tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:/blogs/rebellion-dogs-blog?p=2
Rebellion Dogs Blog
2024-02-13T12:59:10-05:00
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12 Step Life with a 21st century attitude, now with more bite, less dogma (from the author of Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life
Rebellion Dogs Radio
Joe C.
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Joe C.
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tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/7350699
2024-02-13T12:59:10-05:00
2024-02-25T07:31:34-05:00
Learning to be enough and do enough: Emotional Sobriety vs. Perfectionism
<p style="text-align:center;"><i><strong>Sober Enough: Just Show Up for Life, That’s Your Job</strong></i><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/63023/205ec4e2a1e22825da83ecef0a9f9cad99203269/original/you-are-enough-picture.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><p><span lang="EN-US">A kind and wise teacher in my life could see I was anxiously managing my perfectionism. I was embarrassed that, as is the human experience, I am still learning life. I didn’t know the answers, I couldn’t anticipate every challenge and react with some imaginary skills of some imaginary master whose reflexes and reactions meets their own needs, the needs of others and life’s curveballs. I was going through life’s challenges, but I thought I should know all this already, didn’t I learn this already? Somehow, I have these imagined expectations of others that I am depended on to get it all done, get it all right and know the answer to everything asked of me. When I am in this state, this is not emotional sobriety; call it emotional inebriety, it is what erodes the quality of my recovery. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span lang="EN-US">The myth of everyone else’s expectations of me, the myth that I will be unlovable if I make mistakes, this is the toxicity of a false core belief that when I am discovered by others to be flawed, I will be deemed unlovable and I will be abandoned. This wacko, persistent core belief is what gives life to my perfectionism. Perfectionism for me, needs to be reined in to find equanimity, what many in recovery call emotional sobriety. My method for right sizing my expectations for myself as well as the imaged expectations that others hold for me, I call “Sober Enough.” This is my goal—not perfection—a healthy, rightsized, daily effort and appreciation of my life in recovery. </span></p><p><i><span lang="EN-US"><strong>Any Step with a One in it - no waiting, dig in anytime!</strong></span></i></p><p><span lang="EN-US">Emotional Sobriety is tied to what some call the maintenance steps, <strong>Steps 10 </strong>about admitting when I am wrong, and anytime spot inventories, <strong>Step 11</strong> with daily mindfulness and/or meditation practice, <strong>Step 12</strong> with being of service to others and practicing my values in day-to-day activities. I heard in a Narcotics Anonymous meeting, “You can work any Step that starts with a One, no waiting, you do not need a sponsor, a book, you can put the ‘ones’ into practice right now or any time, in any place.” Admitting we have a problem (with substances or processes addiction), in Step One or any of the 10, 11, 12 ideas are free, accessible, and proven strategies for thriving in life.</span><br><br><span lang="EN-US">Martha Cleveland and Arlys G, in </span><i><span lang="EN-US"><strong>The Alternative 12 Steps</strong></span></i><span lang="EN-US">, originally published in 1991, write the following:</span></p><figure class="table"><table><tbody><tr><td style="border:2px inset hsl(210, 75%, 60%);text-align:center;">
<span lang="EN-US">"There are many, many times we make mistakes and fall back into old ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. This is to be expected. … Step 10 is a practical approach to self-examination, and it’s a gentle one as well. Our self-correction has to be loving and firm. We mustn’t attack ourselves with the weapons of self-blame and reproach. We monitor and correct ourselves for our own good, kindly, with great care, the same way would correct a child we love.”</span><a class="no-pjax" href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><span lang="EN-US">[i]</span></a>
</td></tr></tbody></table></figure><p><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span lang="EN-US">Great care and love was not what I was doing when I was shitting all over myself for being inadequate, imperfect. The idea that I should or can figure out the game of life alone is also erroneous. Sometimes someone who loves us can gently remind us that it isn’t our job to have all the answers and be flawless. Our job, sober-minded, is to show up and do the best we can. “Oh,” they would also say, “and try not to be such a dick!” When I am taking myself too seriously, humour can break through, also. </span></p><p><i><span lang="EN-US"><strong>Time Well Wasted: You Deserve a Break <u>Every</u> Day</strong></span></i><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span lang="EN-US">In an article called, “<strong>The case for unproductivity: Why you aren’t meant to be ‘on’ all the time</strong>” L’Oreal Thopson Payton wrote in February 2023 out how this perfectionism myth is systemic; in cases we let our environment do it to us:</span></p><figure class="table"><table><tbody><tr><td style="border:2px inset hsl(210, 75%, 60%);text-align:center;">
<span lang="EN-US">“There is an immense amount of pressure in our culture to perform and produce at all hours of the day. We’re encouraged to squeeze every ounce of productivity out of the workday and then turn around and do the same in our personal lives. No wonder we’re a society of stressed-out, burned-out, and otherwise unwell individuals. … Welcome, folks, to the world of </span><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/leading-success/202201/when-doing-is-your-undoing-toxic-productivity" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US">toxic productivity</span></a><span lang="EN-US">—an incessant need to always be productive, often at the expense of your mental, physical, and emotional health. I’m of the belief that productivity on its own isn’t inherently damaging, rather it’s the glorification of productivity above all else that is problematic. If you’re constantly doing—attending meetings; churning out stories; traveling for work—you leave yourself little to no downtime to pause, reflect and rest.”</span><a class="no-pjax" href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title=""><span lang="EN-US">[ii]</span></a>
</td></tr></tbody></table></figure><p><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span lang="EN-US">Time well wasted is part of mental and physical health; we need to rejuvenate, slow down, not always fall prey to the demands of life. And I have to remember anything worth doing is worth doing badly. That’s how I learn new songs, sports, being in a relationship, and emotional sobriety skills. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span lang="EN-US">On my most recent visit to the Emotional Sobriety Podcast, we read and reflect on </span><i><span lang="EN-US">AA Grapevine</span></i><span lang="EN-US"> articles from readers who tell us about their emotional sobriety journeys. This show exemplifies my kind friend’s wise counsel, “Our job is to just show up and do the best we can” in real time. The hosts, including me, are not in perfect shape physically or emotionally, the story we read is being written in real time by someone who is freaking out about money and problems and stress and shows how they use their recovery skills to reel their doubt and fear and sagging self-image in. They even draw on the immunizing benefit that working with or thinking about a fellow sufferer can have on dispelling emotional ill-health. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span lang="EN-US">I just showed up for this Emotional Sobriety Podcast show; I came with curiosity and positive regard, and I left my tendencies towards unrealistic expectations outside the Zoom room that we record in. Everyone did their best—which was enough—and it had a comforting, healing, rejuvenating impact on me. Maybe it will for you, too. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span lang="EN-US">This is why my target is “enough” not “perfect.” Everyone was enough to make a great show. I am enough without changing one damn thing. Two things: a) I can’t always channel the truth of my adequacy when I am in turmoil and b) I am enough and if I want to change I can, and if I try to change, I will do enough each day.</span></p><p><i><strong>Fear of People and of Economic Insecurity will Leave Us </strong>(AA., p. 84)</i><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span lang="EN-US">Check out Emotional Sobriety Podcast and let us know what you think: </span><a class="no-pjax" href="https://pod.link/1566814637/episode/ab03ca888b29437fe2a2a0a65de93c9a" target="_blank" data-link-type="url"><span style="color:#e0b682;"><span lang="EN-US"><strong>CLICK this LINK for the PODCAST</strong></span></span></a></p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/63023/9388ebab4292c1d7002793a57490e83ed45ad213/original/eemotional-sobriety-podcast-pic.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_m justify_center border_" /><p><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><br> </p><div style="mso-element:endnote-list;">
<hr>
<div style="mso-element:endnote;" id="edn1"><p><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title=""><span lang="EN-US">[i]</span></a><span lang="EN-US"> Martha Cleveland PhD, Arlys G., </span><i><span lang="EN-US">The Alternative 12 steps: A Secular Guide to Recovery</span></i><span lang="EN-US">, AA Agnostica: Hamilton (2014). </span><a class="no-pjax" href="https://amzn.to/3SXCDJ6"><span lang="EN-US">https://amzn.to/3SXCDJ6</span></a><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div>
<div style="mso-element:endnote;" id="edn2"><p><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title=""><span lang="EN-US">[ii]</span></a><span lang="EN-US"> </span><a class="no-pjax" href="https://fortune.com/well/2023/02/20/benefits-of-being-unproductive/?utm_source=pocket_collection_story"><span lang="EN-US">https://fortune.com/well/2023/02/20/benefits-of-being-unproductive/?utm_source=pocket_collection_story</span></a><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p></div>
</div>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/7336920
2024-01-19T17:43:24-05:00
2024-02-12T19:30:29-05:00
The Science & History of One Day @ A Time
<p><span>DRY JANUARY (and every month) Part II—This Blog’s for you (sounds like a beer commercial !?!?!), if you are either test-driving abstinence or if you have devoted yourself to being clean and sober as a new way of life. <strong>Just for Today</strong> is a conceptual game-changer, if your physically shaky or fighting ambivalence, but especially for the slippers among us who have sincerely tried to maintain sobriety and fell off the wagon. Dry January 2024 explores an idea we entertain as the #1 hack against cravings, temptation, doubt, crisis, or hopelessness: <strong>One Day @ a Time</strong> (ODAAT).</span></p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="/files/1267638/2024%20January%20Blog%20-%20Just%20for%20Today" target="_blank" data-link-type="file" data-link-label="2024 January Blog - Just for Today"><strong>Read/Download as a PDF </strong><span style="color:hsl(30,75%,60%);"><strong>CLICK HERE</strong></span></a></p><p style="text-align:center;"><a class="no-pjax" href="/merch-gift-store" target="_blank" data-link-type="page" data-link-label="Merch & Gift Store"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/63023/986a6875b7411c2c41ce1daf59123eec339e3fa3/original/2024-jan-just-for-today-shirt-pic.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></a><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>If you are new to recovery, you may not get there from here without this new way of framing how to do recovery, how to do life as it comes. If you are skeptical, we take time with your “But why?” with more details than, “Because—that’s why!” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>This blog can feed the need of your troubled head and heart. By the end of this, you’ll know why, when others ask, “How have you stayed sober since _____________ ?” why the answer is “Just for today.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>Applying Just for Today to sobriety and all it’s:</span></p><ol style="list-style-type:upper-latin;">
<li><span>regrets of the past, </span></li>
<li><span>dread of tomorrow, </span></li>
<li><span>cravings and ambivalence, </span></li>
</ol><p><span>is borrowed from past millennium Eastern philosophy but is best know today, as AA bumper sticker folk-wisdom. In a fusion of old and new, one breath at a time, “</span><span lang="EN">describes the convergence of two vital traditions, one ancient, the other contemporary, and shows how they are working together to create a rich spiritual path for our times.”</span><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span>[1]</span></a><span lang="EN"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span lang="EN">I Say “folk-wisdom" because it was non-professional trial and correction, one person with addiction helping another that brought this mantra to an ingredient in arresting process/substance use disorders, but today, it is scientifically sound, as we will point out.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span lang="EN">Th</span><span>is idea of not quitting forever, just staying abstinent for the rest of the day was offered to me when I felt overwhelmed by the task before me, and personally insufficient in the integrity required to stay sober forever. And it’s true with long-term clean time, too. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>On anniversaries, we hear, “Kumar has stayed clean another year and we celebrate his recovery tonight,” but Kumar, Katie or Ken do not actually quit for a one-year stretch—after decades, sobriety is still living in the now, managing our recovery, daily. While slightly different in text, I’ve heard and sometimes read aloud these centering affirmations in Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>Our last blog looked at the 20 Questions (John Hopkins Hospital) and over a half-century of measuring the severity of alcohol or other drug use disorders. Mid-1970s Montreal AA group literature tables had a yellow trifold that included contact information for meetings or someone to talk to, “Are you an alcoholic? (20 questions)" and the Just for Today prose, sometimes read aloud at meetings.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="color:red;"><strong>The science of One Day @ a Time</strong></span><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>From Michigan State University, we learn of the 1921 Boston Globe publication of these ten affirmations, adopted and still popular in AA, over a century later. We also learn the science behind one-day-at-a-time’s efficacy.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>“</span><i><span>… oftentimes we tend to tackle behavioral change by breaking the behavior into smaller more manageable chunks; this is what is known as partializing. If one thinks about never using substances again it can be extremely overwhelming, and can cause additional anxiety, which in and of itself may lead to continued use of substances. However, if an individual takes the ‘Just for Today’ approach towards sobriety, 24 hours seems a lot more manageable than 20, 30, or even 40 years from now. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p><i><span>This approach of partializing and focusing on the present moment, rather than the unknown future, can help keep us grounded when we are considering sobriety. This method can also be used for issues beyond addiction such as anxiety, depression, or any other lifestyle changes you may want to make. Some folks see this tactic as very similar to mindfulness.</span></i><span>”</span><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title=""><span>[2]</span></a><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color:red;"><strong>NA’s Just for Today<o:p></o:p></strong></span></p><p><span>Tell Yourself:<o:p></o:p></span></p><ul>
<li><span>JUST FOR TODAY my thoughts will be on my recovery, living and enjoying life without the use of drugs.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li><span>JUST FOR TODAY I will have faith in someone in NA who believes in me and wants to help me in my recovery.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li><span>JUST FOR TODAY I will have a program. I will try to follow it to the best of my ability.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li><span>JUST FOR TODAY, through NA, I will try to get a better perspective on my life.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li><span>JUST FOR TODAY I will be unafraid. My thoughts will be on my new associations, people who are not using and who have found a new way of life. So long as I follow that way, I have nothing to fear.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul><p><span>Sometimes read, sometimes with the group chanting the “Just for today” refrain, along with the reader, what can be a more core message for recovery newcomers? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>Of course, while we learn to endure almost anything—just don’t use—this grin and bear it go-to is no replacement for therapy or more intense peer work, or commitment to a program for self-exploration and emotional regulation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>Especially in early recovery, if/when your dealer calls, or you’re offered a drink by a waiter, or shit just hit the fan at home or work, ODAAT is a winner. It’s a coping mechanism. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>The Just for Today mantra, reminds us that while recovery is our responsibility, we don’t go through it alone; there is a program we can gradually work through, others will support us, connection and hope abound in our recovery community. Hearing it, or even more, saying it, daily or regularly reinforces and normalizes this new normal. NA’s Just for Today facilitates the “partializing” ideas, easing anxiety by taking life, mental health and recovery one step at a time and not letting infinite unknowns overwhelm us. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>Repetition teaches us; learning new chords on a musical instrument, the practice becomes muscle memory, we go from frustrated to mastery. This use of repetition as a ritual is embraced by some 12-Step meetings more than others. Re-framing attitude and outlook by replacing defeatist ideas like “I can’t quit forever,” with empowering ideas such as, “Just for today, I will abstain,” this re-wires our thinking and has proven to positively drive outcome rates and positively inform our own self-concept.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>But is this mind-control; is 12-Step a cult? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>I have reported on AA’s harshest contemporary critics and the cult-card is too tempting not to be played in a warning about 12-step meetings.</span><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title=""><span>[3]</span></a><span> Maybe a new article on AA and the cult test would be timely. Every community, from woke culture, to church, to </span><i><span>Rocky Horror Picture Show</span></i><span> fanatics, or Dungeons & Dragons clans, like 12-Step communities, have an in-crowd language and an in-crowd familiarity with phrases, rituals that in-crowd members habitually fall back on. This crowd-speak can mostly be set aside in other environments, such as when they are at work. </span></p><p><span>A cautionary warning about 12-step is that as you shop around different groups and formats and meet more and more members, we find a range, from freethinking members to fundamentalist members. Every group sets its own path and rules and attracts like-minded members. Some groups test the cult-qualifying boundaries in my opinion, most do not cross the line from altruism and enthusiasm to controlling and harmful. Different strokes for different folks and people change groups as their needs and preferences change over time.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>In 1963 a critical article about AA offended members. Dr. Cain’s "AA: Cult or Cure?" was widely read and members asked founder, Bill W to do something, to defend AA’s reputation. </span></p><p><span>A side point, “charismatic leaders” are a cult-characteristic and plenty of people have painted Bill Wilson as such a man. Bill called himself, “AA’s co-flounderer.” When asked what he was going to do about this published criticism of AA, Bill responded that he thought the Doctor made some good points that we should all pay attention to. While the majority of academics and health professionals research points to AA efficacy vs other popular therapies, AA, rightly still has critics, some of which throw the “small-c” cult word around, maybe for impact. </span><i><span>Harper's </span></i><span>in January 2011 published “The Drunk’s Club: A.A., the Cult that Cures,” by Clancy Martin.</span><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" title=""><span>[4]</span></a><span> </span></p><p><span>That’s quite a side-tangent and maybe I’ll go hog-wild on it in another article.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>My early AA meetings made me uncomfortable for a number of reasons and the slogans and AA-speak gave me the creeps at first. I didn’t grow up in 12-Step rooms that encouraged a lot of shout-out and call back group participation. Not every group responds with a chorus of, “Hi Kim,” when a member announces themselves, “My name is Kim and I’m an alcoholic.” So, I eventually acclimatized to one particular 12-Step culture and I still get the willies when I visit groups that liberally and routinely incorporate cued group chanting. Of course it warms the hearts of those members and I do not think they should stop on my account. But all of us find a home group that suits us, one day at a time.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>True to form, AA just plagiarized the 1921 Boston Daily Globe ten ideas written by Dr. Frank Crane. And because, as my story goes, this was the version that helped my days become years through moody moments and tense situations, let’s go through the ten Just for Today thoughts:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="color:red;"><strong>Just for Today – my indoctrination into living sober<o:p></o:p></strong></span></p><p><span>JUST for TODAY<o:p></o:p></span></p><ol>
<li><span>Just for today, I will try to live through this day only, and not tackle my whole life problem at once. I can do something for twelve hours that would appall me if I felt that I had to keep it up for a lifetime.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li><span>Just for today I will be happy. This assumes that what Abraham Lincoln said is true, that “most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” Happiness is from within; it is not a matter of externals. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li><span>Just for today, I will adjust myself to what is, and not try to adjust everything to my own desires. I will take my ‘luck’ as it comes and fit myself to it.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li><span>Just for today I will take care of my body. I will exercise it, care for it, nourish it, not abuse or neglect it, so that it will be a perfect machine for my bidding.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li><span>Just for today, I will try to strengthen my mind. I will study. I will lean something useful. I will not be a mental loafer. I will read something that requires effort though and concentration. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li><span>Just for today, I will exercise my soul in three ways: I will do somebody a good turn, and not be found out; if anyone knows of it, it will not count. I will do at least two things I don’t want to do—just for exercise. I will not show anyone that my feelings are hurt; they may be hurt but today, I will not show it. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li><span>Just for today, I will be agreeable. I will look as well as I can, dress becomingly, talk low, act courteously, criticize not one bit, not find fault with anything and not try to improve or regulate anybody except myself. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li><span>Just for today, I will have a programme. I may not follow it exactly, but I will have it. I will save myself from two pests: hurry and indecision. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li><span>Just for today, I will have a quiet half hour all by myself and relax. During this half hour, sometimes, I will try to get a better perspective on my life. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li><span>Just for today, I will be unafraid. Especially I will not be afraid to enjoy what is beautiful, and to believe that as I give to the world, so the world will give to me. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ol><p><span>One key to draw from here is the principle of partializing is what counts a century later, not the literal, word-for-word privilege from a 1921 American doctor. I am sure any doctor today who would think this exact way, would articulate themselves in an obviously different, sensitive and inclusive manner. I note the dated, white-male, protestant work-ethic bias at play here. A trauma-informed adaptation might consider a work-around for not expressing ones needs or feelings or conforming to social expectations for dress and obedience. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>Adaptation does not need to discount these Just for Today aphorisms. Some days/circumstances would not recognize being happy as emotional regulation; some days speaking out and being mad is emotional sobriety. But being reactive is almost never helpful for me. A classic scenario—being cut off in traffic—is a good time to take-five, as in five deep breaths, and consider what reaction, if any, is called for. Narcotics Anonymous adapted them for all groups, focusing more on addiction and our community. Any person in recovery, any group of people in recovery can decide for themselves, how Just for Today can be customized and if it ought to be read in the meeting. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>When struck with anxiety or the fuck-its, Just for Today is grounding, “Maybe I will use drugs again, but not today. I’m going to get through today and call someone and/or go to a meeting.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>Social workers and fitness coaches tease out goals from their client and then break it down into bite-size, day by day actions that will fulfill these goals. SMART Recovery (Self-Management And Recovery Training), utilizing a cognitive behavioral therapy approach talks about S.M.A.R.T. goals, </span><span lang="EN">Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. Defining these parameters as they pertain to your goal, helps ensure that your objectives are attainable within a certain time frame. Yes, this can help get a family from broken to healing, train and prepare for a new career, financial planning, the most fundamental specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound priority is to not drink, or engage in your process or substance of choice. </span><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>How did I pick and choose through these ten daily challenges? Keeping an open mind, I tried each Just for Today out for size at least once. All of them, in my experience, turned me away from my natural inclinations—to be preoccupied, ruminate, be anxious, melancholy, reactive and self-destructive. While they may not be customized trauma-informed affirmations specific to me and my situation, any and all of them would be better than me and my thinking process, left to my own devices. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>Some of the Just for Today mantras reinforce: </span></p><ul>
<li><span>negative self-image issues I have in terms of wanting/needing the approval of others and conforming socially </span></li>
<li><span>pushing away negative feelings and experiences indefinitely.</span></li>
</ul><p><span>“I will be agreeable. I will look as well as I can, dress as becomingly as possible, talk low, act courteously, be liberal with praise, criticize not at all, nor find fault with anything.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>This isn’t “bad” advice, but cautionary for anyone with low self-esteem or from an abusive environment—try it before you buy it and modify it to your needs and goals. I tried it and while it dashes my antisocial predisposition, it also triggered other unhealthy attachment and psycho-social issues. Consulting someone trusted and getting feedback is better than just going it alone. Others were just right for me. All of them demonstrated what I heard in meetings: “It’s easier to act my way into good thinking, than think my way into good acting.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>Some were hard, some came naturally. Being quiet for a half an hour was near impossible; calming down, I couldn’t relax without getting worried, horny or otherwise distracted. I was a teenager, after all, not the middle aged, married has-been who was what I imagined was the ideal candidate that these helpful ideas were intended for. In my case, some of this encouragement wasn’t age appropriate. For others, it may be overtly privileged or patriarchal, or tone-deaf to certain neurodivergent conditions. </span></p><p><span>There is nothing here that I was pressured to do as a right of passage. And, none of the ten aphorisms were completely out of reach for me. I had to adapt it and I think everyone is well served by cherry picking, toss away as they would choose, vs. going along to get along. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>Being in the company of others in the same one-day-at-a-time dilemma helped. There was always someone to talk with about my reluctance or experiences. The following was often said at meetings, and it proved to be true.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>“If you came with a problem, don’t’ leave with the problem. Share it; a problem shared is a problem halved.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>Practicing Just for Today for me, the idea of finding ways to help other people without getting caught, shifted my diminished self-worth and it brought joy and connection to my attitude about the people around me and the world in general. Having a plan for the day (a program) and not having to follow it perfectly—this was the money-shot for me; this helped me learn to be an average everyday human—not the scum of the earth, not better than anyone else. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>And of course, me a worried teen perplexed about staying sober for the next 40 New Years Eves, just focusing on this day of sobriety. I'm thinking about New Years Eves through the coming decades, while others in the rooms may have wondered if I’d stay sober through the coming weekend. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>Someone always told me when I was future-gazing, “Don’t worry about it, just for today, all of us stay sober one day at a time.” I had to hear it; I had to read it, sometimes several times a day in my early recovery. My tendencies to panic and get overwhelmed were always triggers to my substance use. One day at a time, was my new armor, my new coping mechanism. </span></p><p><span>A poem—made into an indispensable ritual in some Toronto AA meetings, </span><i><span>Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow</span></i><span>, suggests that anyone can fight the burdens of today; it is only when you or I add the burdens of those two awful eternities—yesterday and tomorrow—that we break down… let us therefore live one day @ a time. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/merch-gift-store"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/63023/c93590740797ed80aba1cbcfaab9f614871865c6/original/image.jpeg" class="size_l justify_left border_" alt="A collage of several people wearing t-shirts
Description automatically generated" height="238" width="357" /></a><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><br> </p><div style="mso-element:footnote-list;">
<hr>
<div style="mso-element:footnote;" id="ftn1"><p><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span>[1]</span></a> Kevin Griffin, One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps (2004) <a class="no-pjax" href="https://amzn.to/3U4MKg4">https://amzn.to/3U4MKg4</a> <o:p></o:p></p></div>
<div style="mso-element:footnote;" id="ftn2"><p><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""><span>[2]</span></a> <a class="no-pjax" href="https://health4u.msu.edu/articles/2018-being-aware-just-for-today">https://health4u.msu.edu/articles/2018-being-aware-just-for-today</a><o:p></o:p></p></div>
<div style="mso-element:footnote;" id="ftn3"><p><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" title=""><span>[3]</span></a> <a class="no-pjax" href="https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/blog/blog/2882642/sober-truths-50-years-of-aa-critics-bad-science-and-bad-attitudes">https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/blog/blog/2882642/sober-truths-50-years-of-aa-critics-bad-science-and-bad-attitudes</a> Some of AA’s harshest critics and what they say about fundamentalism, outcome rates, and seeming anti-science devotion to age-old literature.<span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p></div>
<div style="mso-element:footnote;" id="ftn4"><p><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" title=""><span>[4]</span></a> <a class="no-pjax" href="https://hivdatf.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/harpersmagazine-2011-01-0083250.pdf">https://hivdatf.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/harpersmagazine-2011-01-0083250.pdf</a><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p></div>
</div><p><span> </span></p><p> </p><figure class="table"><table><tbody><tr>
<td><a class="no-pjax" href="https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/product/906286" target="_blank" data-link-type="url"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/63023/5b7614f03b8b3523a83f0022d01f48f2b4443039/original/2-sided-tee-shirt-bb-front-odaat-back.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_s justify_center border_" /></a></td>
<td>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span class="text-huge"><strong>←</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span class="text-big"><strong>click the pic </strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span class="text-big"><strong>for 2-sided </strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span class="text-big"><strong>T-shirts</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span class="text-big"><strong>or</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span class="text-big"><strong> Sweats</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span class="text-huge"><strong>→</strong></span></p>
</td>
<td><p style="text-align:center;"><a class="no-pjax" href="https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/product/970744" target="_blank" data-link-type="url"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/63023/10ab79c431aa32dd490803a80703b1aa80c4e321/original/2-sided-sweat-shirts-bb-front-odaat-back.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_s justify_inline border_" /></a></p></td>
</tr></tbody></table></figure><p>Why do we offer merchandise? Because we are asked… a few times … and because we can, in a sound and responsible way. Like book purchases, whereby a book isn't printed until it is requested, the same print-on-demand service doesn't make coffee mugs or pillows or clothing until some chooses it. That limits the energy and waste associated printing and storing large print runs then disposing of the overages. The community and the ecology are not concerns with the cheaper is better tee-shirt market. But this way, everyone who wants something gets it, and not one more is made than is ordered. We prefer organic, Eco-friendly fabric and business practices. It's a good way to do coffee mug or tee-shirt, for all concerned. Revenue, above printing and shipping and technical costs goes right into more research, more content (podcasts, blogs, presentations to members and/or the public and professionals). </p><p>If we bring in more money than needed for our primary purpose, we will reduce costs to burn away the excess. </p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="/files/1267638/2024%20January%20Blog%20-%20Just%20for%20Today" target="_blank" data-link-type="file" data-link-label="2024 January Blog - Just for Today"><strong>Read/Download as a PDF </strong><span style="color:hsl(30,75%,60%);"><strong>CLICK HERE</strong></span></a></p><div style="mso-element:footnote-list;">
<hr>
<div style="mso-element:footnote;" id="ftn1"><p><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span>[1]</span></a> Kevin Griffin, One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps (2004) <a class="no-pjax" href="https://amzn.to/3U4MKg4">https://amzn.to/3U4MKg4</a> <o:p></o:p></p></div>
<div style="mso-element:footnote;" id="ftn2"><p><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""><span>[2]</span></a> <a class="no-pjax" href="https://health4u.msu.edu/articles/2018-being-aware-just-for-today">https://health4u.msu.edu/articles/2018-being-aware-just-for-today</a><o:p></o:p></p></div>
</div><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/63023/3e944383d24495f2cbef3d051ed60796339e1a8b/original/2024-january-blog-dry-january.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_s justify_left border_" />If you are new here, welcome. We are glad you are with us. If you would like our previous DRY JANUARY article about science and folk-wisdom about assessing the severity of drinking (or other drug) habits,<strong> </strong><a class="no-pjax" href="https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/blog" target="_blank" data-link-type="url"><strong>CLICK HERE.</strong></a> And of course, explore our other blogs and podcasts and links as you see fit. </p><p><strong>thanks for visiting Rebellion Dogs Publishing. Join the conversation, share your experience, and have your say…</strong></p><div style="mso-element:endnote-list;"><div style="mso-element:endnote;" id="edn1"><p><o:p></o:p></p></div></div>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/7326801
2024-01-01T14:25:34-05:00
2024-01-10T23:44:17-05:00
Dry January: a brief history of assessing alcohol use disorder
<p><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="text-align:center;"><span class="text-big"><span lang="EN-US">Dry January: a history of assessing alcohol use disorder </span></span></p><p style="text-align:center;"><span class="text-big"><i><span lang="EN-US">Rebellion Dogs January 2024</span></i><span lang="EN-US"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="/files/1264713/2024%20January%20Blog%20Dry%20January%20and%20a%20history%20of%20assessing%20drinking" data-link-type="file" data-link-label="2024 January Blog Dry January and a history of assessing drinking"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/63023/3e944383d24495f2cbef3d051ed60796339e1a8b/original/2024-january-blog-dry-january.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></a></p><p><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><a data-link-type="file" data-link-label="2024-january-blog-dry-january-and-the-history-of-evaluating-alcohol-use.pdf"><strong>click to </strong></a><a class="no-pjax" href="/files/1264712/2024-january-blog-dry-january-and-the-history-of-evaluating-alcohol-use.pdf" data-link-type="file" data-link-label="2024-january-blog-dry-january-and-the-history-of-evaluating-alcohol-use.pdf"><strong>Read or download a PDF: Dry January - making exploring our drinking habits hip</strong></a></p><p><span>In mid-1970s Montreal AA, almost every Alcoholics Anonymous group literature table had a yellow trifold that included:<o:p></o:p></span></p><ul style="list-style-type:disc;">
<li><span>The AA phone number for meeting information or someone to talk to, <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li><span>“Just for Today” – the AA philosophy that was practical, secular, bit-size approaches to deal with predictable challenges to maintaining sobriety. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul><ul><li>
<span>The John Hopkins Hospital 20 Questions about alcohol use<o:p></o:p></span>.<span><o:p></o:p></span>
</li></ul><p><span>Like the Narcotics Anonymous offering of the same namesake, read at most NA meetings I attend, the “Just for Today” offering I found in early AA is a common-sense approach to 12-Step fellowship life, philosophy and hacks for challenges that are certain to come to the newly sober. Next blog I think I will look at “Just for Today” and how it has aged. Stay tuned… <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>To kick off 2024, for our DRY JANUARY blog, why not review how alcoholism, alcohol use, alcohol use disorder is measured, from the age-old 20 questions of </span><i><span>yester-century</span></i><span> to the DSM-5? Even for those of us in long term sobriety, it’s a new year, some like to review or return to basics, and/or think about the obvious pattern we see every year at this time: in the rooms and on the streets, we are in the presence of neophytes and the sober-curious. Attendance at meetings picks up this time of year; post holiday, infrequent 12-step members are “back in the gym (or back to school)” and newcomers arrive, unsure but searching. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>While many join the living sober ranks to kick off the year, not everyone needs to stop forever. Dry January encourages everyone to reflect. As a means of mental and physical renewal to kickoff the year, a period of sobriety helps many refresh from a period of excess. Some may find something about sobriety that inspires a lifestyle change, others will look forward to returning to the bar. The line between living/partying hard vs. stumbling over the line into problematic alcohol or other substance/process activities is a pause for concern. It is also controversial. Reduce harm, abstinence, keep the party going, many strongly feel one way or another. Let’s talk.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span class="text-big" style="color:red;"><strong>Do You Have an Alcohol Use Disorder?</strong></span><a class="no-pjax" href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><span class="text-big"><span><strong>[i]</strong></span></span></a><span class="text-big" style="color:#E5761B;"><strong> </strong></span><span><strong><o:p></o:p></strong></span></p><p>The 20 Questions is a test was developed by Dr. Robert Seliger of Johns Hopkins in the 1930s to help people self-assess whether they have a drinking problem. This is not a professional screening tool … It is, however, a useful tool to help determine if your alcohol use is becoming problematic. What I often find fascinating is the type of questions asked; never am I asked how much I drink in a drinking session and how frequently are my drinking activities? The test seems to screen physical effects of alcohol use, psychological factors, and social consequences of drinking.<span style="color:#717171;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span class="text-big" style="color:red;"><strong>A Three-fold approach, biology, psychology, social impact</strong></span><span style="color:red;"><strong><o:p></o:p></strong></span></p><p>The biopsychosocial model of addiction doesn’t rely strictly on the disease or behavioral model; evaluating our substance use status: it’s complicated. From a layperson/peer-to-peer perspective, we hear that addiction is a threefold predicament—physical, emotional, mental. Or some will call it, physical, mental, spiritual. Either way, the point is that after all these years, we still don’t have blood test that will tell someone if they are or will be an addict. The biopsychosocial model looks at the genetic link, neurochemical differences, behavioral differences, —the hyperaroused, <span> </span>anhedonic, depressive alcoholic—degree of social consequences, and other genetic and personality type factors.<a class="no-pjax" href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title=""><span>[ii]</span></a><o:p></o:p></p><p>While healthcare professionals from treatment counselors to family doctors do utilize sophisticated assessment measures, many of us come to AA on our own, urged by family, or from a discussion we have with an AA member we know; so not everyone gets the professional assessment treatment. This self-evaluation, found online and still at some 12-step meetings, is a helpful tool for any of us ambivalent about do we or do we not have a real problem or how severe it may be.<o:p></o:p></p><p>Ask yourself the following questions and answer them <i>as honestly as you can.</i><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>1. Do you lose time from work due to drinking? </span></p><p><span>2. Is drinking making your home life unhappy? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>3. Do you drink because you are shy with other people? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>4. Is drinking affecting your reputation? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>5. Have you ever felt remorse after drinking? </span></p><p><span>6. Have you gotten into financial difficulties as a result of drinking? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>7. Do you turn to lower companions/inferior environments when drinking? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>8. Does your drinking make you careless of your family’s welfare? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>9. Has your ambition decreased since you started drinking? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>10. Do you crave a drink at a definite time daily? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>11. Do you want a drink the next morning? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>12. Does drinking cause you to have difficulty in sleeping? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>13. Has your efficiency decreased since you started drinking? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>14. Is drinking jeopardizing your job or business? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>15. Do you drink to escape from worries or trouble? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>16. Do you drink alone? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>17. Have you ever had a loss of memory (blackout) because of drinking? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>18. Has your physician ever treated you for drinking? </span></p><p><span>19. Do you drink to build up your self-confidence? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>20. Have you ever been to a hospital or institution on account of drinking? </span></p><p><i>If you answered YES to any one of the questions, this indicates you <strong>MAY</strong> have a problem with alcohol.</i><o:p></o:p></p><p><i>If you answered YES to any two, <strong>CHANCES</strong> are you have a problem with alcohol.</i><o:p></o:p></p><p><i>If you answered YES to three or more, you should <strong>seek additional evaluation</strong> of your use of alcohol.</i><span style="color:#44546A;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>In healthcare settings such as hospitals, clinics, and addiction treatment centers, this test is used, although not always as a stand-alone, to screen for alcohol use disorders. It can also be utilized by mental health professionals, such as therapists and counselors, to evaluate the drinking habits and potential alcohol-related problems of their clients (as a symptom, comorbidity or coping mechanism).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>The test is regarded as a valid and reliable screening instrument for identifying individuals who may be struggling with alcohol use disorder, and it can assist healthcare providers in initiating early intervention and treatment for those who require it. You can read it and score it on your own. I was confronted with it, others find it, surprisingly on the bedside table or in your briefcase—signs you may now be living with an Al-Anon member.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>We will look at a more “comprehensive evaluation.” But this is what I found on an AA literature table many places I attended, when new. I would offer it to others, sometimes asking them, as was done with me. Some questions refer to more than one of this threefold-disorder (biopsychosocial) idea, but all of them reference at least one of three. Eight questions include the physical/health consequences of alcohol use, eight cover mental/psychological issues, and eight look at social/work/family troubles. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>When I first answered these questions as a teenager with alcohol and other drug problems, I was fighting the diagnosis of being an alcoholic. I wanted it to tell me—and everyone hassling me—that I was a victim of bad luck and a series of serious misunderstandings, but not an alcoholic. Of course, that’s not what the results found. Even minimizing my more dramatic issues and omitting others, I passed with flying colors. I thought, “What a gyp. ‘three or more out of 20 and I am probably alcoholic!’ The fix is in; wouldn’t it be great to get through school getting passes for 3 or more right answers in a quiz of 20 questions? I didn’t want to be teetotaler; anyone who parties hard would be called an alcoholic from this sham.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>My first experience was confrontational, someone else accusing me of having a drinking problem. I felt defensive; better results come from curious inquiry or not having someone else breathing down your neck as you go through the questions. On the other hand, someone loved me enough to confront me. “I would rather step on your toes than walk over your grave,” as they say. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>The AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test)</span><a class="no-pjax" href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3" title=""><span>[iii]</span></a><span> detects hazardous drinking and alcohol abuse. Furthermore, it has a greater sensitivity in populations with a lower prevalence of alcoholism. One study suggested that questions 1, 2, 4, 5, and 10 were nearly as effective as the entire questionnaire.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span class="text-big" style="color:red;"><strong>AUDIT Questions and Scoring System:</strong></span></p><p>1. How often do you have a drink containing alcohol?</p><figure class="table"><table><tbody>
<tr>
<td>0 point</td>
<td>1 point</td>
<td>2 points</td>
<td>3 points</td>
<td>4 points</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>never</td>
<td>mostly 1 or less</td>
<td>2-3 times/wk</td>
<td>2-3 times/mo</td>
<td>4+ times/wk</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table></figure><p><span>2. How many drinks containing alcohol do you have on a typical day when you are drinking?</span></p><figure class="table"><table><tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>0 point</strong></td>
<td><strong>1 point</strong></td>
<td><strong>2 points</strong></td>
<td><strong>3 points</strong></td>
<td><strong>4 points</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>never</td>
<td>mostly 1 or less</td>
<td>2-3 times/wk</td>
<td>2-3 times/mo</td>
<td>4+ times/wk</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table></figure><p><span>3. How often do you have 6 or more drinks on 1 occasion?</span></p><figure class="table"><table><tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>0 point</strong></td>
<td><strong>1 point</strong></td>
<td><strong>2 points</strong></td>
<td><strong>3 points</strong></td>
<td><strong>4 points</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>never</td>
<td>mostly 1 or less</td>
<td>2-3 times/wk</td>
<td>2-3 times/mo</td>
<td>4+ times/wk</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table></figure><p><span>4. How often during the past year have you found that you were not able to stop drinking once you had started?</span></p><figure class="table"><table><tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>0 point</strong></td>
<td><strong>1 point</strong></td>
<td><strong>2 points</strong></td>
<td><strong>3 points</strong></td>
<td><strong>4 points</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>never</td>
<td>mostly 1 or less</td>
<td>2-3 times/wk</td>
<td>2-3 times/mo</td>
<td>4+ times/wk</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table></figure><p><span>5. How often during the past year have you failed to do what was normally expected of you because of drinking?</span></p><figure class="table"><table><tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>0 point</strong></td>
<td><strong>1 point</strong></td>
<td><strong>2 points</strong></td>
<td><strong>3 points</strong></td>
<td><strong>4 points</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>never</td>
<td>mostly 1 or less</td>
<td>2-3 times/wk</td>
<td>2-3 times/mo</td>
<td>4+ times/wk</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table></figure><p><span>6. How often during the past year have you needed a first drink in the morning to get yourself going after a heavy drinking session?</span></p><figure class="table"><table><tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>0 point</strong></td>
<td><strong>1 point</strong></td>
<td><strong>2 points</strong></td>
<td><strong>3 points</strong></td>
<td><strong>4 points</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>never</td>
<td>mostly 1 or less</td>
<td>2-3 times/wk</td>
<td>2-3 times/mo</td>
<td>4+ times/wk</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table></figure><p><span>7. How often during the past year have you had a feeling of guilt or remorse after drinking?</span></p><figure class="table"><table><tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>0 point</strong></td>
<td><strong>1 point</strong></td>
<td><strong>2 points</strong></td>
<td><strong>3 points</strong></td>
<td><strong>4 points</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>never</td>
<td>mostly 1 or less</td>
<td>2-3 times/wk</td>
<td>2-3 times/mo</td>
<td>4+ times/wk</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table></figure><p><span>8. How often during the past year have you been unable to remember what happened the night before because you had been drinking?</span></p><figure class="table"><table><tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>0 point</strong></td>
<td><strong>1 point</strong></td>
<td><strong>2 points</strong></td>
<td><strong>3 points</strong></td>
<td><strong>4 points</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>never</td>
<td>mostly 1 or less</td>
<td>2-3 times/wk</td>
<td>2-3 times/mo</td>
<td>4+ times/wk</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table></figure><p><span style="color:red;"><strong><o:p></o:p></strong></span></p><p><span>9. Have you or has someone else been injured as a result of your drinking?</span></p><figure class="table"><table><tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>0 point</strong></td>
<td><strong>1 point</strong></td>
<td><strong>2 points</strong></td>
<td><strong>3 points</strong></td>
<td><strong>4 points</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>never</td>
<td>mostly 1 or less</td>
<td>2-3 times/wk</td>
<td>2-3 times/mo</td>
<td>4+ times/wk</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table></figure><p><span>10. Has a relative, friend, or a doctor or other health care worker been concerned about your drinking or suggested you cut down?</span></p><figure class="table"><table><tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>0 point</strong></td>
<td><strong>1 point</strong></td>
<td><strong>2 points</strong></td>
<td><strong>3 points</strong></td>
<td><strong>4 points</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>never</td>
<td>mostly 1 or less</td>
<td>2-3 times/wk</td>
<td>2-3 times/mo</td>
<td>4+ times/wk</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table></figure><p><span>Evaluators as part of training are forewarned that people with addiction will minimize or deny, when being confronted; I know I did. In the diagnostic process, these questions often accompany blood and urine texts that may tell a more objective story. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span class="text-big" style="color:red;"><strong>What is the DSM-5</strong></span><a class="no-pjax" href="#_edn4" name="_ednref4" title=""><span class="text-big" style="color:red;"><span><strong>[iv]</strong></span></span></a><span class="text-big" style="color:red;"><strong> and what does it say about alcohol (and other drug) use?</strong></span><span style="color:red;"><strong><o:p></o:p></strong></span></p><p><span>For people born after 1952, there has always been a </span><i><span>Diagnostic and Statistical Manual</span></i><span>. It was controversial. DSM still is, let’s say, a conversation starter. Science invites criticism as part of the error and correction process. The biggest issues with the DSM-5 are that:<o:p></o:p></span></p><ol>
<li><span>It leads to cultural bias.</span></li>
<li><span>It lacks scientific basis.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li><span>It pathologizes shared human experience.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li><span>The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) does not use it for researching mental health.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li><span>It promotes a pharmaceutical approach to treatment.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li>
