a way of cementing our future.
