October 2023

We are folks who would not normally mix. Yes, that is true but we do have a tri-fold common goal. We not only want to stay sober, we also want to help other alcoholics and we want to be happy. Fortunately, these three goals blend together well and all of us remember what we were like before coming to AA and what we like early on.

Before I arrived in AA, I believed 100% that everyone was wrong and I was right. I thought I was experiencing some bad luck and it would pass. They just needed to leave me alone! It was impossible for me to imagine how totally wrong I was.

Then AA came along, I didn’t want to be here and I was in no way like you AA people. I have no idea when, why or how the light came on to allow me to finally hear what was being said, but it did and with the Steps and everyone’s help the changes started happening. If the guys around me were not sharing their experience, strength and hope, I wouldn’t have finally heard what I needed to hear. It’s not only the person giving the lead but also the person sitting next to you before the meeting starts that shares from the heart what’s going on at this moment in their life and what they are doing to keep their ship afloat. That’s just how it works!

I was in a discussion meeting 2 days ago and there was a guy on one side of me celebrating 30+ years in the program and on the other side a guy who had 6 days. They both shared what’s going on in their life at that moment and both were things I needed to hear. I don’t connect to what everybody is saying at AA meetings but I always always leave with a more connected feeling towards my Higher Power and those great people that shared their hearts with me. Because of the program, I’m able to not only listen but share my experiences in hopes of staying sober and staying happy while helping another alcoholic. With these three goals we can hope to keep the AA program going for generations to come. Thanks AA.

-Mick S, Hardrock

“If you like everyone in AA, you haven’t gone to enough meetings yet!”
Is this cynical – or just honest? The Traditions do not tell us we have to be best friends with every person in the Fellowship.
But we are encouraged to place “principles before personalities,” and to practice “love and tolerance.”
“Our common welfare should come first.” What does this mean in practice?

We see that without substantial unity there can be no A.A., and without that, without AA, there can be little lasting recovery for anyone. We gladly set aside personal ambitions whenever these might harm A.A. we humbly confess that we are but “a small part of a great whole.” (Bill W., 1947)

“Unity” does not mean “conformity.” We can legitimately hold different opinions about the best way our home group can operate – where money from the basket should go, whether someone who’s used drugs in the past is welcome at an AA meeting, whether we should re-write the opening readings in gender-neutral language, say the Lord’s prayer, the pros and cons of treatment centers, or how many meetings a week is best to stay sober.

If we look around the world, however, how often do we see people listening, compromising, and focusing on win-win solutions? More often, don’t we hear people shouting each other down and claiming to have “the Truth?” If we disagree, can we still show respect?

It has been ego-deflating for me when I realize after a meeting that a person I don’t care for shared something that hit home and helped me. Maybe I misjudged them? Sometimes a certain member, for whatever reason, irritates the heck out of me – like fingernails on a chalkboard. My temptation is to jump in and give my “share” to disagree and undermine what that person just said. Not my most mature impulse! Why do I feel the need to prove I’m right and they’re wrong?

We alcoholics need each other. People put up with my irritating character defects. Can I do the same for them? If I focus on gratitude and strive for a “beginner’s mind,” I have less risk of becoming a source of disunity and chaos.

-Kevin P.
Northside Tuesday Night Group

I have always spent the majority of my time alone. As a kid we moved to NKY from Dayton, OH when my mother remarried to a neighborhood that was still under construction and there were no kids there yet. Shortly thereafter tragedy struck when my father died an alcoholic death by his own hand. That was my introduction to God and needless to say not the best beginning of a relationship.

What I have come to understand now is that day God didn’t wake up and decide to take some kids dad from him. My dad, like everyone else, had self will and chose to act on it in the most selfish way imaginable.

However, what God did as a result of that unfortunate incident is wrap me up in His loving arms and held onto me tightly for the next 35 years. Protecting me from the world around me, my disease and myself just long enough for the seeds of His grace that were planted in my heart at my first AA meeting could burst through the soil to produce the fruit of the abundant life that I have today.