<span>Essentially anyone can be diagnosed with a lifetime disorder.</span><a class="no-pjax" href="#_edn5" name="_ednref5" title=""><span>[v]</span></a><span><o:p></o:p></span>
</li>
</ol><p><span>Widely recognized in the DSM-5 is the prevalence of comorbidity; where we find mental health disorders—post traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety etc.—we find more alcohol use disorder (and other mind-altering substance misuse). Visit the DSM-5 (see endnotes) and search “alcohol use disorder”—137 hits come up. The great chicken and egg question comes up in clinical settings and peer-to-peer meetings. Does our environment and biochemical markers predisposing us to mood/mental health hardships [the chicken], cause addictive responses as coping mechanisms [the egg]? Are mental health symptoms [the egg] just a side-effect of my substance or process addiction [the chicken]; will “drying out” and recovery diminish my depression or anxiety to non-chronic levels? The chicken and egg model is art and philosophy, which helps us make sense of, or context for, science. You can’t have an egg without a chicken! True that, and you can’t have a chicken without an egg! Hence, no consensus can be arrived at in the, “Which came first?” question.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>Some aspects of process addiction are recognized in the DSM-5, “Alcohol use disorder and other substance use disorders may also be comorbid with anorexia nervosa, especially among those with the binge-eating/purging type (DSM5 p. 345),” as an example. Other process addiction experiences are discounted or otherwise ignored. Our individual experiences may not be identified in this clinical tool kit—Gambling Disorder, in; as far as love and sex addiction, the sexual dysfunction characteristics (p 423) disappoint many who suffer from, or treat sexual compulsion, anorexia, attachment disorders, etc. For instance, intimacy avoidance may be mentioned as a symptom of anxiety, hypoactive sexual desire disorder (442) may be isolated within a sexual dysfunction. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>I don’t find the “that’s it” moment reading the manual or the holistic biopsychosocial experience I hear in meetings that include declining quality of life resulting in fantasy, pornography, acting out, attachment disorders, shame, loneliness and fear, so easily expressed in podcasts and in National Association of Addiction Professionals (NAADAC) seminars/workshops. The whole story and all our nuances are not affirmed in the “official” manual. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>Frankly, I hear more “what is wrong with” vs. “why I rely on” discussion around the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. However, if I was not predisposed to being a person with addiction to gambling, I would bet there will be a DSM-6.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>Under diagnostic criteria in the DSM-5 for problematic alcohol use (pp 490-497):<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>“</span><i><span>Alcohol use disorder is defined by a cluster of behavioral and physical symptoms, which can include withdrawal, tolerance, and craving. Alcohol withdrawal is characterized by withdrawal symptoms that develop approximately 4–12 hours after the reduction of in-take following prolonged, heavy alcohol ingestion. Because withdrawal from alcohol can be unpleasant and intense, individuals may continue to consume alcohol despite adverse consequences, often to avoid or to relieve withdrawal symptoms. Some withdrawal symptoms (e.g., sleep problems) can persist at lower intensities for months and can contribute to relapse. Once a pattern of repetitive and intense use develops, individuals with alcohol use disorder may devote substantial periods of time to obtaining and consuming alcoholic beverages.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p><i><span>Craving for alcohol is indicated by a strong desire to drink that makes it difficult to think of anything else and that often results in the onset of drinking. School and job performance may also suffer either from the aftereffects of drinking or from actual intoxication … individuals with an alcohol use disorder may continue to consume alcohol despite the knowledge that continued consumption poses significant physical (e.g., blackouts, liver disease), psychological (e.g., depression), social, or interpersonal problems [domestic violence, DUI and other crime, child abuse, antisocial behavior] </span></i><span>…”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>The diagnostic criteria addresses the spectrum of alcohol/substance disorder, instead of you might be, you probably are, who are you kidding—you’re a text-book addict, DSM offers mild (2-3 symptoms), moderate (4-5 symptoms) and severe (six or more) markers and suggests that once these criteria are no longer present, our disorder is, in my layperson understanding and language, “arrested.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>Read them and weep (or debate or identify) invite your friends, have a Zoom meeting …<o:p></o:p></span></p><ol>
<li><span>Alcohol is often taken in larger amounts or over a longer period than was intended.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li><span>There is a persistent desire or unsuccessful efforts to cut down or control alcohol use.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li><span>A great deal of time is spent in activities necessary to obtain alcohol, use alcohol, or recover from its effects.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li><span>Craving, or a strong desire or urge to use alcohol.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li><span>Recurrent alcohol use resulting in a failure to fulfill major role obligations at work, school, or home.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li><span>Continued alcohol use despite having persistent or recurrent social or interpersonal problems caused or exacerbated by the effects of alcohol.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li><span>Important social, occupational, or recreational activities are given up or reduced because of alcohol use.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li><span>Recurrent alcohol use in situations in which it is physically hazardous.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li><span>Alcohol use is continued despite knowledge of having a persistent or recurrent physical or psychological problem that is likely to have been caused or exacerbated by alcohol.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li>
<span>Tolerance, as defined by either of the following:<o:p></o:p></span> a) <span>A need for markedly increased amounts of alcohol to achieve intoxication or desired effect. b) A markedly diminished effect with continued use of the same amount of alcohol.<o:p></o:p></span>
</li>
<li><span>Withdrawal, as manifested by either of the following: a) The characteristic withdrawal syndrome for alcohol or b) Alcohol (or a closely related substance, such as a benzodiazepine) is taken to relieve or avoid withdrawal symptoms.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ol><p><span class="text-big" style="color:red;"><strong>Dryish January (moderation management)</strong></span><span style="color:red;"><strong><o:p></o:p></strong></span></p><p><span>For DRY JANUARY-lite fans, the world wide web offers Dryish January. Sunnyside Co offers a mindful-goal-oriented approach, neither anti-abstinence, nor anti-indulgence. There are questionnaires and apps for moderation management as well; many just want to cut down for the first month of the year. </span></p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.sunnyside.co/dryish-january?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=18547253234&utm_content=146037593470&utm_term=dry%20january%202024&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAv8SsBhC7ARIsALIkVT28TACldJ2edbo8PfBlBYGqSkXR7ullH7LDAKoDQAs9wXhNWD6Rw8MaAkY_EALw_wcB" target="_blank" data-link-type="url"><span style="color:#E5761B;"><span><strong><u>DRYISH JANUARY click Here</u> </strong></span></span><span style="color:#000000;"><span>self assessment and goal oriented alcohol use/non-use</span></span></a></p><p><span>Passion is such that there is infighting between in-groups. Safe supply and harm reduction advocates and their abstinence-based sibs sometimes get into it with each other. We are family is my position. My abstinence isn’t in disagreement with your moderation management. And inside each of these camps, there is some scrapping as well. Oh, the narcissism of small differences—because I am cursed with it, I can and do see it in others. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>“Live and let Live,” people. I will try to do the same. I have never seen a case of bad sobriety. You might not like so-and-so’s recovery but the whole community appreciates it; consider the alternative. And reduced harm is reduced sorrow, reduced suffering, reduced poverty and death and sickness and abuse. Who in hell is against less suffering?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span class="text-big" style="color:red;"><strong>Mystery Beyond Mastery</strong></span><span style="color:red;"><strong><o:p></o:p></strong></span></p><p><span>I have said before that when I first pondered, “Am I or am I not an alcoholic?” I would not have believed that in 2024 a DNA or blood test still can’t conclusively identify people who really shouldn’t drink from the free-pass crowd. The Cleveland Clinic reports that, “</span><span lang="EN">Gene mutations that increase your likelihood of developing a genetic condition later in life can sometimes be detected through predictive and pre-symptomatic testing by looking for changes in your genes that increase your risk of developing certain diseases. These include certain types of cancer such as breast cancer.”</span><a class="no-pjax" href="#_edn6" name="_ednref6" title=""><span lang="EN">[vi]</span></a><span lang="EN"> To restate what I hope is obvious—not a doctor, not a scientist—copy and pasting the words “gene mutation” doesn’t suggest I grasp the breadth of what is offered. </span></p><p><span lang="EN">But so far, what we see is what we get and while science continues to expand and enhance the medical complexes resources to help us, there will remain, at least for now, mystery beyond mastery. I don’t say that like it’s a bad thing. What has been accomplished, the still unconquered unknown, both speak to me as a layperson. Gut-feeling and folk-wisdom can’t be sent to the curb, replaced by medical/scientific certainty—not just yet anyway. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span lang="EN">Channeling </span><i><span lang="EN">Living Sober</span></i><span lang="EN"> (A.A. World Services), there is no “‘right’ way or ‘wrong’ way. Each of us uses what is best for [ourselves] without closing the door on other kinds of help we may find valuable at another time. And each of us tries to respect the others’ right to do things differently.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="/files/1264713/2024%20January%20Blog%20Dry%20January%20and%20a%20history%20of%20assessing%20drinking" data-link-type="file" data-link-label="2024 January Blog Dry January and a history of assessing drinking"><span class="text-big"><strong>click to PRINT or READ on PDF</strong></span></a></p><div style="mso-element:endnote-list;">
<hr>
<div style="mso-element:endnote;" id="edn1"><p><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title=""><span>[i]</span></a> <a class="no-pjax" href="https://ncphp.org/johns-hopkins-questionnaire/">https://ncphp.org/johns-hopkins-questionnaire/</a><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p></div>
<div style="mso-element:endnote;" id="edn2"><p><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title=""><span>[ii]</span></a> <a class="no-pjax" href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/104438948907000601">https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/104438948907000601</a><o:p></o:p></p></div>
<div style="mso-element:endnote;" id="edn3"><p><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3" title=""><span>[iii]</span></a> <a class="no-pjax" href="https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/285913-clinical#b1">https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/285913-clinical#b1</a><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p></div>
<div style="mso-element:endnote;" id="edn4"><p><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ednref4" name="_edn4" title=""><span>[iv]</span></a> <a class="no-pjax" href="https://repository.poltekkes-kaltim.ac.id/657/1/Diagnostic%20and%20statistical%20manual%20of%20mental%20disorders%20_%20DSM-5%20(%20PDFDrive.com%20).pdf">https://repository.poltekkes-kaltim.ac.id/657/1/Diagnostic%20and%20statistical%20manual%20of%20mental%20disorders%20_%20DSM-5%20(%20PDFDrive.com%20).pdf</a><o:p></o:p></p></div>
<div style="mso-element:endnote;" id="edn5"><p><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ednref5" name="_edn5" title=""><span>[v]</span></a> <a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.pchtreatment.com/dsm-5-issues/">https://www.pchtreatment.com/dsm-5-issues/</a><o:p></o:p></p></div>
<div style="mso-element:endnote;" id="edn6"><p><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ednref6" name="_edn6" title=""><span>[vi]</span></a> <a class="no-pjax" href="https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diagnostics/23065-dna-test--genetic-testing">https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diagnostics/23065-dna-test--genetic-testing</a><o:p></o:p></p></div>
</div>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/7284214
2023-10-07T00:55:26-04:00
2023-12-30T12:48:32-05:00
Ten Beyond Belief Years of Agnostic Musings and a revised 2023 Third Printing
<p><a class="no-pjax" href="/beyondbelief" target="_blank" data-link-type="page"><span style="color:#e0b682;"><strong>CHECK OUT 3rd PRINTING 10th anniversary BEYOND BELIEF.</strong></span></a></p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="/files/1253594/blog-2023-october-10th-anniversary.pdf" data-link-type="file" data-link-label="blog-2023-october-10th-anniversary.pdf"><span style="color:hsl(30, 75%, 60%);"><strong>READ OR DOWNLOAD OCTOBER 2023 BLOG IN PDF FORMAT</strong></span></a></p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/63023/dece0d638607ee83c0a8c1a517ddcc29275184a6/original/beyondbelief-3d-collection.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_xl justify_center border_" /></p><p><span>What a </span><a class="no-pjax" href="/merch-gift-store" data-link-type="page" data-link-label="Merch & Gift Store"><span><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/63023/2d1f39d44304bd0771e418c899fd6dbd3f8b25f9/original/etsy-yscreenshot-2023-04-09-112233.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_m justify_left border_" /></span></a><span>decade we’re having! </span></p><p><span>Maybe you are new around these parts—welcome. </span></p><p><span>Maybe you remember January 2013—thanks for sticking around. </span></p><p><span>Ten years ago, </span><i><span><strong>Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life </strong></span></i><span>was published. A 2<sup>nd</sup> printing in 2014 included a Foreword by author/historian Ernie Kurtz. Now, on the 10<sup>th</sup> anniversary, we offer a 3<sup>rd</sup> Printing. Now available, a hardcover, at your request, has been added to the paperback and eBook offerings. A new Preface was required—it’s been quite the decade and Rebellion Dogs just had to say something about it. We offer you this hot-off-the-press 2023 “3<sup>rd</sup> Printing Preface” as our blog. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>Also new, we started offering some merchandise ideas—mugs T-shirts, hoodies—and many of you came up with new ideas that we have, or will soon, added new items as requested. Keep the conversation going. Rebellion dogs our ever sip of coffee on our</span><a class="no-pjax" href="/merch-gift-store" data-link-type="page" data-link-label="Merch & Gift Store"><span style="color:hsl(30,75%,60%);"><span><strong> Merch and Gift page</strong></span></span></a><span>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>Read about the decade in review in our new Preface and thanks to all, new to recovery, here for decades or you lurkers, still sober-curious, you’ve inspired a lot of what’s been great in this contemporary era of recovery from addiction. </span></p><p style="text-align:center;"><span><strong>Preface<o:p></o:p></strong></span></p><p><i><span>Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life </span></i><span>marks the third decade of Century 21 with this third printing, 10-year anniversary offering. Has this decade of recovery been the best ever for the newly recovery-curious and people with long-term recovery? I think so. A growing diversity of people with process and/or substance use disorders are greeted today by emerging resources including medicine, research, and the evolution of peer-to-peer support. Technology offers more connection with others</span><span lang="EN-US">—</span><span>when we want connection. For those of us with months, years or decades of recovery, life has a way of </span><i><span>keeping it real </span></i><span>with turning points and emotional challenges. Much about </span><i><span>the problem </span></i><span>and </span><i><span>the solution </span></i><span>remains the same through the decades, but changes</span><span lang="EN-US">—</span><span>mostly positive</span><span lang="EN-US">—</span><span>are worth appreciating.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span><strong>The Origin Story</strong><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>As the new millennium began gathering speed, the idea for </span><i><span>Beyond Belief </span></i><span>began to take shape. A closet agnostic for a lot of my recovery, I had stayed clean and sober without the white light experience of an intervening God who grants sobriety, serenity, or anything Bill W-ish. We hear </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>fake it until you make it,</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> in the rooms, and that</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>s what I did. Decades into faking it, I hadn</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>t made it, if that is defined as finding or feeling the presence of God. I felt like an imposter in 12 Step meetings. Then came the internet. I found a community of nonbelievers in recovery.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>Demographics are changing; fewer people subscribe to the belief that recovery depends upon on a prayer-answering, sobriety-granting higher power. Are atheists, agnostics, and freethinkers still a minority in 12 Step culture? Today, your answer to that question may depend on your geographic location or the meetings you attend, but nontheists are no longer the odd one out in 12 Step rooms. Some have their own irreligious 12 Step or other recovery groups.</span><span style="color:hsl(210, 75%, 60%);"><span>1 </span></span><span>Other nonbelievers fit their way into the mainstream fellowship, discretely, apologetically, or loud and proud.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>Online or face to face, fewer of us are inclined to feign </span><i><span>belief </span></i><span>in order to feel </span><i><span>belonging</span></i><span>, with the variety of meetings and communities now available. There is no shortage of daily meditation books for addicts whose worldview involves a deity. But when I went looking for a daily reflection book that wasn</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>t rooted in monotheistic traditions, I couldn</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>t find one. So I wrote one, drawing on philosophy, religion, comedy, science, and the folk wisdom of 12 & 12 rooms. Four years later, the first edition of </span><i><span>Beyond Belief </span></i><span>was complete. This book speaks in an agnostic voice. Nonbelievers have something to add to the recovery conversation. There is no bias against faith in deities. </span><i><span>Some of my best friends believe in God</span></i><span>. I don</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>t consider them absurd; they don</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>t see me as inferior. Nontheists are not intellectual holdouts. Nontheists are not more evolved. Beliefs are like favorite colors. If I like green and you like yellow that shouldn</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>t interfere with our discussion of addiction and recovery.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>The Big Book</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>s chapter </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>We Agnostics</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> draws a line in the sand: </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>God either is or He isn</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>t. What was our choice to be?</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> (</span><i><span>Alcoholics Anonymous</span></i><span>, 53) Nature abhors a vacuum; a state of nothing is hard to imagine. Binary thinking fit the autocratic world of 1939. But in a democratic, pluralist society, all-or-nothing thinking is a cognitive distortion</span><span lang="EN-US">—</span><span>a philosophical assumption that everything is right or wrong, good or evil, superior or inferior. In this millennium, people can hold opposing views and be equals in the same community. Our Traditions lovingly and tolerantly make room for more than one truth. That</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>s a good thing, because the only problem with the truth is that there are so many versions of it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>If you believe in God and I do not, we both </span><i><span>let go.</span></i><span> And then, I don</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>t know. Maybe God scoops up our will, puts His hand on our shoulders and guides us in the right direction. I don</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>t think so; but maybe. The </span><i><span>action </span></i><span>in the Step that we both take is </span><i><span>letting go</span></i><span>. The theology of what happens next is an interesting discussion but irrelevant to getting sober and living well, a la 12 Steps. Unity is not about uniformity of beliefs; it</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>s about a common purpose. Firm on principles, our methods stay flexible.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>In the mid-1970s, when I got clean and sober, an Alcoholics Anonymous advertisement regularly ran in my local newspaper: </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>If you want to drink and can, that</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>s your business. If you want to quit and can</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>t, that</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>s our business. Call AA.</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> What it conveyed to me was that if I wanted to drink, AA had nothing for me beyond warm regards. If I had no problem quitting by myself, AA would mind its own business. But if I wanted to quit and could not stay stopped, AA was one way that worked. Our creed includes some common beliefs:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><ol>
<li><span>Addiction is an incurable, progressive disorder.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li><span>One day at a time, we can stay sober.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li><span>Self-reliance was insufficient for us to get and/or stay sober.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li><span>Honesty, open-mindedness, self-evaluation, a willingness to make amends and help others are tools to get and stay clean and sober (recovery).<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ol><p> </p><p><span>Some consider these tenets facts. Some concede that these tenets don</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>t hold up as facts when subjected to scientific scrutiny. Nonetheless, as facts or ideas, they are our creed. These ideas are true for us, and we feel it in our guts. Alcoholics Anonymous started as a conversation between two amateurs who couldn</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>t make it on their own. Others joined the conversation. They weren</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>t experts, either. Since 1935, there hasn</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>t been a generally recognized expert on addiction, prevention, or recovery inside AA. As far as I know, none of the other 500 organizations</span><span style="color:hsl(210, 75%, 60%);"><span>2</span></span><span> that have taken the 12 Step tenets and run with them have produced an expert either. I have friends in, and/or have earned my own seat in substance-based, process-based (food, sex/intimacy, tech, gambling, hoarding, spending/debt, etc.), and codependency-based 12 & 12 fellowships. I am at home at and attend SMART Recovery, Refuge Recovery, LifeRing. I call myself a qualified member in many of these meetings. In other cases, I have gone to meetings to support a friend, or to satisfy my own curiosity. I have read and learned new things from each group</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>s literature. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>When referring to the Steps and Traditions, this book uses an addiction-generic, faith-neutral translation of Steps adopted by some 12 & 12 agnostic/freethinker groups. The Steps are not sacred. Many members with a variety of worldviews interpret, omit, or replace Steps in a way that works effectively for them. The agnostic interpretation of the 12 Steps used in this book is not poetry and these Steps aren</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>t universally embraced, not even by every agnostic or atheist 12 Step member. I find in these agnostic Steps the essence of what the original Steps ask of us. They reflect the thought and action required to combat the destructive control of addiction and learn the artful balancing act of living clean and sober. Every member decides how to interpret, work, or dismiss each Step. The variation used in this book is designed to not leave anyone out of the conversation. The notion of taking artistic liberty with the program offends some adherents to 12 Step, 12 Tradition orthodoxy. Bill Wilson was quite clear about the inherent liberty that groups and their members enjoy. Buddhists replaced the word </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>God</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> with </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>good</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> so that the practice of the Steps could be compatible with their non-theistic belief. Bill wrote, </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>To some of us, the idea of substituting </span><span lang="EN-US">‘</span><span>good</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span> for </span><span lang="EN-US">‘</span><span>God</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span> in the Twelve Steps will seem like a watering down of A.A.</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>s message. But here we must remember thatA.A.</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>s Steps are suggestions only. A belief in them as they stand is not at all a requirement for membership among us. This liberty has made A.A. available to thousands who never would have tried at all had we insisted on the Twelve Steps just as written.</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span style="color:hsl(210, 75%, 60%);"><span>3</span></span><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>Much of the language for the new millennium hasn</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>t been crafted yet. The words </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>atheist</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> and </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>nonbeliever</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> describe someone by what they are not. </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>Freethinker</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> as a description of non-theists might seem to suggest that all religious people have rigid viewpoints, which isn</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>t fair or true. Language lags behind culture. For example, all of us believe women and men have an equal right to vote. We no longer use the word </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>suffragist</span><span lang="EN-US">” </span><span>to describe ourselves. One day, none of us will have to describe ourselves by what we do not believe. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>Today, the recovery community is far more culturally diverse and globally connected than it was when this book first came out. Our understanding of addiction and recovery has expanded with our growing experience. Naturally, language evolves, too. Terms like </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>John Barleycorn or patriarchal phrases like </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>This is the Step [Six] that separates the men from the boys,</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> sound goofy to today</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>s reader.</span><span style="color:hsl(210, 75%, 60%);"><span>4</span></span><span> In time, the language in this book will sound just as dated. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>Some of the newest fellowships are devoted to Century 21 problems. Who, in the mid-1980s, conceived of addiction to online gaming? OLGA, OLG-Anon, ITAA (Internet and Technology Addicts) are new millennium fellowships presenting the age-old Steps in a contemporary language. Each new fellowship speaks the language of the day. In newer fellowships, there is less emphasis placed on God and the use of masculine pronouns is not universal.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>Since our 2013 first printing, we have enjoyed the full gamut of one-to-five-star reviews</span><span lang="EN-US">—</span><span>love it! Online, in person, by email, text, or social media, Rebellion Dogs has received thousands of comments and heartfelt thanks for </span><i><span>Beyond Belief</span></i><span>: </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>This is the Xth year I</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>ve been starting my day with your book,</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> or </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>Our group uses </span><i><span>Beyond Belief </span></i><span>to kick off our meetings,</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> or </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>A treatment counselor reads from this book daily in group,</span><span lang="EN-US">” </span><span>and, </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>I believe in God but I don</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>t find anything disagreeable about </span><i><span>Beyond Belief</span></i><span>.</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> My favorite is, </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>What you wrote this morning really touched me.</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>Readers tell me about some pretty tattered books; I have asked for, and some of you have sent Rebellion Dogs pictures of your haggard and well-loved book. The third printing of </span><i><span>Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life </span></i><span>includes a hardcover option that some have requested, along with the paperback and eBook. An audio book will be coming; stay tuned. In the first 10 years, demand and word-of-mouth increased each year. Over 10 years, more than 27,000 copies of </span><i><span>Beyond Belief </span></i><span>found their way to coffee tables, reading nooks, smartphones, and computers. People are finding the book online, on meeting literature tables, at indie booksellers and national chains, and some central offices and club houses. As far as Big Publishing is concerned, </span><i><span>Beyond Belief </span></i><span>remains a niche reading choice. If maximizing sales was our motivation, we would have put out another devotional for believers; they do love their prayer and meditation readers.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>The point of publishing this book in 2013 was to offer an alternative to the norm, available to whomever needed/wanted it, whomever may otherwise have felt left out of the conversation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>Rebellion Dogs looks back in awe with where we have come since this book launched. With the 12 Step meeting no longer the only </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>last house on the block,</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> LifeRing, SMART Recovery, and Women for Sobriety communities have flourished. She Recovers (since 2011), Refuge Recovery (2010) and later, Recovery Dharma, were part of this Century 21 seachange; Rebellion Dogs is one small part of a much greater whole. In the last decade, these peer-to-peer alternatives to Steps and Traditions are now on the radar for researchers and treatment providers.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span><strong>More and More Has Been Revealed<o:p></o:p></strong></span></p><p><span>A broad and growing body of empirical data validates the folk wisdom of mutual aid, starting with AA. Harvard Medical School, Stanford University Medical Centers, and the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction teamed up for the 2020 Cochrane Library Systemic Review, filtering the most stringent, longitudinal scientific trials. A hybrid approach of professional treatment and the 12 Steps called Twelve Step Facilitation (TSF) has its treatment outcome rates compared to leading evidence-based interventions for alcohol (and other drug) use disorder: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>This study of more than 10,000 participants found that </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>There is high quality evidence that manualized AA/TSF interventions are more effective than other established treatments, such as CBT, for increasing abstinence.</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> Uninterrupted abstinence is the most celebrated result of 12 Step engagement, in the rooms (online and in person). From an addiction medicine point of view, AA is more than chips and medallions. Also measuring reduction in the severity of, and frequency of, inebriety, AA was found to be as or more helpful than comparable interventions in terms of life and health improvements, even when long term sobriety is not achieved. Specifically, while the TSF intervention resulted in twice as many patients remaining abstinent one year post-treatment, those who did drink also reported significantly more sober days and fewer drinks when they did drink. In addition, the study authors concluded that TSF probably produces substantial healthcare cost savings among people with alcohol use disorder.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>When people in recovery are asked about what helps them stay sober, many offer a </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>yes/and</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> response rather than </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>either/or.</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> In the last decade, Life in Recovery Surveys (USA: 2013,</span><span style="color:hsl(210, 75%, 60%);"><span>5</span></span><span> UK: 2015,</span><span style="color:hsl(210, 75%, 60%);"><span>6</span></span><span> Australia: 2015,</span><span style="color:hsl(210, 75%, 60%);"><span>7</span></span><span> Canada: 2017 </span><span style="color:hsl(210, 75%, 60%);"><span>8</span></span><span>) reveal multiple activities</span><span lang="EN-US">—</span><span>more so than one vs. another</span><span lang="EN-US">—</span><span>are helping people with addiction find recovery. These surveys show that mutual aid, clinical and therapeutic interventions, and community/family/employment support are complementary strategies that help people on their recovery path.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>As far as comparing efficacy, expect more scientific evidence to include non-12 Step peer support. A 2018 study compared the efficacy of Women for Sobriety, Life Ring, SMART Recovery, and 12 Step groups for people with Alcohol Use Disorder and found that while no group has found in peer support groups that are not based in the 12 Steps.</span><span style="color:hsl(210, 75%, 60%);"><span>9</span></span><span> For some, one works, the other does not; for many, a combination therapy proves most helpful.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>In 2014, the first International Conference of Secular AA (then called We Agnostics and Freethinkers International AA Convention) brought </span><i><span>heathens </span></i><span>in AA and establishment AA together for three days in Santa Monica. Secular AA members were some of the early adapters to online (Zoom, message boards, and social media) communities. Atheist and agnostic meetings were growing in urban centers; the next step was to provide secular meetings to anyone with Wi-Fi and meeting links.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>When COVID-19 hit in 2020, millennial-era tech fostered more growth for underrepresented populations in the recovery community. The AA Meeting App and many central office WordPress meeting lists added filters, including </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>meeting type.</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> Along with discussion, text-based, speaker, LGBTQIA+, Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), and young people</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>s, </span><i><span>secular </span></i><span>became a meeting category, helping to match freethinkers with secular meetings and likeminded members. The dozens of agnostic/atheist AA meetings available at the end of 2010 became, a decade later, hundreds of AA meetings each day. Other 12 Step fellowships offer special composition groups online or in person. Alternatives to 12 Step meetings have grown in popularity because of online meetings as well. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><i><span>Beyond Belief </span></i><span>served as a rare breath of irreligious fresh air in 12 Step literature offerings when it came out in 2013; now it</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>s part of a respectable, ever-growing body of work. At Rebellion Dogs Radio, we showcase new authors and their non-theistic approach to mutual aid. Our Reading Room webpage has a regular influx of new titles to browse. Many can now fill an entire row of their bookshelf with narratives about proven, secular 12 Step experiences. Great Britain brought the world the leaflet </span><i><span>The </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>God</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> Word: Agnostics and Atheists in AA </span></i><span>(2016). </span><i><span>The AA Grapevine </span></i><span>published 50 years of atheist and agnostic stories in </span><i><span>One Big Tent </span></i><span>(2018). </span><i><span>Living Clean </span></i><span>(Narcotics Anonymous 2012) embraces atheism as a NA path: </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>Our differences really can help us along the way, instead of creating barriers between us. Many of our members have been clean for years as atheists talking about atheism as a legitimate path in recovery.</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span>7 NA has fast-forwarded from 1991</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>s </span><i><span>Just for Today</span></i><span>, which for some was a little heavy on God talk, to </span><i><span>A Spiritual Principle a Day </span></i><span>(2022), which reads so much more </span><i><span>this century</span></i><span>.</span><span style="color:hsl(210, 75%, 60%);"><span>10</span></span><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>In 2020, the Great Britain General Service Conference conducted its quinquennial membership survey and asked questions that members, the public and referring professionals want to know about AA today. The survey probed members on preferences for meeting format: online, in person or phone-in AA? How many meetings do members go to? Who feels included and who feels left out of the Zoom AA experience? Our General Service Office asked about the members</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span> worldview. People who self-identify as believing in a higher power were asked, </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>Is your higher power religious or secular?</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> Sixty-five percent of respondents said </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>secular,</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> 35 percent answered </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>religious;</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> and six percent said </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>both.</span><span lang="EN-US">” </span><span>From conception to reporting, Rebellion Dogs Publishing offers links to statistics and interviews about this membership survey from Great Britain GSO. </span><span style="color:hsl(210, 75%, 60%);"><span>11</span></span><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>Efforts to eliminate secular AA and skirmishes over whether no-God AA is </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><i><span>real</span></i><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> AA persist in some local central offices and committees. More often than not, the ire of discrimination creates awareness and discussion, fostering the unintended consequence of a proliferation of this freethinker brand in the local community.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>Rebellion Dogs website is part of a community with a Rebellious Links page to blogs, podcasts, meeting lists, social media communities and recovery things to do. We cover what</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>s new in addiction medicine, academic enquiry, review treatment conferences, and interview news makers and thought leaders from around the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span><strong>Generation Next & the Future of Stewardship</strong><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>About 2025, the first of Generation X old-timers will celebrate their 60<sup>th</sup> birthdays. These stewards of recovery were labeled by demographers as educated, individualistic and flaunting an unabashed disdain for structure and authority. In North America alone, people born between 1965 and 1980 number 51 million. Gen X faced our age-old addiction problem with a changed attitude.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>After Gen X comes a tidal wave of 75 million North American Millennials (Gen Y), born from 1981 to 1996. In 2025, the older millennials will have 44 candles on their vegan birthday cake. This generation was wired to the internet before getting wired to substances. Millennial stewards will lead with collaboration, work/life balance, open-mindedness, empathy, creativity, technology, and optimism.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>Gen Z, born 1997-2012, are today</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>s youth in recovery. They were zoomers before Zoom was a brand. Should public-service announcements directed at youth depict recovery meetings online? Do ya think? OMG, LMAO, Emoji. Spectrum disorders, poly-substance use disorder, codependency, medically (or plant-based) assisted recovery, harm reduction, safe supply</span><span lang="EN-US">—</span><span>none of this qualifies as an </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>outside issue</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> for many of today</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>s youth. Gen Z are the true online natives; tech, diversity, neurodivergence, financial prudence, and progressive politics are what</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>s chill. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>Generation Alpha, born between the mid-2010s to the mid- 2020s, will be stewards of recovery communities later this century. The emerging bleeding deacon will be the multi-tasking, gadget-dependent, silver-haired web-surfer. Our world is </span><i><span>becoming</span></i><span>, is in flux; so too are our leaders/ servants who will pioneer the next phase of our recovery community.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>My generation may be diagnosed with </span><i><span>hardening of the attitudes</span></i><span>. Followers fill the void left by peer-to-peer</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>s pioneers. Followers tend to vote to keep what the pioneers crafted unchanged, over the uncertainty of embracing change. I was raised in recovery in the early post-founder era of AA. In my recovery journey, I</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>ve seen the Alcoholics Anonymous population double from fewer than 500,000 in the mid-1970s to one million in the 1980s, and double again in the 1990s. Through AA</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>s traditional way of </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>counting noses,</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> this two-million-member mark has remained +/-10 percent since then.</span><span style="color:hsl(210, 75%, 60%);"><span>12</span></span><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>As this tenth anniversary edition of </span><i><span>Beyond Belief </span></i><span>goes to print, 12 Step fellowships are reconsidering the way members/groups are tallied. There have always been loners who had no physical meeting; before the internet, snail-mail and phone-based AA groups connected people with substance use disorders and other addictions. In the 21st century, online message boards and more sophisticated communities like InTheRooms.com meet a need. Virtual peer-to-peer meetings have helped reach the housebound, or introverted, or people who are otherwise disinclined to join a room of strangers in person to explore sobriety. While some newer fellowships have always been online, the 2020 worldwide pandemic protocol changed the definition of meetings, the nature of connection, and the scope of each group</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>s community in unprecedented ways.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>Some Zoom groups served the same face-to-face members that the community center, clubhouse, or the basement of a house of worship previously served; online meetings were a temporary measure until face-to-face resumed. Some groups became global in membership, transformed by online access to a previously local meeting space. New groups started, never having a geographically limited scope. Some members today have never been to, or certainly didn</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>t find recovery in, a face-to-face setting. Social media provides the outreach and member-to-member communication that the group rep and local newsletter previously managed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>Once brick-and-mortar groups serving local constituents was the norm; each was added to geographic districts and areas for fellowshipwide service, communication, and accounting purposes. Now, we have an online Intergroup</span><span style="color:hsl(210, 75%, 60%);"><span>13</span></span><span> and districts within Areas that cater to a membership around the globe instead of just across town. Including virtual membership and meetings will be normalized this decade throughout the greater peerto-peer recovery community.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>Smaller, newer fellowships grow, widening the gateway of recovery community. Technically, AA population is an outside issue to other fellowships. Yet as the granddaddy of Twelve Steppery, we all share a connection to AA. Is AA more likely to sustain the same membership indefinitely? Will we increase or decrease in population? Stay tuned. Flourishing depends on the delicate balancing act of sticking to our principles while adapting to our environment. We could grow; alternately, we could stall and shrink. Imagine if we celebrated the 100th anniversary of the 12 Steps with the few thousand faithful members huddled around the carefully preserved 164 pages of the Big Book. Like other change-resistant cultures such as the Amish or Mennonites, the world would view us as charming, harmless, and irrelevant.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>AA will always have its traditionalists, fundamentalists and its relativists.</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span style="color:hsl(210, 75%, 60%);"><span>14</span></span><span> All three camps will look at stewardship differently. Anonymity means something different to most members with 21st Century dry dates than it does to baby-boomer old-timers. Is a YouTube Recovery channel an anonymity </span><i><span>violation</span></i><span>? Your age and your answer may be related. Spiritual lingo, rituals and what defines </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>outside issues</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> are all subject to review by Generation Next. Answers will be enacted via the spirit of rotation. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span><strong>Worldview Demographics Shifting</strong><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>When </span><i><span>Beyond Belief </span></i><span>first went to print, a survey conducted by Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life (2012) foreshadowed, </span><span lang="EN-US">“‘</span><span>Nones</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span> are on the rise.</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> In America, people who are irreligious had shot from obscurity to 20 percent. Christians were in decline. Religions that were on the rise had deities in some cases, nontheistic in other cases. But they don</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>t use the title, </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>God (as you understand Him).</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> Belief in higher powers has dropped in a decade from over 90 percent to 81.</span><span style="color:hsl(210, 75%, 60%);"><span>15</span></span><span> Between 20 and 30 percent of Americans have no religious affiliation, but some of these unchurched do believe in gods. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>Outside of the U.S., the population of the irreligious grows with every census. New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom report 25 percent or more who do not believe in a higher power/god. Europe ranges widely from one percent to 40, while most countries report declining theistic belief.</span><span style="color:hsl(210, 75%, 60%);"><span>16</span></span><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>In 2021 census reports, non-U.S., mostly English-speaking countries see their Judeo-Christian demographic dropping, from the 90 percent of the praise-be-to-the-glory-of-God days to now, where 36-53 percent hold supernatural beliefs. Of course, it depends on how researchers ask the questions. We find atheist Christians and nonreligious people who pray to gods. One Pew Research report forgoes belief and labels, opting for behaviors and attitudes. </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>About Three-in-Ten U.S. Adults Are Now Religiously Unaffiliated</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> shows that fewer than half pray or view religion as very important.</span><span style="color:hsl(210, 75%, 60%);"><span>17</span></span><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>It turns out that anticipating at least a niche appetite for a secular daily reflection book 10 years ago left us with room to grow. Newcomers are more likely to want recovery community and new coping mechanisms without supernatural talk and rituals. Supporting this more contemporary approach, a growing number of long-time 12 Step regulars are now apostates</span><span lang="EN-US">—</span><span>no longer holding the same worldview or speaking the same theistic language of their early recovery. Others, unapologetically theistic, chose to separate their unshaken devotion from a practical</span><span lang="EN-US">—</span><span>not supernatural</span><span lang="EN-US">—</span><span>recovery practice.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span><strong>Using Pronouns: She/He/They/Them/Me/We/Thou</strong><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>Daily musings in this book are written in the </span><i><span>we </span></i><span>voice. I know</span><span lang="EN-US">—</span><span>only obnoxious people talk this way in meetings. However, this is the customary style used in self-help writing. There are imperfections in the English language that become more pronounced using this we voice. Technically, </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>God of our understanding</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> should be </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>Gods of our understanding.</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> If two people believe in God, the God of one</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>s understanding is a different one than the other</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>s</span><span lang="EN-US">—</span><span>hence, </span><i><span>Gods</span></i><span>. </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>Clearing away the wreckage on our side of the street</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> would be more grammatically correct as </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>our sides of the street</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> but nobody talks that way. </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>Our drug of choice</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> should be </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>our drugs of choice</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> and </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>our inner child</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> should be </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>our inner children</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> to be consistent with the plural </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>our.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>Don</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>t include </span><i><span>me </span></i><span>in your </span><i><span>we</span></i><span>!</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> I relate. Anyone trying to speak for everyone can expect push back. As an editorial turning point, there was no way to both be grammatically correct and avoid sounding awkward. Most daily reflection books use the authorial plural, so </span><i><span>we do too</span></i><span>, despite the ambiguity.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>Our third printing celebrates inclusivity and the ongoing evolution of language. While we won</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>t replace the </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>he</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> or </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>she</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> of classic literature or song lyric that we quote from, we have amended our commentary to them/ they, which I suppose is consistent with </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>we sought,</span><span lang="EN-US">” “</span><span>our addiction,</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> and the trending to plurals. This book aims to include anyone who wants to be part of the community. They/them does not imply any universality of experience or belief. Experience is an individual journey.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>While there was no intention to change the content of </span><i><span>Beyond Belief</span></i><span>, life happens, things change, and we have updated accordingly. In some cases, our source quotes for daily reflections come from literature that has been updated, such as those from Overeaters Anonymous or Workaholics Anonymous, so we quote what is reflected in the most recent pamphlets/sources available. In some cases, the language and science of neurobiology or relevant demographic statistics has been amended since our first publication in 2013; again, we have updated links, statistics, and language to represent the latest data available.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>Each of the 365 pages is a continuation of an ongoing discussion in the rooms. I dare not take ownership of any of these ideas or interpretations. I have been in recovery meetings, pondering the questions of the universe, for so long that I cannot distinguish original thought from ideas drawn from the wisdom of meetings and coffee shops. I have been studying 12 Step books and attending meetings, conferences, Step studies, service meetings, and retreats for over 17,000 24-hour periods. It</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>s safe to say that this book captures neither originality nor expertise. The days reflect lessons learned in and out of the rooms and questions that continue to amuse or perplex me.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>I don</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>t hope for or expect bobble-headed agreement with every thesis, every day. Agree, disagree, be inspired, disturbed, or skeptical. Please treat these pages as part of an ongoing, evolving dialogue. I didn</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>t start this conversation; I joined in. Let</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>s keep it going. We</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>re all in this together.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p>FOOTNOTES…</p><p><span>1 Secular AA, </span><a class="no-pjax" href="https://aasecular.org"><span>https://aasecular.org</span></a><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>2 According to Alcoholics Anonymous Public Information at the General Service Office in 2019, AA has authorized about 500 fellowships/organizations to use the 12 Steps for their own purposes.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>3 </span><i><span>Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age</span></i><span>, 81.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>4 </span><i><span>Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions</span></i><span>, 63<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>5 U.S. Life in Recovery Survey 2013: </span><a class="no-pjax" href="https://facesandvoicesofrecovery.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/22Life-in-Recovery22-Report-on-the-Survey-Findings.pdf"><span>https://facesandvoicesofrecovery.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/22Life-in-Recovery22-Report-on-the-Survey-Findings.pdf</span></a><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>6 UK Life In Recovery Survey 2015 </span><a class="no-pjax" href="https://shura.shu.ac.uk/12200/1/%20FINAL%20UK%20Life%20in%20Recovery%20Survey%202015%20report.pdf"><span>https://shura.shu.ac.uk/12200/1/ FINAL%20UK%20Life%20in%20Recovery%20Survey%202015%20report.pdf</span></a><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>7 Australian Life In Recovery Survey 2015 </span><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.rec-path.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/2015_au_life_in_recovery_survey.pdf"><span>https://www.rec-path.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/2015_au_life_in_recovery_survey.pdf</span></a><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>8 Canadian Centre for Substance Use and Addiction Life in Recovery from Addiction 2017 Survey </span><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.ccsa.ca/sites/default/files/2019-04/CCSA-Life-in-Recovery-from-Addiction-Report-2017-en.pdf"><span>https://www.ccsa.ca/sites/default/files/2019-04/CCSA-Life-in-Recovery-from-Addiction-Report-2017-en.pdf</span></a><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>9 Zemore SE, Kaskutas LA, Mericle A, Hemberg J. Comparison of 12-step groups to mutual help alternatives for AUD in a large, national study: Differences in membership characteristics and group participation, cohesion, and satisfaction. J Subst AbuseTreat. 2017 Feb;73:16-26. doi: 10.1016/j.jsat.2016.10.004. Epub 2016 Oct 6. PMID:28017180; PMCID: PMC5193234.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>10 Narcotics Anonymous, </span><i><span>Living Clean: The Journey Continues</span></i><span>. Van Nuys: NA Word Service, 2012. 55, 56.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>11 </span><a class="no-pjax" href="https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/rebellious-radio/blog/7101399/a-non-alcohoic-trustee-of-the-aa-genereal-service-board-of-great-britain-talk-about-the-2020-membersh"><span>https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/rebellious-radio/blog/7101399/a-non-alcohoic-trustee-of-the-aa-genereal-service-board-of-great-britain-talk-about-the-2020-membersh</span></a><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>12 Arthur S. et al, </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) Recovery Outcome Rates</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span>: AA</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span>s worldwide population in 1991 was 2,047,250. The low point over 20 years was 1,790,169 in 1995 and the high point, 2,215,239 in 2002; Box 4-5-9: The AA population is 1,967,613 @ January 2022 according to </span><i><span>The Seventy-Second Annual Meeting of the General Service Conference of AA </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>A.A. Comes of Age 2.0: Unified in Love and Service 2022</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> Final Report</span></i><span>, p. 107.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>13 </span><a class="no-pjax" href="https://aa-intergroup.org/"><span>https://aa-intergroup.org/</span></a><span> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>14 Kurtz, </span><i><span>Not God: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous</span></i><span>, Note 67: February 6, 1961, letter from Bill W. to Howard E., </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>As time passes our book literature has a tendency to get more and more frozen, a tendency for conversion into something like dogma, a human trait I am afraid we can do little about. We may as well face the fact that AA will always have its fundamentalists, its absolutists, and its relativists.</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>15 </span><a class="no-pjax" href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/393737/belief-god-dips-new-low.aspx"><span>https://news.gallup.com/poll/393737/belief-god-dips-new-low.aspx</span></a><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>16 </span><a class="no-pjax" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_European_Union#References"><span>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_European_Union#References</span></a><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span>17 The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 2012 </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>Nones on the Rise.</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> UPDATED </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>The Global God Divide,</span><span lang="EN-US">”</span><span> Pew 2020 </span><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/07/20/the-global-god-divide/"><span>https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/07/20/the-global-god-divide/</span></a><span> YouGov </span><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span>How Religious are British People</span><span lang="EN-US">” </span><a class="no-pjax" href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/society/articles-reports/2020/12/29/how-religious-are-british-people"><span>https://yougov.co.uk/topics/society/articles-reports/2020/12/29/how-religious-are-british-people</span></a><span> Belief in God declining in Canada </span><a class="no-pjax" href="https://lethbridgenewsnow.com/2020/12/22/u-of-lstudy-belief-in-god-declining-in-canada-but-majority-do-hold-faith/"><span>https://lethbridgenewsnow.com/2020/12/22/u-of-lstudy-belief-in-god-declining-in-canada-but-majority-do-hold-faith/</span></a><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/7179343
