The Recovering Corker Column
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Dear Recovering Corker,
Do I have to call myself an “alcoholic” at meetings? And do I have to talk?
Dear Friend,
No and no. In AA meetings people often introduce themselves by stating their name and their disease, but you don’t have to. You can simply say your name, or pass. The only requirement in AA is the desire to stop drinking.
If you are called upon in a meeting and asked to share, you do not have to. It is fine to say you are just listening. Many people do not wish to speak at meetings and will politely pass.
Dear Recovering Corker,
As a newcomer to AA, I am beginning to feel like the dogma of the program is being crammed down my throat. Every time I go to a meeting or spend time with my sponsor I hear the same rhetoric – “work the steps and read the book”. In the beginning of AA they didn’t have the book or the steps and they stayed sober. What is the big hype about?
Slowly Loosing Mind
Dear Slowly,
You are absolutely right. Bill and Dr. Bob did not have the benefit of the Big Book or the Twelve Steps and they stayed sober so why is it so talked about today in AA. The benefit of the Big Book is that it tells us “precisely how they stayed sober” since we don’t have the benefit of Bill and Dr. Bob. They wrote the book because they knew if the message was to be carried and AA were to grow the instructions needed to be in writing. It’s similar to a family recipe that is handed down from generation to generation.
Bill W. wrote in an article for the AA Grapevine in September of 1945. “The Twelve Steps of our AA program are not crammed down anybody’s throat. They are not sustained by any human authority. Yet we powerfully unite around them because the truth they contain has saved our lives, has opened the door to a new world. Our experience tells us these universal truths work. The anarchy of the individual yields to their persuasion. He sobers up and is led, little by little, to complete agreement with our simple fundamentals. Ultimately, these truths govern his life and he comes to live under their authority, the most powerful authority known, the authority of his full consent, willingly given. He is ruled, not by people, but by principles, by truths, and as most of us would say, by God.”
*Language of the Heart Rules Dangerous But Unity Vital Pg. 6 Quote Pg. 8