All those years that I spent isolated from the world, by myself, thinking I was keeping safe from the enemy I was never alone. He was guiding me, keeping me safe and sound until I finally surrendered. Thus becoming useful to Him by realizing my primary purpose is to help others find a relationship with a power greater than themselves so that they too can know the freedom from the bondage of self that I have today.

God bless this program for allowing God to work miracles through it.
-Andrew M.

What does Unity mean in AA?
Unity is imperative to our sobriety, we have to act as a whole, not as individuals. No one person is ever in-charge and no one person makes any decisions for anyone or for A.A. as a whole. We ALL come together whether at a group, district or area level.

What is unity in recovery?
Unity is a bond that describes how using the “it takes one to know one” mentality will connect us in recovery. Being there for one another in the spirit of service allows you to comprehend that we keep going because we have one another to lean on in the good time and the bad times.

Why is unity important in recovery?
Everyone’s ability to recover from addiction is wholly dependent on fellowship and service. A group of people with a potentially fatal disease with the like-minded goal of recovery—fellowship. Helping each other achieve their individual goal by helping others to do the same.

1940 JANUARY: AKRON GROUP FINDS NEW HOME AT KING SCHOOL
AA’S FIRST WORLD SERVICE OFFICE, VESEY STREET, NYC
FIRST AA CLUBHOUSE, 334 ½ WEST 24TH STREET IN CHELSEA, NYC, WHERE BILL AND LOIS LIVE FOR A
WHILE AND BILL MEETS FATHER ED DOWLING, WHO BECOMES HIS SECOND SPONSOR
SEPTEMBER: FIRST MEETING OF TOLEDO AA GROUP

1941 MARCH 1: JACK ALEXANDER’S SATURDAY EVENING POST ARTICLE BRINGS AA NATIONAL RECOGNITION; MEMBERSHIP JUMPS FROM 2,000 TO 8,000
RUTH HOCK RECEIVES COPY OF SERENITY PRAYER, PUBLISHED IN THE NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE IN JUNE AND ATTRIBUTED TO THEOLOGIAN REINHOLD NIEBUHR
BILL AND LOIS MOVE INTO A HOME OF THEIR OWN IN BEDFORD HILLS, NY, WHICH THEY CALL STEPPING STONES

1942: START OF FIRST PRISON GROUP, SAN QUENTIN, CALIFORNIA

1943: BILL AND LOIS MAKE FIRST CROSS-COUNTRY TOUR OF AA GROUPS

1944: ONSET OF BILL’S DEPRESSION, WHICH LASTS FOR 11 YEARS; TREATED BY DR. HARRY TIEBOUT
MARCH: FIRST WOMEN’S PRISON GROUP MEETS AT CLINTON FARMS, CLINTON, NEW JERSEY
JUNE: PUBLICATION OF FIRST ISSUE OF THE A.A. GRAPEVINE, AA’S “MEETING IN PRINT”
INSPIRED BY MARTY M., NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR EDUCATION ON ALCOHOL SET UP AT YALE UNIVERSITY

1945: DR. SILKWORTH AND TEDDY R. BEGIN WORKING WITH ALCOHOLICS AT KNICKERBOCKER HOSPITAL IN NYC, TREATING 10,000 OVER THE NEXT TEN YEARS
AFTER “THE LOST WEEKEND,” AN OSCAR-WINNING FILM ABOUT A STRUGGLING ALCOHOLIC, HOLLYWOOD
OFFERS AA $100,000 FOR RIGHTS TO FELLOWSHIP’S STORY AND IS TURNED DOWN IN KEEPING WITH TRADITIONS SIX, SEVEN, AND EIGHT

1946: The Twelve Traditions published

1948: DECEMBER: DR. BOB’S LAST MAJOR TALK IN DETROIT SUMMER: DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER; RETIRES FROM PRACTICE

1949: American Psychiatric Association recognizes AA
June 1: Anne Ripley Smith dies