2023-03-27T20:59:45-04:00
2024-02-12T19:30:29-05:00
The Secret Bookshelf of Bill W: influences on AA's creator that no one has talked about
<div>
<p><span>THE SECRET BOOKSHELF: Influences on AA’s creator that no one is talking about … until now. </span></p>
<p><span><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/63023/343c8b60cdaacb89c1d4e7b0b455d2ace50e8ef7/original/bill-w-at-wits-end.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_xl justify_center border_" /></span></p>
<p><a class="no-pjax" href="/files/1232110/2023%20APRIL%20Secret%20Book%20Shelves%20of%20Bill%20W" data-link-type="file" data-link-label="2023 APRIL Secret Book Shelves of Bill W"><span style="color:hsl(30,75%,60%);"><strong>Download/read PDF version HERE.</strong></span></a></p>
<p><span>First of all, thank you Bob K; having interviewed Bob on Rebellion Dogs Radio about his historical fiction, </span><i><span>The Secret Diaries of Bill W</span></i><span>., my title does in deed channel the playful intent of looking at the facts, and then succumbing to the temptation of penciling in the blanks with what may have been. Two influential books were all the rage while the book </span><i><span>Alcoholics Anonymous</span></i><span> was being written. These two nonfiction, new thought movement offerings, as far as I can see, are neither credited, or studied in relation to AA: </span><i><span>How to Make Friends and Influence People</span></i><span> buy Dale Carnegie (1936) and </span><i><span>Think and Grow Rich</span></i><span> by Napoleon Hill (1937). </span></p>
<p><span>Was Bill Wilson influenced by these books? If “No,” how could that be? What was on the radio and in the news in New York City and all across America at exactly the time Bill thought, “You know, a book is maybe the way to go, a way to kill two birds with one stone.” A brief review of these bestsellers nails the zeitgeist of the time and, at very least, is suggestive of potential influence on William Wilson’s ambitions and writing style. </span></p>
<p><span>Like everyone, AA’s founder was a complex person with multiple ambitions and influences. Bill Wilson commenced authoring the book in May 1938 and a year later, the book </span><i><span>Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More than One Hundred Men Have Recovered from Alcoholism</span></i><span> was printed and waiting for people to buy it and read it. We know so much more about that era, now. The jury is in; because of William Schaberg’s 2019 </span><i><span>Writing the Big Book: the Creation of AA,</span></i><span> we know about the timeline from conception, putting pen to paper, to the </span><i><span>Big Book</span></i><span>’s first year in print. Shared experiences of many members were included in the book. But a recommended process of maintaining sobriety was conceived by one, the book’s author. We have learned from </span><i><span>Writing the Big Book</span></i><span>, chapters Five and Six, “How it Works” and “Into Action”(the middle of the book)—these two all-about-the-Steps chapters were the last chapters written, completed under the pressure of the eleventh hour. </span></p>
<p><span><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/63023/1b38ff1ef687707a2a1467cbfce98d06c4749c3e/original/img-0094-2.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_s justify_left border_" />“At this most critical and important juncture in the story—for nothing is more central to the book </span><i><span>Alcoholics Anonymous</span></i><span> that the program of recovery outlined in the Twelve Steps—there are unfortunately, no primary documents mentioning the actual writing of the steps. It is an unexpected gap in the otherwise rich archival records that provide a robust and vivid picture of early A.A. history from late 1937 right up until this point in late 1938. … the first writing of the steps wasn’t actually the sudden, inspired event he so frequently reported. Instead, it is possible their creation was a much more judicious and deliberate affair, a process of formulation—whether conscious or unconscious—over weeks of reviewing and contemplating his own experiences while getting sober.”</span><a class="no-pjax" href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><span>[i]</span></a><span> p 440-4</span></p>
<p><span>What books, authors and thinkers influenced the </span><i><span>Big Book</span></i><span>’s creator(s)? Bill Wilson, a person on a mission to heal/help others with alcohol use disorder, what founders were reading, that’s been chronicled, speculated upon and done: religious readings, the Oxford Group influence, Richard Peabody’s </span><i><span>The Common Sense of Drinking</span></i><span>, and from Silkworth.net, “Bill, Bob, and many early A.A.’s read Professor William James’s </span><i><span>The Varieties of Religious Experience</span></i><span> (cited by name in A.A.’s Big Book) and Dr. Carl Gustav Jung’s </span><i><span>Modern Man in Search of a Soul</span></i><span>. Jung was later called a ‘founder’ of A.A. as was William James.”</span><a class="no-pjax" href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title=""><span>[ii]</span></a></p>
<p><span>Okay, that speaks to Bill the man who connected preserving one’s own recovery as being interdependent with helping another sufferer find recovery from addiction. That’s one side of Bill; what about Bill W the capitalist—be a prophet, make a profit—we’re dealing with a man, a mission, a movement and one man’s motivations informed by the American dream. Less than a decade earlier, our hero, this same Bill W had his sites on more heady goals, as we read from </span><i><span>Pass It On</span></i><span>:</span></p>
<p><span>“By 1928, Bill was a star among his wall Street associates. ‘in those days, of course, I was drinking for paranoid reasons. I was drinking to dream greater dreams of power, dreams of domination. Money to me was never a symbol of security. It was the symbol of prestige and power.’ He dreamed of the day when he would sit on prestigious boards of directors. ‘J.P. Morgan and First National Bank were, you know, my heroes.’”</span><a class="no-pjax" href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3" title=""><span>[iii]</span></a></p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/63023/e111856de678b20210fa10f32f890b428de4acd0/original/blog-2023-april.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></p>
<p><i><span>How to Win Friends and Influence People</span></i><a class="no-pjax" href="#_edn4" name="_ednref4" title=""><i><span><strong>[iv]</strong></span></i></a><span>, published in 1937 quickly exploded into an overnight success, eventually selling millions of copies, cementing a fledgling genre of self-help and personal success books. </span><i><span>How to Win Friends and Influence People</span></i><span> was written for a popular audience and Carnegie successfully captured the attention of his target. The book experienced mass consumption and appeared in many popular periodicals, including garnering ten pages in the January 1937 edition of </span><i><span>Readers Digest</span></i><span>.</span></p>
<p><span>Was Bill Wilson influenced by Carnegie? Who wasn’t in AA pioneer’s circle? The Library of Congress (2013) ranked </span><i><span>How to Win Friends and Influence People</span></i><span> as one of the top-ten most influential books in American History. In New York City, this 1936 best-seller “was number eight on the list of ‘Top Checked Outs Of All Time’ by the New York Public Library.</span><a class="no-pjax" href="#_edn5" name="_ednref5" title=""><span>[v]</span></a></p>
<p><span>From Lois Wilson’s records, December 1937, the probable becomes confirmable, thanks to William Schaberg’s research.</span></p>
<p><span>“For his own part, after the intense evening at Rockefeller Center, Bill realized that his presentation skills could use some improvement. Wilson always believed in making a ‘maximum effort’ in everything he undertook, so later that month he and Lois took a Dale Carnegie course together on public speaking.” WTBB p 66</span></p>
<p><span>Napoleon Hill (1883 – 1970)'s thirteen step program (doesn’t that have a ring to it?) set readers on the path to wealth and success. </span><i><span>Think and Grow Rich</span></i><a class="no-pjax" href="#_edn6" name="_ednref6" title=""><i><span><strong>[vi]</strong></span></i></a><span> was touted as revealing money-making secrets proven to work by many of America's most affluent people. “By <strong>thinking</strong> like them, you can <strong>become</strong> like them.” </span></p>
<p><span>Forbes Magazine put Bill Wilson and Napoleon Hill in the same class of influencers of the day—self-help: the new American religion. In the pre-</span><i><span>Think and Grow Rich</span></i><span> years, Hill suffered as Wilson, having success and losing and finding transformation through religious/spiritual experience:</span></p>
<p><span>“A desperate Virginia man named Napoleon Hill was living off relatives, ashamed that he was unable to buy Christmas presents for his children. To battle his depression he would walk at night, trying to get his head straight. What made his dilemma so painful is that Hill had known success before, as a promoter of business extension schools. Hill walked and walked, trying to break out of his depression.</span></p>
<p><span>‘I was thoroughly disgusted with myself, but I entertained a hope of salvation. Then, like a flash of lightning out of a clear sky, an idea burst into my mind with such force that the impulse drove the blood up and down my veins: This is your testing time. You have been reduced to poverty and humiliated in order that you might be forced to discover your other self.’</span></p>
<p><span>Napoleon Hill's other self would eventually write </span><i><span>Think and Grow Rich</span></i><span>, the business and personal motivation classic. It has sold more than 70 million copies since its publication in 1937 and continues to sell robustly today.”</span><a class="no-pjax" href="#_edn7" name="_ednref7" title=""><span>[vii]</span></a></p>
<p><span>The story of Bill and the story of Napoleon is so similar. That doesn’t mean one plagiarized another; it’s the kind of story enough can relate to that it offers hope. It is the hero’s journey, memorable and relatable to those of us who are all here because we’re not all there. </span></p>
<p><span>Here are some quotes from </span><i><span>Think and Grow Rich. </span></i><span>Decide for yourself if any of these ideas may have been the impetus for, or appropriated to become </span><i><span>Alcoholics Anonymous</span></i><span>.</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span>“The starting point of all achievement is DESIRE. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desire brings weak results, just as a small fire makes a small amount of heat.”</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span>“Happiness is found in doing, not merely possessing.”</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span>“No one is ready for a thing, until he believes he can acquire it. The state of mind must be BELIEF, not mere hope or wish. Open-mindedness is essential for belief.”</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span>“The way of success is the way of continuous pursuit of knowledge.”</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span>“I would find out what is wrong with me, and correct it, then I might have a chance to profit by my mistakes and learn something from the experience of others, for I know that there is something </span><i><span>wrong</span></i><span> with me, or I would now be where I would have been if I had spent more time analyzing my weaknesses, and less time building alibis to cover them.”</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span>“I know that a negative attitude toward others can never bring me success. I will cause others to believe in me, because I will believe in them, and in myself.”</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span>“Before success comes in any man’s life, he is sure to meet with much temporary defeat, and, perhaps, some failure. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and most logical thing to do is to quit. That is exactly what the majority of men do. More than five hundred of the most successful men this country has ever known told the author their greatest success came just one step beyond the point at which defeat had overtaken them.’</span></p>
<p><span>I could take any of these quotes and find an AA passage that makes the same point; you could too. It could be a party game in person or online—post a quote and give everyone three minutes to google and record as many AA quotes as they can that reflect the same points. </span></p>
<p><span>The Thirteen Step program has so much that is familiar: desire, faith, persistence, inner resources, imagination, analysis, planning, taking action, these are some of the same themes we know as the Twelve Steps. As Bill W sees it, “A.A. was not invented! Its basics were brought to us through the experience and wisdom of many great friends. We simply borrowed and adapted their ideas.”</span><a class="no-pjax" href="#_edn8" name="_ednref8" title=""><span>[viii]</span></a></p>
<p><span>Dale Carnegie (1888 - 1955) was seven years older than Bill W; he could have been a big-brother figure. I have seen no actual record validating that Bill W and/or other AA pioneers met Napoleon Hill or read his book. Lack of evidence is not proof that it could not have happened, mind you. We do have a record of the pre-Big Book Bill engaging with Carnegie. Like Hill, Carnegie’s how-to book has steps/lists and structure that there is no evidence of in AA before the book </span><i><span>Alcoholics Anonymous</span></i><span> was written. </span></p>
<p><span>Numbered lists such as “Nine Ways to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing resentment,” as “Six Ways to Make People Like You,” are just a tease, but how about, Part Three of his book, “Twelve Ways to Win People to Your Way of Thinking.” Examples of people applying the principles, peer-to-peer capitalism, maybe, Woodrow Wilson, H. G. Wells, Theodore Roosevelt, Charles Schwab and J.D. Rockefeller Jr are a few of the examples that would surely get Bill W’s attention. </span></p>
<p><span>Here are some quotes; start thinking about making a party game out them as we go; we are not a glum lot.</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span>“If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.” </span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span>“Try honestly, to see things from the other man’s point of view.” </span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span>“Dramatize your ideas.” </span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span>“Throw down a challenge.” </span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span>“Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.” </span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span>“Make the faults seem easy to correct.” </span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span>“Never begin by announcing, ‘I am going to prove so and so to you.’ That’s bad. That’s tantamount to saying, ‘I’m smarter than you are. I’m going to tell you a thing or two and make you change your mind.’ That is a challenge. That arouses opposition and makes the listener want to battle with you before you even start.”</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span>“It is difficult, under even the most benign conditions, to change people’s minds. So why make it harder? Why handicap yourself?” </span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span>“If you are going to prove anything, don’t let anybody know it. Do it so subtly, so adroitly, that no one will feel what you are doing. As Alexander Pope once said: Men must be taught as if you taught them not. And thing unknown proposes as things forgot.”</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span>The Boston Transcript once printed this significant doggerel: </span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span>Here lies the body of William Jay,</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span>Who died maintaining his right of way—</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span>He was right, dead right, as he sped along,</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span>But he’s just as dead as if he were wrong.”</span></p>
<p><span>Hmnn, awaiting WWI deployment in London, Bill W recalls, “I wandered through the [Winchester] Cathedral yard, my attention was caught by a doggerel on an old tombstone.” Below is the actual prose, in memory of Grenadier Thomas Thetcher:</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span>Here Sleeps in peace a Hampshire Grenadier</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span>Who caught his death by drinking cold small Beer</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span>Soldiers be wise from his untimely fall</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span>And when ye’re hot drink Strong or none at all</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span>An Honest Soldier never is forgot</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span>Whether he die by Musket or by Pot.”</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/63023/6a61b46ed09384c3123bf75fc88f2d0f98200565/original/image.jpeg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_xl justify_center border_" /></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span>In Wilson’s account, on the same page of Bill’s story, back in America. “The inviting maelstrom of the Street had me in its grip. Business and financial leaders were my heroes.”</span></p>
<p><span>“The Twelve Ways to Win People to Your Way of Thinking,” both reveal the same attempts at persuasion found in </span><i><span>Alcoholics Anonymous</span></i><span>, as well as ideas (Steps) held very close to these twelve points that include: Throwing down a challenge, dramatizing your ideas, begin in a friendly way, appeal to their nobler motives and be sympathetic to their ideas and desires, if you are wrong admit it quickly and emphatically—that all sounds like ideas that author Bill W was channeling while trying to appeal to us and/or incorporating in his step-by-step plan to salvation from addiction. Could our book have been called, </span><i><span>Think and Grow Sober</span></i><span>, or </span><i><span>How to Make Sober Friends and Positively Influence Each Other</span></i><span>? </span></p>
<p><span>Either of these new thought books we talked about here could have been recommended reading at Honor Dealers, Hank Parkhurt’s New Jersey sales office from which Bill Wilson, Jimmy Burwell and maybe other AAs worked. It is the location where much </span><i><span>of Alcoholics Anonymous </span></i><span>was schemed, typed and edited. Bill could have read these books. They were certainly being talked about and enjoyed at the time and in the place where it all happened, appealing to people just like AA members of yore. </span></p>
<p><span>It is a moot point; the salient idea is that the psychology and culture of the day informed—directly or indirectly—the architects of the first book by AA. To the author’s point, no element of Alcoholics Anonymous the movement or the book is unique; everything came from somewhere, borrowed from medicine, religion, psychology and folk wisdom.</span></p>
<p>HEAR <a class="no-pjax" href="https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/rebellious-radio/blog/7171648/the-story-behind-the-secret-diaries-of-bill-w" data-link-type="url">Bob K <span style="color:hsl(30,75%,60%);"><i>The Secret Diaries of Bill W</i> on Rebellion Dogs Radio #72 HERE</span></a></p>
<p>HEAR <a class="no-pjax" href="https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/rebellious-radio/blog/5951069/writing-the-big-book-talking-with-author-william-schaberg" data-link-type="url">William Schaberg, <span style="color:hsl(30,75%,60%);"><i>Writing the Big Book: The Creation of AA</i> #49 HERE</span></a></p>
<div style="mso-element:endnote-list;">
<hr>
<div style="mso-element:endnote;" id="edn1">
<p><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title=""><span>[i]</span></a> Schaberg, William, <i>Writing the Big Book: The Creation of AA</i>, Las Vegas: Central Recovery Press, 2019</p>
<p><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title=""><span>[ii]</span></a> <a class="no-pjax" href="https://silkworth.net/alcoholics-anonymous/the-books-and-materials-early-aas-read/">https://silkworth.net/alcoholics-anonymous/the-books-and-materials-early-aas-read/</a></p>
<p><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3" title=""><span>[iii]</span></a> B., Mel, <i>Pass It On: The Story of Bill Wilson and how the A.A. message reached the world</i>, New York: AA World Services, 1984, p. 81</p>
<p><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ednref4" name="_edn4" title=""><span>[iv]</span></a> Carnegie, Dale, <i>How to Win Friends and Influence People</i>, New York: Simon & &Schuster, 1936</p>
<p><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ednref5" name="_edn5" title=""><span>[v]</span></a> <a class="no-pjax" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influence_People">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influence_People</a></p>
<p><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ednref6" name="_edn6" title=""><span>[vi]</span></a> Hill, Napoleon, Think and Grow Rich, Meriden Conn: The Ralston Society, 1937</p>
<p><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ednref7" name="_edn7" title=""><span>[vii]</span></a> <a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/0411/opinions-rich-karlgaard-innovation-rules-american-religion.html?sh=2001b1117d5bv">https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/0411/opinions-rich-karlgaard-innovation-rules-american-religion.html?sh=2001b1117d5bv</a></p>
<p><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ednref8" name="_edn8" title=""><span>[viii]</span></a> Bill W letter 1966 (AA Archives, General Service Office, New York, NY)</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<br> </div>
</div>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/7165598
2023-03-05T16:53:32-05:00
2023-03-27T20:52:01-04:00
Servitude & Stewardship: Emotional Sobriety and the Twelve Traditions
<p style="text-align:center;"><span>Rebellion Dogs Blog March 2023</span></p><p>Emotional Sobriety, stewardship and service, the Twelve Traditions, what is the connection in the role of finding lasting, meaningful recovery? </p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="/files/1216993/2023%20March%20Blog%20Service%20and%20Sobriety" data-link-type="file" data-link-label="2023 March Blog Service and Sobriety">Download or read as a PDF <span style="color:hsl(30,75%,60%);">HERE</span></a></p><p><span>Inspired am I, by the March 2023 </span><i><span><strong>AA Grapevine</strong></span></i><span><strong>: </strong>“Special Section: GET INTO SERVICE! Chairing sponsoring, being a GSR, joining committees, making coffee and more.” </span><a class="no-pjax" href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><span>[i]</span></a><span> The joy of giving; service of others, without compensation, is not a dull chore—it is the source of quality when it comes to recovery. </span></p><p><span>In the 2020 Great Britain (and Central Europe Region) AA membership survey, people were invited to share about “What aspects of attending AA do you feel have significantly helped your recovery?” Going to meetings, working the 12 Steps, some idea of a higher power, all of these are reported as “significantly helping.” But also over three out of four members who have found recovery also include: </span></p><ol>
<li><span>helping other people</span></li>
<li><span>sponsoring others</span></li>
<li>
<span>having a home group</span><a class="no-pjax" href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title=""><span>[ii]</span></a><span> </span>
</li>
</ol><p><span>We talk a lot about recovery and working “a program” comes up a lot. Within the Twelve Step and Twelve Tradition communities we hear about three legacies. Recovery is one of three vital supports in the same interdependent way a three legged stool is: recovery, unity, service are the three legacies. So, inspired by March’s AA Grapevine article and the emphasis Great Britain members place on service—as well as Twelve Steps and meeting attendance—let’s look at the role that helping others has on healing ourselves.</span></p><p><span><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/63023/a0dc4939d190269d6abd6cb52e74c4dc2b999c01/original/aa-grapevine-2023-march-service.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_xl justify_center border_" /></span></p><p> </p><p><span>I speak of CHIME, In my recovery and others I see: </span></p><ul style="list-style-type:circle;">
<li><span><strong>Connection </strong></span></li>
<li><span><strong>Hope </strong></span></li>
<li><span><strong>Identity </strong></span></li>
<li><span><strong>Meaning</strong></span></li>
<li><span><strong>Empowerment</strong>. </span></li>
</ul><p><span>These five elements are a theme with those who enjoy positive long-term recovery outcome rates. While much of my service work has been in a Twelve Step/Twelve Tradition function, CHIME is a winning formula with everyone I know in recovery, She Recovers, Dharma/Refuge Recovery, LifeRing, SMART Recovery, Women for Sobriety, Celebrate Recovery, and others. </span></p><p><span>Not everyone who gets sober works Twelve Steps (outside of anonymous fellowships or within them). Within what has been widely coined “12-Step Fellowships," some dismiss Step-work and/or do not credit that part of AA, NA, FA, SLAA, Al-Anon etc experience for being the active ingredient for getting sober or adding meaning and joy in their life, today. This isn’t to say that Twelve Step recovery is a hoax or a distraction; Step-work has brought stability and character in my own sobriety. The important thing for me to remember is my experience is not “the” experience. There is no “the” there and I need to respect others’ experiences, some of which I expect would never work for me, just as my path would not be a winning formula for all, either. But outside of the 12&12 (Steps/Traditions) model or within it, I am convinced—based on my personal experience and others who thrive—that emotional sobriety does not come from self-reflection, alone. Many of us must step beyond focus about unmet needs and uncomfortable feelings. Listening to (or helping) others can achieve this. Even the 12-Step model was born of two steps, worked simultaneously: as the creation story goes, Bill W admitted that alcohol posed a clear and present threat to him (honesty); he talked to and listened to Bob S, a fellow sufferer of the same malady (service).</span></p><p><span>Look no further than my own case: service more than self-reflection paved the way to a content life. To whatever extent my life today has value, I didn’t get to the second half of life by any holy rote. I did not finish college. My formal education was piecemeal, courses on economics, finance, risk and underwriting, music conferences, songwriting workshops, creative writing and non-fiction courses, there were plenty of industry, management and leadership training, and community college, courses that offered me formal learning, yes. But I was active in Twelve Step/Twelve Tradition service before I left high school. </span></p><p><span>Some say that everything they needed to learn in life was taught in kindergarten. A lot of what I’ve learned about navigating the game of life has been in AA business meetings, answering AA help-phones, and committee work from conferences to professional outreach. I am not an Addiction Medicine doctor, a treatment program director, or a rock star, but I do sponsored some of them. We are all equals in AA. No one is an expert, and no one is subordinate. I have also helped people in these widely varied professions help their fellows find recovery from addiction. This non-degreed writer you’re reading has dined with royalty, shared a stage, been backstage and had private conversations in green rooms about music, finance and sports </span><i><span>royalty</span></i><span> as well as dinner and conversation with Prince Philip. I don’t feel like a fraud in the company of the famous. I also don’t feel superior or afraid serving the homeless in a soup kitchen, or talking to the fallen in jails and detoxes. </span></p><p><span><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/63023/be0006fefe35dfc849fddbe486498a5a32eb203f/original/mere-addiction.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_m justify_left border_" />This egalitarian attitude is not remarkable in recovery; it’s cliché. The unforgettable story of Episode 41 Rebellion Dogs Radio guest Michael Bryant describes aptitude and ambition leading to Harvard Law School, clerking at the Supreme Court of Canada, getting elected and being appointed the top dog in Ontario’s criminal justice system. His rocky addiction and setback in recovery found him jailed, turning to Sanctuary, a community of social justice and homeless people well know to the AA hospitals and institutions meeting circuit. Michael was reluctantly accepted into the company of the woebegone whose code is “love thy enemy.” Michael became a public defender, at the bottom rung of the criminal justice system of laws he created. Today, Michael is back in Victoria British Columbia, heading up legal aid for the Province. This opposite track to my own comes to the same obvious truth—everyone has the same rights and value. If you haven’t heard the story of Michael Bryant’s journey and book, </span><a class="no-pjax" href="https://amzn.to/3ZuPCmE" data-link-type="url"><span style="color:hsl(30,75%,60%);"><i><span><strong>Mere Addiction</strong></span></i></span></a><span> listen to Episode 41</span><a class="no-pjax" href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><span>[i]</span></a><span> from 2018, aged, but still sporting that new-car smell.</span></p><div style="mso-element:endnote-list;"><div style="mso-element:endnote;" id="edn1"><p><span>Emotional sobriety, facing stress or defeat or doubt, these are skills learned in recovery. And again, there is a time always for more self-reflection, but moving beyond basic self-care and into servitude and stewardship, this is what taught and preserves emotional sobriety. </span></p></div></div><p><span>Some of the chapters of Allen Berger’s </span><i><span>12 Essential Insights for Emotional Sobriety: Getting Your Recovery Unstuck</span></i><a class="no-pjax" href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3" title=""><i><span><strong>[iii]</strong></span></i></a><span> include:</span></p><ul>
<li><span>Discovering Novel Solutions</span></li>
<li><span>Living Life on Life’s Terms</span></li>
<li><span>Holding On to Ourselves in Relationships</span></li>
<li><span>Knowing It’s Not Personal</span></li>
<li><span>Realizing that No One Is Coming</span></li>
<li><span>Breaking the Bonds of Perfection</span></li>
</ul><p><span><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/63023/57fce9e2f5d92c6a947bb545e5d1fc96c5201e6b/original/12-essential-insights-for-emotional-sobriety-final-1-600x900.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_m justify_left border_" />Do I recognize these traits in my life and the lives of others? Yes.</span></p><p><span>How and why? In my case these life-skills were a byproduct of being in the service of others, professionally also, but I learned in AA; I learned it through the Twelve Traditions. Just as the steps of AA traditions are principles that neither Bill Wilson, nor AA as a whole, invented. Personally, I think the Twelve Traditions are far more clever and unique to AA than the common Twelve Steps. But like the steps, principles of the traditions were borrowed—not invented. Necessity was the mother of invention, and the profound vision of Bill W and early AA saw a need to create a chaordic organization; the antithesis of a top-down, command-and-control structure, chaordic is a word suggesting the harmony of both chaos and order. </span></p><p><span lang="EN"><strong>Characteristics of a chaordic organization:</strong> exist primarily to enable their constituent parts; powered from the periphery, unified from the core; durable in purpose and principle, malleable in form and function and equitably distribute power, rights, responsibility, and rewards.</span><a class="no-pjax" href="#_edn4" name="_ednref4" title=""><span lang="EN">[iv]</span></a></p><p><span>Twelve Traditions reconcile chaos and order in balance, enabling all constituent parts, empowering autonomous members and groups that also unify around purpose and principles. Dee Hock, retired CEO of VISA created a buzz around chaordic organizations this century. I walked into the legacy of a 12&12 community in the mid-1970s. The argument that peer-to-peer was born more accurately from Twelve Tradition culture vs. Twelve Step culture is a musing I will gladly make in another blog. But this blog will exemplify that </span><i><span>XA</span></i><span> (all the anonymous 12&12 fellowships) offer:</span></p><ul>
<li><span>Power at the periphery; each member, each group can outreach to the community, offering an “invite a professional open meeting night” as a onetime or periodic way to engage your community, attend or put on a booth at a local health and wellness fair or start your group’s own podcast or blog featuring stories by members.</span></li>
<li><span>Unified from the core: I don’t know about where you live, but if you want to get active in your local intergroup, in a district service committee, a recovery clubhouse or Zoom based meeting, there is no waiting list; there are more jobs than volunteers, so if you want to join an existing committee instead of creating something new, what your looking for to give your life and recovery a more solid foothold, already exists steps away or a few clicks away.</span></li>
<li>
<span>Malleable in form or function: We will hear from members hiding behind the safety of the coffee bar at their home group, helping out within an AA subculture and carrying their message inside institutions. Some of the ways to do service haven’t been invented yet. </span><i><span>Living Sober</span></i><span> says, “There is no prescribed A.A. ‘right’ way or ‘wrong’ way. Each of us uses what is best for [themselves]—without closing the door on other kinds of help we may find valuable at another time. And each of us tries to respect others’ rights to do things differently. (p. 2).” The same is true with service, no matter how introverted or extroverted you are, if you want to find what feels/fits the best or if you want to stretch beyond your comfort zone, you can be doing it later today or tomorrow. Because you can’t get it wrong. The fear that causes procrastination is mostly an illusion. The rest is just the learning curve of life. </span>
</li>
</ul><p><span>Inspired by the </span><i><span>AA Grapevine</span></i><span> March issue on service, I want to remind people that in both my own process, and what I see in these other stories (and many more), I find AA is not </span><i><span>self-help </span></i><span>so much as </span><i><span>mutual aid</span></i><span>, whereby we are independent AND we are not alone, and those in need AND those aiding are equals and interchangeable. I who freely help you today, will need your assistance tomorrow, just as I needed help from another before. </span></p><p><span>Recovery can represent more than abstinence from using mind-altering processes or substances to cope. Recovery is thriving, and peacefulness and usefulness. It is connection, hope, identity, meaning and empowerment. Looking back now I owe my sobriety to being encouraged to get engaged, help others, pitch in, and I have been clean and sober ever since. No one said I had to complete the Twelve Steps to help a newcomer or go with the Public Information committee to a high school to share my story of addiction and early recovery as a student from a school at the other end of town. Getting involved in the Ste Jerome Young People’s Conference (Quebec) came from a nudge, “We can use some help Joe, can you come to our planning meeting?” There was no vetting of home group, sponsor or sobriety date. </span></p><p><span>I was already sober when I worked the Twelve Steps, and a big factor to being sober was the distinction that I was engaged with—not merely attending—AA and NA meetings. Opening up the meeting room, setting up the chairs, making coffee, serving people coffee and saying, “Hi, how are you?”, going with other members to pick up newcomers and taking them to their first meeting, these were foundational in my sobriety. Being engaged in a recovery community, day to day, assuaged the doubt about my own ability to stick it out and slowly, it built character, gave me purpose and meaning. </span></p><p><span>People can and do help other people in their first peer-to-peer meeting. That’s kind of what peer-to-peer means, right? If not enough people are active in your group or mine, are we modeling prosocial behavior and talking about the role of serving others in our meeting as delivering connection, hope, identity, meaning and empowerment (CHIME)? Are we talking about service and how it gets/keeps us sober. If newcomers are like me, they have to get sober before they work the steps and I had to get active before I could stay sober. Are we putting a cart before a confused and unresponsive horse by talking about the Steps, over and over again? </span></p><p><span>Well in </span><i><span>AA Grapevine</span></i><span> this month, they are talking about engaging as one peer to another and relating to how service kept them sober and continues to offers a rewarding and meaningful life. Those brought together in a bond of common suffering do it for free and are richer for it. </span></p><p><span>In “Confession of a spreadsheet-Loving Nerd: She found the service she loves, and it keeps on giving back,” (</span><i><span>AA Grapevine</span></i><span> March 2023):</span></p><p><span>“I had no idea what to say to people …. I soon discovered that if I made the coffee, people would come up to me and start talking. This caused me, if only for an hour a week, to think of other people and not me.”</span></p><p><span>Christine S of Texas recalls, “At six months sober, I was made the literature chair … What this service position did for this self-centered, grandiose, fearful alcoholic was to help me gain some perspective.”</span></p><p><span>As recalled in </span><i><span>Grapevine</span></i><span>, Christine got active outside of her group, became a group rep and found greater meaning, purpose, and identity the further down our inverted triangle of AA service they explored. </span></p><p><span>“When I walked in to my first district meeting and area assembly I felt like maybe, for the first time, I belonged. My whole life I had been trying to hide a secret, a secret I was sure would cause everyone to run away if they knew the truth about me. That secret was that I’m a nerd, a spreadsheet-loving, policies and procedures following nerd. Here was a group of people who were using those kinds of strengths to give back to the Fellowship they loved just as much as I did.”</span></p><p><span>In “Building Bridges: How getting involved with area committees strengthened her awareness of AA unity and inclusiveness,” Diana M from Nevada shares about being a member of an underrepresented population in AA and how moving a muscle can alter our mood:</span></p><p><span>“Becoming involved in this committee has helped me form closer ties and achieve broader awareness of our customs on both sides. … Working together with my Hispanic colleagues opened us up to different perspectives and ideas. I’m certain that we all benefit as we learned more ways of thinking and problem-solving.” </span></p><p><span>From “Here’s What We Do: He was once a drunk and living in his car. Now he’s sober and helps show future health-care professionals what AA is and isn’t:”</span></p><p><span>“Maybe someday one if these future doctors will remember what they have heard and seen at an AA meeting to help one other patient find their way to us. That impression that stands out most to these [medical] students, according to our conversations with them, is the honesty they hear in our sharing. They are awed by AA members sharing their fears and their joys.” Tony S, Pennsylvania </span></p><p><span>And for me over the years, service work, and to the extent that this is done in a 12&12 informed environment, living and learning the Twelve Traditions, has enriched and informed the bio-psycho-social holism of my recovery. The principles of the Traditions help make sense of the principles followed in the Steps. But beyond how service seems to improve recovery outcome rates in my own case and many I have traveled with through the decades, my service journey had made me better at the whole of life. Who I am as a financial advisor, a songwriter, broadcaster, parent, elder caregiver, citizen, athlete, has all been improved by applying the age-old principles learned in Traditions and service. Learning to set my own boundaries, set reasonable expectations, cooperate with the whole of life, is there any one thing that has aided me more in my place in the world than lessons learned from peer-to-peer service? Perspective and wisdom of avoiding being better than, or lesser than, restraint when the urge to express myself impulsively, humility, being curious, these are the result of a process, not something I brought to the game. </span></p><p><span>In, “I Just said Yes,” I am reminded that I am less likely to worry about either myself or my circumstances when I am in the service of others. And service today can reconcile regrets from our past. Cynthia S from Washington’s exposure to grateful women in Seattle prison, inspired better ways of looking at things and assuaged misgivings from her past. </span></p><p><span>“I hit bottom during my kids’ teenage years. Going into juvenile detention centers has been a way of giving back and showing up for teenagers. … I really look forward to returning to in-person meetings when this COVID-19 finally ends!” </span></p><p><span>I have brought the temperature down in the boardroom by reminding management that we ought to place principles before personalities. You know where I learned that. Over ten years I produced and hosted an indie music radio show that went from college radio to the internet, to SiriusXM. Never once did I mention my own name. “This is IndieCan radio,” was an anonymous intro to over 600 episodes because of what I learned in the rooms. I was in the service of emerging musical artists, I wasn’t their leader or teacher. The band name was important, the album name, the venue or music conference or festival name was important. My name was inconsequential. Being a parent, I am not the star of every drama I am involved with. I may only have a supporting role, I may not even be in the credits. But I am there and what I say and do matters so I try to get it right most often. </span></p><p><span>I have read a lot of books, taken a lot of courses and been inspired by so many. But I grew up in a recovery community and my learning is not over. My greatest challenges may not have yet been faced. I do not know what lies ahead. I can hold in my mind “I matter in this world,” and “I will one day be forgotten; my legacy is inconsequential.” Both are true. I talked about the Twelve Traditions, framing 12&12 organizations as chaordic. </span></p><p><span>When invited to think of this idea—harmonizing and utilizing conflict and paradox or holding durable principles and purpose while being flexible in method, self-regulating vs. punitive leadership—does this all sound like a liberal intellectual fantasy? Let’s look at some examples of chaordic systems. Is this not how the universe runs? Chaos and order is the yin/yang of how all of life runs, outside of human made constructs, of course. So thinking about ourselves or our fellowship or community at large as a chaordic structure, that’s nothing new, that’s reverting back to the norm. The alternative, one element and not the other tends towards either nihilism or fascism. I don’t have to tell you, that’s not good. </span></p><p><span>And when I read about chaordic organizations and their possible answer to some of the economic disparity and ecological failures of our 20<sup>th</sup> century top-down, command and control dynamic, I already know what Dee Hock is talking about and how it works. I learned it from people just like me, suffering from addiction and thriving in recovery.</span></p><p><span>Someone in a meeting confronted me, “Joe are you a human being or a human doing?” I went to Adult Children of Alcoholics Anonymous, I went to therapy, all very rewarding but at the end of the day, can’t I be both? I am both. My life, which includes and is informed by my recovery is crafted from service in AA. Some of it is boring—blame life, not AA. Some of it brings a tear to my eye or raps me in awe. I cannot make my AA a repetitive strain disorder, doing the same thing every week, reading the same book over and over at the cost of anything new. If I do not stay curious, I am inclined to default to furious (I can’t be both at the same time)</span><a class="no-pjax" href="#_edn5" name="_ednref5" title=""><span>[v]</span></a><span>. If things are repetitious or predictable, I start fault finding. But in AA service, every new project feels new and not-yet-defined. A lot of my values have been forged or better defined by getting active. My equanimity (emotional sobriety) comes from servitude and stewardship, more so than the (also necessary) inward gazing recovery work. I think we ask newer people to get engaged in service because it’s time to give back; it’s a duty. Maybe. But maybe getting engaged, becoming accountable, feeling useful, for some of us, this has to happen before the lasting recovery comes. </span></p><p><span>If I see people struggling with the Twelve Steps for the first time, maybe a balanced meal of AA would help. Get some nourishment from AA service, too, while we are doing the inward navel gazing and reconciling how to heal our lives. </span></p><p><span>And I find it better to bring others, not push others, into service. Why go to a district meeting without bringing someone new I’m working with. I don’t know what they need? I only know what I have done, so should I not show them all of what I did, including getting engaged, front of stage or in the background. </span></p><p><span>If someone has been through the Step-work and they are suffering now, maybe more of the same would be good; but maybe getting outside of themselves and into the freely given service of others might be the next right thing. Why do we help someone through the Steps and send them to figure out AA service on their own? I don’t know—I’m just asking. </span></p><p><span>There are enough walking </span><i><span>Big Books</span></i><span> to keep that story going. I’m going to try to be more of a walking </span><i><span>Service Manual </span></i><span>as a path towards connection, hope, identity, meaning and empowerment, and away from the sickness of addiction. Servitude in many cases is the expression of gratitude for the helping hand that gave us a second chance at life; but for many others, helping another may be the spark that inspires hope of our own sustainable recovery.</span></p><p>KEEP A COPY of this blog <a class="no-pjax" href="/files/1216993/2023%20March%20Blog%20Service%20and%20Sobriety" data-link-type="file" data-link-label="2023 March Blog Service and Sobriety">Download a PDF <span style="color:hsl(30,75%,60%);">HERE</span></a></p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.aagrapevine.org/magazine" data-link-type="url"><span style="color:hsl(30,75%,60%);">Read/Listen to Grapevine stories free: 90 Cups of Love, Building Bridges and Spreadsheet Nerd :-)</span></a></p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.aagrapevine.org/sample-audio"><span>AA Grapevine Sample Audio</span></a></p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.aagrapevine.org/podcast"><span>AA Grapevine the Podcast</span></a><span> (new ½ hour show every Monday)</span></p><div style="mso-element:endnote-list;">
<div style="mso-element:endnote;" id="edn1"><p><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title=""><span>[i]</span></a> <a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.aagrapevine.org/">https://www.aagrapevine.org/</a> </p></div>
<div style="mso-element:endnote;" id="edn2">
<p><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title=""><span>[ii]</span></a> <a class="no-pjax" href="https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/files/1190680/aa-membership-survey-uk-report-2020.pdf">2020 Great Britain AA Membership Survey Report</a></p>
<p>[iii] <a class="no-pjax" href="https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/rebellious-radio/blog/5522310/mere-addiction-and-the-acid-test-story-rebellion-dogs-radio-41">https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/rebellious-radio/blog/5522310/mere-addiction-and-the-acid-test-story-rebellion-dogs-radio-41</a> </p>
</div>
<div style="mso-element:endnote;" id="edn3"><p><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3" title=""><span>[iv]</span></a> <i>Emotional Sobriety</i> (2021), Dr. Allen Berger <a class="no-pjax" href="https://amzn.to/3ZpwlCU">https://amzn.to/3ZpwlCU</a></p></div>
<div style="mso-element:endnote;" id="edn4"><p><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ednref4" name="_edn4" title=""><span>[v]</span></a> <a class="no-pjax" href="https://chaordic.io/blog/what-is-in-a-name/">https://chaordic.io/blog/what-is-in-a-name/</a></p></div>
<div style="mso-element:endnote;" id="edn5">
<p><a class="no-pjax" href="#_ednref5" name="_edn5" title=""><span>[vi]</span></a> <a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/jerkology/202108/maddiction-addiction-self-righteous-outrage">https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/jerkology/202108/maddiction-addiction-self-righteous-outrage</a></p>
<p> </p>
</div>
</div>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/7147593
2023-02-02T15:01:08-05:00
2023-03-05T16:05:59-05:00
Oh Canada! Census shows diversification - how is AA doing here?
