From Silkworth.net ;

Tradition Two: For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving GOD as HE may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.

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• Do I criticize or do I trust and support my group officers, AA committees, and office workers? Newcomers? Old-timers?
• Am I absolutely trustworthy, even in secret, with AA Twelfth Step jobs or other AA responsibility?
• Do I look for credit in my AA jobs? Praise for my AA ideas?
• Do I have to save face in group discussion, or can I yield in good spirit to the group conscience and work cheerfully along with it?
• Although I have been sober a few years, am I willing to serve my turn at AA chores?
• In group discussions, do I sound off about matters on which I have no experience and little knowledge?

Wow - this is one topic I feel like I could write a book about How about you? Recognize any of this? I sure do…

Beginning on page 43 in AA’s 12&12;

“We have also seen men and women who go power-mad, who devote themselves to attempting to rule their fellows.”

For ex. - this comment.

Forward to pg. 44 - “Whenever a human being becomes a battleground for the instincts, there can be no peace.”

In response to a post where I’m disagreeing with the concept of “Meeting Makers Make It” someone takes the time, lacking any communication, to immediately make a defamatory remark about “not working the program of action” to another human being, knowing nothing at all about that person and going to length to belittle the word “recovering” which isn’t mentioned in the post at all. What does this tell me? I can’t say for certain, but the guess is that the commenter is reading the right blog.

“Every time a person imposes his instincts unreasonably upon others, unhappiness follows.”

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I’ve been seriously pondering yesterday’s Daily Reflections because it means quite a lot, to me, in a few ways.

“They are servants. Theirs is the sometimes thankless privilege of doing the group’s chores.”

First Things First - this comes directly after a question posed asking: “Do these oldtimers think they can run this group forever?”

From which we find that any authority perceived over time is really limited or non-existent. God has His way of fairly dispersing responsibility within A.A. so that all might eventually become involved in service work. I think that’s a grand plan!

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Today’s Daily Reflection…

Equality

To me, this could be one of the Top Ten ideals/principles we can strive for. Shamefully, there are folks who, imho, differ and differ out loud and irrationally. Consider;

“Our membership ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism. Hence we may refuse none who wish to recover. Nor ought A.A. membership ever depend upon money or conformity.”

Conformity eh? What does that mean? To me that means that those who would judge me less than a real alcoholic because I say I’m recoverin(g) instead of recovere(d) - can go to he**! I have no requirement to conform to your controlling insanity of perfection!

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Oooh… how I would love to make this a political post… but… no, that won’t happen, so, no worry eh? LOL

This comes from the Daily Reflection for today for Alcoholics Anonymous.

What? No President?

Derived from page 132 in the 12&12;

“When told that our Society has no president having authority to govern it, no treasurer who can compel the payment of any dues, no board of directors who can cast an erring member into outer darkness, when indeed no A.A. can give another a directive and enforce obedience, our friends gasp and exclaim, ‘This simply can’t be. There must be an angle somewhere.’ These practical folk then read Tradition Two, and learn that the sole authority in A.A. is a loving God as He may express Himself in the group conscience.”

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(I’ve heard it said - twisted serpents :-))

“For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority - a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants.”

The Second Tradition (pg 132 in the 12 and 12)

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