The Unconditional Love of Tradition Nine
By Kimberly C.
“A.A., as such, ought never be organized…” begins the section on the 9th Tradition in the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions book. This simple phrase is exactly the reason I am in the program of Alcoholics Anonymous, and in fact the reason that out of all the designs for healing I have stepped my big toe in over the last thirty years, I have stayed and been able to maintain my sobriety.
In essence, the 9th Tradition reminds members that while A.A. needs some practical structure—like groups, intergroups, and committees to carry out tasks such as publishing literature or organizing meetings— its spiritual heart is a fellowship of equals, not a hierarchy. Authority remains with the group conscience, not with individuals or offices, ensuring that any service bodies exist only to support sobriety and carry out the will of the members, never to govern them.
For me, rules have always spurred a natural response toward rebellion. I got thrown out of Catholic School in the 7th grade because I was a perpetual rule breaker. We weren’t allowed to wear make-up, which Sister Rita called “war paint,” so I made sure to wear an extra coat of Wet and Wild hot pink to her religious studies class. We wore uniforms, blue and black and white plaid with quaint ankle socks that I oftentimes exchanged for rainbow hued knee highs— many bouts in detention ensued from those creative accentuations. I had a pop-up hair cutting and piercing shop in the bathrooms in the morning where I would simply poke an earring through a girl’s ear in a few seconds and spread rubbing alcohol over the newly adorned lobe. Mother and fathers would call the principal and tell on me, and I would garner more detention hours. I was thoroughly disciplined for just being myself until the school finally had enough of me and I entered the realms of public school.
What finally happened to me for the first time in my life when I entered A.A. was that I was seen for the complicated human being I was – a mixed bag of life circumstance, family of origin influence, and confusion about how to operate in the “real world” without my self-medication crutch of booze. After living a life of feeling inherently different from everyone else, I was thrown into a Petri dish of human beings (in meetings and fellowship) who were exactly like me, and That Was Suddenly Okay. I didn’t have to look a certain way, make a specific amount of money, hold a particular political belief— I could just show up and be me without worrying about being thrown out. And I have the 9th tradition to thank for this. No other human ego would rain on my parade because this tradition espoused that we were all in this together, and being all in this together meant to put my judgment, interests, inclinations, and ambitions aside to just let the chips fall where they may as long as I was doing the first step perfectly — admitting that my life had become unmanageable, that I was powerless, and being willing to never drink again.
The ninth tradition exemplifies what we learn in steps two and three— to let go and let our higher power take the wheel, spending less time on how we need to manipulate, control, or strategize for outcome within the groups we choose to acquaint with and just trust in the process of using the twelve steps to lead us to a new design for living.
Another key point of the 9th tradition falls in line with this quote for the 12 and 12: “His drunkenness and dissolution are not penalties inflicted by people in authority; they result from his personal disobedience to spiritual principles.”
I heard in a meeting the other day that one of the greatest gifts of A.A. participation is that “We do what we need to do when we need to do it so that we can do what we want when we want to.”
This is something that I can, with ultimate personal resonance and authority, attribute to the 9th tradition as well because in the old days, for me, if I was doing something someone told me to do because it was simply a “rule,” my character would not become as enriched as when I decided to do something on my own to abide by said rule because I had seen and felt it with my own eyes through experience. In A.A.— with its absence of puritanical rules in the 9th tradition, its lack of board regulated terms, and the lightly unconventional faith that controlled chaos brings, I am made well aware that my compulsion to live better is self-motivated and that makes for grand fruition and longevity in the sober world. Making a personally empowered right choice and next action becomes my gold star and builds my character in richer ways than simply obeying or toeing the line.
I try to only speak for myself in my recovery journey, but every day I continue to encounter others who are highly intelligent, highly thoughtful, and highly sensitive who speak about their feelings of “difference” within our shared world. The fact that tradition nine cheerleads this difference and doesn’t create a code for inclusion or a checklist to follow for membership has been the redeeming quality for us alcoholics struggling to both find a community of unity while also trying to keep our rebel souls intact. The proof is in the pudding— I am still here, as are you, and the funky junk of our mixed bag of humanity continues to fuel this ever so special fire, in which we can say loudly and proud, “It works if you work it!” And We Are Worth It!