<p><span class="font_large">Oh Canada! Less people do spiritual stuff, like praying or turning to AA for help. </span></p>
<p><a contents="Read/print this February 2023 Blog in PDF" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-blog-2023-february-less-canadians-rely-on-religon-or-aa.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/1212652/rebellion-dogs-blog-2023-february-less-canadians-rely-on-religon-or-aa.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f1c40f;"><strong>Read/print this February 2023 Blog in PDF</strong></span></a></p>
<p>The 2021 Canada census data shows a transitioning diversity in our neighborhood (culturally/racially diverse Canada) and an ever-larger population. This is in sharp contrast to our AA demographics and dwindling membership. USA/Canada 2022 Membership survey results will be posted this spring. Are we doing something wrong? What can be done to change our fortunes? </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/730283dc0834ab92f7ae9179adeeeeb41a72028a/original/2023-feb-blog-12-traditions-2.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.png" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p>Much of my (day job) professional training has to do with people—like any career—but it’s financial planning, markets, risk management, rate of return, sensitivity analysis and I spend more time between the spread sheets than most of you might picture. Personally, I find the economy, markets and people’s nuanced needs and feelings about money as creative as songwriting. Taxes, interest and succession planning, from dreams to reality-checks, adapting, planning for the worst and imagining the best—in as much as I have a 9-to-5 life, welcome to Joe-town. </p>
<p>And (not but), I get that it’s not super fascinating talk at a coffee shop or during most hikes, or a concert, or the game or in blogs like this. So, I talk about other things, most of the time. </p>
<p>But Rebellion Dogs regulars know that sometimes, in addiction and recovery, we visit new data and number crunch. Is there sobering truth to data? Can you drive a car into the future by staring into the rearview mirror? No. But most vehicles have more than one rear view mirror because it is helpful to grasp what’s behind us even though our future is ahead of us. Sometimes it can be lifesaving … looking where we have been, taking inventory and all that. </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>“You are the sky. Everything else – it's just the weather.” ~ Pema Chödrön </strong></p>
<p>I was recently a guest on the<a contents=" I have 12 questions podcast" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.ihave12questions.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f1c40f;"><strong> I have 12 questions podcast</strong></span></a>—with super-fun Amanda P. I just saw this great quote above by the wise Buddhist nun and author; I had to fit it in here somewhere. It says so much but the one place I am going with this is maybe AA is the sky and my existential angst acting out about the numbers is just weather, which will pass and the sky remains. </p>
<p>I don’t write about this to point fingers and fault find, I just think checking the patients vitals is critical healthcare. I care about AA. </p>
<p>Lasting forever is magical thinking, but exiting early from self-inflicted wounds is avoidable. </p>
<p>As lifestyle medicine can help even with those of us predisposed to diabetes, heart attack or cancer, diet and exercise, a willingness to change can extend life. So it is with AA—which is you and I. It falls on us to take inventory, take responsibility and change what needs fixing—pretty AAish stuff. </p>
<p>Rebellion Dogs reviews Pew Research and other census-style data, mostly about worldview trends in the USA, where over ½ of AA members live. We recently reported on Great Britain’s AA Membership Survey 2020. Revealed in the outcome, of those who believe in a higher power, 65% held a secular view of power greater than ourselves, 35% had a religious view (a supernatural, personal higher power). We know skepticism/atheism is on the rise in the USA, but America is still more religious than most developed nations. I was thinking about AA in Canada—what do we believe, eh? Are we somewhat informed by our Euro roots and somewhat influenced by our ten-times-the-population superpower south of our border? </p>
<p>We don’t have AA specific Canadian data about worldview, but we do know if we are growing/declining in membership. So let’s look at some data: </p>
<p> For a time, AA members were growing in Canada. But that was a quarter century ago. </p>
<p style="text-align: center;">January 1, 2022: 86,036 members and 5,074 groups. </p>
<p style="text-align: center;">January 1, 1997: 102,499 members and 5,257 groups. </p>
<p>Our modestly populated yet expansive country had 39,292,000 people in 2022 according to StatsCan, up from 29,910,000, a 31% increase over 1997. More Canadians, more people with alcohol use disorder … but less AA members. </p>
<p>January 1, 2022, 86,036 Canadians were AA members. Canadian AAs max-members peaked at 102,500 in 1997. All these numbers based on Box 4-5-9: GSO News & Notes[i]. </p>
<p><strong>The Latest Canadian demographics </strong></p>
<p>“The 2021 Census provides more detail on the ethnocultural and religious facets of society than ever before. In fact, more than 450 ethnic and cultural origins, 200 places of birth, 100 religions and 450 languages have been included in this census.” </p>
<p>“19.3 million people reported a Christian (Catholics or Protestants religion), or just over half of the Canadian population (53.3%). However, this percentage is down from 67.3% in 2011 and 77.1% in 2001.” </p>
<p>“Approximately 12.6 million people, or <strong>more than one-third of Canada's population, reported having no religious affiliation or having a secular perspective (atheist, agnostic, humanist and other secular identities).</strong> The proportion of this population has more than doubled in 20 years, rising from 16.5% in 2001 to 23.9% in 2011 and to 34.6% in 2021.” </p>
<p>“Understanding the changes in Canada’s religious landscape allows for a better understanding of the country’s cultural and social history, and the diversity of its current population. From a sociological standpoint, the study of the evolution of religion allows for a better understanding of some of the changes modern societies are facing (StatsCan)[ii].” </p>
<p><strong>Oh Canada: 29% have a secular perspective and no religion</strong>. Of the people who associate with a religious identity, there is a lot of small “r” religious in Canada. Half (52%) say that beliefs are very or somewhat important; <strong>19% of self-declared religious people don’t think beliefs are important</strong>.[iii] About a quarter of Canadians overall attend church. And of the religiously affiliated the religious segment that has doubling in size are Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs who would not speak of or pray to “God as we understood Him.” Our deity in male anthropomorphic form of AA's representation would not be their “spiritual—not religious” understanding of <em>Big Book</em> AA. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, south of Canada, The Guardian reports on American shifting landscape in, “Losing Their Religion: Why US Churches are in Decline.” [iv] </p>
<p>“In 1972, 92% of Americans said they were Christian, Pew reported, but by 2070 that number will drop to below 50% – and the number of “religiously unaffiliated” Americans – or ‘nones’ will probably outnumber those adhering to Christianity … While grandparents might have been regular churchgoers, their children would say they believe in God, but not go to church regularly. By the time millennials came round, they had little experience or relationship with churchgoing or religion.”[v] </p>
<p><strong>The goods the godlessness and what I am going to do about it as an AA member. </strong></p>
<p>If our second most popular pamphlet is what we collectively believe, “There is room in A.A. for people of all shades of belief and non-belief (A Newcomer Asks, P-24),” then where is the tapestry of today’s North America described in the AA story? </p>
<p>In our updated literature, will people who believe in a higher power tell us about praying to Shiva, Allah, Mother Nature, Krishna, Vishnu, my own inner resource (of our understanding)? </p>
<p>Will all “He,” “Him,” “Father” references be removed from our dated literature to include Sikh and Islamic faiths that have no gender for Ik Onkar or Allah? “Admitted to Ik Onkar and another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.” </p>
<p>And will half of the stories in the next edition of Alcoholics Anonymous be atheists who candidly refer to humanist power—with no supernatural agency? </p>
<p>Is there a way to write the 12-Steps in one way that represents all members equally, or would a variety of wordings be best? “Here are a variety of the Steps our diverse members have taken which are suggested as a program of recovery…” </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/6c7a62d7eb25a9b30669ef050bfc7ee97a937599/original/coexist.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.png" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p>This future-gazing characterization of AA would be consistent with “room in AA for people of all shades of belief and non-belief.” </p>
<p>According to the 2070 predictions a less theistic AA is already underway. If we proportionally represent AA worldviews maybe, in Canada, AA will stop shrinking towards oblivion and find a balance of maintaining the integrity of our message, while widening our gateway to reflect our inclusive, never exclusive creed. Where are we now as far as diversity in AA approaches? </p>
<p>A.A. tools available: </p>
<ol> <li>
<em>The “God” Word: Agnostics and Atheist in AA</em>[vi] ( P-86 ©2018) </li> <li>
<em>One Big Tent: Atheist and agnostic AA members share their experience, strength and hope</em> ( ©A.A. Grapevine)[vii] </li> <li>A secular, neither religious nor irreligious AA example of recovery,<em> Living Sober</em>[viii] (© A.A. World Services 1975) </li> <li>
<em>Do You Think You’re Different?</em> (P-13 including two agnostic/atheist stories © 1976)[ix] </li> <li>Substantial growth of secular AA meetings in-person and on Zoom including ICSAA (secular AA) conferences and representation at the AA World Convention (see you in Vancouver, 2025) </li>
</ol>
<p>Is this a substantial body of work, woefully inadequate, or how would you describe it? More words on more pages haven’t stemmed the bleeding of Canadian AA membership. </p>
<p>Beyond conference-approved literature, “carrying the message” comes in podcasts—including AA Grapevine’s own, social media hubs for 12-Step talk and a wealth of AA-authored books about secular/practical/humanist approaches to the 12-Steps from traditional publishers and self-publishing. These are all more secular (irreligious) than AA’s primary literature. </p>
<p>Now what about other “more religious members” as Alcoholics Anonymous (Appendix II) refers to non-secular AAs? What about, as the 2021 Canadian census reports, “ethnocultural and religious facets of society … more than 450 ethnic and cultural origins, 200 places of birth, 100 religions and 450 languages,” not all of them dream one day of being our country’s president, as Bill Wilson described all AA members? Could AA be in as many mosques, temples, and other religious/ community environments as we find represented by our meetings in churches? If we met a more ethnically diverse Canada where they live, would that tilt our overtly white bread-looking AA in the direction of the inclusive AA we aim for? And neutral places; my home group is an agnostic/atheist group and we rent space in a university, classroom, a suitable place for members who see the AA transformation as the “educational variety” of sobriety. And Zoom, or other online mediums, this is neutral ground and more suited to proportional representation of members in the meeting. </p>
<p>So there are other ways AA as a whole can understand ourselves better. We are making strides with our latest surveys (Great Britain 2020 and USA/Canada 2022 which we will get the results for this April at our General Service Conference. Here is how some of the questions have been altered from our last 2014 <strong>AA Membership Survey for the 2022 version</strong>: </p>
<p>12. Have you attended an A.A. meeting virtually (online or by phone)? Do you prefer virtual meetings , in-person meetings or both equally? </p>
<p>13. What attributes do you prefer or need in meetings you attend? </p>
<ul> <li>accessibility (such as no stairs, or served by public transit) </li> <li>held in a particular language (please list language) </li> <li>other members similar to me (please describe how) </li> <li>additional characteristics (please describe) </li>
</ul>
<p>14. What is your age? ____ years </p>
<p>15. What best describes you: male, female, prefer to describe </p>
<p>16. Relationship status: Single, never married, married or life partner, divorced, separated, widowed, prefer to describe </p>
<p>17. Racial and ethnic background (Check all that apply) </p>
<ul> <li>Asian </li> <li>Black, or African American </li> <li>Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin </li> <li>Native American, Alaska Native, First Nations, or Indigenous </li> <li>Pacific Islander or Hawaiian Native </li> <li>White, Caucasian, or European American </li> <li>Prefer to describe__________________ </li>
</ul>
<p>So instead of binary answers to gender, race, etc, people are invited to self-identify as they wish. While that presents new challenges for recording and reporting out the data, anything else would be “the tail wagging the dog.” </p>
<p>In the Great Britain survey, we asked members if they believe in a higher power and is that power religious or secular? That’s very helpful; it tells healthcare professionals and the public more about AA; it helps inform our best efforts to meeting member needs. Should we ask the same questions in USA/Canada in our 2025 survey? I say, “Absolutely. The truth will set us free, right?” How could individual beliefs be outside of the mandate of the survey that describes member variety? </p>
<p>I’m not naïve, this is a ticklish issue. Some people (minority opinion) feel we shouldn’t do a membership survey and/or it doesn’t reflect our membership accurately. The Great Britain GSO hired professional data collectors who report that the findings in each question should be accurate of the whole within 2%, 95% of the time. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/10eda7dfc3eea8283051c8340243176f55109756/original/membership-survey-2014.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.png" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="" />What say you? Does the information in the membership survey[x] look like the AA you are attending? What our survey report out rings true for me. Nevertheless, we should listen to the detractors, we respect the minority opinion, and they may have ideas that could make our efforts better. </p>
<p>There are things I am thinking of that my own home group could do to outreach to our more diverse Canadian neighborhood. We could speak with different community and cultural groups; ask them if they know about Alcoholics Anonymous; ask them what they do for members of their community who have a problem with alcohol (and/or other drugs)? Is there anything we could do to help? </p>
<p>This is all within our (Twelve Tradition) parameters for outreach. Public Information, Cooperation with the Professional Community, there are guidelines for how to do this. I have been involved with these committees and there is nothing to discourage groups from making their own strides in these areas. Is your group open to anyone interested in AA or closed to AA members or others who feel they have a problem with alcohol? Even if it’s a closed meeting, could you have an open house, inviting members of the community to your meeting to learn more about AA? This is not promotion and not anti-drinking, it’s public information. </p>
<p>I am in discussion with our Area 83 committee about the membership survey, what they’ve done in Great Britain and Central Europe (English-speaking groups). I hope our area can talk about the 2022 and the next membership survey and why asking about member’s worldview could help us help each other and better accommodate the newcomer’s needs. </p>
<p><strong>Request to include questions about member beliefs and service in AA shot down before. </strong></p>
<p>Leading up to the 2017 membership survey, asking our members about what we believe and what keeps us sober has come up before. It got kiboshed. </p>
<p><strong>From the 2017 67th General Service Conference Final Report: </strong></p>
<p>2017 Membership Survey—In July [2016] a subcommittee was appointed to review the timing and process of conducting the AA Membership survey and to review the Membership Survey Questionnaire and discussed three requests to add to the survey: </p>
<ol> <li>A suggestion to a add a question(s) regarding the belief or non-belief of the member in a “Higher Power.” </li> <li>A suggestion to add a question(s) to determine the member’s participation in ‘service beyond the A.A. group.’ </li> <li>A suggestion for the trustees’ 2014 Membership Survey subcommittee to consider asking the primary language of the members filling out the questionnaire. </li>
</ol>
<p>After extensive discussion, the committee took no action regarding these member requests, noting the subjective nature of the ‘Higher Power; and ‘service beyond the home group’ questions sand determining that the requesting ‘primary language’ information was beyond the historical scope of the Survey. The committee also agreed to table to the committee’s subsequent meeting a request from Area 79 British Columbia/Yukon, to consider changing the gender question on the AA Membership Survey to allow for a better reflection of the diversity of our membership. </p>
<p>The committee agreed to forward the final report to the Conference Public Information committee, who took no action on the subcommittee’s recommendation that an AA Membership Survey be conducted in 2017. </p>
<p><strong>A brief overview of how the General Conference process takes place: </strong></p>
<p>I’ve never been a trustee, a delegate or attended a General Service Conference. I have been granted permission to conduct research at GSO Archives and the Greater Toronto Area Intergroup archives to view and take notes on minutes from committees like the ones mentioned above. </p>
<p>My “Cole’s Notes” of the General Service Conference is this: There is a trustees’ committee (for Public Information, Literature, Treatment/Hospitals and Institutions, AA Grapevine, Cooperation with the Professional Community, the AA Convention, Archives, etc.) that meets four times a year. Likely, the committee members work and communicate between these meetings. These trustees’ conference committees sometimes appoint a subcommittee for a particular conference action/item; the triennial membership survey is an example of one of these subcommittees. </p>
<p>The conference (the voice of AA as a whole) meets once a year in April for a week. The trustees committee offers a report, findings, and suggestions to the Conference Committee (eg: the trustees’ Public Information committee). The Conference Committee, having reviewed the trustees’ report, either (i) makes a recommendation to the whole conference to proceed on an action, (ii) sends the matter back to trustees’ committee for more work/clarification, or (iii) choose to not take any action (whereby the conference is not asked to vote on the matter). </p>
<p>There are more exceptions and nuances, details of which that the typical reader would prefer that I do not get too far into the weeds about. I’m trying to give some chronology on what the issues and process were leading up to the 2017 survey, how suggestions and concerns were heard and how and why these suggestions were set aside and more dramatically, why the succession of triennial surveys was discontinued and by whom. So the trustees’ committee dismissed the god/no God questions, the Conference committee decided against recommending a 2017 membership survey. </p>
<p>Without looking at minutes, who knows what mitigating circumstances there were, other pressing issues, personal biases, etc. I can only report based on what I have seen. </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/03eeb887fe12f0eac18bdddd47e74a441bcaf523/original/aa-world-service-illustrated.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.png" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p>Of note, while the USA/Canada trustees committee felt that worldview and AA service were too touchy to ask about, this is exactly what the 2020 Great Britain General Service decided was relevant and helpful. A different committee, different geographic area, and slightly different timing. </p>
<p>If readers from USA/Canada feels that they would like to know what your fellow members believe and/or what role service plays in member’s sobriety, I can tell you the best approach: Ensure that your views are wishes are expressed to the conference. Here’s a playbook for how this works best… </p>
<p><strong>How The “God” Word became conference approved in English, Spanish, and French.</strong> </p>
<p><a contents="PDF, how we got here " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.rebelliondogspublishing.com/blog/blog/4614979/the-god-word-and-the-april-2017-general-service-conference" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f1c40f;">PDF, how we got here </span></a></p>
<p><a contents="Episode 29 Rebellion Dogs Radio “how to do it”https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/rebellious-radio/blog/4610783/rebellion-dogs-radio-29-the_god_word-and-aa-history " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/rebellious-radio/blog/4610783/rebellion-dogs-radio-29-the_god_word-and-aa-history" target="_blank">Episode 29 Rebellion Dogs Radio “how to do it” <span style="color:#f1c40f;">https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/rebellious-radio/blog/4610783/rebellion-dogs-radio-29-the_god_word-and-aa-history </span></a></p>
<p>The above audio (Rebellion Dogs Radio #29) and PDF (March 2017 blog) outline the organic, grassroots way the British conference approved agnostic/atheist pamphlet was adopted by USA/Canada General Service Conference and AA World Services. What is noteworthy, since 1975, eleven times the conference was asked to consider a collection of stories of AA atheists and agnostics in pamphlet form and for ten or eleven different reasons (that we have documented in previous blogs) the conference did not provide what was asked for. Why was this 2017 effort different? </p>
<p>It was a different time, that’s part of it. But maybe the game changing factor was that agnostics and atheists USA and Canada groups brought our desire to have this British pamphlet adopted and amended for use on this side of the Atlantic. We told our story of feeling unheard and how this pamphlet would be validating. We showed how this follows a precedent when in 1980 <em>A Newcomer Asks </em>was brought from England and transformed into conference approved GSO literature. Districts voted to ask the conference to provide us with this new literature. The districts brought their motion to their Area where it was discussed and voted on. Several Areas were sending delegates to conference with the Area’s substantial unanimity to have this wish realized. At the General Service Conference, with limited dissension, well over 2/3 needed voted in favor of adopting <em>The “God” Word: Agnostics and Atheists in AA</em>. </p>
<p>Maybe this membership survey is not your thing. But this is how conference works and maybe when something you think would make AA better, you can be part of a team that makes it so. Any member can write to or call the committees of the General Service Office to express a concern or interest. But when it starts with the group and the group agrees, and their group rep brings it up with the district and they vote and agree, then bring it up at the area where 600 – 1200 groups find substantial unanimity, that’s more persuasive than one member’s letter or phone call. </p>
<p><strong>To review… </strong></p>
<p>So in Canada, AA has been shrinking in members for 25 years, now. Most members today, never knew AA at the peak. Is this an existential threat to AA? Yes; while AA is never on a membership drive, a shrinking fellowship, over 25 years, is not promising. Especially when contrasting our shrinking membership to the country just outside our groups doors or Zoom room, that is more than 30% bigger today than in 1997 when Canada’s AA glory days drew to a close. In a growing country our subculture is diminishing and to many, that looks and feels serious. </p>
<p>The steps we are collectively taking, and what we have been doing as individuals, are not stemming the shrinking membership. What will the 80,000+ members in Canada do to better prepare AA for newcomers for this century? Let us do what we can, help each other, work together, and see how it goes. </p>
<p>From a smattering of demand, Rebellion Dogs caves from our "Fun - we're not hear to have no stinking fun!" stance and we are goofing around with merch. And, actually, it's been fun. <strong>"Rebellion dogs our every sip at first"</strong> is our introduction to <em>Beyond Belief</em> Drink, Drink, Drinkware. If you have any coffee mug ideas, we aim to please. Tell us what you're thinking. <strong><a contents="Have a look HERE" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://rebellion-dogs.creator-spring.com/Drinkware" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;">Have a look HERE</span></a></strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p>[i] <a contents="https://www.aa.org/box-459" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/box-459" target="_blank">https://www.aa.org/box-459</a> </p>
<p>[ii] <a contents="https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2021/rt-td/ethno-religion-eng.cfm" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2021/rt-td/ethno-religion-eng.cfm" target="_blank">https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2021/rt-td/ethno-religion-eng.cfm</a> </p>
<p>[iii] <a contents="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-627-m/11-627-m2021079-eng.htm" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-627-m/11-627-m2021079-eng.htm" target="_blank">https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-627-m/11-627-m2021079-eng.htm</a> </p>
<p>[iv] <a contents="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/22/us-churches-closing-religion-covid-christianity?utm_source=pocket-newtab " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/22/us-churches-closing-religion-covid-christianity?utm_source=pocket-newtab" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/22/us-churches-closing-religion-covid-christianity?utm_source=pocket-newtab </a></p>
<p>[v] <a contents="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/22/us-churches-closing-religion-covid-christianity" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/22/us-churches-closing-religion-covid-christianity" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/22/us-churches-closing-religion-covid-christianity</a></p>
<p>[vi] <a contents="https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/literature/assets/p-86_theGodWord.pdf" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/literature/assets/p-86_theGodWord.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/literature/assets/p-86_theGodWord.pdf</a> </p>
<p>[vii] <a contents="One Big Tent Atheist and Agnostic AA members share ESH (Grapevine book)" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://amzn.to/3l1UgZX" target="_blank">One Big Tent Atheist and Agnostic AA members share ESH (Grapevine book)</a></p>
<p>[viii] <a contents="LIVING SOBER 1975 AA World Services" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://amzn.to/3WWBErw" target="_blank">LIVING SOBER 1975 AA World Services</a></p>
<p>[ix] <a contents="Do You Think You're Different? AA litereature" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/literature/p-13_en_0222.pdf" target="_blank">Do You Think You're Different? AA litereature</a></p>
<p>[x] <a contents="AA Membership Survey (USA/Canada)" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/literature/assets/p-48_membershipsurvey.pdf" target="_blank">AA Membership Survey (USA/Canada)</a></p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/7128165
2022-12-24T17:23:12-05:00
2023-01-25T17:52:18-05:00
January 2023 - what are the (scientific) odds of getting and staying sober?
