Endigar 852
From Courage to Change of April 21;
Something I’ve come to appreciate in Al-Anon is our unity in diversity. Tradition Four says that each group is autonomous, free to conduct meetings in a way that suits its members as long as it abides by the Traditions and doesn’t harm the overall unity of Al-Anon. Some groups stick to the suggested meeting format; others use a slightly different structure.
Why should I get my nose bent out of shape because another Al-Anon group chooses to follow a meeting format different from one familiar to me? Why should I assume that my way is the right way? When I remember to keep an open mind, I find that the principles of the Al-Anon program remain exactly the same, no matter which group or which city I visit.
Each of us plays an essential part in this remarkable fellowship, supporting one another as we recover from the effects of alcoholism. With this solid foundation of love and support, our individual differences can only make us richer as a whole.
Today’s Reminder
In the perfect order of my Higher Power’s world, all things are beautiful. I will pray to let go of my own rigidity, that I might see the beauty of unity in diversity.
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
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What I have come to appreciate in Al-Anon is our unity IN SPITE of our diversity. Diversity is a social problem that will lead to the Balkanization of any culture burdened by it. There has to be a story of inspiration that passes on guiding principles and the whole group has to embrace it all, or their diversity will eat them alive. What happened in the development of the 12 Step program is nothing short of miraculous. It is worth such a unified embrace.
Slight variations within groups in the methodology of a meeting can be a litmus test for my personal problems with isolating ego, but I cannot be so lost in a kind of religious self-castigation that violations of the 12 Steps and 12 Traditions goes unchecked. How often has the qualifier in my family life caused me to believe it better to accept the unacceptable, to enable self-destruction, and to build negative covenants with the demon of alcoholism/addiction in its various forms. I will be damned if I do the same thing in the life saving rooms of Al-Anon or AA.
Diversity is a social problem. It is only a strength in the genetic flexibility of biological evolution. Unity that exists in a diverse culture means that something more powerful than its individual members has kept it thus. Nature would dictate warfare. Something out there that gives a damn about us dictates otherwise.
Daily Reprieve 
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