In Gratitude…..

Now is a special time for me. Summer is coming to a close, fall is approaching, and so is ROTATION!

It kills me to have summer end, but every other year on opposite years, Alcoholics Anonymous rotates. In and of itself, that’s not so special, but for most of the really active AA members, now is the time that they are looking to the future of what they want to do in service for the next few years.

If this sounds totally foreign to you, no problem. I was a member of AA for quite a while before I really became “plugged in” to AA. Once that happened though, I would never turn back.

What happened for me is that I spent my early days in AA going to meetings and talking about how grateful I was for Alcoholics Anonymous. Many others were doing the same thing. So much so, that it almost seemed like finding new and catchy ways of expressing one’s gratitude for sobriety and Alcoholics Anonymous was the focus. While there’s nothing wrong with that, the principles of AA taught me that gratitude is best expressed by my actions, not my mouth. I noticed that when I did something nice, or went out of my way for someone, the people who showed me their thanks were so much more appealing than the people who acted happy and said thank you.

My time in AA was actually rather tumultuous for a while as I wrestled with several questions about life and AA. I was getting bored with AA and didn’t know what to do. I’d read just about everything out there on the subject and felt that I knew everything I needed to stay sober and happy, but I was growing restless. Then, against my desires, I was elected as my home groups General Service Representative (GSR). The prior GSR didn’t do his job at all and made up some catchy excuses as to why he didn’t fulfill his commitment to the group. He glamorized stories about how district meetings were just crabby people arguing about inane AA matters. So I was willing to do what I was asked, but I WAS NOT excited about stepping into this realm of AA after what he said.

What I found was that I was stepping into the most informed, spiritual, humble and grateful set of AA members that I had ever encountered. In my “AA circles,” I’d met hundreds of people that talked gratitude, now I was with those who ACTED GRATITUDE. In regular meetings, I’d met people who often times gave great reasons as to why they couldn’t sacrifice their time for an AA request, now I was amongst those who really made tremendous sacrifices of their own time to give back to this wonderful fellowship.

Ever since getting involved, I’ve tried to be an observer in Alcoholics Anonymous. I’ve watched group consciences drag on a bit long and some members get up and slowly walk out of the room, silently voicing to the group that they had sacrificed enough. When that happens, I think about the Class A (non-alcoholic) trustees of our fellowship that attend a week long general service conference and four, 5 day “board weekends” to keep our fellowship strong. Group members talk of owing their lives to the program and can’t spend an hour, but these non-alcoholics give nearly 1 month out of a year to us. All throughout the service structure we can observe the people who truly give back and sustain our fellowship.

So now, in roughly half of the areas in Alcoholics Anonymous, the process of rotation is occuring. Now is the time to get involved. For me, it was the best thing I had ever done (without knowing it at the time) in AA. It has impacted my membership in AA and every other aspect of my life. Its made me a better person.

Today, for various reasons, stepping back a bit from really active service was a necessity. Life started getting too big. Fortunately there are still jobs in AA that can be done that don’t require quite as much. We give when and where we can.

Good luck getting “Plugged In” to AA!

R U Anonymous?

Does Anonymity Matter...... Everywhere?

A while back, I was on a campout in the rain. It rained all weekend, so the traditional AA camp was replaced with 4 or 5 drunks huddling in the only camper there talking about our lives in Alcoholics Anonymous. The subject of anonymity came up and some of the people there really felt that it had its time in AA, and that they were ok allowing celebrities and any others to break their anonymity at the level of press, radio, TV and films. “Anonymity”, they said, “is a dinosaur.” It was important in our past, but had no place in modern AA.

I argued my thoughts, talking about the situations that had occured historically with those breaking their anonymity and how favorable press can quickly become unfavorable, and how people often judge AA based on their oppinions of the members involved in anonymity breaks; if they think poorly of the member, then they often think poorly of AA.

What was most memorable about that discussion was that everyone really shared their opinons frankly, regardless of what everyone thought.

Ever since then, when discussion about anonymity breaks comes up, I think about the varying ideas about anonymity and its relevance today.

Kudos to the Grapevine this month in addressing an obvious concern of anonymity breaks in social media.

Now that social media has become such a mainstream part of society, we find that our “fellowshipping” has taken on a whole new form. AA has made the transition to the internet, but now that our interactions on social media sites takes our interactions and makes them public, our tradition of anonymity has been under fire like it never has been. Online groups exist where the name and picture of the members is open for all to see, members publicly anounce their affilliation with Alcoholics Anonymous, anniversary dates, events and other aspects about our fellowship for everyone to see.

The folks at GSO seem to be attempting to address the subject at conferences and regional forums, but keeping the membership informed of the traditions and the unintended consequences of breaking them is not an easy task.

When tough subjects like this come up, often times the best answer is Sponsorship. Lets talk about this problem and address it with people we know. We’ve always joked about the proverbial “AA police,” but in fact all members of AA are the AA police. When issues come up in AA, they are solved by “sharing experience, strength and hope”. Now is the time for members of AA experienced in the Traditions to work to inform our members how anonymity remains relevant and how to respect our Traditions in our ever changing world.