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font_large">Can we end of pessimism in 2023? </span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font_large">Expectations lag behind outcome rates of recovery from addiction </span></p>
<p><a contents="PRINT or READ a PDF copy" data-link-label="2023-january-rebellion-dogs-blog-what-are-the-chances.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/1206705/2023-january-rebellion-dogs-blog-what-are-the-chances.pdf" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/5171f25adfea1e1b70672c11b983cc8829e74cce/original/2023-january-blog-what-are-the-chances.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="" /></a></p>
<p><strong><a contents="PRINT or READ a PDF copy" data-link-label="2023-january-rebellion-dogs-blog-what-are-the-chances.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/1206705/2023-january-rebellion-dogs-blog-what-are-the-chances.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f1c40f;">PRINT or READ a PDF copy</span></a></strong></p>
<p>Shake any family tree and one or two drunks fall out of it; that said, this blog is of general interest to all. Who has never directly or indirectly been impacted by alcohol (and other drug) use disorder? Reporting today, we think, will be of particular interest to the ranks of the “sober-curious”—if you are struggling with alcohol (or other drug) use and thinking about recovery. Do you care about someone suffering from addiction? Are you in healthcare? This blog’s for you! We will address a key question: What are the chances of someone with a problem flourishing in sobriety? </p>
<p>Scientific data is available, for both people considering recovery from substance use disorder and those of us around along time who have depended on folk-wisdom and anecdotal evidence about the odds of recovery.</p>
<p>According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention:</p>
<ul> <li>140,000 people per year (USA) die from excessive alcohol use.</li> <li>Another 92,000 more deaths are attributed to other drugs, annually.[i]</li>
</ul>
<p>We will cover what life in recovery looks like—what do you gain, what do you give up—in other blogs in 2023,but right now, what does science reveal about your odds of getting and staying sober? </p>
<p>There is a wealth of science—not just “marketing material” from this rehab or that inpatient treatment programs that compete for public and private healthcare dollars--but peer reviewed randomized controlled trials that provide unbiased reporting. </p>
<p>A researcher from The Recovery Research Institute and a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School shared in 2021 what the findings reveal from hundreds of studies about addiction and recovery tested over several decades: </p>
<p>“Addiction is a highly treatable disorder from which the majority of people eventually recover. And our recent study shows that in spite of numerous legal and social barriers, most individuals in addiction recovery go on to rejoin society and contribute to it in numerous meaningful ways.”[ii] </p>
<p>Why are people skeptical or pessimistic about a claim that most people who seek recovery, find it? Numbers: what is the likelihood, in percentages, of achieving recovery from alcohol and other drug use disorders and how many attempts will it take to find lasting sobriety? This is what this blog is looking at—scientifically arrived at outcome rates based on randomized, controlled clinical trials. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/392c346e4834b978e209355a50440f71ac242d32/original/best-and-kelly-calgary-2022-reb-dogs-blog-jan-2023.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="David Best, Professor of Addiction Recovery, Leeds U, John Kelly, Professor Addiction Medicine, Harvard U @ Recovery Capital Conference 2022 " /> <a contents="Professor of Addiction Recovery at Leeds University, David Best" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-best-405185114/?originalSubdomain=uk" target="_blank">Professor of<strong> Addiction Recovery at Leeds University</strong>,<span style="color:#f1c40f;"><strong> David Best</strong></span></a> is seen above, at the <a contents="Recovery Capital Conference of Canada" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://recoverycapitalconference.com/" target="_blank"><strong><span style="color:#f39c12;">Recovery Capital Conference of Canada</span></strong></a> in Calgary, April 2022, talking with Professor <a contents="John Kelly, Addiction Medicine, Harvard U" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/johnfkelly/home" target="_blank"><strong><span style="color:#f1c40f;">John Kelly, Addiction Medicine, Harvard U</span></strong></a> between sessions. Let me share a story Professor Best shared with healthcare workers and treatment professionals. After one of many longitudinal studies done with patients from rehabs and treatment centres in the UK, Australia and the USA, having compiled the research data and findings, and returning to these facilities to share the recovery outcome results with the professionals in these centres, Best first asked the professionals in addiction treatment, “What percent of your patients/clients do you think find stable, quality recovery?” </p>
<p>These professionals wrote down their educated guesses and/or empirical observations, the answers were given and tallied and averaged out. The expectation of professionals delivering addiction recovery services to those in need, their average guess of who would make it was 7%. </p>
<p>That's not even in the ballpark. Based on exhaustive reviews of the papers and studies available, the Cochrane Library Database Systematic Review average recovery over addiction outcomes was 58%. In another USA study by William White et al recovery success was just over 50%. </p>
<p>That’s quite a disconnect: over half of the patients treated in these facilities that formed part of results that David Best and his colleagues found in collecting data succeeded, while the healthcare professionals who helped us find recovery were pessimistic about our chances. This pessimism is widespread, and the objective data supports a reason to expect better outcome rates. Early this century, misinterpreted statistics compiled within Alcoholics Anonymous became misinformation repeated among media outlets and among gatherings of healthcare workers. What was widel said is that AA (being the only example talked about) had a 5 to 10% success rate. That's no greater than spontaneous recovery, people who just stop with no help from healthcare providers or mutual-aid groups. So what do today’s findings say about it? </p>
<p>The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction team up with Stanford and Harvard University in the USA for a systematic review of randomized controlled trials of AA, Twelve Step Facilitation along with comparisons to clinical interventions such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Motivational Enhancement Therapy. There were 27 studies that met the strict scientific criteria and this data included over 10,000 subjects. The review concluded: </p>
<p>“Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Twelve Step Facilitation (TSF) interventions produce similar benefits to other treatments on all drinking-related outcomes except for continuous abstinence and remission, where AA/TSF is superior. AA/TSF also reduces healthcare costs. Clinically implementing one of these proven manualized AA/TSF interventions is likely to enhance outcomes for individuals with [alcohol and other drugs] while producing health economic benefits.”[iii] </p>
<p>So, we are a little better than 50% likely to find permanent, sustainable recovery from a previous diagnosis of alcohol (or other drug) use disorder; is that a half full or half empty glass? It is certainly way better than a 7% chance at recovery. Some of these studies demonstrate that a holistic approach is more favorable than a single intervention. In one study, 466 people diagnosed with alcohol use disorder were invited to choose one of four pathways (Timko, 2000): </p>
<ol> <li>No intervention at all, </li> <li>AA only, </li> <li>Treatment center only, </li> <li>both AA and treatment. </li>
</ol>
<p>Of course there are alternatives to AA in the mutual-aid world: She Recovery, Dharma Recovery, SMART Recovery, Life Ring, Narcotics, Marijuana and Cocaine Anonymous + others). What makes AA ubiquitous in clinical trials is it is almost everywhere: trials taking place in multiple cities or countries can find AA in various languages and communities and online.</p>
<p>But as for the people diagnosed with moderate or severe alcohol use disorder, everyone in the four groups showed improvement in the first year. But at three-year and eight-year follow ups, “Individuals who received some type of help—AA, formal treatment, or both—were more likely to be abstinent at 8 year follow ups, compared to untreated individuals.</p>
<p>Two different success criteria were used, reflecting multiple pathways. Recovery does not always mean total, uninterrupted abstinence. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) defines a maladaptive pattern of substance use leading to clinically significant impairment or distress, as manifested by at least two [of eleven] criteria, occurring within a 12-month period.”[iv] </p>
<p>With abstinence as the success criteria, eight years after entering the clinical trial: </p>
<ul> <li>58% of participants that did both treatment and AA were sober, </li> <li>49% of AA without treatment were sober, </li> <li>46% of treatment and no AA were sober. </li>
</ul>
<p><strong>But what is sober? </strong></p>
<p>What is success? For some, any relapse is a time to start counting days again and analyze what went wrong. But what about non-abstinence recovery. I’m a straight edge, no mind-altering chemicals/substances abstainer. But not all healthcare workers are as concerned about my strict rule of continuous sobriety. My way isn’t the only way. Following the medical model of disease, remission from symptoms is successful--less cancer is good cancer treatment, less asthma is good asthma treatment. Above are the abstinence results from being previously diagnosed as moderate or severe alcohol use disorder (AUD). According to the DSM-5, two or three out of the criteria is mild AUD; four or five would be moderate; six or more is severe AUD.</p>
<p>So in our next set of numbers from the same trial, anyone who had remission (answering “yes” to two less criterion), are all considered successful outcome rates. Let’s look at these eleven criteria: </p>
<ol> <li>Alcohol is often taken in larger amounts or over a longer period than was intended. [I meant to have one or just a couple and then woke up from a blackout not knowing what day it was] </li> <li>There is a persistent desire or unsuccessful efforts to cut down or control alcohol use. </li> <li>A great deal of time is spent on activities necessary to obtain alcohol, use alcohol, or recover from its effects. [I don’t have time to address my drinking problems but look at all the time I spend thinking about, getting, hiding, planning drinking] </li> <li>Craving, or a strong desire or urge to use alcohol. [sometimes when I’m not drinking, I think about or want to be drinking] </li> <li>Recurrent alcohol use results in a failure to fulfill major role obligations at work, school, or home. </li> <li>Continued alcohol use despite having persistent or recurrent social or interpersonal problems caused or exacerbated by the effects of alcohol. [how has drinking impacted people I love and informed the circle of friends I now choose?] </li> <li>Important social, occupational, or recreational activities are given up or reduced because of alcohol use. </li> <li>Recurrent alcohol use in situations in which it is physically hazardous. [Are you drinking in risky settings, or doing risky things while drinking?] </li> <li>Alcohol use is continued despite knowledge of having a persistent or recurrent physical or psychological problem that is likely to have been caused or exacerbated by alcohol. [I know I have a problem, but I don’t know what to do] </li> <li>Tolerance, as defined by either of the following: a need for markedly increased amounts of alcohol to achieve intoxication or desired effect, or a markedly diminished effect with continued use of the same amount of alcohol. [a few drinks took the edge off, now I need more] </li> <li>Withdrawal, as manifested by either of the following: the characteristic withdrawal syndrome for alcohol, (or a closely related substance, such as a benzodiazepine) is taken to relieve or avoid alcohol withdrawal symptoms. </li>
</ol>
<p>Of the 644 who entered the study everyone sober + everyone who met only one or two of the above criteria, eight years after starting their recovery journey, here are the results: </p>
<ul> <li>62% efficacy for AA alone, </li> <li>55% efficacy for addiction treatment alone, </li> <li>63% of those who did both showed efficacy. </li>
</ul>
<p>The National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIH) notes that alcohol and other drug remission rates are better than treatment for other chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and asthma. After all these years in recovery and in the company of fellow travelers in recovery, I wish I could tell you one way that worked for everyone who needed or wanted it. One person’s cure is another’s poison. We can compare outcome rates but there is no “one pill” solution. </p>
<p>Odds are improved (you can improve your chances) by loading up on different models. As we see above, people who do two or more things (peer-to-peer support + formal treatment), do better than those who do one or the other. Surveys of people in recovery (USA 2013, UK 2015, Canada 2017) identify at least 18 types of things that people have done to get and stay sober, including detox, psychotherapy, medically assisted treatment, mutual aid (12-step and other), residential treatment, out-patient care, aftercare or other group therapy with a facilitator, religious/spiritual practices, podcasts, social media and smartphone apps, health and nutrition, etc. The average number of resources/aids utilized by everyone in the studies was six, with mutual-aid, counseling, rehab and detox being at or near the top of the list that included everything from better housing, pet-therapy, harm reduction and charity work. </p>
<p>Having "wise friends and mentors" as Refuge Recovery calls it, also improves your chances of maintaining your bottom-line behavior. In David Best's 2019 <a contents="Pathways to Recovery and Desistance: the social contagion of hope" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://amzn.to/3C1eM2p" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f1c40f;"><em>Pathways to Recovery and Desistance: the social contagion of hope</em></span></a>, we see that, "Compared to standard aftercare, those who added at least one non-drinking members to their social network, showed a 27% increase at 12 months post-treatment in the likelihood of treatment success."</p>
<p>What do you need to benefit; where should you start? See what’s available; commit to several new activities including professional counseling and peer support groups. Get medical advice. Do you need medical detox or ran inpatient addiction treatment center? The more severe the addiction, the more intrusive the intervention should be. Go all in or start with a couple of helpful approaches and only add more if it isn't working. It’s not unusual to feel uncomfortable or wonder how these interventions will help in the short or long-term but stay with them, see how your attitude and hope changes after multiple sessions; in the spirit of John Lennon, "All we are saying, is give recovery a chance."</p>
<p>Another big question for people with addiction and those who care about us is, “Will there be relapse?” There is some data on that as well from Stats News (2021): </p>
<p> “The average number of attempts before success is five, though the median number is just two, meaning that a small number of outliers — usually individuals with the greatest addiction severity and other concomitant mental health issues — who need five-plus attempts, inflate the numbers, making them look worse than they are.”[v] </p>
<p>23 Million+ people in the USA alone are in recovery from alcohol and other drug use problems. Sobriety is not a lonely street in Loserville. But take the first step(s). Reach out to your healthcare professionals and talk to them about you read here and why. Visit <a contents="Rebellion Dogs Publishing links page " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/recovery-links" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f1c40f;"><strong>Rebellion Dogs Publishing links page</strong></span> </a>for podcasts, communities, links, blogs and support. </p>
<p>If you know you have a problem and you want to quit, if you’re just trying a Dry-January campaign, the odds are good. </p>
<p>[i] <a contents="https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/features/excessive-alcohol-deaths.html" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/features/excessive-alcohol-deaths.html" target="_blank">https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/features/excessive-alcohol-deaths.html</a> </p>
<p>[ii] <a contents="https://www.statnews.com/2021/05/03/people-recover-from-addiction-they-also-go-on-to-do-good-things/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.statnews.com/2021/05/03/people-recover-from-addiction-they-also-go-on-to-do-good-things/" target="_blank">https://www.statnews.com/2021/05/03/people-recover-from-addiction-they-also-go-on-to-do-good-things/</a> </p>
<p>[iii] <a contents="https://academic.oup.com/alcalc/article/55/6/641/5867689?login=false" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://academic.oup.com/alcalc/article/55/6/641/5867689?login=false" target="_blank">https://academic.oup.com/alcalc/article/55/6/641/5867689?login=false</a> </p>
<p>[iv] <a contents="https://www.arkbh.com/alcohol/alcohol-use-disorder/dsm-5/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.arkbh.com/alcohol/alcohol-use-disorder/dsm-5/" target="_blank">https://www.arkbh.com/alcohol/alcohol-use-disorder/dsm-5/</a> </p>
<p>[v] <a contents="People recover from addiction. They also go on to do good things - STAT (statnews.com)" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.statnews.com/2021/05/03/people-recover-from-addiction-they-also-go-on-to-do-good-things/" target="_blank">People recover from addiction. They also go on to do good things - STAT (statnews.com)</a></p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/7113511
2022-11-29T23:37:02-05:00
2022-12-23T11:39:50-05:00
Remembering John Lauritsen: A Freethinker in Alcoholics Anonymous
<p>Read/download the <a contents="PDF version of this blog, Remembering John Lauritsen: A Freethinker in AA" data-link-label="2022 December blog Rebellion Dogs Remembers John Lauritsen" data-link-type="file" href="/files/1203033/2022%20December%20blog%20Rebellion%20Dogs%20Remembers%20John%20Lauritsen" target="_blank">PDF version of this blog, Remembering John Lauritsen: A Freethinker in AA</a></p>
<p>Professionals, and hopefully more people in recovery from substance use disorder, are discovering or re-discovering the practical lived experience offered in AA’s “little book,” <em>Living Sober</em>. One non-alcoholic who has systematically studied AA members and outcome rates, as much or more than anyone, would be Dr. John F. Kelly. Dr Kelly is professor of Psychiatry in Addiction, Harvard Medical School: </p>
<p>“The way that AA has been shown to work in scientific studies is more aligned with the experiences reported by its own larger and more diverse membership as detailed in its later social, cognitive and behaviorally oriented publications such as <em>Living Sober</em> (written when AA had more than a million members[i], about half of whom had at least five years of continuous sobriety) than with its quasi-religious/spiritually oriented ‘<em>Big Book</em>’ based on the experience of fewer than 100, very severe, nearly all male individuals –most with very short-term sobriety.” </p>
<p><span class="font_large">From Living Sober: </span></p>
<p><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://amzn.to/3XGRurQ" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/524eafc4a602a9e123bfa972b7430068bca3eb6b/original/living-sober.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></a>On personalizing AA recovery (Chapter 1)… “The point is, there is no prescribed A.A. ‘right’ way or ‘wrong’ way. Each of us uses what is best… without closing the door to other kinds of help we may find valuable at another time. And each of us tries to respect others’ rights to do things differently. </p>
<p>Sometimes, an A.A. member will talk about taking the various parts of the program in cafeteria style—selecting what [they like] and letting alone what [they do] not want. Maybe others will come along and puck up the unwanted parts—or maybe that member will go back later and take some of the ideas [they] previously rejected.” </p>
<p>On changing our old drinking routine (Chapter 8)… “Certain set times, familiar places and regular activities associated with drinking have been woven closely into the fabric of our lives. Like fatigue, hunger, loneliness, anger, and overreaction, these old routines can prove to be traps dangerous to our sobriety. </p>
<p>When we first stopped drinking, many of us found it useful to look back at the habits surrounding our drinking and, whenever possible to change a lot of the small things connected with drinking.” </p>
<p>On relapse (Chapter 31)… “Try to remember that alcoholism is an extremely serious human condition, and that relapses are as possible in this ailment as in others. Recovery can still follow. </p>
<p>Even after setbacks, if you continue to want to get well, and remain willing to try innovative approaches, our experience convinces us that you have embarked with hundreds of thousands of companions on the path of happy, healthy destiny. We hope to see you among us.” </p>
<p>Anne Fletcher speaks and writes about life and lifestyle challenges. Her highly regarded body of work includes two about addiction and recovery: <a contents="Sober for Good" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://amzn.to/3ASjAXe" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;"><em><strong>Sober for Good</strong></em></span></a>, interviewing people in recovery, and <a contents="Inside Rehab" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://amzn.to/3VqpY0k" target="_blank"><strong><em><span style="color:#f39c12;">Inside Rehab</span></em></strong></a>, researching fifteen programs from skid row to Malibu celebrity treatment centers. In 2019 she authored an article about AA’s 1975 Living Sober with an effort to end this book being such a well-kept secret in recovery from addiction. She interviews John L about <em>Living Sober</em> who is almost certainly John Lauritsen, author of <em>A Freethinker in Alcoholics Anonymous </em>(2014). Her 2019 commentary is worth a look (or a second look) and is called: “<em>Living Sober</em>—The Little Big Book That You May Not Know About.”[ii] </p>
<p>This blog is a tribute to John L, mentioned above, who died March 5th, 2022, unexpectedly and in good health, exactly 83 years from the day he was born. John (like his namesake John Kelly, quoted above) was a Harvard graduate market research executive and analyst. In a memorial, <em>The Defendant</em> quotes John Lauritsen: </p>
<p>“I have spoken out when people with common sense kept their mouth shut. I have exposed fraud, punctured group fantasies, and blasphemed against the prevailing superstitions.”[iii] </p>
<p>John Lauritsen is among the pioneers of indie (do-it-yourself) publishing, founding Pagan Press 40-years ago, long before print-on-demand. Like life before smartphones, it’s hard to remember life before Amazon-style self-publishing. I have read some of his orthodoxy challenging counterpoints which challenged blind trust in early AIDS protocol and who is thought to be the real author of Frankenstein. </p>
<p>I agreed with much of what John would say about AA—not everything—and I feel he was a vital voice in a growing secular AA movement. He found sobriety in the 1960s when Bill Wilson was still alive and before Living Sober was in print. He loved the practical—not supernatural—narrative about addiction and recovery. The 24-hour-at-a-time program, take what you like—leave the rest, ideas from lived experiences of fellow sufferers. The Steps, at least as written, were a deal-breaker for John, but there was AA before there was Twelve Steps and AA people were getting sober. Today, some people work the Twelve Steps exactly as written, some start but do not finish, some adapt the ideas in terms of what is needed and workable in their own situation. Of course, some people respectfully decline the Twelve suggested Steps. </p>
<p>Over seven million units of Living Sober have been bought. This has been an influence in the success of AA members since the AA General Service Conference approved this booklet for print in 1975. Dwarfed by the 40+ million copies of AA’s first effort, the 1939 Big Book, Living Sober may seem lesser-than. I read Living Sober early and often in my sobriety, not cover-to-cover but as a regular go-to. Many AA meetings do exactly that, reading one of the 31 chapters outload before starting discussion. </p>
<p>[i] Regarding how many members of AA at the time of writing <em>Living Sober</em> (1975), according to Box 4-5-9 News and Notes from AA General Service Office, membership first reached 500,000+ in 1974; in 1981, the one million members mark would be eclipsed. </p>
<p>I volunteer at a local treatment center in Toronto, Canada. They have had an in-house AA meeting for dozens of years. A secular AA meeting was added; so was SMART Recovery. Pre-pandemic when we volunteers offered lived experience as an adjunct to the clinical/professional healthcare received. Most of what we do as non-professionals in recovery was in coordination with counsellors. One of the peer-led parts of the program was a Living Sober meeting where we would do just that, going through the book, Chapter 1 to 31 and starting again. They are in no order; you can start anywhere. I recall that some treatment clients, who had been to AA before, did not know about Living Sober. “Is this new?” they would ask. “Newer,” I would say, “but it’s been around for over 40 years.” </p>
<p>Ann Fletcher highlights<em> Living Sober</em> features as “AA in a nutshell without any reference—aside from the appendices and descriptions of otherer AA publications—to a higher power, powerlessness, or spirituality, aspects of AA that put many people off.” Fletcher identifies misconceptions including AA’s own early assumptions that are challenged in Living Sober. Following science and/or lived experience, the narrative has to change with new evidence revealed. </p>
<p>Living Sober flies in the face of people with a certain predisposition; an idea of AA being uniformed and inflexible. Who would do that? Well, there are two camps I can think of: Fundamentalists and harsh critics. Both hold a concrete—vs. abstract—way of evaluating constructs such as Alcoholics Anonymous. </p>
<p>Literalists see the 1939 text as holy writ, studying it like bible-class and promulgating a revisionist history of early AA whereby the first one hundred members followed this Twelve Step process exactly as written, that 75% of people who follow these “instructions” thoroughly would get and stay sober, and other approaches to AA are watered down, inferior or for heavy social drinkers who only think that they are “real alcoholics.” These 75%-success claims are not randomized trials. These are anecdotal observations. While not false, this data and the way it was measured, does not follow currently agreed upon standards of review and measurement. For instance, someone backchecked the twenty-eight stories in the first edition of <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em>, fourteen of them never drank after writing their story, seven returned to drinking and died without sobering up, seven more relapsed but returned to AA, dying sober. So there is your 14 + 7 = 75%. But these stories were written before the Twelve Steps had been written. Chapter Five, “How It Works” was created after the stories had been recorded. Could there have been biases about whose stories were included or who was asked to record a story in the first place? I do not know; but it is sufficient to say that this 75%-math is not a scientific method; it is empirical data. </p>
<p>Because of <em>Living Sober</em>’s try what works liberalness, more fundamental AA members disparage the booklet and have even floated failed petitions to the General Service Conference to have the book discontinued. </p>
<p>Critics of AA, outsiders and insiders, who rail against the orthodoxy prefer a static villain with one message and an exclusive, heteronormative, Judeo-Christian, Caucasian, male version of Americana. Arguments that AA is a religion in denial were memorialized by James Christopher who started Secular Organizations for Sobriety in 1986. The Twelve Steps and the <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em> text they were written in, both promulgate a supernatural higher-power bias. Atheists, feminists and underrepresented racial groups have experienced microaggression within meetings and find this core literature exclusive—not inclusive. </p>
<p>It is difficult to include the <em>Living Sober</em> ethos of AA in either a “AA is a harmful cult that must be stopped or avoided” rant or a “Single message, written by a messiah, touched by the hand of God,” narrative of the real AA. </p>
<p>Fletcher points out that the chapters of <em>Living Sober</em> are not professional advice nor against professional advice about the harm of alcohol use disorder or a path to recovery. Living Sober’s claim is that is a collective of experiences that has worked for many, in whole or in part. Any AA literature can be viewed in the same light: These are suggestions, this is what some members have found helpful, going it alone did not work for many of us, “We realize we know only a little (page 164, <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em>).” </p>
<p>John L found much that was good about AA and many of these ideas were captured in the booklet <em>Living Sober</em>. I find value in AA and in this book, also. Personally, I think it could use an update. As Fletcher points out, Chapter Four, “Remembering that alcoholism is an incurable, progressive, fatal disease” could use a re-write: alcohol use as a disorder is on a spectrum. Some, maybe 2% can return to moderate drinking. Medical treatments, such as naltrexone (Saint Clair Method) diminish or block the buzz from alcohol so people with a drinking problem do not get the effect they seek if they do drink. We would not feel pleasure from drinking. Some people take this as an aid with the goal of abstinence in mind. Others take the drug with the plan to continue drinking without drinking in excess or suffering the previous consequences. </p>
<p>So while we now know that a small percentage of people who wish to return to drinking without harmful side effects, can this chapter be written in a way that is more informed? I think so. The whole booklet also lags behind our current approach to gender pronouns and would do well to incorporate AA’s use of podcasts, smartphones, YouTube, podcasts and other multi-media, and of course virtual gatherings is no longer a geeks way to connect; Zoom is middle of the road now. </p>
<p>If anyone asked, I would vote in favor of updating the info and language of <em>Living Sober </em>to reflect the science and culture of . Hell yeah! I lean toward a say “yes” to everything that works approach. If one group says the <em>Big Book</em> way is “real AA” and members see success in this esoteric messaging, go for it. Even if you are badmouthing a book like <em>Living Sober</em>—which I like—I am for you and your group authority; “vive-la-difference!” Whatever works. I don’t have to go to your meeting; you don’t have to come to mine. What am I going to do with a newcomer who thinks/talks like you if there isn’t a meeting that thinks/talks like you? </p>
<p>If you think the <em>Big Book</em> is a pack of superstitious nonsense and antithetical to 21st century recovery, also fine. Keep doing what you are doing be it reading <em>Living Sober </em>or seeking out a non-AA approach to sobriety. Recovery is not a zero-sum game. If you get sober your way, that does not take away from my ability to get sober my way. If your group grows in popularity, how is that an existential threat to me and my group? There is no “the” there, as far as “the’ way to find sobriety and enjoy recovery is . You do you, I’ll do me. </p>
<p><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://amzn.to/3XGRurQ" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/ee88acad65f6b6a545f494713d89e183f0351a7f/original/a-freethinker-in-aa-cover.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="" /></a></p>
<p>John L called things the way he saw them. <a contents="A Freethinker in Alcoholics Anonymous" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://amzn.to/3XGRurQ" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;"><em><strong>A Freethinker in Alcoholics Anonymous</strong></em></span></a> is complementary to the peer-to-peer recovery line up as any literary offerings. I think we are lucky to have it. </p>
<p>[i] John Kelly remarked that AA had over one million members at the time AA's Living Sober was published (1975). According to AA records from <em><strong><a contents="Box 4-5-9: GSO News and Notes" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/box-459" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;">Box 4-5-9: GSO News and Notes</span></a></strong></em>, AA hit 500,000+ members in 1974 and by 1981 AA was over one million members.</p>
<p>[ii] <a contents="https://rehabs.com/pro-talk/living-sober-the-little-big-book-that-you-may-not-know-about/&nbsp;" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://rehabs.com/pro-talk/living-sober-the-little-big-book-that-you-may-not-know-about/" target="_blank">https://rehabs.com/pro-talk/living-sober-the-little-big-book-that-you-may-not-know-about/ </a> </p>
<p>[iii] <a contents="https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/john-lauritsen-poison-by-prescription-the-azt-story/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/john-lauritsen-poison-by-prescription-the-azt-story/" target="_blank">https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/john-lauritsen-poison-by-prescription-the-azt-story/</a></p>
<p>Read/download the <a contents="PDF version of this blog, Remembering John Lauritsen: A Freethinker in AA" data-link-label="2022 December blog Rebellion Dogs Remembers John Lauritsen" data-link-type="file" href="/files/1203033/2022%20December%20blog%20Rebellion%20Dogs%20Remembers%20John%20Lauritsen" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;"><strong>PDF version of this blog, Remembering John Lauritsen: A Freethinker in AA</strong></span></a></p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/7096255
2022-11-05T11:07:28-04:00
2022-11-05T11:07:28-04:00
Secular Everything: a look at irreligious 12-Step approaches to food, codependency and substance use disorders.
<p>There are a lot of fellowships where mutual-aid is available for almost every conceivable problem. Alcohol and other drug use disorders not a yes/no diagnosis anymore (eg: moderate, severe, chronic alcohol use disorder). Some people identify as having an alcohol or other drug disorder but process addiction isn't something they identify with; they rarely fall into dark and downward spirals with sex, food, codependency or other traps that may ruin someone else's life. Some of us find that if some activity or substance offers comfort, we over do it or struggle to control it. How may peer-to-peer groups are we going to have to join?</p>
<p>That's a personal challenge and our needs may change over time. We know there is SMART-recovery and LifeRing and Dharma Recovery/Refuge Recovery that are all addiction, non-12-Step approaches to addiction. While each program helps religious people as well as irreligious addicts, none of these are come together around ye olde Twelve Step recovery of Alcoholics Anonymous, which is expressed in a (small "c") Christian language, God <em>as we understand Him</em>, etc. As the developed world trends more secular, agnostic/atheist versions of many 12-Step approaches are on the rise: Secular NA, Al-Anon, Over-eaters, Adult Children of Alcoholics, etc.<br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/cfbcd4e54112b678c5844cff96e92004fa949aae/original/2022-icsa-not-an-outside-issue.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p>What has become a regular meeting at the International Conference of Secular AA, at the fifth biennial ICSAA 2022, October 29th and 30th, "Not an Outside Issue" featured members from secular groups of Narcotics Anonymous, Over-eaters Anonymous Co-dependents Anonymous, Al-Anon and Adult Children of Alcoholics. Included here in this blog is the audio from this meeting and links to various fellowships that may be helpful.<br><br>Join Jim D and Jenne M of OA, Ken S of NA, Sheila K and Chia W of Al-Anon, Jill B and Elaine M of Adult Children of Alcoholics, Matt H of CODA, along with fiends and participants. </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<div id="buzzsprout-player-11632548"> </div><script src="https://www.buzzsprout.com/1536487/11632548-secular-oa-na-aca-coda-al-anon-2022-icsaa-not-an-outside-issue.js?container_id=buzzsprout-player-11632548&player=small" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p> </p>
<p>LINKS:<br> </p>
<p> </p><p> </p>
<p>Many of these groups can be found on lists updated by volunteers like this one: <br>16 hours per day of secular AA and other recovery meetings: <a contents="https://bit.ly/secularmeetings" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://bit.ly/secularmeetingsv" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/secularmeetings</a> <br>More International Conference of Secular AA: <a contents="https://secularaa.buzzsprout.com/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://secularaa.buzzsprout.com/" target="_blank">https://secularaa.buzzsprout.com/</a> <br>More #ICSAA <a contents="https://aasecular.org" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://aasecular.org" target="_blank">https://aasecular.org</a> </p>
<p>SECULAR AL-ANON </p>
<p>Secular Al-Anon: <a contents="https://rivenwoodbooks.com/secularAlanon/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://rivenwoodbooks.com/secularAlanon/" target="_blank">https://rivenwoodbooks.com/secularAlanon/</a> </p>
<p>Al-Anon meeting in this room Sunday at 3:30 eastern time </p>
<p>SECULAR OVER-EATERS </p>
<p>Resources and support for secular members of Over-eaters Anonymous (OA) and others dealing with obsessive food behaviors. </p>
<p><a contents="https://secularovereaters.org/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://secularovereaters.org/" target="_blank">https://secularovereaters.org/</a> </p>
<p>secularovereaters@gmail.com </p>
<p>Jenne’s favorite secular 12-step book: <a contents="The Alternative 12 Steps: A Secular Guide to Recovery" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://amzn.to/3UrdbcR" target="_blank"><em>The Alternative 12 Steps: A Secular Guide to Recovery</em></a> Martha Cleveland, phd + Arlys G. </p>
<p>Food Freedom Resource Manual: <a contents="https://secularovereaters.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/SO-FF_04222022.pdf" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://secularovereaters.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/SO-FF_04222022.pdf" target="_blank">https://secularovereaters.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/SO-FF_04222022.pdf</a> </p>
<p> Website for OA Secular Service Board: <a contents="https://www.secularserviceboardofovereatersanonymous.org/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.secularserviceboardofovereatersanonymous.org/" target="_blank">https://www.secularserviceboardofovereatersanonymous.org/</a> </p>
<p>💥AHA: Agnostic, Humanist & Atheist Codependency Support Group💥 </p>
<p>P=Pacific E=Eastern I=Irish/UK C=CET/Belgium </p>
<p><a contents="Join Zoom Meeting (click)" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89377971773?pwd=cWNUUlp2a1RtWGFYaDdKQk1GRDhwZz09" target="_blank">Join Zoom Meeting (click)</a></p>
<p> ID (ZOOM): 893 7797 1773 - Passcode: 023387 </p>
<p>MON 🌹Healing Together💚 </p>
<p>P=4pm, E=7pm, I=12am(TUE), C=1am(TUE) </p>
<p>TUE 🤩Topic Meeting✌️ </p>
<p>P=5:30pm, E=8:30pm, I=1:30am(WED), C=2:30am(WED) </p>
<p>WED 🤝Check-In❤️ </p>
<p>P=12pm, E=3pm, I=8pm, C=9pm </p>
<p>THU 📖Writers Meeting✍️ </p>
<p>P=10am, E=1pm, I=6pm, C=7pm </p>
<p>FRI 😊Topic Meeting👍 </p>
<p>P=2pm, E=5pm, I=10pm, C=11pm </p>
<p>SAT 😍Informal Chat💬 </p>
<p>P=6:30pm, E=9:30pm, I=2:30am(SUN), C=3:30am(SUN) </p>
<p>Our Website: <a contents="http://atheistcodependent.com/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://atheistcodependent.com/" target="_blank">http://atheistcodependent.com/</a> </p>
<p> Secular Narcotics Anonymous: <a contents="secularna.org" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://secularna.org" target="_blank">secularna.org</a> </p>
<p>Secular Adult Children of Alcoholics(ACoA): We Agnostics <a contents="https://acaagnostica.com/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://acaagnostica.com/" target="_blank">https://acaagnostica.com/</a> </p>
<p>The meeting information is the same for ALL meetings. </p>
<p>Meeting ID: 814 3727 6969 - Passcode: 247365</p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/7032259
2022-08-06T16:59:35-04:00
2024-01-26T18:19:41-05:00
Crisis? What Crisis? Is AA stuck with our messaging?
<p>The next era of 12-Step Recovery will see AA confronting our long period of—what I will call—being stuck. Predictably, what will follow will be to embrace innovation and the next generation of creative ways to express ourselves and to get from stuck to unstuck. Or put another way, "to recover."</p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="/files/1187197/2022%20August%20Crirsis%20What%20Crisis%20blog" target="_blank" data-link-type="file" data-link-label="2022 August Crirsis What Crisis blog" contents="Give me a PDF to read or print HERE">Give me a PDF to read or print <span style="color:#f1c40f;"><strong>HERE</strong></span></a></p><p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Crisis? What Crisis? </strong></p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/96fccdeaa2abe5621b63c86110f7540a231df4e0/original/crisiswhatcrisis.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_" alt="" /></p><p>(Thank you Supertramp 1975[i])</p><p>The mid-1970s found British progressive pop band, Supertramp’s breakthrough album <i>Crime of the Century</i>(1974) chart and support a tour so from the road in the USA, they sidetracked to the A&M Los Angeles studio in 1975 to make this new album. The year 1975 was also a milestone in recovery: this was the last time Alcoholics Anonymous offered the membership, those concerned about alcohol use disorder and the rest of the world, a published work of original thought. I will say it again, not since 1975 has the Fellowship of AA, through our General Service Conference, has there been anything new as official AA canon. </p><p>In July of 2025, much ado will focus on AA’s 90th anniversary celebration, at the AA World Convention in Vancouver, Canada. In 2025 it seems inevitable that we also mark 50 years of a self-defeating, dysfunctional Alcoholics Anonymous standing on the sidelines of the global discussion about problems with alcohol and the how, when, where, why and who of recovery from alcohol addiction. We of AA, are a museum exhibit, a silent movie in a 3-D movie experiencing era. Do we have nothing official to add to a robust discussion going on around us about addiction and recovery? </p><p>Timeline: Bill W, founder of AA, dies in 1971; <i>Came to Believe</i> was published in 1973 offering a variety of notably non-Bill W voices of AA. <i>Living Sober</i>, which has sold 7,000,000+ copies to date, was published in 1975. <i>Living Sober </i>offers 30+ tried and tested AA techniques for getting and staying sober, drawing from hundreds of thousands of sober members and 40 years of collective AA experiences. </p><p>Our founder was gone four years in 1975; but new voices of AA were sharing our recovery processes and experiences, in our own words. <i>Came to Believe </i>was for those who have found supernatural intervention in their sobriety. <i>Living Sober</i> was more practical; more secular; more humanist. AA passed a test: could we carry on with the original voice and author of AA, now gone? Grateful for all those who came before, we could take it from here—creativity and innovation abounded. </p><p>Did you already know that 1975 was the last weighing-in of official “conference-approved” AA narrative in book form? “Say it ain’t so Joe!” you may be thinking on other books on your bookshelf or in your eReader. In 1986 we published <i>Pass It On</i>. Right. Penned by Mel B, this is the first of several nostalgic nods to our past: a book about Bill W. <i>Pass It On: The Story of Bill Wilson and how the A.A. Story Reached the World</i> is a historically valuable biography but, in the meantime, there is no 1980s AA story today of members going from one million to two million through the decade and young people climbing from one to three percent of our population. Overwhelmed by the <i>Twenty-four Hour a Day </i>book and newer readers, in 1987 AA demanded from the General Service Conference, a daily reader for morning meditation, a meeting starter or to add to the bathroom collection of books. The GSC delivered in 1990; again, looking back to the sacred words of our founder. <i>Daily Reflections</i> starts each day with a Bill W-ism, reinforcing AA, not as a vibrant evolving movement, but a fellowship whose innovation died with our founder. </p><p>And yes, it’s a new millennium; we have our 2019 <i>Our Great Responsibility</i>… Bill W speeches. See a pattern here?</p><p>Pamphlets just are not—to AA members—what the 164 pages from 1939 mean to us. While I am grateful for the General Service Conference’s intent to keep AA contemporary with offerings from P-1 to P-87, how many AA pamphlet study weekends do you attend, or have ever been to a weekly pamphlet meeting? It's not like Big Book meetings - every town has one or two or three. Pamphlets do not define the AA message; that’s my point—zero calories, AA-lite. </p><p>There is <i>AA Grapevine</i>, sharing individual member’s views and experiences. Our current decade gives us the dawn of the first <i>AA Grapevine</i> Podcast. I hope there will be many more AA podcasts to join Sam and Don who trade <i>Big Book</i> quotes with each other. By their nature, <i>AA Grapevine</i> contributions are not “conference approved.” Imagine delegates and staff and trustees gathering monthly to approve every story, cover and letter-to-the-editor each month. <i>AA Grapevine</i> has editorial autonomy and as a result, is not the official word of AA, just members talking to each other. So, yes there has been our AA meeting in print every month; new pamphlets and old pamphlet revisions are part of the General Service Conferences never-ending workload. </p><p>But as far as “conference approved” AA canon, will we either re-write our classic texts or add some AA “conference approved” narratives about sobriety today: </p><ul>
<li>relapse prevention, </li>
<li>trauma informed care, </li>
<li>the challenges, wisdom and perspectives of 20, 40 or 60 years-sober members, </li>
<li>medically assisted recovery, </li>
<li>connection, hope, identity, meaning and empowerment in a multicultural world of alcohol use disorder, and </li>
<li>recovery by way of podcasts, Zoom rooms and social media? </li>
</ul><p>Or is AA stuck, a reified relic of the mid-20th century Americana? Our 1980s to 2010 AA was committed to certainty, closure, repetition and protecting AA from internal and external threats, including innovation and creativity. The popular refrain has been, “If it ain’t broke; don’t fix it.”I am generalizing here, but over that 30-year period, was AA taking our own inventory? </p><p>Was it considered innovative or disloyal to point out a <i>Big Book</i> inaccuracy or one man's view, that was widely treated as unquestionable truths? Or was/is criticism treated as disloyal? </p><p>Did we make our legacy of Bill Wilson, one man, first among us to find sobriety and try to explain the ineffable—to articulate the characteristics of alcoholism and the process of recovery? Is his approach one person’s journey in a complex of many ways down and many more ways out? Or are we to model his process as an official, sanctioned process, an ideal that is "the real AA?"</p><p>Have we erroneously taken one member’s journey, his way of seeing addiction and/or the world about us, and codified it as “the AA program?” If Bill W were here today, would he describe his views and experiences as a good start or strict instructions that future AAs should emulate, without deviation? </p><p>Now, keeping original Bill Wilson writings in their original form, for historical context, there is an argument for doing that. We want to preserve the of our history. But the question worth asking is in <i>preserving</i> history, are we eliminating the option to <i>make</i> history. Are we to imitate or innovate when it comes to the AA message? Is the book, <i>Alcoholics Anonymous</i> Bill W’s story, an example or an official instruction manual to be followed unquestioningly without augmentation, for fear of falling into drunkenness followed by suffering and death? </p><p>From everything I heard from Bill W writings and recordings, Bill did not see his words as sacred, his example of the Twelve Steps as the best example in the room. Bill Wilson humorously referred to himself as “AA’s co—flounderer.” </p><p>My view, my one of two million votes, is let’s treat his narrative as the historical touchstone that it is, and not as the voice of AA, today. To be clear, I am not saying burn all the book; this book is working just fine for many 12-Steppers today. It should always be available, so long as it is wanted and needed. Thumpers, keep thumping. </p><p>But also, along with preserving this deserving legacy for future generations, let us make room for the next generation—today’s generation—to <i>make</i> history instead or merely <i>revering </i>Bill’s and Bob’s history. Let today’s member flounder, experiment and improve what we have left them with. You should vote based on your own deductions. It is of little value for you or I to worry about what “they” think or want. In a way, there is no “they” there. I don’t know what the majority of two million members want or think is best for our future; why should I assume anything?</p><p>This unwillingness to change is based on what—respect for our hallowed past or fear of screwing it all up? What if a new book is not as good? Then what? </p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/a22a421b2766ee7a90b0263a20d279ac07e133c9/original/2022-08-06.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.png" class="size_m justify_left border_" alt="" />At Talent Connect Nashville, 2017, we heard a 21st century way of looking at things. “Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity, and change,” Brené Brown said. We cannot innovate without accepting risk and uncertainty. “If you’ve created a work culture where vulnerability is not okay, you have also created a culture where innovation and creativity are not okay.”[ii] </p><p><strong>Brené Brown</strong>’s research and findings about the relationship between innovation and healthy social, family and working relationships with vulnerability started reaching the mainstream in 2010 thanks to TED talks and YouTube. To call her work a “game changer” is not hyperbole. </p><p>Let’s look at pre-2010 AA by way of imposing on the General Service Conference, our avoidance of vulnerability (resistance to change). Charmed by the comfort of closure and treating change as a threat to AA survival, we came us with this: </p><p>1995 Advisory Action, Literature, p. 91 </p><p style="text-align:center;">"The first 164 pages of the Big Book, <i>Alcoholics Anonymous</i>, the Preface, the Forewords, The Doctor's Opinion, Doctor Bob's Nightmare and the Appendices remain as is." </p><p>2002 Advisory Action, Literature p.93 </p><p style="text-align:center;">"The text in the book, <i>Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions</i>, written by Bill W., remains as is, recognizing the Fellowship's feeling that Bill's writings be retained as originally published."[iii] </p><p>Were we preserving the memory of our early day's time-capsule or were we resisting innovation? Have we, by asserting the primacy of the <i>Big Book</i> and <i>12&12</i> within AA culture, discouraged innovation and creativity, eying deviation as an existential threat? If it’s true that a society either evolves or dies, do we have a bright future? </p><p>Long gone is the symbol of the Marlboro Man, smoking on his horse, in the untamed American west. If vulnerable is the new macho, AA is already caught up in the zeitgeist of the lean-into-our-weakness new age approach. A healthy contingent of people are responding to honoring vulnerability; businesses and organizations, AA included, are embracing our own and our collective vulnerability. As a result, we have some innovation and creativity to show for it. </p><p>The sea change sounded like this: </p><p>Brown made the case at TEDx Houston that vulnerable is what makes you beautiful. The danger to a society like ours that loses our capacity for vulnerability, we give way to disappointment, perfectionism, extremism. The result is that we numb out to avoid fear and scarcity. Numbness doesn’t just dull the bad stuff; we become joyless and paralyzed.[iv] </p><p>It should not be too surprising that a leadership posture that incorporates vulnerability, isn’t so foreign to our 12-Step approach to recovery. We should be revealing instead of concealing, letting go of the facade of invulnerability, we find the root of authenticity, leadership and meaningful connection with each other. We are not portraying our program of fellowship as infallible but we right-size ourselves as “imperfectly human with uncertain outcomes.” </p><p>Compare that to insisting AA is above reproach and meeting new ideas with hostility. This tends to “deplete workers and leaving many with less to invest where it is most needed: into the work, in the relationships and in the creativity necessary for progress.”[v] </p><p>So, post 2010, AA is growing into this embrace of our vulnerability, and it has already resulted in innovations. Here are some examples of millennial stewardship from our General Service Conference: </p><p><strong>Safety in AA:</strong> in regional forums and assemblies, in coffee shops and our home groups we confronted our shortcomings and the vulnerability of members and our group. We now have a roughly shared experience to add to the AA story: </p><p>… situations that can threaten group unity and safety … those who are confrontational, aggressive or those who are simply unwilling to put the needs of the group first. Such behavior can hijack the focus of a meeting and frighten members, new and old.</p><p>…groups and members always have the option to call the appropriate authorities if disruptive behavior continues or anyone’s safety is at risk. </p><p>Situations that groups have addressed include sexual harassment or stalking, threats of violence, bullying, financial coercion, racial intolerance, sexual orientation or gender identification intolerance, pressuring AA members into a particular point of view or belief, medical treatments and/or medications, politics, religion … </p><p>… if a person’s safety is in jeopardy, or the situation breaches the law, the individuals involved can take appropriate action to ensure their safety. Calling the proper authorities does not go against AA Traditions. Anonymity is not a cloak protecting criminal or inappropriate behavior. … unwanted sexual attention or targeting vulnerable members can be troublesome. We are not professionals trained to handle such situations. Law enforcement or other professional help may be necessary. </p><p>Injuries, accidents, fires, etc., sometimes occur during meetings. … Addressing an emergency situation is more important than continuing the meeting, and members should not hesitate to call emergency personnel in critical situations.”[vi] </p><p>2020’s Conference charged the General Service Office with creating a <strong>Plain Language </strong><i><strong>Big Book</strong></i> that would be more accessible while preserving its message. There are two main themes: </p><p><strong>Accessibility</strong>—due to the literacy level or lack of ability to adequately comprehend the message of recovery by the individual. <br><strong>Relatability</strong>—changes in current language and culture (including views on modern language, gender and religion) which hinder the individual’s ability to relate and embrace the program as set forth in the book <i>Alcoholics Anonymous</i>. </p><p>Asking tough, vulnerable, and controversial questions, here is where we are in the middle of this process … </p><p>Do you think there are accessibility and relatability issues with the book <i>Alcoholics Anonymous</i>? If so do you think A.A. is ready to have informed discussions about finding solutions? And do you think it’s possible that one common solution to accessibility and relatability with the <i>Big Book</i> can be found? </p><p>For those fond of grade reading levels, note that 50% of adults in the US cannot read a book written at an 8th grade reading level. That’s half of 327 million people. If the <i>Big Book</i> is at 8th Grade reading level, does that mean 164 million adults don’t have access to the message? Literacy is a more comprehensive tool to measure understanding and use of materials. Literacy is measured on a 1 to 5 scale, with one being the simplest and five being the most complex. Most of the <i>Big Book</i> requires a mid-range third level of literacy. The Literacy level at 3 or above in the US is 48%. Does that mean only about half of the adults in the US could read and comprehend the <i>Big Book</i>?[vii] </p><p>Now, a more inclusive and sensitive <strong>AA Preamble</strong> </p><p>The 71st General Service Conference approved an amendment to our A.A. Grapevine Preamble. We have changed from “Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women …” to “Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of people …” </p><p>These examples should not give the impression that all of AA is kumbaya open to change without organized efforts to resist change and rein in these accomplishments and or working projects. In April of 2022 motions on the plain language <i>Big Book</i> were tabled to: </p><p>Consider a request that work on the plain language book, <i>Alcoholics Anonymous</i> should be discontinued. <br>Consider a request to ensure that not a word of the Twelve Steps in Chapter Five be altered for accessibility or relatability or any other reason. <br>Consider a request to ensure that the book not be called, <i>Alcoholics Anonymous</i>. </p><p>Regarding the 71st GSC action to change the preamble (fellowship of people from fellowship of men and woman), some with an aversion to the change brought forth a motion: </p><p>Consider discontinuing including the A.A. Preamble in all A.A. World Services literature. <br>The committee discussed the wide-ranging impact that the AA Preamble changes have had on the Fellowship. The committee felt that after careful consideration of Fellowship feedback, it would be premature to quantify the impact when many AA members are still either uninformed or ambivalent about the change. The committee emphasized that at every level of our Conference process there is a reciprocal responsibility of all AA members and trusted servants, of participation and communication, to embrace the guiding principles of trust and transparency. </p><p>Thank you, Brené Brown and the wealth of vulnerability researchers and philosophers that impart on us that we can lead with our weakness and never have to doubt our worth and power. We are imperfect and incomplete… and we are worthy of connection, just as we are. <a class="no-pjax" href="https://brenebrown.com/about" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="Brené Brown"><span style="color:#f1c40f;"><strong>Brené Brown</strong></span></a>'s new book <a class="no-pjax" href="https://amzn.to/3A30yxm" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience"><span style="color:#f1c40f;"><i>Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience</i></span></a><i> </i>(November 27, 2021), all about emotions which she describes as understood though the combined lenses of (i) biology, (ii) biography, (iii) behaviour, (iv) back story. </p><p>AA and the broader 12-Step mutual aid world is an unfinished story. We have avoided collective stagnation and we seem to make progress. Also, we are worthy just the way we are. The<strong> Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews </strong>under the supervision of John F Kelly and Marica Ferri (Harvard Medical School) and Keith Humphreys (Stanford University) found substantial evidence that the AA approach and treatment centers that encourage AA engagement (Twelve Step Facilitation) outperform or equal other popular and more costly interventions into problems with alcohol and other drugs[viii] </p><p>Here is how Rock and Roll shared the same ideas in the 1970s: “Easy Does It,” Richard Davies / Roger Hodgson, Supertramp © 1975 </p><p style="text-align:center;">And if my thoughts had wings <br>I'd be the bird that sings <br>I'd fly where love isn't shy <br>And everyone is willing to try <br>And if we had the time <br>That time's so hard to find <br>I could believe what you say <br>Start sending those shadows away </p><p style="text-align:center;">And if you know who you are <br>You are your own superstar <br>And only you can shape the movie </p><p style="text-align:center;">that you make <br>So when the lights disappear <br>And only the silence is here <br>Watch yourself, easy does it, easy does it, </p><p style="text-align:center;">easy while you wake </p><p style="text-align:center;">And if you know who you are <br>You are your own superstar <br>And only you can shape the music </p><p style="text-align:center;">that you make <br>So when the crowds disappear <br>And only the silence is near <br>Watch yourself, easy does it, easy does it, </p><p style="text-align:center;">easy while you wake </p><p>Sing along to the whole <a class="no-pjax" href="https://youtu.be/oVOFK9zYwtY" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="Crisis? What Crisis? album">Crisis? What Crisis? album</a>. I know, it will take 47 minutes to listen to all of it. It was the era of album rock, concept albums and entire novels in song—not just a chapter, blog or greatest hits. Imagine reading the greatest chapters of any of the great authors; how absurd would that be; William Shakespeare’s best chapters?</p><p>So, how do you feel about all this? Have we canonized Bill W and was that right or wrong to do? If you are new here, do you find AA an engaging place to explore, sample ideas and get reinforced for your adaptations? Or do you feel an unspoken—or blatant—pressure to fit in, conform, and dismiss your own free will? Please share your personal experience.</p><p>Wherever you are on the “preserve the integrity of the message” or “keep widening our gateway” camp, I would love to hear from you… </p><p>Write to news AT rebelliondogspublishing.com – visit our <a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.facebook.com/RebellionDogs" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="Facebook"><span style="color:#f1c40f;"><strong>Facebook</strong></span></a> or <a class="no-pjax" href="https://twitter.com/Rebellion_Dogs" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="Twitter"><span style="color:#f1c40f;"><strong>Twitter</strong></span></a> page and add your thoughts or experiences. </p><p>We are all in this together.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>[i] Artist Paul Wakefield, A&M Records, Supertramp album <i>Crisis? What Crisis?</i> </p><p>[ii] <a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.linkedin.com/business/talent/blog/talent-connect/why-being-vulnerable-at-work-can-be-your-biggest-advantage-brene-brown" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="https://www.linkedin.com/business/talent/blog/talent-connect/why-being-vulnerable-at-work-can-be-your-biggest-advantage-brene-brown">https://www.linkedin.com/business/talent/blog/talent-connect/why-being-vulnerable-at-work-can-be-your-biggest-advantage-brene-brown</a> </p><p>[iii] Advisory Actions of the General Service Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous 1951-2022 </p><p>[iv] Brené Brown, 2010 TEDx Houston Texas <a class="no-pjax" href="https://youtu.be/X4Qm9cGRub0" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="https://youtu.be/X4Qm9cGRub0">https://youtu.be/X4Qm9cGRub0</a> + TEDx KC <a class="no-pjax" href="https://youtu.be/_UoMXF73j0c" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="https://youtu.be/_UoMXF73j0c">https://youtu.be/_UoMXF73j0c</a> </p><p>[v] Lisa Schmidt, M.Ed. ACPC, <a class="no-pjax" href="https://worldofwork.io/2020/01/vulnerability-in-the-workplace/" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="https://worldofwork.io/2020/01/vulnerability-in-the-workplace/">https://worldofwork.io/2020/01/vulnerability-in-the-workplace/</a> / </p><p>[vi] SMF 209 <a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.aahomegroup.org/downloads/Safety_and_Our_Common_Welfare_smf-209_en.pd" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="https://www.aahomegroup.org/downloads/Safety_and_Our_Common_Welfare_smf-209_en.pd">https://www.aahomegroup.org/downloads/Safety_and_Our_Common_Welfare_smf-209_en.pd</a>f </p><p>[vii] <a class="no-pjax" href="https://msca09aa.org/2020/03/03-30-2020/" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="https://msca09aa.org/2020/03/03-30-2020/">https://msca09aa.org/2020/03/03-30-2020/</a> District 9, Mid-Southern California 70th General Service Conference Agenda Panel </p><p>[viii] <a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD012880.pub2/full" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD012880.pub2/full">https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD012880.pub2/full</a></p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/7027159
