Endigar 706 ~ I’m Not Different
From the Daily Reflections of February 19;
In the beginning, it was four whole years before A.A. brought permanent sobriety to even one alcoholic woman. Like the “high bottoms,” the women said they were different; . . . The Skid-Rower said he was different . . . so did the artists and the professional people, the rich, the poor, the religious, the agnostic, the Indians and the Eskimos, the veterans, and the prisoners. . . . nowadays all of these, and legions more, soberly talk about how very much alike all of us alcoholics are when we admit that the chips are finally down. (As Bill Sees It, page 24).
I cannot consider myself “different” in A. A.; if I do I isolate myself from others and from contact with my Higher Power. If I feel isolated in A.A., it is not something for which others are responsible. It is something I’ve created by feeling I’m “different” in some way. Today I practice being just another alcoholic in the worldwide Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous.
END OF QUOTE
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I did not like the idea of being one among many cattle to be processed through with the herd. It felt like a way of being dismissed as an individual, and that is something I have resisted both in virtue and in vice. Yet the result would often be my own dismissal of life giving connections and direction when I insisted that my disease required it’s own special vaccine. The way I live my spiritual life may be unique, but the way I destroy myself is a common human affliction. Addictions of various forms, but most certainly alcoholism, has ripped through the fabric of mankind’s historic move from survival to dominance on planet Earth. My individuality did not create it. So both the power of the disease and the development of its solution come from the group. When a predator of any form wants to consume the flesh from my bones, it is good to embrace strength in numbers and become one among many.
Daily Reprieve 
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