Peace, Partnership and Brotherhood
August 22, 2007 by Mark
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
Curiously, as I read these words, it instantly comes to mind how one can spot someone who isn’t quite all they crack themselves up to be…
From the 12&12, page 77;
“how… we may develop the best possible relations with every human being we know.”
And we certainly don’t do that by stealing either their physical wealth or their emotions, now do we? And the fact that our literature says: “It is a task which we may perform with increasing skill, but never really finish” is not an excuse for poor behavior!
“Learning how to live in the greatest peace, partnership, and brotherhood with all men and women, of whatever description, is a moving and fascinating adventure.” How true…
“Every A.A. has found that he can make little headway in this new adventure of living until he first backtracks and really makes an accurate and unsparing survey of the human wreckage he has left in his wake.” Do you think that without this survey and the knowledge of what we have done, we are doomed to repeat it?
“To a degree, he has already done this when taking moral inventory, but now the time has come when he ought to redouble his efforts to see how many people he has hurt, and in what ways.” Bingo! Without this we’ll continue to hurt others in the same ways. Seems to me I couldn’t fix what I didn’t know. And, if I really don’t care, am not truly working a program of recovery, recovery is not my first priority, then I’ll keep hurting others. Makes me wonder whether there might be people in A.A. who aren’t real alcoholics after all.
Have an opinion?
“Do you think that without this survey and the knowledge of what we have done, we are doomed to repeat it?”
Absolutely. Even with this survey and the knowledge of what I have done, I still sometimes find myself repeating these destructive behaviors.
Might there be people in A.A. who aren’t real alcoholics after all? Yes, I believe there are people in A.A. who are not real alcoholics. But I’m not sure I follow how you got to this conclusion from the quotes that precede it. Care to enlighten me a little further?
Hi Namenlosen,
I put it all together because I see, in real life, people who have no conscience, hurting others in the “real” world then “preaching” spirituality and kindness towards others in the rooms of A.A. Same people, different reality dependent upon the location.
Although it can “hide” itself for a short time outside the rooms of A.A., the disease is very consistent and can’t stand going unnoticed for long. I’ve seen it before and that’s how I can see it now.
Hi Mark,
I’d still call the vast majority of them alcoholics, but I see your point. It’s the same one I’m making when I quote what I’ve heard: There’s a lot of untreated alcoholism in the rooms of A.A. To see a kind of ultimate example of what you’re referring to, read the post at http://kickinitmymonkey.blogspot.com/2007/08/time-to-start-freeing-ghosts.html if you haven’t already seen it.
Just because they are not practicing these principles in all their affairs does not necessarily mean they aren’t alcoholics.
If I am reading this argument correctly, you are confusing alcoholism with recovery from alcoholism.
Or am I misunderstanding?
No, I’m probably misunderstanding. You said, “Makes me wonder whether there might be people in A.A. who aren’t real alcoholics after all,” in which I understood “alcoholics” to refer to both recovered and unrecovered ones. But I can see in context that you must have been referring only to “recovered” alcoholics, since otherwise the doesn’t make sense.
I’m pretty sure we’re in agreement. I’m just quibbling over the exact wording, which is one of my long-standing and hard-to-rid-myself-of defects of character.
Argument? We have ceased fighting anything or anyone… yes, I believe you’ve misunderstood that part of it dAAve
dAAve is close though to the rest – what I’m saying, sarcastically (which might be why dAAve understands), is there are people in A.A. who “profess” to be recovering by their words in meetings yet their actions outside the rooms prove otherwise and prove it distinctly, which, imho, probably means they’re either not really alcoholics or not real alcoholics, or just plain simple liars…
Namenlosen, I hadn’t seen that post and there are enough similarities there that it is very scary. I hope that person is ok…