2022-07-30T10:45:38-04:00
2022-08-06T16:01:37-04:00
Agnostics and Atheists in AA - a brief history
<p style="text-align: center;">Here are the slides and here is the audio for a talk by Joe C for the Recovery Speakers workshop on AA History</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/cc5a57af58c98702e4a9e4ac9c769a6894061fcb/original/aa-history-speakers-may-10-2022-joe-c-on-secular-aa.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.png" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="" style="text-align: center;" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><a contents="AUDIO CLICK HERE" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.recoveryspeakers.com/history-of-aa-agnostics-and-atheists-presented-by-joe-c-5-10-2022/" target="_blank"><span class="font_large"><span style="color:#f39c12;">AUDIO CLICK HERE</span></span></a><span class="font_large"><span style="color:#f39c12;"> </span></span></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><a contents="SLIDES CLICK HERE" data-link-label="2022 05 History of AA atheists and agnostics Recovery Speakers" data-link-type="file" href="/files/1177423/2022%2005%20History%20of%20AA%20atheists%20and%20agnostics%20Recovery%20Speakers" target="_blank"><span class="font_large"><span style="color:#f39c12;">SLIDES CLICK HERE</span></span></a></strong></p>
<p>This 2022 presentation looks at atheist, freethinkers, humanists and the non-theist spiritualists as an example of recognized special purpose groups, members, gatherings withing AA, the organizing of groups and gatherings through the years, literature written by AA atheists/agnostics and collections of AA stories in AA literature by people who do not believe in a prayer-answering, sobriety-granting deity.</p>
<p>click on the audio above to listen and slides if you wish to follow along.</p>
<p>Highlights include the We Agnostics panel featured at our world convention, every five years since 1990, the growing demand for secular AA groups and a practical language to articulate the AA approach, <em>Living Sober</em>, <em>The "God" Word: Agnostics and Atheists in AA</em>, AA Grapevine's <em>One Big Tent: atheist and agnostic AA members share their experience strength and hope</em> and other AA literature.</p>
<p>I also touch on the 2020 Great Britain General Service Conference membership survey which shows AA in an irreligious world - of people in AA who believe in a higher power, 35% have a religious concept, 65% have a secular concept.</p>
<p><strong><a contents='The "God" Word AA pamphlet P-86 (click)' data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/literature/assets/p-86_theGodWord.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f1c40f;"><em>The "God" Word</em> AA pamphlet P-86 (click)</span></a></strong></p>
<p><strong><a contents="The 2020 Membership Survey of Great Britain (click)" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/download/1/documents/AA%20Membership%20Survey%202020.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f1c40f;">The 2020 Membership Survey of Great Britain (click)</span></a></strong></p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/7015796
2022-07-15T17:36:17-04:00
2024-02-25T07:31:34-05:00
If you think you are different, AA Wants You (to be in the next Big Book)
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/98c4346c5af4bd4132f2646eaa39d5e36e18831c/original/2021-08-04.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.png" class="size_xl justify_center border_" alt="" /></p><p>Under other time-sensitive news, “This just in:” </p><p>You may cherish the <i>Big Book</i>, AKA, our first text, <i>Alcoholics Anonymous</i> ...</p><p>Or you may set it aside as a conscientious objector on a variety of grounds ...</p><p>But now is the time for you—yes, you—to make a difference. No, they aren’t looking for your advice on changing the first 164 pages, that sacred cow will moo like it always has: cue The Who, “meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” </p><p>But the first 164 is merely 28% of the 575 pages of <i>Alcoholics Anonymous</i> - as I am sure you already know. The rest is mostly individual stories. Room will be made in the upcoming Fifth Edition, as it was in 1955 (2nd Edition), 1976 (3rd Edition) and 2001 (4th Edition) to show present-day AA members, with all our colors of the AA rainbow.</p><p>A call for stories from the General Service Office underscores a desire to represent the most diverse cross-section of AA that is possible. And the limit to that possibility comes from being able to choose from only what is submitted. From the <span style="color:#3498db;"><strong>Spring 2022 Box 4-5-9: News and Notes </strong></span>from GSO[i]... </p><p><i>In response to this Advisory Action, the trustees’ Literature Committee is seeking a wide range of A.A. recovery experience of members in the Fellowship. </i></p><p><i>Recognizing that all stories are of value, the Literature Committee is searching for recovery stories that are from a broad cross-section of our local communities. As Bill writes on page 29 of the book </i>Alcoholics Anonymous<i>: “Our hope is that many alcoholic men and women, desperately in need, will see these pages, and we believe that it is only by fully disclosing ourselves and our problems that they will be persuaded to say, ‘Yes, I am one of them too; I must have this thing.’” </i></p><p><i>It is the Literature Committee’s shared hope that any new stories from our current membership will help future alcoholics to identify and find recovery in the pages of a Fifth Edition </i></p><p><i>If <strong>you</strong> don’t hear/see your own story in this book, don’t let the next </i><strong>you </strong><i>to walk in the door or click on the Zoom link feel the same disappointment that you feel. Submit your story. </i></p><p><i>The deadline: October 31, 2022. Most pages in the book are 250 words. Most stories are six or seven pages; some are ten or twelve. So, 1,600 words to 3,500 would be the sweet spot. Double spaced, 12-point font, or you can mail in a hand-written copy. </i></p><p>If writing your story is outside your comfort zone, seek the companionship of your fellow sufferers; maybe start a writing club with some of your favorite members. You can each write and read your own stories to each other. Submit them all when you are happy with them. And wow—wouldn’t it be great if one of your group’s stories was selected? You could all feel you contributed, no matter which of your writing group’s stories makes the cut. Good luck.</p><p>Stories will be accepted in English, French or Spanish. If you have any questions, please email 5BBStory@aa.org </p><p>READ, HEAR or WATCH (ASL) a few sample Personal Stories to give you an idea of the writing style: <a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.aa.org/the-big-book" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="https://www.aa.org/the-big-book">https://www.aa.org/the-big-book</a></p><p>[i] <a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/newsletters/F-36_Box_4-5-9_Spring_2022.pdf" target="_blank" data-link-type="url" contents="https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/newsletters/F-36_Box_4-5-9_Spring_2022.pdf">https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/newsletters/F-36_Box_4-5-9_Spring_2022.pdf</a></p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/6982956
2022-05-30T15:26:45-04:00
2023-02-04T13:26:10-05:00
The other million sellers: AA World Services readings for atheists and agnostics
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><em>PRACTICAL AA (irreligious readings and audio from Alcoholics Anonymous) </em></strong></p>
<p>Maybe it’s because of the name of the book, <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em>, that people associate the first written account of AA experience as “the basic text,” “the official AA program” or inseparable from sober life in AA. The <em>Big Book</em> as it’s called by many, has sold over 40 million copies. </p>
<p>News Flash: AA has other million-selling books; <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em> is neither the official nor sacred text of modern AA life. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/9bf381e4041ca25e5c68b31b8bba596d6fa0ddc9/original/one-big-tent-book.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p>John F Kelly (Harvard Medical School), Keith Humphreys (Stanford University) et al conduced a systematic review (<a contents="Cochrane Library Data Base 2020" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD012880.pub2/full" target="_blank">Cochrane Library Data Base 2020</a>) including randomized controlled clinical trials involving over 10,000 cases of alcohol use disorder (AUD) and found that AA and Twelve Step Facilitation (TSF) performed as well or better in comparison to other clinical interventions (Motivational Enhancement Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy)[i] If you want AA’s evidence based peer support and proven ways to stop and stay stopped, and you do not wish to embrace theology to do so, here is your starter reading list of conference approved AA literature: </p>
<ol> <li>
<a contents="Living Sober (2019, first printed in 1975) " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/living-sober-book" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;"><em><strong>Living Sober </strong></em></span>(2019, first printed in 1975) </a>“There is no prescribed A.A. right way or wrong way. Each of us uses what is best for themselves—without closing the door on other kinds of help we may find valuable at another time. And each of us tries to respect others’ rights to do things differently.” Click <em><a contents="LIVING SOBER" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/living-sober-book" target="_blank">LIVING SOBER</a></em> (above) to read or listen for free to this 32-chapter booklet of practical experiences that have worked for (at the time of printing) 100s of thousands of members. <em>Living Sober</em>[ii] has sold over 7 million copies. </li> <li>
<a contents="The ”God” Word: Agnostics and Atheists in AA " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/literature/assets/p-86_theGodWord.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;"><strong><em>The ”God” Word: Agnostics and Atheists in AA</em></strong></span> </a>(2014). “I haven’t had a drink for 25 years, and I am no longer waiting for my religious conversion. I am still an agnostic. I don’t know whether or not there is a supernatural power, but I don’t believe that there is, and having a few years of sobriety behind me gives me the confidence to be open about my lack of belief.” Now available in English, Spanish and French this is a collection of ten stories or irreligious approaches to AA. Click <a contents="The “God” Word " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/literature/assets/p-86_theGodWord.pdf" target="_blank"><em>The “God” Word </em></a>above[iii] to read or download for free. </li> <li>
<a contents="One Big Tent: Atheist and agnostic AA members share their experience, strength and hope (2018)" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://amzn.to/3NFAoVm" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;"><em><strong>One Big Tent: Atheist and agnostic AA members share their experience, strength and hope</strong></em></span> (2018)</a> “I opened a meeting directory, after finally admitting to myself that I had a problem and needed help. I found a meeting called “We Agnostics,” located directly across the street from the liquor store that I would walk to at night when I wanted more booze. … In the<em> Grapevine</em> was an article that mentioned a woman who had remained sober 40 years using the Fellowship as her higher power. Forty Years!” Click <a contents="ONE BIG TENT" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://amzn.to/3NFAoVm" target="_blank"><em>ONE BIG TENT</em></a>[iv] for an Amazon page to the AA paperback and Kindle edition. The booklet is a collection of stories from 1960 to 2016 from secular AA members. Upon notice of printing, <em>One Big Tent</em> became the most pre-ordered book published by <em>A.A. Grapevine</em> (AA’s meeting in print since 1946) </li>
</ol>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/b8d0b831c17ac3de133e5da41e505194bc3c944c/original/thefix-feb-2017.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" />This blog offers some practical, modern, secular (neither religious nor irreligious) offerings that are as legitimate, as official documentation of the AA way of life as ye olde <em>Big Book</em> of AA. Loved by many, this first effort was written by one person, informed by his personal transformation—a white light conversion experience—which Bill W thought at the time was a key to overcoming the relentless desire to drink. It was clearly a motivational factor for him. The reason that some call AA a “religious program” is that this first book mentions “God,” “Power Greater than Ourselves,” “Czar of the Universe,” “Creator,” “Heavenly Father,” 200 times in the first 164 pages. That’s a lot of theology. </p>
<p>AA's first literary offering was started when Bill was sober only a couple of years and based on his observations of dozens of members. A couple of years after it was published Bill shared what he had learned since and it was added to <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em> as <a contents="Appendix II “Spiritual Experience" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_appendiceii.pdf" target="_blank">Appendix II “Spiritual Experience</a>:” </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em>"Among our rapidly growing membership of thousands of alcoholics, such transformations [religious experiences], though frequent, are by no means the rule. Most of our experiences are what the psychologist William James calls the ‘educational variety’ because they develop slowly over a period of time. Quite often, friends of the newcomer are aware of the difference long before they are themselves. They finally realize that they have undergone a profound alteration in their reaction to life; that such a change could hardly have been brought about by themselves alone. What often takes place in a few months could seldom have been accomplished by years of self-discipline. With few exceptions our members find that they have tapped an unsuspected inner resource.”[</em>v] </p>
<p>The above quote is page 567, so some may closed the <em>Big Book</em>, feeling excluded from AA as someone with spiritual beliefs outside of the Judeo/Christian faith or no supernatural beliefs at all. As an atheist in AA who finds my sobriety in AA is not at the expense of my integrity to my value system, I can tell you that there is a healthy irreligious (skeptics/freethinkers/non-believers) population, some of which belong to atheist and agnostics AA groups. </p>
<p>Belief in a prayer-answering, recovery granting higher power is popular in AA but by no means a requirement. And skeptics and freethinkers in AA aren't suffering from half-measures or watered down AA recovery.</p>
<p>If you—or someone you care for—feels that maybe they have a problem with alcohol and other drugs, and they are of the impression that AA requires belief in the grace of God, here is a wealth of practical and rational approaches to finding and getting sober that have been working for decades. Furthermore, secular AA offers meetings in person or on Zoom and other online platforms, without prayer or any theistic rituals or talk, if that’s what you prefer. </p>
<p>With Zoom AA, podcasts, blogs, social media and our evolving demographic AA is shape-shifting, not in core principles but in language and rituals that better meet the needs of many underrepresented populations in the rooms (and Zooms). If you're curious about the impacts of your drinking and if AA can accommodate your non-conformist ways, it's a great time to invest some time and consideration in what is available and maybe get your skeptical self to an AA meeting. You're people (those who understand) may not be as hard to find as once thought.</p>
<p>Happy reading...</p>
<p>[i] <a contents="https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD012880.pub2/full" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD012880.pub2/full" target="_blank">https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD012880.pub2/full</a> </p>
<p>[ii] <a contents="https://www.aa.org/living-sober-book" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/living-sober-book" target="_blank">https://www.aa.org/living-sober-book</a> </p>
<p>[iii] <a contents="https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/literature/assets/p-86_theGodWord.pdf " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/literature/assets/p-86_theGodWord.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/literature/assets/p-86_theGodWord.pdf </a></p>
<p>[iv] <a contents="ONE BIG TENT" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://amzn.to/3NFAoVm" target="_blank">ONE BIG TENT</a> and other recommended readings <a contents="https://amzn.to/3NFAoVm" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://amzn.to/3NFAoVm" target="_blank">https://amzn.to/3NFAoVm</a> </p>
<p>[v] <a contents="https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_appendiceii.pdf" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_appendiceii.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_appendiceii.pdf</a></p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/6909375
2022-02-28T08:45:58-05:00
2022-07-30T10:48:08-04:00
Secular addiction/recovery Mutual Aid Groups
<hr style="width: 40%; margin-left:0px; text-align:left; border-top: 1px solid #f1c40f;"><p style="text-align: justify;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/281cd10f00ff8dff57c58bd89e1f1ed10f044d1f/original/2018-07-05-2.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsInNtYWxsIl1d.png" class="size_s justify_left border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In recent blogs we have looked at what mutual-aid groups can do to support individuals who have or think they may have substance use disorder—alcohol (or other drugs). We have looked at the2020 Cochrane Library Review that explored how effective 12-step meetings were in combatting alcohol and other substance use disorders vs. other evidence-based interventions such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Motivational Enhanced Therapy. 12-step facilitation was evaluated as a standalone intervention and in combination with addiction treatment and/or other therapies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.cochrane.org/news/new-cochrane-review-finds-alcoholics-anonymous-and-12-step-facilitation-programs-help-people" style="color:#f1c40f;">Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-Step programs for alcohol use disorder</a> reveal that for achieving abstinence, AA was as good as other therapies over 12 months and had better outcomes over 24- and 36-month periods of review. Even where full, uninterrupted abstinence was not achieved, 12-Step engagement reduced relapse and other consequences of alcohol use disorder including criminal (DUI), health, financial and relationship problems.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This blog is the conclusion in a series of three essays that speak specifically to how effective and appropriate the 12-Step model is for atheists and agnostics. The 12-Steps include many behavior modifications to help individuals better understand themselves and clear up damage with loved ones and in the community. AA also has this thing, about trust in God, higher power, or other beliefs, that just don’t sit right with all of us.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In essay 1 of 3, we looked policies of Narcotics Anonymous, Marijuana Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous. The only requirement for membership is a desire to curb our self-harming substance use. There is a spiritual aspect to the 12-Step model, but no official creed or theology and any one can reject what they want and adopt what they want.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In essay 2 of 3, we used AA as an example of how to stick to reading material that is more practical and not faith-healing. Besides the Big Book of AA, we find some classic literature that isn’t all about turning life and problems over to God. More is coming online as demand grows. Even the most theistic AA books offer the practical, mixed in with the supernatural, if we look at it objectively.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This essay, 3 of 3 is all about going to meetings: online or face to face (f2f).</p>
<h3 style="font-weight: bold; padding-top: 1em;">Why Special Purpose (secular) AA meetings?</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Special Purpose groups have been in AA since the 1940s. AA, and all 12-Step meetings, follow the <a href="https://www.aa.org/the-twelve-traditions" style="color:#f1c40f;">Twelve Traditions</a> which bestows great autonomy on each group to conduct its meeting in a way that suits members. Nothing is sacred; nothing is forbidden. Common sense and consideration of the fellowship as a whole is encouraged but the group members have the final say and there is—or should be—no overseer of groups for compliance or vetting. Special purpose groups cater to people who identify a certain way. There are meetings for women, men, young people, LGBTQ+, Black, Indigenous, People of Colour (BIPOC) and there are atheist/agnostic meetings (sometimes called freethinkers, secular, or humanists’ groups). The primary purpose is still to stay sober and help others achieve sobriety. There are also career specific meeting for pilots, lawyers or doctors who identify as alcoholics.</p>
<h3 style="font-weight: bold; padding-top: 1em;">History of secular AA</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">There have always been people getting sober in AA who do not believe in a higher power. The first AA for Atheists and Agnostics group that we know of came from Chicago in 1975. More started, especially in urban areas for the next few decades going from a few to a few dozen, a few hundred and in this Zoom era of meetings there are meetings, workshops panels and conferences of all kinds. About 16 hours per day there are secular AA meetings. Everyone is welcome, regardless of their worldview but the content and rituals are irreligious (no prayer for example). <a href="https://www.aatorontoagnostics.com/zoom-meetings" style="color:#f1c40f;">A master list is available online</a> kept up by volunteers for anyone who wants to sample a few secular AA meetings. Where you live, especially if it’s in an urban center, you can find local AA, either f2f or online. Many offices (sometimes called Intergroup) have filters: day, time, area, type, etc. Under type, some have either “secular” or “agnostic” as a filter along with other types (women’s, Step study, young people’s, etc.).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Overeaters, Narcotics and Marijuana Anonymous meetings are starting in this vein, too. AA now has secular meetings in English, Spanish, French, Polish and Portuguese (maybe other languages).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In our 1 of 3 blog we asked readers to evaluate what kind of non-believer are you? If you are anti-religious, even the most liberal of AA meetings might be upsetting. If you have a live-and-let-live approach, any AA meeting will be helpful to some degree. Wherever you fall on the non-theistic scale, secular AA meetings will “speak your language” about addiction and recovery.</p>
<h3 style="font-weight: bold; padding-top: 1em;">So many choices</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">For women, She Recovers and Women for Sobriety are more modern organizations, so they speak in a contemporary language. For anyone of any gender identification, try SOS (Secular Organizations for Sobriety) SMART Recovery and LifeRing. Dharma Recovery or Refuge Recovery offer a Buddhist recovery approach to understanding and overcoming addiction, if you are looking for an Eastern philosophy approach.</p>
<h3 style="font-weight: bold; padding-top: 1em;">Should I try going to a meeting?</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">No, bad idea. I say that jokingly. What is a bad idea is to make a long-term decision based on one single meeting. Meetings vary enough from each other, that an impression based on one meeting is almost certainly going to yield a false-positive or a false-negative conclusion, so a fair sample is suggested.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Approaches to exploring meetings to make an informed decision will vary depending on who you ask:</p>
<ul> <li> <p style="text-align: justify;">Try a dozen different meetings and return to the three or four you liked the most.</p> </li> <li> <p style="text-align: justify;">Some will say make a commitment: 90 meetings in 90 days sounds intense. But if you’re not drinking, you have time.</p> </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;">How severe the intervention should match how dire your consequences are. For some people they aren’t working at the time they reach out for help. For employed people some work their recovery around their other responsibilities, some take a leave of absence to focus on recovery for a few weeks. So committing to a reasonable sample group allows you to get to know people and the process better. If these people are going to be your allies, be informed and shop around. Remember this isn’t “self-help” so much as mutual aid. “We are all in this together.”</p>
<h3 style="font-weight: bold; padding-top: 1em;">Finding what works for you</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">You’ll hear things like “meetings aren’t therapy,” “rehab isn’t recovery—it’s acute-care treatment,” and facetiously, you might hear, “some are sicker than others.” It’s not meant to be shaming. It just means this isn’t one-size-fits-all. Recovery may include acute care (detox, treatment, trauma-informed therapy) but recovery is a lifestyle like fitness. It’s hard to imagine alcohol or other drug-free life when confronting the idea of sobriety, early on. But everyone you meet at these meetings felt what you’re feeling, and they represent peers, not professionals or teachers, who were helped by others and happy to pay-it-forward by getting to know you better and offering some encouragement.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Call a local emergency healthcare number if you are now—or suspect you may—experience seizures from withdrawal. For more information about recovery communities and resources visit us at <a href="https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/" style="color:#f1c40f;">RebellionDogsPublishing.com</a></p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/6909373
2022-02-28T08:38:00-05:00
2022-03-08T11:03:42-05:00
3 Common Challenges in Addiction Recovery
<hr style="width: 40%; margin-left:0px; text-align:left; border-top: 1px solid #f1c40f;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Addiction has a debilitating effect on human life. Physical health deteriorates but so do does financial, careers, personal, and professional capital as well. The nature of addiction (referred to by professionals as a disorder or disease) often keeps a vast majority of people with addiction from accessing help. Continued return to alcohol, or other drugs, despite consequences and despite making resolutions to stop or moderate, is a sign that we are moving further along the spectrum of addiction (substance use disorder).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/4e924b9cc97c22d6963a0e996e83d3c70931b6f2/original/living-sober-old-cover.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Millions of people struggle with substance use in the USA where studies reveal that less than 10 percent of those in need, receive proper treatment or rehabilitative support. Overcoming addiction can be difficult. It takes effort, and help (resources). There is, however, one important thing to remember: Admitting that there is a problem and being open-minded to change is where it all begins. This decision is positive, and, you should know what lies ahead. There are some common roadblocks that you might face in your path to sober living. Here are three of them:</p>
<ol> <li> <h3>Lack of an adequate support system</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, having a strong support network is one of the most crucial factors in addiction recovery. When you lack a strong support system, it can become difficult to cope with the many emotional and psychological challenges. Encouragement and motivation helps a lot, from loved ones, therapists and also, community-based peer to peer groups. Some of us have burned bridges when we’re at this turning point, or we don’t know what to say and to whom. Others have a generous employee benefit plan, a supportive family, and people in the community we know who are in recovery to call upon. Get supports in place before you need them, if possible. No matter how good or bad we have it, this is a time for calling on as much help as we can. Medical and peer support, despite the aversion to turning to strangers, could be your best move to improve your chances of positive outcome rates. A network of allies is part of recovery capital. When relations are damaged, there are others who understand because they have been there. And they know the way out.</p> </li> <li> <h3>Untreated mental illness</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Untreated mental illness can be a challenge in your road to recovery. For some of us, untreated emotional and mental issues was why we drank—we were self-medicating. For others we developed mental and emotional troubles as our drinking or other drug problem progressed. Which came first—the mood and mental disorder or the drinking/drug problem? That’s a puzzle for later. First thing’s first is to stabilize, sober up and clear our head. But we may need. Over half of alcohol use disorder patients report mental/mood problems. Other than the odd case of pink-cloud syndrome, both chaos in our life and brain function take a while to level of. Stabilizing naturally after 12-18 months of sobriety is common. Others fall under the dual-diagnosis umbrella, and we need some added help.</p> </li> <li> <h3>Unrealistic expectations</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Overcoming addiction doesn’t happen overnight. Moreover, the process isn’t what some people imagine it to be. Misconception can lead you to being hard on yourself, or quitting too early, :”I tried for a few days and I didn’t feel better.” A support system (family, treatment, mutual aid) as mentioned above, can make the difference when we are frustrated in early recovery. Education can play a pivotal role and do not underestimate talk-therapy; a problem shared is a problem halved. It doesn’t hurt to know someone else who’s been there, and models happy, healthy, sober life. It is one part science, one part social and the rest of living sober is art: Sometimes trying different things in needed to find what works best. There’s no prescribed “right” way or “wrong” way; we’re looking for what works for us to achieve sobriety.</p> </li>
</ol>
<p style="text-align: justify;">If you want to make your addiction recovery process more effective, join a peer support group. If you are an atheist or agnostic, you can attend secular Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Support groups can provide you with the opportunity to meet people with a common purpose who understand. Over 80 years ago, Bill Wilson, of Alcoholics Anonymous understood connection and it’s healing influence of one alcoholic talking to another, in a way that doctors, families and colleagues could not provide, “The feeling of having shared in a common peril is one element in the powerful cement which binds us.”</p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/6855058
2021-12-30T06:54:25-05:00
2022-01-13T23:06:08-05:00
4 Sober Positives for “Dry January” Newbies
<hr style="width: 40%; margin-left:0px; text-align:left; border-top: 1px solid #f1c40f;"><p style="text-align:justify; text-justify: inter-word;">Rebellion Dogs’ focus is on Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) and other addictions. Today, let’s welcome others in a discussion with all who consume alcohol and/or other recreational drugs.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify; text-justify: inter-word;">News Flash: pandemic life has led to 14% more alcohol consumption compared to pre-pandemic patterns. We’re not counting your empties in the recycling bin; we’re quoting from a recent study <sup>1</sup>. Before lockdown—from the downtown party crowd to suburban wine moms—Dry January has been a way to reverse the effects of overindulgence of the year before; a fresh detoxed start to 2022. If you do this annually, you know the benefits; If you’re a sober-curious first-timer, we understand, you have questions, maybe even concerns. Can you resist temptation; will sobriety be any fun? Drinking is interwoven with so many rituals from making or enjoying a meal, watching the game on TV, separating the workday from an evening of relaxation or recreation. If a sober month sounds like a jail sentence or something you don’t have the staying-power for, here are some affirmations for Dry January:</p>
<p style="text-align:justify; text-justify: inter-word;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/819b0fe69b98f992468e93c5236ba92530dcf5c5/original/dry-january.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p style="text-align:justify; text-justify: inter-word;">Have you calculated what you spend on booze or other recreational drugs? You don’t have to use all that January savings to pay debts; save some for something special. If you want to lose weight this year, sobriety will help; if you want to look better or feel better, mood can improve, and color can come to your face in just a couple of weeks of zero alcohol consumption. It will not surprise us if your sleep improves and energy increases.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify; text-justify: inter-word;">Remember that sobriety is a normal lifestyle for many—people you admire, for instance. Some movie stars and music celebrities are kicking it, now, straight-edge. Some because they’re healthier and more productive, others have been on the downside of addiction. It’s normal to have ambivalence about sober life; “Will I lose my mojo?” “Is life going to be boring?” “Am I going to be bored?” Plenty of sober people you know are not bored or boring us. Sans-alcohol has not been a provisional life; sobriety rocks. Those who became dependent on drugs and/or alcohol, they didn’t stop having stress and problems once they sobered up; they simply found new coping mechanisms. Partying sober may be uncomfortable at first but many high achievers in the entertainment business and around the corner from us are living sober. They may, or may not, broadcast it.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify; text-justify: inter-word;">If you went to Alcoholics Anonymous, they wouldn’t encourage you to think about how long January is, “Why don’t we do this sober thing in February; it’s a shorter month?” One Day At A Time is how alcoholics stay sober in AA. It’s not for the rest of our life; it’s for the rest of the day. She Recovers offers coaching and meetings, SMART Recovery has a sober toolkit, AA has suggested “Steps,” but plenty get by on the fellowship of others and the day at a time approach. If you have a sober buddy for the month, it’s like an accountability partner. Plan things together and check in with each other. Otherwise, you can go to a peer-to-peer group on Zoom or in person and find inspiration. Anyone can attend AA, if you have a desire to stop drinking, period. It’s not stop forever, and you don’t have to have been in detox or institutionalized with an official alcohol use disorder label. AA won’t ask you to fill out forms or swear off booze, forever. You can be as discrete or as anonymous as you want to be. But mutual aid groups are where the sobriety experts are; visit the meetings or read the literature online from any number of these peer-to-peer supports.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify; text-justify: inter-word;">You are going to be a tourist of sober living. What you learn and experience may inform your ability to help and/or be understanding of others. Being a tourist, we do things we wouldn’t do in our regular routine. We try new things outside our comfort zone. Being a tourist of the sober world will offer insights and it may help you form connections that could come in handy, for helping a loved one, a colleague or even yourself if drinking (or other drugs) ever really gets out of hand. If you find it difficult, that experience can help others; if you find it rewarding, same thing—your experience can help others.</p>
<ol style="list-style-position: outside;"> <li><b>I can focus on the benefits</b></li> <li><b>I can do this.</b></li> <li><b>I can borrow from the sober experts.</b></li> <li><b>By doing this, I exercise my empathy for others</b></li>
</ol>
<p style="text-align:justify; text-justify: inter-word;">Keep these affirmations or suggestions handy and try to get the most of sober life during Dry January. Visit <a href="https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/" style="color:#f1c40f;">Rebellion Dogs Publishing</a> for lists of resources, books, blogs, and podcasts to help you enjoy Dry January.</p>
<hr><p style="text-align:justify; text-justify: inter-word;"><sup>1</sup><a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2770975" style="color:#f1c40f;"> https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2770975</a></p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/6759983
2021-09-28T14:53:13-04:00
2023-12-10T11:58:10-05:00
Rebellion Dogs Blog Love and Tolerance is all you need or maybe all you need is less
<p style="text-align: center;">TOLERATE: </p>
<p style="text-align: center;">allow the existence, occurrence, or practice of (something that one does not necessarily like or agree with) without interference. accept or endure (someone or something unpleasant or disliked) with forbearance. </p>
<p style="text-align: center;">[The truth, according to Google.com] </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/ba9e596b0f414bee00df8210813cd51448d84de9/original/tolerance.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p><strong><a contents="READ as a PDF" data-link-label="Rebellion Dogs Blog 2021 September" data-link-type="file" href="/files/1144685/Rebellion%20Dogs%20Blog%202021%20September" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f1c40f;">READ as a PDF</span></a></strong></p>
<p>Unless I am kidding myself, I actively exercise my capacity for tolerance; it’s a value that I hold dear. </p>
<p>It’s a funny thing; I also crave connection (community), but I have these natural attractions and aversions. Other people—the objects of my <em>noble</em> tolerance—can be problematic when I’m driven (consciously or subconsciously) by what I want and what I don’t want. </p>
<p>Others, the very people I need for connection and community differ from me. While I practice my “meeting people where they are,” I am still list-making about their <em>they-ness</em>. They have differences and part of me, like it or not, focuses on keeping a tally of these differences. While I may be attracted to some of the difference—I may even envy them—there are irritants, differences that agitate me and awake within me, my grievances. </p>
<p>They want to talk about X. I am tired of X; “Why won’t you talk about Y or Z?” And why are they going on so long about it? So, how can I, “accept or endure with forbearance?” How do any of us? I want to expand my awareness of others, the world, and my role in life. Intellectually, I understand that to expand my view, I need to empathize with divergent views and styles. But at a deep level, I’m guarded and critical. </p>
<p>For me, to tolerate you, or for you to tolerate me, this is not a dynamic of equals. The <em>tolerator</em>, that being me or you, has built a power dynamic between us. By the way, it is a very unenforceable and imaginary power dynamic. Who am I to judge; who am I to lay claim to this higher status with the entitlement of casting my thumb up, or thumb down, to seal the fate of another? Maybe we both view each other through the lens of an imaginary, unenforceable class-system. I am the empowered who tolerates or does not. You are the subject of my tolerance/intolerance.</p>
<p>In this sense intolerance is controlling, but tolerating is, also. In our relationship, I'm the one setting, what Dr. Allen Berger calls, unenforceable rules. I rule on what's tolerable.</p>
<p>For several days I have been musing on something I read in a book I'm reviewing ahead of an upcoming Rebellion Dogs Radio show. This shines a different hue of light on the idea what tolerance is. Rev. Ward B. Ewing is an AA General Service Board chair emeritus. He served as a non-alcoholic trustee earlier this century. Based, in part on talks he gave and conversations he had with AA or about AA to the public, he was asked to write a book that articulates his unconventional views of spirituality - at leas for a reverend, perhaps. The book is: <em>Twelve Steps to Religionless Spirituality: The Power of Spirituality with or without God</em>. He credits a friend for a different look at what it means to tolerate others:</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/f36c80ec050a0527350b0bcef76a3f9f35598482/original/ward-b-ewing-12-steps-book.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" />"The culture of the A.A. groups I have experienced are remarkably consistent: a primary concern for the still-suffering alcoholic, an expectation that all be as honest and truthful as they are able, and love and tolerance for one another. A friend once said, 'Tolerance is the art of seeing yourself as others see you - and not getting mad about it.' The culture of tolerance and truthfulness is a powerful force that allows members to see themselves and their situation more clearly." (p. 67)</p>
<p>That's something isn't it? If I deem someone else, or someone else's view to be intolerable, if I unpack this, their worldview holds me and/or my worldview in a dimmer light that how I view myself. When I react to them, in large part, am I not reacting to their unfavorable view of me? And can I not see me as they do - empathize - and accept their equal right to a view or position as I hold? I'm not conceding they're right and I'm wrong. Instead I am affirming they see me, and/or my position, as inferior or threatening. So they are responding naturally, in accordance with their conditioning. Their response to a perceived threat isn't so different than my own knee-jerk reactions.</p>
<p>Example: I'm an atheist in an AA program where theism has primacy. Most people, not only believe in a prayer-answering, sobriety-granting supernatural power, but they believe said belief is responsible for their recovery and foundational to AA culture. So, I will hear, "If you're sober without god(s) you're not a real alcoholic; you're a problem drinker." Or they'll look at my AA group's artistic liberty or reading/interpreting the 12-steps in a godless, humanist language and they may say, "That's not AA; you can't call yourself an AA group," or the ever-popular, "Why don't you just leave AA and start your own fellowship if you don't like the god-stuff!?!"</p>
<p>So, this sort of criticism puts me in a light of having a half-measures approach or being combative. Or they extrapolate further and see me or my group as confusing newcomers about what the "real" AA is, watering down Alcoholics Anonymous, fixing what ain't broke, causing dis-harmony and threatening the longevity of AA as a whole. Well that's a lot. And if I can see myself as they see me, I have a degree of compassion. I don't want dis-harmony or threats to AA longevity; I want AA to be here for my grandchildren; they do also. So, this identification puts me on equal ground: two stewards of AA concerned for our future. In fairness, I have to deal with the fact I also see their reification of the AA message, literalism and insistance on uniformity over unity between divergent rituals and approaches, I see them as a threat to AA longevity and appeal to the next generation of newcomers to our fellowship.</p>
<p>So I have an opinion (not a truth) and so do they. We view each other with suspicion. But if I can channel empathy for how they see me, and that should be easy if I see them the same way, I can't hold contempt and empathy for them in the same moment. So can I focus on the empathy? Can I express my heart-felt empathy? And will that make discussion between us go better? </p>
<p>If I want this love and tolerance of others code to work, can I find success with less internal struggle? How about just love the other? I think love defuses barriers and facilitates connection between us. If I love you, I am at your service, I hold no power over you, only limited power over my choices and my reactions. If I love, I want to hear what you have to say. I want you to feel heard by me. How could I be irritated that you’re talking about “this,” even though I want to talk about “that”? You are beautiful just the way you are. </p>
<p>Love evokes curiosity—in a way that tolerance merely suspends my judgement. One focus is energetic and engaging; the other is constrained. Being open, the beginner’s mind is not judgmental. Certainly when I’m in love, I am not irritated with your choice of topics or your tone. Conversely if I’m trying to cultivate tolerance, I am starting with a hierarchy and I’m being judgy to boot. This imaginary barrier I’ve built between you and I is neither agreed upon nor am I entitled. It’s something I’ve constructed to—I don’t know—protect myself? Protection ostensibly is geared to get me what I want: safety. My safe space is a barrier, as well. I want connection. This barrier, protects but also circumvents my ability to enjoy the connection I also crave. Oh, and by the way, I may even be blaming you for my deprivation, because if only you talked about what I need/want to talk about, I wouldn’t be starved for connection. “What’s wrong with you?!?” </p>
<p>It’s laughable, maybe embarrassing, when I hold this reflex reaction up to the light for investigation. My tolerance mindset, protects me, yet it also keeps everyone else out. Alone instead of connected, I perpetually remain a hungry ghost. </p>
<p>I like the expression, “Why fight the darkness? Just shine your light.” </p>
<p>The construct of tolerance (trying to make myself more tolerant) is a form of fighting my own darkness. While freeing the love inside me is shining the light. Fighting causes friction, resistance, a need to win, a fear of loss. Love is vulnerable, agreed. But how many of the threats I fear are just imagined anyway? Love is also contagious. I am motivated when I love; maybe others around me get the same buzz and they open up, too.</p>
<p>Maybe tolerance is a fated word to start with; doomed to fail. Remember, I can change the word or phrase... the words won't mind. Maybe, "Love of others is our code" can be less effort and more effective. </p>
<p>We’ve all seen the chain-reaction, a shift in the tone in the room: We’re in our Zoom room, waiting for the meeting to start, airing our grievances, or whatever. Someone comes in and says, in an obviously trepidatious voice. “Excuse me, is this AA; have I found the AA meeting?” </p>
<p>We all stop talking. The silence is broken by someone saying, “You are in the right place; we are all addicts and alcoholics here. Welcome; what brings you here?” </p>
<p>Doesn’t that change the mood for everyone? The vulnerability of one reaching out, the love of another extending a hand... this is the contagion of love, the contagion of hope. We know about contagion; we’re in a fucking pandemic. But bad things aren’t the only things that spread. Goodness is infectious, also. </p>
<p>Say in a meeting, “Love and tolerance of others is our code.” </p>
<p>Deacons’ heads will bob with a reinforcing, “Yes, that’s true, as it is written in the <em>Big Book</em>.” </p>
<p>If less is more, how about “Love is my code”? </p>
<p>Why wasn’t that our AA code—four words instead of eight? Love doesn’t have to be "try to be more" tolerant because it’s fucking love for goodness’ sake. All love does is shine the light. All a loving heart does is see the light in others. </p>
<p>I don’t know the hows or whys. I imagine, based on my own pasty white male programming through life, standing up and saying, “Love is my code” (or “our code”) would make me feel naked, vulnerable to criticism and judgement. Adding “tolerance” makes me sound more cerebral. </p>
<p>“See, Joe’s not a flaky hippy; he used a word with three syllables; he’s so smart... and so well dressed.” </p>
<p>My word for the year 2021 is “relationships.” I’m thinking about my relationships, intimate relations, past, present, and future, my relationship with self, with ideas, thoughts, work, play, recovery. I have found, nine months in, that it’s not my relationship with you so much as my relationship with my relationship with you. What I mean by that is I have a perception, real, false or a bit of both. I don’t have intimacy with you, until I unpack my perception to my relationship with you. To borrow from Allen Berger who I spoke with on Rebellion Dogs Radio #63 this month: </p>
<p>“We call such an unspoken demand an unenforceable rule. This is a rule we make regarding how other people are supposed to act or feel, or how the world is supposed to work. We make this rule to make ourselves feel safe, and we make it regardless of whether we have any viable or honest way to enforce it.” 1<em>2 Essential Insights for Emotional Sobriety: Getting Your Recovery Unstuck</em>, p 24 </p>
<p>So, this is what I mean by “my relationship with my relationship with you.” What are my unspoken demands, expectations, or my unenforceable rules with you? These things create a barrier and, as Allen talks about on our radio chit-chat, from a Gestalt Therapy perspective, I have to first take ownership of the unspoken rules about relationship (how I think it should be) before I can get to the true nature of our relationship. I have all these assumptions about how you feel, what you want and need and even the nature of our relationship. </p>
<p>Sure it’s my word for the year, I pay attention to and meditate on relationships when I’m mountain climbing, when I’m riding my bike, right now, as a matter of fact. But “relationships” are a life-long journey of trial and correction. Coming to terms with my incompleteness helps me let go of my grievances about your incompleteness. </p>
<p>So, today I am thinking about my relationship with a long-held assumption, “Love and tolerance of others is our code.” Like everything in life I’m adjusting—for me—to make my life work better. </p>
<p>I know I’m not alone. I hear (or read) what you’re saying about what other people are saying on Facebook and in meetings. While aiming higher, I find myself irritated and intolerant of others' posts, others' reactions, others' opinions. I want to "enlighten" the dummies. "Save time, see it my way; namaste!" I read some of this into you and your "Facebooking at others," too. I recognize myself in you’re sick-and-tiredness of the preoccupations of others. I do it; I’ll do it again. I will forget to shine the light and I will feel burdened to fight the darkness. I aim myself for improvement and wellness, not for perfection.</p>
<p>Tolerance is hard work; I have limited tolerance for the discomfort of mustering the energy to tolerate. And what about tolerating the intolerable? Are there things that should never be tolerated, where empathy is not appropriate? So who gets to judge? Because if I'm thinking it of someone else; someone is thinking it of me, too. That’s why I’m going to focus on love. The positive energy of feeling love makes changing my relationship to love and tolerance of others (or myself) easier than white-knuckle tolerance. </p>
<p>Leaving the last words to The Beatles: </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/a0d5f3479cafccdbb41879950e680d71fbf58b35/original/all-you-need-is-love-sept-2021-blog.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" />There's nothing you can do that can't be done <br>Nothing you can sing that can't be sung <br>Nothing you can say, but you can learn how to play the game <br>It's easy </p>
<p>All you need is love </p>
<p>All you need is love </p>
<p>All you need is love, not love and tolerance </p>
<p>All you need is love. </p>
<p>Okay, so maybe I re-shaped The Beatles for my mantra; you can to or have it your way. </p>
<p>With love from Rebellion Dogs</p>
<p><a contents="Dr. Allen B and Joe C talk about Emotional Sobriety on Rebellion Dogs Radio #63" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/rebellious-radio/blog/exploring-the-fronteir-of-emotional-sobriety-with-dr-allen-bergere-on-eepisode-63" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f1c40f;"><strong>Dr. Allen B and Joe C talk about Emotional Sobriety on Rebellion Dogs Radio #63</strong></span></a></p>
<p>Take a look inside <a contents="12 Essential Insights for Emotional Sobriety" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://amzn.to/3ofJPkR" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f1c40f;"><strong><em>12 Essential Insights for Emotional Sobriety</em></strong></span></a> from <a contents="Amazon" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://amzn.to/3ofJPkR" target="_blank"><strong><span style="color:#f39c12;">Amazon</span></strong></a></p>
<p><a contents="Twelve Steps to Religionless Spirituality: The Power of Spirituality with or without God" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://amzn.to/3BvQtaA" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f1c40f;"><strong><em>Twelve Steps to Religionless Spirituality: The Power of Spirituality with or without God</em></strong></span></a> by Rev. Ward B. Ewing</p>
<p> </p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/6706378
2021-08-04T04:33:00-04:00
2022-04-29T07:40:33-04:00
What's with all the “God talk” in the atheists/agnostics AA meeting?”
