Tradition 1

[Leadfoot]

Our A.A. experience has taught us that:
Each member of Alcoholics Anonymous is but a small part of a great whole. A.A. must continue to live or most of use will surely die. Hence our common welfare comes first. But individual welfare follows close afterward.

[Leadfoot]

Some groups shun AAWS and went completely underground. Some Shun AAWS by buying only from Hazelden or Anonymous Press.

In your opinion does this violate #1?

[jimhere]

Some things I have learned about Tradition One and the Traditions in general, mostly through observation and experience. I've also had some good teachers who led by personal spiritual example.


“Each member of Alcoholics Anonymous is but a small
part of a great whole. A.A. must continue to live or most
of us will surely die. Hence our common welfare comes
first. But individual welfare follows close afterward.”
Some ideas about the Traditions based on observation and experience:
I can tell you all I know about them in about two minutes.
-They are ideals for a society in which love is the only law. Great suffering
and great love binds us together.
-They are living principles. I experienced them before I knew about them. I
was welcomed and accepted as I was where I was.
Some myths and misconceptions about the Traditions:
-Most often, our experience with both Steps and Traditions are based on the
short forms that we read before our meetings and put on the walls of our
meeting rooms. This has lead to widespread misconception and fallacies in
today’s A.A. There is much more to the Traditions than what we find in the
short form. The short form of both the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
will be found in our book. The long form of both the Twelve Steps and
the Twelve Traditions will be found in our book.
-It is helpful to know the history of Alcoholics Anonymous when looking at
the Traditions. Most were arrived at after trial and error, by making
mistakes. Some were born out of fear in our early fellowship. All were born
of the necessity to preserve our society for future generations and to protect
it from forces, both within and without which could destroy it.
-The Traditions are not rules, but living principles that I live by in a society
in which there are no rules.
-Another myth: that the Traditions are only for people who are in service or
who are sober a long time. The statement “The Traditions are to the group
as the Steps are to the individual”, is not true. This leaves a whole set of
principles that can be practiced in the home, business, society, etc. They are
merely extensions of what is found in the Steps.
The Traditions are about unity and preserving our fellowship for future
generations. Without unity, we can’t survive as a fellowship. The Twelve
Steps are a unifying experience. My recovery depends upon my unity with
you and your unity with me. The Steps get rid of what’s in the way of me
being in unity with you. The Traditions help keep that experience alive. A
true fellowship is a gathering of like- minded people. If there is sponsorship
and recovery going on within a group, there will be unity, and there will be
service. Unity means a lot more than being in a room full of people with the
same problem.
-one principle not spoken of often in A.A. is stewardship. It means to take
care of what we’ve been given. The fellowship is about having a place
where recovered alcoholics can carry a message to sick alcoholics. If the
old-timers have no place to carry their message, they wither and die. If
the sick alcoholic has no place to come to see and hear a message, he will
wither and die.
The First Tradition, wherein each of us is but a small part of a great whole,
is the foundation upon which all else rests. We must hang together or die
alone. Like the First Step, it addresses the problem. Like the First Step, all
else comes back to it.
The First Tradition addresses the problem-comply or die. Comply not to
human rules, but with spiritual principles. Compliance means conditions-the
condition is life or death, change or die.
Most alcoholics feel as if they are separate and alone when they get to us.
Stay separate, stay alone, die alone. Or recover together. Unity means being
a part of the whole, rather than apart from. A spiritual experience is a
unifying experience that joins me to myself, to other people, and to God. A
process of becoming whole and complete.
-the First Tradition can work backwards: If my personal recovery depends
upon the unity in the group, is it possible that unity in the group can hinge
on the recovery of the individual within the group? If the group members
are practicing these principals, there will be recovery, and hence there will
be unity.
-does my recovery bring about unity around me? Or am I a producer of
confusion rather than harmony?
-although my recovery depends not so much on your unity with as on my
unity with you, it does depend on unity within the group….
-watch the company you keep. You can stay sick in A.A. and have plenty of
company. Or you can get well in A.A. and have plenty of company. You
just have to pick the company you want to hang with.
-it takes all of us to make up the body of the Christ. If one of us is missing,
we are not whole.
-the best way to belong to a group is to participate in what that group does.
-a true group is a gathering of like-minded people.
-the whole group participates. If there is not an informed group conscience,
the group will die or become something that is not A.A.
-the principle of anonymity applies. I am one of many, a member of A.A.
-a guiding principle for the individual in a group: is it selfish or not?
-a principle common to all truly spiritual communities is that the group
comes first. I set aside my need for recognition, prestige, and power and
put the needs of the group first. My needs are automatically met if I help
to see that needs of the whole are met.
-a principle of good living is sacrifice, the giving of my very best to God
and to the group. The word sacrifice comes from sacred-that which is holy,
the very best. If it’s not worth giving up, it’s not a sacrifice.
-Trust as a principle: can I trust my group? Can I trust myself to behave as a
member of the group?
-our message should be one of continuity, of common experience, of
profound change (BB, p. 17). Brotherly and harmonious action. I set aside
my opinions and differences to join in a common effort.
-principle of unity before personalities. One myth-that the “newcomer is the
most important person in the room”, isn’t true. Nobody is more important
than anyone else.

[jimhere]

<<Some groups shun AAWS and went completely underground. Some Shun AAWS by buying only from Hazelden or Anonymous Press.

In your opinion does this violate #1?>>


No it doesn't, as each group is autonomous and can decide based on it's own conscience whether to be a part of the service structure that in turn supports G.S.O. through purchasing literature from A.A.W.$., Inc.