Daily Reprieve

From Today’s Daily Reflections;

Some may think that we have carried the principle of group autonomy to extremes. For example, in its original “long form,” Tradition Four declares: “Any two or three gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group, provided that as a group they have no other affiliation.”* . . . But this ultra- liberty is not so risky as it looks.  (AA Comes of Age, page 104 – 05)

As an active alcoholic, I abused every liberty that life afforded. How could A.A. expect me to respect the “ultra-liberty” bestowed by Tradition Four? Learning respect has become a lifetime job.

A.A. has made me fully accept the necessity of discipline and that, if I do not assert it from within, then I will pay for it. This applies to groups too. Tradition Four points me in a spiritual direction, in spite of my alcoholic inclinations.

* This is a misquote; Bill is referring to the Third Tradition.

END OF QUOTE

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I have been on storm vigil today, here in Alabama.  It seems nothing changes in the South without violence, not even the weather.

Abusing liberty is an alcoholic tendency?  I suppose so.  Freedom is a group thing that implies a personal necessity for individual discipline.  As an alcoholic, I saw freedom as an individual thing that implied group belligerence and social warfare.  Are the spiritual traits that I need to develop to support this group autonomy  humility and trust?  I think so.

This entry was posted on April 29, 2014 at 12:53 am and is filed under Uncategorized with tags Addiction, Alcoholism, Journal, Life, Personal, Recovery, Spirituality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.