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/07d53c812606d76b8cffe373819c0da7fd5b9fe9/original/rebellion-dogs-blog-fundamentalism.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p><span style="color:#f1c40f;"><strong><a contents="downloadable PDF copy of essay to read, print, share," data-link-label="2021-08-why-so-much-god-talk-in-secular-aa.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/1136856/2021-08-why-so-much-god-talk-in-secular-aa.pdf" target="_blank">downloadable PDF copy of essay to read, print, share,</a> </strong></span> :-D</p>
<p>First, most atheists and freethinkers AA meetings lean into the practical aspects of AA life, employed widely by 12-Step members, regardless of worldview.</p>
<p>If you are secular-curious—sincerely interested in atheist/agnostic Alcoholics Anonymous—be scientific, bring a beginner's mind to your curiosity about secular meetings. Hard and fast conclusions based on a single, or few, sample(s) can lead to either false-positive or false-negative evaluations. Consider sampling four or five secular meetings. Visit them with regularity over three or four weeks. Neophytes will find mostly rational, intuitive approaches to living sober, spoken in a contemporary language. Examples of 12-Step folk-wisdom and/or 12-Step philosophy are shared. While cliches and book-quoting are not forbidden, you’re not likely to find AA by rote (follow a list of instructions, in the order prescribed) or holy writ (a hierarchy or authoritative text). For instance there aren't many members one-upping each other with Bill W quotes like TV contestants competing in a game show. </p>
<p>However, if you only try a few (or just one) secular AA meetings, you may or many not hear some of the members venting or purging some of the time. Newcomers to secular AA, may have had negative AA experience and problems in AA as with problems in life, need to be talked about to be worked through. </p>
<p>Separate from this therapeutic venting, some meetings, some of the time may also have a burst of anti-theist campaigners, critical of popular AA ritualistic praying and theistic bias in AA meetings. Some atheists find AA’s faith-based recovery old-fashioned and superstitious. Sometimes—mostly before or after the meeting itself—there are animated cases made about incongruities in the book <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em> ,or how faith-healing AA language hurts our credibility and efficacy with reaching more of today’s people suffering from alcohol use disorder. This posture about overhauling all of AA isn’t extraordinary nor is it discouraged. How or why would we quiet these legitimate voices and concerns from AA discussion? The bulk of freethinkers and humanist AA are happy to be part of AA as a whole, recognizing and benefiting from AA’s evidence-based merits. Arguments about one worldview being superior to another is for another blog at another time. </p>
<p>Today, can we address personal experiences expressed in meetings about encounters with 12-Step fundamentalism, found in some meetings? Literalists and rigidity in a society isn’t particularly an AA problem; but neither is AA immunized from it. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/103c89ce0015e4599de07ec8a65ec7fb3aa2e52f/original/rebellion-dogs-blog-2021-aug-bobby-azarian.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" />Bobby Azarian, PhD, cognitive neuroscientist, agrees that moderate spiritual practice (like moderate drinking for people who can handle it) is part of overall wellbeing. But there is a dark side to extremes—“fundamentalist ideologies act like mental parasites” as expressed in <em>Psychology Today</em>: </p>
<p>“... fundamentalism—which refers to the belief in the absolute authority of a religious text or leaders—is almost never good for an individual. This is primarily because fundamentalism discourages any logical reasoning or scientific evidence that challenges its scripture, making it inherently maladaptive... </p>
<p>... fundamentalism is a parasitic ideology that inserts itself into brains, commanding individuals to act and think in a certain way—a rigid way that is intolerant to competing ideas. We know that religious fundamentalism is strongly correlated with what psychologists and neuroscientists call ‘magical thinking,’ which refers to making connections between actions and events when no such connections exist in reality. Without magical thinking, the religion can’t survive, nor can it replicate itself. Another cognitive impairment we see in those with extreme religious views is a greater reliance on intuitive rather than reflective or analytic thought, which frequently leads to incorrect assumptions since intuition is often deceiving or overly simplistic. ...”[i] </p>
<p><em>Psychology Today</em> refers to religious fundamentalism. True, AA isn’t a religion in an organizational sense, but AA does borrow axioms from formal religion. <em>Big Book</em> fundamentalism comes with very similar characteristics to the problem outlined above by Bobby Azarian. </p>
<p>Atheists new to AA will sometimes have no baggage to unpack if they efficiently find secular AA meetings, well suited to them. Apostates—people who were indoctrinated into the possibilities of a character defect removing higher power, and other “magical thinking”—might have spent years currying favor in seemingly “conform or be cast out” in-groups. People de-converting from the supernatural narrative of AA may need a longer, more involved, reframing process. </p>
<p>Keeping it real, people embracing a newfound supernatural faith in AA, while others outgrow their early AA higher power dependency is not extraordinary. This isn’t always traumatizing; it’s just part of the journey described on page 2 of conference approved <em>Living Sober</em>: </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/524eafc4a602a9e123bfa972b7430068bca3eb6b/original/living-sober.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJjb250ZW50LnNpdGV6b29nbGUuY29tIn0=/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" />“There is no prescribed A.A. ‘right’ way or ‘wrong’ way. Each of us uses what is best for [ourselves]—without closing the door on other kinds of help we may find valuable at another time. And each of us tries to respect others’ rights to do things differently.” </p>
<p>The <em>Living Sober</em> description of AA is the gentle opposite of fundamentalism. What Bobby Azarian referred to as “absolute authority” of “text and leaders,” is a subculture of AA, representing themselves as the true and one-way of AA. Some de-converting AAs know the fundamentalist rhetoric; they were themselves, <em>Big Book-</em>thumpers, conditioned to repeat AA gospel. <em>Living Sober-</em>thumpers: that is not a thing. While the 1939 <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em> eclipsed 40-million sales in 2020, the 1975 <em>Living Sober</em>, at 7 million sales, doesn’t provide the book pounding certainty of its predecessor. Seven million copies sold would be a convincing “voice of AA,” if not overshadowed by the<em> Big Book</em> million sales per year craze between 1987 and 2009 which left <a contents="Living Sober" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/pages/en_US/living-sober-pdf-format" target="_blank"><strong><em>Living Sober</em></strong></a> (click to read online free) in it’s dust. </p>
<p>Apostates may still be able to quote, “But there is One who has all Power—that One is God. May you find Him now!” In the return to—or transition from—magical thinking to critical thinking, some may feel betrayed, foolish or angry. Why shouldn’t they share their feelings and experiences? We know this process: connection, speaking, being heard. This helps reset one’s equanimity; a humanist, secular understanding of AA recovery and life replaces writ, “God could and would if He were sought.” </p>
<p>So, back to the click-bait title: “Why all the God (or anti-God) talk in a secular AA meeting?” For context, think about any AA meeting. Someone else might say of AA, “Why all the talk about drinking; isn’t AA about living in the solution?” </p>
<p>Yes, to both; talking about drinking, craving, and diminishing impulse control is part of talk-therapy healing and is living in the solution—especially for early recovery. Purging and reframing is not strictly 12-step mutual aid phenomena; here’s what Ellen Hendriksen, PhD says in <em>Psychology Today</em>: </p>
<p>“Discussing a painful experience can feel humiliating or terrifying. We think we’ll break down and never recover. We think that we’re the only ones to experience anything like it, and no one would understand. ... Even though it’s difficult, there are many reasons to talk about trauma. Whether with one heart-to-heart conversation or many ongoing discussions over time”[ii] </p>
<p>How does this psychology play out in 12-step meetings? There is still some mystery. An increase in randomized controlled examinations of aspects of AA reveal more. Researcher and professor, John Kelly talks to the <em>Harvard Gazette</em>: </p>
<p>“’Our findings are shedding light on how AA helps people recover from addiction over time,’ says Kelly. ‘The results suggest that social context factors are key; the people who associate with individuals attempting to begin recovery can be crucial to their likelihood of success. AA appears adept at facilitating and supporting those social changes. Further questions we need to investigate are whether particular groups of individuals — women or men, young or old people, those with or without accompanying psychiatric disorders — benefit from AA in the same or in different ways.’”[iii] </p>
<p>There’s nothing here in the clinical findings about a supernatural approach outperforming rational AA. The 21st century doctor’s opinion reveals that the social, or fellowship, factor is key—not one worldview over another. Do “particular groups of individuals ... benefit from AA in the same or in different ways”? In previous blogs we’ve mused about the Zoom effect on AA, on how subcultures find each other, and special purpose AA groups have thrived with the broad reach of Zoom. <em>Big Book</em> lovers are finding their own people but so are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color), LGBTQIA+, young people, irreligious AA members, etc. A safe, inviting environment can model prosocial behavior without forfeiting integrity or feeling guarded about minority characteristics (creed, gender, sexual-orientation, age, race, etc.). Over the last year (COVID-19), early days of wide-spread online peer to peer adaptation, increased the number of people finding recovery. Finding help from people who look, sound and live like us, helps.<strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>IN THE BEGINNING </strong></p>
<p>Before there was a book or Twelve Steps, part of Alcoholics Anonymous recovery process was talk-therapy. Talk-therapy, passed along for generations, early AA’s adopted this from the Oxford Group who were encouraging the process of open confession (sharing), in the 1930s, to help identify wrongs done and reparations needed, meditating on God’s will and what it means to live a more Christ-like life. Bill W recalls the early days in <em>AA Comes of Age</em>: </p>
<p>“The basic principles which the Oxford Groupers had taught were ancient and universal ones, the common property of mankind. Certain of the former O.G. attitudes and applications had proven unsuited to A.A.’s purposes ... But the important thing is this: the early A.A. got its ideas of self-examination, acknowledgement of character defects, restitution for harm done, and working with others straight from the Oxford Group and straight from Sam Shoemaker, their former leader in America, and from nowhere else.”[iv] </p>
<p>Today, we know talk-therapy regulates emotional wellbeing. Drilling down further, Science Daily describes this neurobiological process whereby, </p>
<p>“... cells of the nervous system and the organization of these cells into functional circuits that process information and mediate behavior.”[v] </p>
<p>Even the spiritual approach to recovery from addiction and/or trauma is now understood in neurobiological terms: </p>
<p>“The amygdala—the brain structure responsible for processing emotion and anxiety—demonstrates plasticity, and the purpose of therapy may be to allow the cortex to establish more effective and efficient synaptic links with the amygdala. A main feature of spiritual approaches is changing one's focus of attention. Instead of worry, one focuses on peaceful thoughts, thoughts of helping others, etc. Research demonstrates that thought, meditation, and other manifestations of mind can alter the brain, sometimes in an enduring way.”[vi] </p>
<p>So talk therapy, meditation, prayer, assisting other people with alcohol use disorder, and other AA customs are now corroborated, not only by folk-wisdom but also brain-science, not measurable at the time of AA’s early days. Our addictive patterns, our traumas suffered are overcome, in part by purging, sharing, talking it out, in a safe, healing environment of fellow sufferers at various stages of our recovery. Now, I used the expression, “traumas suffered,” and every person with alcohol or other substance use disorder suffers a number of indignities and compromises as we spiral down the addiction cycle. This ranges from isolation to abuse, from maladaptive coping mechanisms to enmeshment in chronic dysfunctional entanglements—“wreckage of our past” in recovery terms. We grieve the loss of our toxic but best friend, our drug of choice; emotions thaw just as we’re taking stock of the harmed relationships, legal, financial, or medical consequences, shame, guilt and embarrassments of our debauchery. </p>
<p>So AA talk releases the mounting pressure of our reluctant enlightenment. For some people with addiction, one entanglement that has to be worked through, is conflict with, or indoctrination into, religious (or other) fundamentalism. This may have happened before addiction. It may have happened, at a vulnerable time in our lives, in a 12-Step meeting. Some of the people in meeting preoccupied with “god-talk” are members who came up against AA fundamentalism. Yes, AA’s take what you like, leave the rest tenant isn’t fundamentalism. I’m talking about pathological and tyrannical control and corruption of the AA process. Magical thinking is an addiction, too. Like coffee and cigarettes, there’s some of that in AA. </p>
<p>Do people who are new to secular AA deserve our patience and tolerance as they purge to work through adverse encounters with religiosity? Maybe you “don’t want to listen to that crap,” and maybe you care and you identify, but it helps to reconcile how “god-talk” can be part of the healing process. </p>
<p>Being stigmatized or shamed as someone with substance use disorder is commonplace. </p>
<p>Trauma is an almost unavoidable side-effect of addiction, if not, a precursor. </p>
<p>Destructive self-talk, physical and psychic trauma from the humiliations and depravity of substance use chaos, this damage comes with the territory for people in early recovery. When we were in addiction, we were outsiders in the community, the non-addicted majority may see us as a threat, shun, fear or ridicule us. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/98c4346c5af4bd4132f2646eaa39d5e36e18831c/original/2021-08-04.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.png" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p>In 12-step recovery, the nonbeliever may also be or feel ostracized by the tyranny of the God-centered AA majority. “If you don’t find God, you won’t stay sober.” “If you don’t find a spiritual solution, you’re not a real alcoholic.” “I once believed as you believe; then I overcame my intellectual pride and asked help from God as I understand Him.” These are real statements that routinely get laid on struggling alcoholics who want sobriety but not conversion. Sure, lots of AA’s could care less what another believes. I don’t know what percentage of AA nonbelievers face microaggression or hostility or find the god-heavy text uninviting. But obviously, some do. And it’s easily overcome by purging and reframing. Secularphobia exists in society, so it exists within AA, obviously. Cross-talk can take the form of borrowed authority. A classic microaggression to someone who candidly dismisses faith in god, I call, and have been the subject of, the “Dr Bob’s Nightmare” maneuver: </p>
<p>“If you think you are an atheist, an agnostic, a skeptic, or have any other form of intellectual pride, which keeps you from accepting what is in this book, I feel sorry for you.”[vii] </p>
<p>When quoted to challenge an AA member’s dismissal of supernatural forces, this is weaponizing AA tools to put down or alienate nonbelievers. This is not what we call in AA, one alcoholic relating to another. This badgering and bullying isn’t motivating or supportive. Yes; I know... It’s meant to “save my life.” Isn’t this kind of insistence more about reinforcing your belief construct than trying to help another alcoholic? We don’t arrive at our first 12-Step meeting on a winning streak. Who isn’t already traumatized—if that’s too strong for you, how about vulnerable, or in a weakened state—when we first enter an AA meeting? </p>
<p>Secularphobic hostility or condescending rhetoric is not helpful, if it was even intended to be helpful. And when already vulnerable, such cultural insensitivity manifests as prejudice and how can it not leave a mark, which will need healing? </p>
<p>So we talk about it... some of the time, just like we may talk about any problem or impediment to joyful sobriety. A secular AA meeting is a safe place where nothing is sacred and nothing is forbidden so talk about any issue. </p>
<p>There is not a single atheist/agnostic personality type, so our personal relationships vary when dealing with our more religious AA members. Some of us embrace being an outsider, welcoming an opportunity to debate or challenging the norms. Some of us crave inclusion and avoid controversy; we don’t want to be treated as special—just equal—we don’t wish to offend anyone. Some have a long history of strife with religious persecution or dysfunctional hyper-religious pasts. Others never gave the notion of supernatural agency any thought until we heard it talked about so much in our first 12-Step meeting. Some of us, in the company of our faith-based 12-Stepers don’t mind or notice their higher power talk anymore than someone talking about what their Horoscope told them this morning. Others find the notion of God-dependent drunks praying for grace to be irritating or distracting. There are plenty of atheists who go to AA for sobriety and could care less that most of their fellow AA’s believe their “character defects” can only be overcome by an act of Devine providence. Others are offended by the superstitious and evangelical tone and can’t and won’t tolerate the religiosity that comes with many AA meetings, out of a strongly held, personal principle. Some atheists never consider AA’s “God could and would it He were sought,” premise or spend very little time trying what the well-intentioned folk suggest. Some atheists accept the AA ideology as a lesser evil than dying of alcoholism so they either buy-in and proselytize the good word of AA or we do a very good job of closeting our skepticism and dismissal of “Nothing is wrong in God’s plan” magical thinking. </p>
<p>So obviously, as believers come in every variety imaginable, so do rationalists. Our experiences have been different, our reaction to prejudice is a broad spectrum and hence, our needs will be different. Some can only go to secular 12-Step meetings out of principle, some like to spice it up with variety. Some will resent a meeting or person or book we haven’t been in direct contact with for weeks, months or years and we are stuck for a time in our re-feeling of anger and hurt until the “exorcism of the evil spirits” is silenced. And some of us love to talk about how much smarter we are than our superstitious half-wit, fellows. Others find any putting down of others distasteful and aggravates an otherwise pleasant day. </p>
<p>So if you are secular-curious and you don’t want to hear God-talk from heathens, you're not alone. Many of our long-time members have limited patience with people talking about what is NOT helpful and what they DO NOT believe. “Let’s talk about the solution—not the problem!” On the other hand, any of us who have gone to a 12-Step room, sincerely open to help in any form, only to have popular supernatural constructs and literature weaponized against you for holding a natural, rational worldview, maybe you want to talk about that experience, and you can. This is not an “outside issue” any more than sexism, homophobia, predation, racism or other exploitive or discriminatory practices. </p>
<p>Some of us talk nostalgically about our drug of choice for longer than others would, some of us are stuck emotionally for a time, some of us need to express sorrow and yes, even in a meeting with no Big Book in sight and no “God as you understand Him” being read, we need to talk through our negative experiences of 12-Step culture as a precursor to being free to benefit from 12-Step life. And some of us go off topic and talk about what “they” should do in “their” meeting to make AA more effective for “their newcomers.” Sometimes we will talk about how the General Service Office should change this or that, and impose those changes on every group. That probably wasn’t the meeting topic, either. As I oft’ say and am comforted when I hear it, “We’re all here because we’re not all there.” We are not saints; we are bound by a kinship of common suffering; our paths forward will be as individual as our thumb print. </p>
<p>What is “Traditional” AA? The secular AA approach has been practiced right from our beginning. </p>
<p>We don’t know how many people in AA literally believe they have been touched by the hand of a loving White God on a white cloud. We don’t know how many of the million+ AA’s sober over ten years went through all the Steps. Ask an AA deacon for clarification; there’s no risk of us telling you what you want to hear, you’ll hear what we want to hear. That may not get you closer to objective truth. Fyodor Dostoevsky spoke of the human condition how we... </p>
<p>“... love abstract reasoning and neat systematization so much that they think nothing of distorting the truth, closing their eyes and ears to contrary evidence to preserve their logical constructions.” </p>
<p>So the meeting-makers make it crowd will tell you, “How it (really) Works,” and the <em>Big Book</em> muckers will tell you something else, all of it based on objective reasoning from agreed upon facts—just ask us. </p>
<p>Checking the documentary records and not relying on what someone else said about how AA evolved, we see that human power in the form of wit, integrity and working together has always been working side by side with AA’s idea that only God can empower alcoholics to get/stay sober. </p>
<p>And in American’s very Christian biased culture, the tension between realists and people of supernatural faith has always been around; why would AA be any different? White, suburban <em>mansplaining</em> has frustrated attempts to accommodate underrepresented populations in AA since the start. The Traditions help encourage love and tolerance; AA has some nifty expressions, those Bill W nuggets, for example. The man who wrote the Big Book did nothing to reify it, casting it’s fate to the inevitable discount-bin heap of quaint, harmless, irrelevant texts. Bill Wilson, of course, was a seeker, experimenting with psychotropic drug therapies for alcoholism (LSD) and constantly urging AA to learn from our critics and prevent the tyranny of the majority from inflicting governance over group and individual inalienable rights. This has never been people who believe in gods vs. those whose faith is in practicality. The literalist’s augment to avoid a more contemporary narrative is that, “It’s always been this way; it works; don’t fix it if it ain’t broke!” </p>
<p>This view of how it always was doesn’t hold up against a close exploration of how it actually was. Bill W referred to Carl Jung as a father of Alcoholics Anonymous and in 1961, years after the infamous Roland Hazard therapy, the two would correspond. Jung would write about the dilemma of dipsomania/ alcoholism: </p>
<p>“The only right and legitimate way to such experience is, that it happens to you in reality and it can only happen to you when you walk on a path, which leads you to higher understanding.” </p>
<p>In his letter to Bill Wilson, January 30, 1961, Jung listed three ways addiction could be arrested: </p>
<ol> <li>You might be led to that goal by an act of grace </li> <li>Through a personal and honest contact with friends </li> <li>Through a higher education of the mind beyond the confines of mere rationalism. </li>
</ol>
<p>Jung saw the AA process, as exemplified by Rowland Hazard’s success as the second path. Long before the fascination with rat park experiments, Jung saw the life-altering impact of connection: a community that supported the addict with emotional support, community and prosocial modeling. As championed by Bill W and some AA historians, Jung recognized religious experience as a path to rehabilitation, too. Jung’s evidence persuaded him that the power of belief or the personal experience of supernatural Providence could heal an inflicted person, where science could not. Theology was not his area of professional expertise but as a man of science, he objectively accepted the evidence before him. Finally, a third path: internal agency. An inebriate or drug addict could devote themselves to education—not mere reason and logic but a broad higher education that we might assume includes philosophy and the examination of historical popular belief structures and intuitive awareness. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/9a8875500fc00e732db372c97e8d59b0b7d10111/original/aa-circle-triangle.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" />So Jung, while we don’t know what he believed, could see how faith in a God of Bill W’s understanding (or anyone else’s personal god concept) could be a game-changer for the seemingly hopeless. Jung was no more or no less convinced that irreligious humanism (connection) was sufficient agency. Also, for introverts maybe, committed self-agency was equal to the task if the inflicted devoted themselves to educational pursuits. In Jung’s own word to AA’s founder, 60 years ago, his findings were that there are multiple paths to rehabilitation from addiction: </p>
<p>“I am strongly convinced that the evil principle prevailing in the world, leads the unrecognized spiritual need into perdition, if it is not counteracted either with a real religious insight or by the protective wall of human community.”[viii] </p>
<p>Jung expressed to Bill Wilson that he was frustrated with being misunderstood and misrepresented. I don’t know if Bill W, being brought into his confidence, did a better job than anyone else expressing Jung’s complex and multifaceted view of addiction, recovery, and the human experience. I don’t know if I have a grasp of Jung’s wider views and what he meant by his ideas of personal unconsciousness that houses material beyond our awareness and that connection to the deeper and greater collective unconscious of latent memory traces from our ancestral past—something he proposed was shared with all humanity.[ix] . </p>
<p>I wonder if the many who “think Jung” really understand Jung. He held some very complex theories up for the world for our benefit. But did we understand the insight/views Jung offered us? </p>
<p>Some of the reason that tension has built up between believers and nonbelievers in AA is a false narrative (alternative facts) about how, in the good old days of AA, it was always about God’s grace; human power didn’t work. Self-will was an impediment. AA’s history is rich with atheist success stories that suggest otherwise. </p>
<p>Fundamentalists are trying to preserve a purity of approach that never existed in the era they insist on replicating. Literal interpretation of Alcoholics Anonymous has, in some meetings, moved from “suggested” to what <em>Psychology Today</em> describes as, “belief in the absolute authority of a religious text or leaders.” And as Dr. Azarian illustrates, like religious dogmatism, AA fundamentalism is toxic to freethinkers and the increase in fundamentalism—not the increase in secular AA—has led to a spike in agnostics and atheists needing some time to talk through their early AA experiences. </p>
<p>The world gets more secular; the fundamentalists get more dogmatic and the secularphobic hostility endured today causes undue suffering on both sides. Literalists are trying to return AA to an era that never existed, as they describe it. </p>
<p>Another facet of AA indoctrination by our stricter, more “by the book” members has been, what a newer member from a suburban <em>Big Book</em> loving AA community referred to as the ratcheting up of dogmatic rhetoric. The description was a tough love getting tougher over time as the next generation of <em>Big Book</em> sponsor aims to impress, not the newcomer they work with, but their peers, their sponsor and their sponsor’s sponsor. Is “hazing” too strong a term to use for our more zealous acts of fundamentalism? </p>
<p>“Hazing—the abuse of new or prospective group members—is a widespread and puzzling feature of human social behavior, occurring in divergent cultures and across levels of technological complexity.”[x] </p>
<p>From the <em>Journal of Cognition and Culture</em> (2011) study uses the word “widespread;” so has this severity of indoctrination crept into AA culture? </p>
<p>We hear about hazing rituals in sport and post-secondary education fraternities. We also hear about a growing movement to counter or “out” this practice within these organizations. Hazing has been defined in Garret’s Law to include emotional harm, humiliation, intimidation or coercion into demeaning acts contrary to the subject’s values.[xi] </p>
<p>Our working definition for fundamentalism, from <em>Psychology Today</em> includes, “to act and think in a certain way—a rigid way that is intolerant to competing ideas.” This intolerance to competing ideas, and growing demographic of irreligious newcomers, could lead to a ratcheting up: an increase, a repetition in small increments over time. What signs are there that fundamentalist AAs may be getting more mean-spirited or hyperbolic with atheist newcomers? There is the <a contents="White Paper on Non-believers" data-link-label="The White paper on Non-believers[1].pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/73325/The%20White%20paper%20on%20Non-believers%5B1%5D.pdf" target="_blank"><em>White Paper on Non-believers</em></a>[xii] written by charismatic circuit speaker, Sandy Beach. He certainly raised the temperature for skeptical newcomers as he stated that AA General Service was wrong to ever allow agnostic and atheist AA groups into the fold because our brand of “watered down AA was killing real alcoholics.” The way he saw it and sold it to others was: </p>
<p>“In a not too subtle way, the idea is being advanced that we could make our Fellowship more ‘inclusive’ if we put ‘God’ in the background and let outsiders think that spirituality in A.A. was ‘optional’. This would enable so-called ‘non-believers’ to enter A.A. with the assurance that they could easily get sober and keep their current beliefs. I would rather hear about serving beer at meetings than diminishing God’s central role. ... there seems to be a trend at some meetings to encourage discussion of components of sobriety such as unselfishness, forgiveness, understanding, love, patience, etc. without any reference to God. ...A.A. cannot be hurt by anything occurring outside of the Fellowship. Our only danger will always lie within. Since the very survival of the A.A. vessel is dependent on our collective relationship with a loving God as He expresses Himself to us, a critical leak such as this must be repaired and sealed as soon as possible. ... in A.A. we are shown how to achieve contact with a God. Our literature makes it perfectly clear that this is A.A.’s only way to truly overcome the disease of alcoholism. ... </p>
<p>In order to feel comfortable to talk freely about their philosophy with others who felt the same way, they started agnostic/atheist groups, which they felt was appropriate for them to do. The discussion by A.A. to sanction, not object to, the formation of such groups calling themselves A.A. was never seriously discussed or debated. It was simply accepted as matter of courtesy. Arguments for not accommodating them were never examined. The Fellowship has a hard time saying no to anyone. The increasing influence within A.A. of the philosophy of ‘Sobriety without God’ or it’s second cousin, ‘Sobriety without mentioning God’ has become a very troubling presence...” </p>
<p>This 22-page anti-atheist rant is only part of the AA legacy left behind when Richard “Sandy” Beach died in an AA meeting at age 83 in October 2014 in Florida. Only a month later we held the first International Conference of Secular AA (then called “We Agnostics and Freethinkers International AA Conference”) and, who knows—the stress of that news might have done him in. But again, this manifesto to rid AA of the scourge that is secular AA is a dark blip on a resume of helping AA members, coining the still infamous phrase about his old lifestyle like swimming while carrying a heavy rock. His “Drop the rock” talk in 1976 has grown into quite a thing. He has a number of YouTube AA talks that I enjoy and I am sure, would offend very few. He was loved; people credit their sobriety and second chance to life back to a kindness or turn of phrase from Sandy Beach. He was influential and he is a contributing factor to what was a growing secularphobic fear for AA’s survival which could certainly be a contributing factor to a ratcheting up of microaggression and anti-atheist sentiment among his fundamentalist worshipers. </p>
<p>Cocaine Anonymous is a very <em>Big Book</em> focused movement that opens <em>Big Book</em>ism to any addict with any affliction. They don’t care what the malady is; the solution is the <em>Big Book</em>. And to hold that idea in a literal understanding isn’t a very friendly path for people with approaches to AA outside the 400 God-references over 164 pages <em>Big Book</em> language. Language borrowed from treatment centers, neuroscience, ideas like empowerment, secular views of the AA process, none of these are anywhere to be found in the good book, <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em> so therefore spoken of as “watered down AA,” suggesting inferior approaches with inferior outcome rates. </p>
<p>Again, Cocaine Anonymous members help many people find sobriety and I support their efforts. They help people that you or I might not be able to reach; excellent. Some of the people they can’t help and don’t help find their way to secular AA meetings having felt ridiculed, dismissed and/or intimidated into conformity to their way of talking and strict reading regimen. What we hear is they didn’t feel the inclusive, never exclusive tenet of AA at work. The pitch might have been that if they are a “real alcoholic” only an act of God can relieve their alcoholism. We watered down AAers, all just “heavy drinkers” who think we’re “real alcoholics,” what we say, and the AA we espouse, is killing that real alcoholic that only the <em>Big Book</em> and a <em>Big Book</em>-sponsor can help. </p>
<p>Is that “hazing”? I don’t know; that might be too strong a term. But it does suggest that there has been an increasing edge and mean-spiritedness that comes with AA fundamentalism. And while the whys and the hows are subjective and debatable, there does seem to be an AA extremism that leaves freethinkers feeling hurt or scared or pissed off with AA as a whole because of negative experiences. </p>
<p>So they share and others in secular AA meetings relate—we may even share our own story about a “my way or the highway” ultimatum that left us feeling we could have sobriety or integrity but not both. We talk about it and we move on, just like we talk about our drinking escapades and we move on. As Ellen Hendrickson said about the benefits of talking about our humiliating or disheartening encounter with fundamentalism in AA, “Even though it’s difficult, there are many reasons to talk about trauma. Whether with one heart-to-heart conversation or many ongoing discussions over time.” </p>
<p>And then we move on. </p>
<p>Secular AA is a growing subculture while AA as a whole has had dormant growth for over 30 years. There was a handful of meetings for atheists and agnostics at the turn of the century and there are several to choose from now, over 16 hours of secular AA gatherings every day. </p>
<p>For the most ardent fundamentalist they see an existential threat in a growing humanist voice in AA. Secular AA—as well as, not instead of—"by the Big Book” AA is a better path, or choice of paths, forward, to meet the needs of today's and future generations of persons with alcohol use disorder. That’s AA purity: always inclusive never exclusive. To each, their own. Or in Bill W vernacular, “Imagine if you will, one alcoholic judging another.” The perceived threat is what is causing the added tension. This escalating tension creates a greater need for a growing number of secular-minded AA members, who get confronted by this one-way-AA rhetoric, needing for vent and decompress from the inhospitality from AA’s more zealous faction. This is hopefully just a growing pain as AA’s gateway widens. Higher Powered AA is better understood as a way that works, that is popular, but is not the only way that yields positive outcome rates. Collectively, AA stumbled with accepting women, African American, LGBTQ+ and young AA members. But we overcame our fear and prejudice before, we will surely evolve and improve once more.<strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>Why does discrimination happen in a society that is intended to help everyone who wants to get/stay sober? </strong></p>
<p>Part of this is human nature. The narcissism of small differences is always at work in our subconscious, seeing how others differs vs. embracing what we have to gain by a variety of styles and personalities in our community. All of our closely held beliefs are delicate constructs, and we are protective of real and perceived threats. It’s true that secular AA members can feel just as superior or more evolved than believers. There is potential for the arrogance of theistic fundamentalism; both atheists and agnostics can feel just as superior and act just as unkindly to others. </p>
<p>Both of our co-founders, one in New York, one in Akron, are as susceptible as any of us of intolerance which is really just a manifestation of fear. Bill and Bob were as human as any of us. Remember, the same Dr. Bob that offered the anthem for spiritual arrogance: if you don’t believe as I believe, you are ill-equipped and I feel sorry for you, was the man who brought, “Love and tolerance is our code,” to AA’s official canon. Bill walked back on his spiritual exclusivity as best he could in the second printing of <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em> in Appendix II: “The Spiritual Experience” expanding the AA breakthrough to either supernatural or educational (religious or rational). Both Dr. Bob and Bill are on record for showing leadership and influence in including all underrepresented minorities, including our early African American, female, gay and lesbian members, etc. </p>
<p>While people of both poles of belief constructs are just as susceptible to being petty or intolerant, there is a balance of power issue when it comes to minority views vs. majority views. Systemic discrimination is always found in democratic societies, like AA, that have majorities and minorities. What AA calls “taking regular inventory” can foster corrective measures when tyranny of the majority interferes with minority rights to equality. Concept V talks to guarding against the negative impact that impulsive, ill-informed, angry or hasty majorities can have in corrupting a society. </p>
<p>Unchecked intolerance is potentially damaging. But AA does have checks and balances. </p>
<p>For instance, The White Paper on Non-believers did have a harmful influence for a time. Agnostic/Atheist AA groups have been threatened with expulsion and discriminated against. Godless AA’s growth in popularity is a perceived—not a real—threat. The growth of alternative worldviews threatens the primacy that majority beliefs hold and when we are afraid, we project our fear, dark imaginings for the society we love and depend on fill our heads and makes us susceptible to rash and regrettable words and deeds. </p>
<p>The law of unintended consequences will see to it that societies are better—not worse—after such skirmishes. Groups were actually excluded from meetings lists, hostility reached a boiling point and two things happened. Reconciliation from the larger AA society, in the form on increased secular recovery literature, welcoming nonbelievers and legitimizing our approach to recovery as rights-bearing equals, not “watered down AA.” More impactful is what’s happened on a grassroots level. Members of AA reacted to the injustice by either starting or supporting more and more secular groups. The rate of growth of agnostic and atheist AA has increased—not decreased—since the writing of the White Paper and the excommunication of some groups that followed. </p>
<p><strong>What does healing/resolution look like? </strong></p>
<p>That’s a good question to be asking; we are all about living in the solution. How severe was the discrimination suffered? How often and/or how extreme the indignity was will have a bearing on becoming centered and whole again, how involved corrective action is, or how long resolution takes. </p>
<p>If you were merely put off by an approach to AA that is incongruent with your worldview and needs, finding a secular meeting, or any more liberal 12-Step or other (non-fundamentalist) meeting will provide that better fit. We “find our people” where we are encouraged in approaching AA in accordance with your own beliefs and values. </p>
<p>For any of us who find ourselves more deeply hurt by the experience, we may ruminate or withdraw or be angry and revengeful. What are our recovery resources? Meditation, writing it out, talking it out, these solutions have worked before for similar problems. Reframing, for some of us may help give lasting value in seeing the humanity in others. Are they evil, or merely afraid? Do they have power over me, or are they just a perceived threat? Ultimately, some of us can settle on the resolution that people who have harmed me, may have been well intended, are 99% the same as me, sharing many of the same values and hold many of the same attributes. </p>
<p>“Live and let live” has been a longstanding AA axiom for a reason... it’s in constant demand. </p>
<p><strong>Why do we hear so much about secular AA, now? </strong></p>
<p>Before books or AA orthodoxy, AA was one alcoholic talking to another, utilizing anything that helped, in or outside the AA meeting. Secular AA format, according to we agnostics and atheists, is the real old-school Alcoholics Anonymous: fellowship and connection... one alcoholic, talking to another. Largely in response to demographic shifts, there is a greater demand—and supply—of humanist AA. Instead of prayer and theology, freethinkers offer a contemporary AA lexicon, reason and empowerment. Let’s talk about 2021 doctor’s opinions, neuroscience, medicine, mindfulness meditation, citizenry, exercise, and wellness. This—not god-talk—is what is actually being discussed at most secular AA meetings. </p>
<p>Zoom is not a stopgap, second rate means of connection. It’s a way to reach more people more of the time. The integration of podcasts, Online workshops, and hangouts, along with 16 hours a day of atheist/agnostic AA gatherings, are creating a surge or recovery dates since the pandemic struck, without face-to-face meetings. </p>
<p>Secular AAs also look forward to face-to-face meetings, again; there are cautious plans for the 4th biennial conference for ICSAA, the International Conference of Secular AA. This, according to our plan, will be in-person, in Washington DC October 29th, 30th and 31st, 2021. (<a contents="https://aasecular.org" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://aasecular.org/fourth-biennial-international-conference-of-secular-alcoholics-anonymous-2021/" target="_blank"><strong><span style="color:#f39c12;">https://aasecular.org</span></strong></a> for details). </p>
<p>Again not either/or, but “yes, and...” Online AA has made it easy to dispense with dated meeting rituals and welcome a new generation to recovery seeking AAs. And Millennials and Gen-Z are learning the ropes from others sober without theology for days, weeks, years and decades of sober living. </p>
<p>That’s what we’re talking about in meetings; AA history is evolving and it’s never been a better time to find sobriety with the variety of programs to choose from, the greater diversity within AA and the mediums of sharing and taking in the message of recovery :-) </p>
<p>[i] <a contents="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mind-in-the-machine/201810/how-religious-fundamentalism-hijacks-the-brain" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mind-in-the-machine/201810/how-religious-fundamentalism-hijacks-the-brain" target="_blank">https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mind-in-the-machine/201810/how-religious-fundamentalism-hijacks-the-brain</a> </p>
<p>[ii] <a contents="https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/how-be-yourself/201903/5-reasons-talk-about-trauma" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/how-be-yourself/201903/5-reasons-talk-about-trauma" target="_blank">https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/how-be-yourself/201903/5-reasons-talk-about-trauma</a> </p>
<p>[iii] <a contents="https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/09/what-makes-aa-work/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/09/what-makes-aa-work/" target="_blank">https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/09/what-makes-aa-work/</a> </p>
<p>[iv] AA World Services, Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age: a brief history of A.A., p 39 </p>
<p>[v] <a contents="https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/neurobiology.htm" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/neurobiology.htm" target="_blank">https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/neurobiology.htm</a> </p>
<p>[vi] <a contents="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08854720903451055" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08854720903451055" target="_blank">https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08854720903451055</a> </p>
<p>[vii] <a contents="“Doctor Bob’s Nightmare,” Alcoholics Anonymous" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/en_bigbook_personalstories_partI.pdf" target="_blank">“Doctor Bob’s Nightmare,” Alcoholics Anonymous</a>, p 181 </p>
<p>[viii] Dr. Carl Jung’s Letter To Bill W., Jan 30, 1961 – https://silkworth.net/alcoholics-anonymous/dr-carl-jungs-letter-to-bill-w-jan-30-1961/</p>
<p>[ix] Beard Brady, Edith, et al, Psychology Themes and Variations 6th Edition Belmont CA: Thomson Waldsworth, 2004 p.486 </p>
<p>[x]<a contents="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233626429_The_Evolution_of_Hazing_Motivational_Mechanisms_and_the_Abuse_of_Newcomers" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233626429_The_Evolution_of_Hazing_Motivational_Mechanisms_and_the_Abuse_of_Newcomers" target="_blank">https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233626429_The_Evolution_of_Hazing_Motivational_Mechanisms_and_the_Abuse_of_Newcomers</a> </p>
<p>[xi] <a contents="https://deanofstudents.umich.edu/article/what-hazing" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://deanofstudents.umich.edu/article/what-hazing" target="_blank">https://deanofstudents.umich.edu/article/what-hazing</a> </p>
<p>[xii] <a contents="The White paper on Non-believers[1].pdf" data-link-label="The White paper on Non-believers[1].pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/73325/The%20White%20paper%20on%20Non-believers%5B1%5D.pdf" target="_blank">The White paper on Non-believers[1].pdf</a></p>
