Endigar 590 ~ An Unbroken Tradition
From the Daily Reflections of October 28;
We conceive the survival and spread of Alcoholics Anonymous to be something of far greater importance than the weight we could collectively throw back of any other cause. (Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, page 177)
How much it means to me that an unbroken tradition of more than half a century is a thread that connects me to Bill W. and Dr. Bob. How much more grounded I feel to be in a Fellowship whose aims are constant and unflagging. I am grateful that the energies of A.A. have never been scattered, but focused instead on our members and on individual sobriety.
My beliefs are what make me human; I am free to hold any opinion, but A.A.’s purpose —so clearly stated fifty years ago — is for me to keep sober. That purpose has promoted round-the-clock meeting schedules, and the thousands of intergroup and central service offices, with their thousands of volunteers. Like the sun focused through a magnifying glass, A.A.’s single vision has lit a fire of faith in sobriety in millions of hearts, including mine.
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This contribution to the Daily Reflections is about Tradition Ten: “Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.”
And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone – even alcohol. For by this time sanity will have returned. We will seldom be interested in liquor. If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame. We react sanely and normally, and we will find that this has happened automatically. We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes! That is the miracle of it. We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation. We feel as though we had been placed in a position of neutrality – safe and protected. We have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us. We are neither cocky nor are we afraid. That is our experience. That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition. (Alcoholics Anonymous, pages 84-85)
Our step ten work helps us to experience the miracle of neutrality. Our spiritual fitness allows us to face individual challenges with serenity. This tradition makes it clear that utilizing and developing that skill within the rooms to protect the group from public controversy is the payback we give to our source of miracles, the AA Fellowship. I will protect its singular focus of helping the alcoholic recover in gratitude for my own life and sanity.
Daily Reprieve 
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