<p>[xiii] <a contents="Twelve Concepts of World Service BM-31 - The A.A. Service Manual combined with Twelve Concepts for World Service - by Bill W. (aa.org)" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://%5Bii%5D%20Twelve%20Concepts%20of%20World%20Service%20BM-31%20-%20The%20A.A.%20Service%20Manual%20combined%20with%20Twelve%20Concepts%20for%20World%20Service%20-%20by%20Bill%20W.%20(aa.org)" target="_blank">Twelve Concepts of World Service BM-31 - The A.A. Service Manual combined with Twelve Concepts for World Service - by Bill W. (aa.org)</a></p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/6676301
2021-07-01T14:59:58-04:00
2022-03-19T06:47:48-04:00
The Second Coming of Alcoholics Anonymous by David G. (July 2021 blog)
<p> Rebellion Dogs is pleased to welcome guest-journalist, David G. Few will doubt, reading his account of the new Millennial era of AA - Online sobriety, he is specially placed to comment on AA's transition of the AA meeting medium to computer and mobile device meetings, program and sponsorship. Please enjoy, as we have, this global overview of COVID-19 recovery including commentary and resources ...</p>
<p>Read/view/download in <a contents="PDF format" data-link-label="rebellon-dogs-blog-2021-july-second-coming-of-aa-by-david-g.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/1131916/rebellon-dogs-blog-2021-july-second-coming-of-aa-by-david-g.pdf" target="_blank"><strong><span style="color:#f39c12;">PDF format</span></strong></a></p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/8c8881a3ddd86832c1081b8efa92b93e80e5b064/original/2021-07-rebellion-dogs-blob-by-david-g.jpeg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpeg" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p>As the world witnessed the cogs of the great machine grind to a halt, and as each country surrendered to its own lockdown; human beings realized that science fiction was becoming a fact. A great plague was upon us. We were locked into government-enforced isolation. We suddenly found ourselves forced into living a totalitarian-like existence. Fortunately, our more friendly version of Big Brother allowed us certain luxuries that would make a long-term stay in our individual prisons much more comfortable: we had Netflix, online hobbies, takeaway deliveries, and mountains of booze. There was always a wall to paint, a garden to dig, a musical instrument to learn, and now one could work from home. It was truly the Apocalypse-Lite. </p>
<p>For most folks, lockdown was an inconvenience. Most would get through it, and soon hop back on the treadmill—back to those lovely comfortable routines. However, for one section of society the prospect of an extended disconnection from their community was most definitely akin to a Bible-esque end-of-days scenario. Members of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) were in a state of panic. All around the world, voices could be heard bouncing off the walls in the thousands of church halls, community centers, and rehab clinics where an estimated two million AA members met regularly to stay sober. These face-to-face gatherings had always been the cornerstone of maintaining long-term sobriety. The meetings were a foundation of the AA program and integral to once-seemingly hopeless alcoholics defusing their addiction to alcohol. Jackie, an AA member from England, vivid recollections of the days leading up to the lockdown, </p>
<p>“I remember being extremely angry with the lockdown, and for a while, I had forgotten a basic tenet of recovery, that anger is just a mask for fear. I’d been sober since 2001, and that’s largely because I’d been regularly attending face-to-face AA meetings every week since then. I went even more often when times were tough. Lockdown without meetings was unthinkable. I was very anxious.” </p>
<p>Across the world in Texas, William W, sober since 1972, says it was the same in the USA, </p>
<p>“There was tremendous fear. There was anxiety. For those in AA whose reliance is on attending meetings, it really showed their level of concern was extreme. In fact, their level of concern, concerned me a great deal.” </p>
<p>While the formats of AA meetings differ in many places, the essential workings of the standard meeting had been based upon each alcoholic describing their drinking escapades to each other and then, importantly, how they got sober. By sharing their experience of gaining recovery, the attendee somehow could receive a reprieve from the killer craving for alcohol. The AA community had been forged by a mutual sincerity and focus on staying sober. Like survivors of a shipwreck marooned on a desert island, AA members had always put aside their differences and helped each other to survive. Camaraderie and fellowship had always been the essence of AA. That connection was not just during the meetings. To millions of ex-drunks hanging out and going to coffee with each other after the meeting closed had always been almost as important as the formal meeting itself. The bonds that these drunks had formed, by sitting close to each other, looking in each other’s eyes and voicing their feelings had always been the milk and honey of sobriety. Yet now this utopian existence was about to crumble. A prolonged lockdown—isolation from each other—posed a mortal threat to their lives, or at the very least, their sanity. For AA members and their families, the Apocalypse was upon them - and it was real. </p>
<p>In March 2020, faced with fellowship famine and dangerously prolonged, white-knuckled sobriety, a sense of horror and fear filled the final AA gatherings. In those last days of face-to-face meetings, in between the wailing and woe, a peculiar new word was starting to get a few mentions…something called “Zoom” was peppering discussions. William W says the first reference he heard about Zoom was in March 2020, just after the lockdown started, </p>
<p>“I’d presented important new material at an AA convention in Louisiana and the woman who organized it encouraged me to try doing future workshops by Zoom, but I was reluctant and fearful of the technology.” </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/abb40f335ceda2ec219d5b0efb2eeded20f1e6c8/original/aa-fourth-edition-first-printing.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJjb250ZW50LnNpdGV6b29nbGUuY29tIn0=/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="" />As with any community, there are those who resist change, and because Zoom meetings were video meetings, or meetings conducted on computers, it was regarded by some as impure and not AA. Yet, this was not true as many were to discover. In fact, Zoom was pure AA. In the forward to the Fourth Edition of AA’s “Big Book” <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em>, there is a clear reference to online meetings as having equal effectiveness as face-to-face meetings.[i] Written back in the early days of the internet when one’s computer made squeaky noises when it connected to the web, this endorsement was possibly one of the most important and prescient paragraphs ever written in AA literature. Zoom was allowed, and it worked. </p>
<p>Emilio M from Brooklyn, New York was instrumental in setting up early AA Zoom meetings; and he says that even with an endorsement by AA, there was still resistance to going online, </p>
<p>“Many of us knew what the implications of a lockdown would mean for AA, so we started to discuss the setting up a Zoom account, but several members thought there was no need as the lockdown would never happen, or if it did would only last a few weeks. How wrong they were.” </p>
<p>At first glance, the Zoom format resembled the opening credits to 1970’s TV series The Brady Bunch. The viewer sees a grid of faces in boxes and can hear what these faces speak. </p>
<p>Still, even as Zoom grew in popularity, the general wisdom in AA was that video meetings did not, and would never EVER compare to face-to-face meetings even though this thesis had not been tested by those in the know. Fortunately, there were enough tech-savvy forward-thinking members, like Emilio, who could see how this Zoom thing might just save the AA day. </p>
<p>As the first days of isolation began, there was a torrent of Zoom adoptions. In frantic phone calls between members, favors and tips were exchanged. Word spread like a highly contagious disease, </p>
<p>“Alcoholics stay sober on Zoom!” Emilio recalled, “getting phone calls and emails from members asking about Zoom and how to get a meeting set up. Most people had no idea about Zoom; but as the reality of our situation became obvious, they were desperate to start a meeting.” </p>
<p>The new Gold Rush was on. AA members stayed sober. The Zoom Company made a fortune in the process[ii]. The trickle soon became a raging torrent. Zoom would go on to change the face of AA forever—and many other 12-step fellowships. It was a revolution in sobriety. </p>
<p>With the wholesale adoption of Zoom meetings came a plethora of new challenges that again, forced AA to adapt. The basis of the early trouble was that very few AA members had any understanding of which buttons to push or how to administrate a Zoom meeting. Often meetings would begin, and no-one knew how to unmute themselves or turn their cameras on. Minutes of silence would ensue as the blind led the blind, and the silence was deafening. Generations of alcoholics who in years gone by, had steadfastly refused to get involved with the internet and all its machinations, were suddenly forced to swim in a deep pool. Their learning curves were Everest-like in scale, and they had to climb fast! Virginia P from California said, </p>
<p>“Everyone heard I knew how to use Zoom, and I was inundated with calls about how to connect, find meetings, and use devises from laptops, iPads, and even cell phones. Many people were baffled. Some adapted quickly, and others struggled calling at all hours of the day and night.” </p>
<p>While alcoholics struggled with the technology, the predators came hunting. AA folks were not the only people who discovered the delights of Zoom. Bored and locked at home, teenagers, who were highly proficient at the internet and all its mysteries, found great pleasure in launching coordinated attacks on AA meetings. Like lambs to the slaughter, AA folks found that without security systems in place these Zoom bombers could literally take over the controls of any unprotected Zoom meeting. In the early months of the Zoom movement, many meetings were invaded by an international horde of porn-wielding, misogynist, homophobic and racist intruders hell-bent on causing as much offence as possible. Innocent participants found their screens suddenly filled with hard-core pornography and speakers blazed with death metal haze. With the waves of panic caused by the Zoom bombers, the whole Zoom adventure was in danger of ending as many AA members left online meetings in disgust, vowing never to return. </p>
<p>“I think the fear was a double whammy combination of the sudden isolation and being confronted with a disruption to a place of former safety,” says Emilio.” You have to remember that up until this point, members felt safe in their old face-to-face meetings. The most trouble members would see in a typical AA meeting held in a church basement was the odd argument between members or a drunk interrupting the meeting. Zoom bombing took disruption to new levels.”</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/fa69429964b6d3abae5fe5c69e0a4d71ee8857b5/original/zoombomb-1200x600-1.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /> </p>
<p>Walter S from the USA recalls how shocked he was at the first bombing, </p>
<p>“I saw things I really didn’t want to see. There was a lot of hard-core graphic porn, straight and gay, that was being beamed right into the homes of people with pretty tranquil lives. That rocked a lot of people, and then there was a lot of use of the ‘N’ word.” </p>
<p>Fortunately, AA adapted. Members started to organize teams of security to keep meetings protected. One of the most important facets of AA’s program, for the alcoholic in recovery, is committing to a service position in a meeting. For example, traditional service might entail an individual stacking the chairs when a meeting ends, or making cups of coffee for members, or buying AA literature for the new member who has just come to their first meeting after a cataclysmic drinking spree. Suddenly these service positions morphed into on-line guises: security teams would scour the meetings for unwelcome guests, or folks might be allocated the role of greeting new Zoomers to the meeting. As this transition occurred, the online fellowship grew. Two months after lockdown started, thousands of meetings from across the world were now on Zoom. </p>
<p>At the beginning of lockdown, members stayed Zooming in their local area, but with the introduction of AA Zoom Meetings Global List, members started to travel outside their geographical location through the wonder of Zoom. They left the country and went to Russia, Iceland, Alaska, Australia, Argentina, Scotland, and Kenya. They heard stories and wisdom from all corners of the world, many they had not heard before. Like many others, Walter S was an early Zoom jetsetter that travelled the world from the luxury of his couch, </p>
<p>“A friend gave me a list of meetings in the UK, so I immediately zoomed over to a small meeting in Aberystwyth in Wales. I was shocked at how great the meeting was. I still attend this meeting a few times a week, also a meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland and another in Newcastle in Australia.” </p>
<p>As Virginia from California recalls, </p>
<p>“I found an English-speaking meeting in Iceland, and my adventure was on. I, not only still regularly attend the meeting in Iceland, but I journey all over the world. It has enhanced my recovery to the tenth power!” </p>
<p>Suddenly, Facebook directories and website pages began to spring up, listing thousands of AA Zoom global meetings. Zoom AA meetings were in full flight. Non-stop, 24 hour Zoom AA marathon meetings appeared, where members could attend any time, day, or night from anywhere in the world (including a women’s only meeting—The Women’s International Marathon). Every day brought new challenges, such as when Zoom introduced passwords as a futile effort to thwart bombers. Unheralded upgrades to Zoom meant the audio on computers would not work. </p>
<p>One day, word got out that AA Head Office in New York was in financial strife. However, such was the fellowship and spirit that had been formed on Zoom in the months since lockdown began, a mass enterprise to increase contributions to the head office saw the coffers fill to sustainable levels. </p>
<p>Yet the phenomenon that gave the AA Zoom movement some real gravitas and momentum was the advent of the “Zoom baby.” These were the people who had never attended in-person face-to-face meetings, but they were getting sober using Zoom only! To many in AA, the newcomer is the most important person in any meeting. They are like gold to the erstwhile AA member, such was the power of the Zoom revolution; more and more newcomers than ever before were turning up at Zoom meetings and staying off alcohol. </p>
<p>Laura P, a Zoom baby from Texas, celebrated one year of sobriety in April 2021, said, </p>
<p>“By the time I got to AA, my drinking and drug using was as bad as it gets. A couple of years earlier the long-term toxic relationship I had been in for 15 years ended, and one and a week and a half later, my dad died. It was totally out of hand. I started going to a local Zoom meeting in Texas in April 2020, and then after three days, I suddenly realized I was sober. I went to four or five meetings a day. I met my AA sponsor on Zoom, and I’ve found a real fellowship. I can forge relationships on Zoom as easy as I can in real life. I’m still sober more than a year later.” </p>
<p>Another Zoom baby, Robert F from Scotland came to AA on Zoom following several visits to the hospital dur to alcohol related illnesses, including gastric bleeding and dehydration, </p>
<p>“During my last visit to hospital for withdrawal, I was given some Zoom numbers and started to attend Zoom meetings. At first, I wasn’t very confident with it, but then I really threw myself into it. Six months later, I was coming home from the local store when I realized I’d left the store without looking over the bottles of rum. Since my sobriety date in August 2020, I haven’t been to a face-to-face meeting, so the Zoom online meetings must work.” </p>
<p>Varvara T from Moscow remembers the day she first met a Zoom baby, </p>
<p>“It was June 2020, and a woman from a nearby city appeared in a Zoom AA meeting. She was just a few days sober. We were in contact for a while then lost touch. Then many months later, she showed up at another meeting and was offering herself to people as a sponsor. This was unbelievable that she was still sober and helping others. It was a beautiful moment. Things like this are happening all the time now on Zoom.” </p>
<p>And the Zoom Babies keep coming. Even as face-to-face meetings re-open, daily meetings created specifically for newcomers are growing in popularity. It seems zoom has found its niche. Younger generations, much more comfortable talking to a computer screen than older AA’s are flocking to Zoom in their thousands. One of the more popular zoom meetings, the International ‘Shivering Beginners’ meeting runs each day with up to 200 newcomers attending regularly. </p>
<p>While it prides itself on helping newcomers, in years gone by AA has been criticized for not doing enough to attract members from diverse backgrounds, or those with non-traditional spiritual beliefs. Joe C, a sober member since 1976 from Toronto, believes that the on-line revolution has been the catalyst for AA to attract members from all walks of life, </p>
<p>“Zoom and other virtual meeting platforms have been used with good results for underrepresented populations in AA, such as secular AA members who weren't in urban areas that offered atheist/agnostic/freethinkers meetings, or those who are Black, Indigenous, or People of Colour (BIPOC). Since Zoom exploded these special purpose groups are thriving - meetings that had one or two dozen at their face-to-face meeting now have 50 - 200 showing up…more and more people who previously didn't hear their story in the rooms, have now found their people.” </p>
<p>Now many members realize they are taking part in a new, golden era of AA. Not since the early days in in the 1930’s has the message of sobriety been carried to so many. While normal folks continue to watch Netflix and use copious amounts of booze as an antidote to isolation and loneliness, the fellowship of AA has become stronger. Not only have these once-hopeless alcoholics survived the once-feared lockdown, they have embraced it and they have become better people. </p>
<p>“Zoom has improved the quality of my sobriety out of sight,” says Walter S, “It’s made the world smaller, but AA has definitely gotten bigger.”</p>
<p>Indeed, the pandemic has not only increased the numbers of people who define themselves as being a member of AA, it has firmly reversed a startling, downward trend in membership. </p>
<p>Between 2000 and 2019 AA membership went from 2 160 013 down to 2 077 374. </p>
<p>In 2020/21 membership is reported to have increased by 60,800.[iii] </p>
<p>So, the proof is in the pudding. </p>
<p>While the world continues to grapple with the devastation from a global pandemic, the resilient spirit of AA members continues to new heights. What has shut down the world has become AA’s second coming. FIN</p>
<p>Read/view/download in <a contents="PDF format" data-link-label="rebellon-dogs-blog-2021-july-second-coming-of-aa-by-david-g.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/1131916/rebellon-dogs-blog-2021-july-second-coming-of-aa-by-david-g.pdf" target="_blank"><strong>PDF format</strong></a></p>
<p><strong>Hear, hear - here: listen to David G and Joe C chatting more on AA future-Zooming on Rebellion Dogs Radio</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<div id="buzzsprout-player-8893853"> </div><script src="https://www.buzzsprout.com/1695664/8893853-bigger-than-the-big-book-are-zoom-meetings-the-single-biggest-breakthrough-in-peer2peer.js?container_id=buzzsprout-player-8893853&player=small" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>David is founder of the Women’s International Marathon on zoom (a meeting for women only that has been running non-stop since April 2020), he is also founder of the world’s biggest Facebook page that lists zoom meetings AA Zoom Global Meetings Lists https://www.facebook.com/groups/3121314704565646 </p>
<p>He is the founder of the Shivering Denizens International AA zoom meetings that hold 4 online meetings every day at zoom ID 872 3295 0952 password 151. </p>
<p>David produces and hosts a weekly podcast ‘Here’s Tom with the Weather[iv]’ that investigates the plethora of of 12-Step Higher Powers. </p>
<p>He is founder of the Paul Hedderman ‘Reflections on the 12 steps’ zoom meetings every Tuesday and Thursday. </p>
<p>Email <a contents="Gilwriter@hotmail.co.uk" data-link-label="" data-link-type="email" href="mailto:Gilwriter@hotmail.co.uk" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;">Gilwriter@hotmail.co.uk</span></a> </p>
<p>WhatsApp 00 44 7824616668 </p>
<p>[i] AAWS, <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em> Fourth Edition, New York. 2001, xxiv “...sweeping changes in society as a whole are reflected in new customs and practices within the Fellowship. Taking advantage of technological advances, for example, A.A. members with computers can participate in meetings online, sharing with fellow alcoholics across the country or around the world. [Fundamentally, though, the difference between an electronic meeting and the home group around the corner is only one of format.] In any meeting, anywhere, A.A.’s share experience , strength and hope with each other in order to stay sober and help other alcoholics. Modem to modem or face-to-face, A.A.’s speak the language of the heart in all its power and simplicity.” As originally approved by the General Service Conference and printed in 2001. The sentence in [brackets] was later removed—at the insistence of members—by the Conference (2006). </p>
<p>[ii] <a contents="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/zoom-pandemic-profit-income-tax-b1820281.html" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/zoom-pandemic-profit-income-tax-b1820281.html" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;">https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/zoom-pandemic-profit-income-tax-b1820281.html</span></a><span style="color:#f39c12;"> </span></p>
<p>[iii] AA members @ January 1, 2021 2,138,201 members <a contents="SMF-53 EN - Estimates of A.A. Groups and Members" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/smf-53_en.pdf" target="_blank">SMF-53 EN - Estimates of A.A. Groups and Members</a> (aa.org) and previous member/group estimates from <a contents="Box 4--5-9 GSO News &amp; Notes" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/pages/en_US/box-4-5-9-news-and-notes-from-gso" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;">Box 4--5-9 GSO News & Notes</span></a> (Summer editions)</p>
<p>[iv] <a contents="https://www.facebook.com/groups/314088509589654/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/314088509589654/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;">https://www.facebook.com/groups/314088509589654/</span></a> Friday Noon Pacific, 3 PM EDT, 8 PM IE/UK, 5 AM Saturday AEST Zoom ID 882 1549 8348 Passcode Tom - a live Zoom podcast recorded and posted to YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts etc.</p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/6662999
2021-06-18T04:03:08-04:00
2021-09-17T23:05:56-04:00
How to Help When a Loved One Who Suffers with Addiction
<p>It’s like being hit by a car. We are in shock. We struggle to access our best reasoning skills. We are coming to terms with the problematic substance use (or other addiction) of someone we love. With few exceptions, friends, families, colleagues are negatively impacted by substance use or other addiction. Plenty of people enjoy alcohol or other recreational drugs, gambling, gaming, adult entertainment, comfort foods, intimacy. Anyone may overdo it once in a while but when do we go from enthusiast to addicted? There are medical/clinical measures like treatment and therapy. Some with substance use disorder or process addiction question themselves, self-diagnose and seek help themselves: personal agency, non-professional peer-to-peer support, or medically supervised treatment. </p>
<p><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://amzn.to/3AjnhU3" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/dc6d7e1da73ed56f1c245cce049fb103a06b5b18/original/ketcham-the-only-life-i-could-save-cover.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_none" alt="" /></a></p>
<p>Can you help? Whether it is family or friends you may feel scared, angry or overwhelmed. But it is also important that you do not lose hope. You can help your loved one on. You may have tried to help already, and it backfired. Let’s look at what is helpful.</p>
<h4>Consider :</h4>
<ul> <li>
<strong>Treat loved ones with compassion</strong> </li>
</ul>
<p>Addiction is a disease, not a character flaw. You may have to protect yourself and others if your loved one with substance use disorder has been out-of-control, resulting in collateral damage. But if helping the person suffering from addiction is the goal, think of this as a disorder or illness, and how would you feel/react to them with any other illness or injury. </p>
<ul> <li>
<strong>Educate yourself</strong> </li>
</ul>
<p>Learn about substance use disorder and/or addiction. Learn about the stages of recovery. Active addiction has a progression. Positive change will come in stages, too—not as an event. Educate yourself about symptoms, progression and how it affects people—addicts, and those in their circle. Knowledge is empowering. </p>
<ul> <li><strong>Seek support </strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Addiction is treatable. Know what local resources are available: detox, rehab, mutual-aid, addiction medicine, counselling. Even loved ones can suffer from trauma, shame, denial, and find out what community help is available. What advice is there when your loved one does what help? What help/resources are available if your loved one doesn’t want help? If you are in the USA, google SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) or find your local/national substance use/mental health resources.</p>
<h4>Watch out for :</h4>
<ul> <li>
<strong>Ignoring the problem</strong> </li>
</ul>
<p>What’s called “co-dependent behavior” can show itself as doubting what you are observing. Or maybe you find yourself hoping the problem away instead of dealing with it. “It’s a phase” or “it’s not that bad” may be true but being proactive can help overcome your own doubt or despair. </p>
<ul> <li>
<strong>Looking down upon them</strong> </li>
</ul>
<p>Bias and stigma, we are all susceptible to reacting. Support and education will help. We may need help with our emotional state before we can be much help to our loved ones. Accountability is one thing to address, but blame or ridicule may escalate the problem—not solve it. Others, including someone suffering from addiction, will need your support during these tough times. </p>
<ul> <li><strong>Enabling their addiction </strong></li>
</ul>
<p>In some situations when you think you are helping an addict, you are actually enabling them and their addiction. That could include lying for them, paying their bills, covering for them at work and so on. So, be careful about your behavior/reactions; you could inadvertently be making their condition worse. </p>
<p>Like grief and other healing, recovery has stages. For instance, few people go from hiding their out-of-control drinking to contented sobriety in one day. For the person suffering from the problem help could come from self-agency, peer support or medical/psychological intervention. Families and friends have access to resources, too. There are peer support for family members. There are books from those who have been through it. From a considerable repertoire of authored books on addiction through her career, consider Katherine Ketcham’s personal journey through family addiction: <strong><a contents="The Only Life I Could Save" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://amzn.to/3AjnhU3" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;">The Only Life I Could Save</span></a><span style="color:#f39c12;">.<br><br><a contents="Other Rebellion Dogs recommendations (Click here)" data-link-label="Reading Room" data-link-type="page" href="/reading-room" target="_blank">Other Rebellion Dogs recommendations (Click here)</a></span></strong></p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/6595876
2021-04-06T13:25:45-04:00
2021-09-12T17:43:15-04:00
Carry the message - not the mess, and other reductionism in the rooms
<p>Is it the mess or the message that shines a light on recovery? </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/ee639502df82ba6e4a54d84fe1a84d6b7064103e/original/clean-and-sober-movie-pic.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p>This musing is an alternative to reductionist thinking that pervades our recovery community discourse. Who’s heard or said, “Carry the message—not the mess"? There’s some truth here, and it is an oversimplification. I’ve been as guilty as anyone at wanting simple, absolute answers. Certainty can surely combat doubt and ambivalence. Ted-Talks have helped breed reductionist thinking by getting personalities to reduce complex issues into 17-minute talks that leave us with bumper-sticker wisdom. </p>
<p>“Don’t ask, ‘Why the addiction?’; ask, ‘Why the pain?’,” suggests that all addiction is born of trauma. The introduction of trauma informed substance use is a positive move, a vital piece of a puzzle. But a puzzle piece does not a whole picture make. I'm a <strong><a contents="Gabor Mate" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://amzn.to/3rUuOTK" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;">Gabor Mate</span></a></strong> fan, I think I own four of his books. I've heard him speak, twice.. I will read the next book. But to his pithy comment, twins can be raised in the same dysfunctional family and one becomes an addict and one does not. And some cases of substance use disorder are tied to other factors, not just terror and suffering.</p>
<p>“The opposite of addiction isn’t sobriety—it’s connection,” is another reductionism. Truth: no one overcomes addiction alone. <strong><a contents="Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://amzn.to/3rXY63Q" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;"><em>Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs</em></span></a></strong> is a good book by Johann Hari. But it takes more than 17 minutes to understand the nuances of substance use and sobriety. Even people who don’t follow a 12-step or other peer-to-peer model are not going it alone; they have helping hands. There are doctors and supportive families and books and activities that lead people from the isolation of addiction into a community atmosphere that supports recovery. But the binary idea that addiction is caused by a lack of connection is just not really true for me. I can find connection in a crack house or on a bar stool in a watering hole where “everyone knows my name.” Addiction isn’t a lack of connection exclusively; it’s more accurately a lack of positive role models; the AA meeting is a better influence than the bar flies that also always welcome me back... when I’ve had enough. </p>
<p>Now about, “Carry the message, not the mess.” </p>
<p>This is a logical, positive message. Like any reductionism, it contains truth but not the whole truth. Take my case; I was one foot in, one foot out of AA. I was saying all the right things so as not to draw undue attention to myself; but I was planning my escape, too. I didn’t express my doubt or ambivalence... not much, anyway—I was attending—I was not connecting with AA. </p>
<p>Then I heard my story; I heard someone else express “the mess.” The speaker had the same chaos and self-loathing and regret and embarrassment as me. Someone shared their “mess,” and I felt connection. At that time it didn’t matter to me if he had a nice car, or even bus fare or if they were employed or if they completed the 12-steps. I don’t remember those recovery-resume details. What reached me is that this person described my conundrum as though they went through my troubles with me. They understood me and I felt understood by them. Someone said what I could not, or dared not, articulate. “The mess,” is what sold me on the idea that AA had answers because it was the first time that I heard someone who I knew--who really understood—my problem. </p>
<p>Today, other people’s messes continue to connect me with my recovery community in AA. Even happy, joyous, and free sobriety has grief and loss and suffering some days, too. If Bob and Bill had been Rajesh and Kumar, who met in Katmandu instead of Akron, they would have written in our book that, “life is suffering,” is the first noble truth of alcoholism. The message (the solution) is an important puzzle piece. And so is the mess. The mess connected me to you; the message came later. It’s the message, as well as the mess, that describes one the value of one alcoholic talking to another. </p>
<p>The picture above is from the 80’s <em>Clean and Sober</em> movie. M. Emmet Walsh played Richard, Michael Keaton (Darryl)’s sponsor. Richard was a mess, even in recovery. Darryl identified. The sponsor showed signs of an eating disorder; alcohol-ism, not alcohol-wasm. But this guy understood Micheal Keaton’s mess.</p>
<p>Back to the real world, do you have a sponsor or accountability partner? Did you pick them because of their virtues or their vices? Was it the message; or was it the mess? It can be both. Probably, it is always both. So let’s not stigmatize talking about the mess. It may not be what you—if you have 5 or 50 <em>years</em> of sobriety—want to hear about. But maybe the speaker is not trying to reach you; maybe they’re trying to reach someone with 5-50 days of sobriety. That’s the power of “the mess”—reaching the most important person on the Zoom screen (or in the rooms).</p>
<p><em><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/b99047d2f3d08b6f0ccefefb97bb76f83f7fca90/original/clean-and-sober-poster.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" /></em></p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>Clean and Sober</em>, Darryl reaches the 30 day milestone. <a contents="CLICK HERE" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://youtu.be/k8NdT6xQigE" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a></p>
<p>Siskel & Ebert Review <em>Clean & Sober</em> <a contents="CLICK HERE" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://youtu.be/4_o9OeaEI8A" target="_blank">CLICK HER<em>E</em></a><em> </em></p>
<p><em>Clean and Sober</em>, See Preview, rent or buy <a contents="CLICK HERE" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://amzn.to/3cRPEPw" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a></p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/6563618
2021-03-03T06:10:11-05:00
2021-09-21T16:49:07-04:00
Understanding the role of Peer Support Groups In Addiction Recovery
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/7484482e09fdbcf756fde756e132a489ad28ed24/original/2020-sept-grapevine-march-2021-blog.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>When going through a difficult time in your life, going it alone has limits. If you feel alone, chances are you are isolated... and community is a few clicks away. Have you heard, “The opposite of addiction isn’t sobriety; it’s connection”? That is from a TED talk by Johan Hari, author of Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs. Today, you can find peer support groups to help you in any specific struggle that you face, including substance use disorder, process addictions (Food, porn, debt, etc.) or if you live with someone with addiction (which creates what is known as “co-addiction” in the non-addict loved one. Either way, when addiction highjacks our lives, shame and remorse—which just comes with the territory—leads to secrecy and isolation. Freedom from isolation and the cycle of addiction both happen through peer-to-peer support groups of people who know what you’re going through, who can help without judgement. Now with Zoom and other online portals it’s never been easier to discretely visit a variety of peer-to-peer options and “shop-around” without having to reveal personal details until, or if, you feel safe and ready. </p>
<p>Let us look at some crucial benefits of peer support groups in addiction recovery: </p>
<p><strong>1. Peer-to-peer improves outcome rates. </strong></p>
<p>Many of us have tried to curb addiction/behavioral disorders on our own. If you’re reading this, that didn’t yield a permanent, reliable solution. According to research (Pathways to Recovery and Desistance: the role of the social contagion of hope, David Best, 2019) addicts looking to recovery from hazardous or risky behavior who know just one other person in recovery from addiction, improve outcome rates by a factor of 27%. Those who engaged, virtually or in-person, with a peer group have an even greater outcome rate for managing the stress, anxiety, anger, remorse, and temptation that are typical of the addiction cycle. More that ½ of struggling addicts found sustainable recovery in the study by Professor Best. Of course, treatment, medical/mental health therapy are needed by many of us, but with peer-to-peer, there is no waiting list, no application process. </p>
<p>Hearing from peers who have been in your shoes and are probably experiencing the same things as you are, without turning to their “drug of choice” can instill hope when hopelessness reigned before. It seems too lofty to think about now, if you’re in the throes of addiction now, but inspiration can come from the stories of addicts (or co-addicts) in recovery who are thriving—not merely surviving—through their own struggles. </p>
<p><strong>2. Friendships based on shared goals and values—a problem shared is a problem halved </strong></p>
<p>What is lost by trying? Online or face-to face, you can “test-drive” mutual-aid groups that are just a few clicks away. Alcoholics Anonymous isn’t the only peer group that offers confidentiality. Sample SMART Recovery, She Recovers, Dharma Recovery, Life Ring, Al-Anon, Adult Children of Alcoholics and more. There is nothing quite like a circle of friends and well-wishers who support your recovery. Now, it is easier than ever to visit meetings as an observer until you feel comfortable to reveal personal details. Try several meetings. Even in AA, every meeting is different. From Freethinkers to Fundamentalists, some groups are more structured, some more spontaneous, some are large and energetic; others are more intimate. If you haven’t met people you don’t like, you haven’t tried enough meetings, yet. If you don’t find “your people,” you haven’t tried enough meetings, yet. The point is that each group has the autonomy to employ rituals and a style that suit the personalities of the regular members. Not every restaurant sports the same menu or atmosphere and that’s just as true of 12-step groups or other peer support groups. </p>
<p><strong>Mutual aid offers help, understanding and guidance, free of judgement </strong></p>
<p>“If you want to drink and can, that’s your business. If you want to stop but can’t, that’s our business—try AA!” This is a decades old public service message of AA that is still true today. People with alcohol use disorder who couldn’t stay sober consistently on their own, now don’t miss drinking nor avoid life’s challenges. This came about from the support of a community. No, it’s not that simple; there’s more. These groups share five basic characteristics called CHIME: Connection, Hope, Identity, Meaning, Empowerment. But it starts with connection and that comes from community. A peer support group offers an environment that is free of judgement, allowing you to speak about your experiences without the fear of being derided. Alternatively, you can just listen, if you prefer. </p>
<p>For links, blogs, podcasts, articles, recovery book reviews including <strong><a contents="daily reflections for substance specific issues" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/"><span style="color:#e67e22;">daily reflections for substance specific issues</span></a></strong>, process addiction, for women, youth, atheists/agnostics, or Al-Anon and co-dependents, . Check out Rebellion Dogs Publishing.</p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/6559400
2021-02-26T09:18:48-05:00
2022-04-12T07:32:25-04:00
4 Tell-Tale Signs Your Drinking is Risky or Hazardous
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/a29c9473fcd94166ca9ab15c8a3dd4e691c640bc/original/empties.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>When it comes to figuring out if you or a loved one is suffering from alcohol addiction, it can often be hard to be objective. You have to deal with high-stakes emotions, mood swings and/or cognitive impairment. Denial and justification make matters worse. Keeping secrets and increased isolation comes with the territory with alcohol use disorder. Bear in mind, people who do not suffer from alcoholism (or other addiction) do not spend a lot of time wondering if they do. Identifying that you—or a friend or family member—may have a drinking problem is not easy, sometimes as loved ones, we’re in denial, too. There are some obvious signs to look out for: </p>
<p><strong>High or increasing alcohol tolerance </strong></p>
<p>Do you have to drink more than before, in order to get comfortable? Do you ever find yourself drinking more than others without getting even slightly buzzed? Tolerance is one of the most common and early signs of alcohol dependence or addiction, so if you or a loved one is able to drink more than you used to, it is an indicator that you may be on the risky side of the alcohol use disorder spectrum. </p>
<p><strong>Tendency to lie about or hide your drinking </strong></p>
<p>Another common behavioral problem exhibited by alcoholics is denial, which means alcoholics deny that they have been drinking or how much or how often. Alcoholics sometimes hide their drinking, drink in secret, sneak extra drinks or lie about how much they drink to make it seem like they do not have a problem. Another defense when being confronted about drinking is to get sarcastic or angry, sometimes gaslighting the loved one as being paranoid or melodramatic. </p>
<p><strong>Having “black out” episodes </strong></p>
<p>Have you ever woken up after a night of drinking without any memory of what happened? Some will come-to in the middle of a conversation and not know where they are or how they got there. Blackouts are a leading indicator of alcohol use disorder. If these episodes are a regular occurrence, this is a higher probability that you have a drinking problem and you need help. </p>
<p><strong>Drinking in inappropriate situations </strong></p>
<p>You wake up in the morning and immediately reach out to the bottle of whiskey you stashed in your drawer (or another mind-altering substance). Is that normal? I think we can agree that this is not social drinking. How about hiding your drinking by using a coffee cup or sneaking away from a work, social or family situation for a quick, private gulp from your stash? </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/c31e9919439c16d9dccece3195584a337faf020b/original/more-empties.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>These are just a few signs of potential hazardous or risky alcohol use. </p>
<p>Be sober-curious: if you have identified these symptoms and wish to explore what recovery looks like, visit a number of online or in person meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous, SMART Recovery, She Recovers, Dharma Recovery, or other mutual-aid groups. Peer-to-peer groups will not always replace the need for medical detox and/or professional treatment. Importantly, mutual aid groups have no waiting lists, commitments, or formal application process. Learn more from people who have struggled with addiction and have found healthy coping mechanisms in recovery from blogs, podcasts, links to meetings and more @ <strong><a contents="Rebellion Dogs Radio" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/reading-room"><span style="color:#f39c12;">Rebellion Dogs Radio</span></a></strong></p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/6548677
2021-02-12T19:00:00-05:00
2021-09-19T12:00:01-04:00
How to Remain Hopeful During the Recovery Journey
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/818da8acf4ad3ee8a186851b73eb5032806286c6/original/ebooks2.png/!!/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>Living in recovery from addiction is not always easy. COVID-19 has been long and grueling. I’ve had ups and downs; I expect you have, too. A myriad of extreme emotions takes a toll on our mental health. Peer-to-peer meetings reveal that we are having more dark imaginings, craving relief and finding challenges to optimism and healthy living. Some will relapse, many more revert to replacement addictions and/or get out of our mindful, healthy routine. Here are a few ways to maintain hope during the recovery journey:</p>
<p><strong>1) Expand your support community online</strong></p>
<p>If you’ve never been to Alcoholics Anonymous, or other mutual-aid groups, Zoom and other online platforms make it less foreboding. “Sober curious” people are discretely logging on to AA, NA, or other meetings and finding community and hope. I have expanded my community during the pandemic. If you’re a member of one mutual-aid group, why not try another? The change in routine, despite initial discomfort, can be stimulating. You may have something to offer others, also. </p>
<p>While we hear about some friends relapsing, we find a new generation of online newcomers to recovery. They are not holding their breath, waiting to return to face-to-face groups; they have never been to one. They inspire me; they have changed my view of the role of online community. If you’ve been on a strict 12-step recovery diet, try SMART, Life Ring, Dharma Recovery, She Recovers, Women for Sobriety or try a meeting in a new city/country. Go to a few; give it a chance. We can break the monotony, even during lock-down. </p>
<p>If you are still “recovery curious”—you may feel that everyone else looks like they belong, and you don’t---the rest of the Zoom room has been where you are, too: this is awkward at first. Raise your virtual hand and share, just a little. Others will get to know you after a few meetings and reach out. It hurts a bit and it is worth it. AA and the larger recovery community have seen a rise in membership numbers because they have all been able to assist millions of people to thrive in sobriety.</p>
<p><strong>2) A fresh look at an old idea—the gratitude list</strong></p>
<p>The neuroscience is in. When we express gratitude, our brain releases dopamine and serotonin. By consciously practicing gratitude daily, we help these neural pathways to strengthen and create a positive nature within ourselves.</p>
<p>I tend to resist pop-culture happiness tricks. But expressing gratitude is science; knowing that makes it feel less silly. Dedicate time out every day to writing ten things that you are happy about. It could be something as simple as the smell of fresh coffee or another favorite beverage. </p>
<p><strong>3) Reach out to someone you have lost touch with.</strong></p>
<p>Two things we know about others: a) they’re having a hard time, too. And, b) in lock-down, they’re easy to connect with. Who can you think of that you care about but haven’t heard about for sometimes. Maybe now’s the time. This is gratitude in action; when feeling hopelessness, reach to others.</p>
<p>And break from social time, also. Guidance and inspiration can be found in writings like those on <strong><a contents="daily reflections and other AA and other recovery" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/reading-room" style="color:#f39c12;">daily reflections and other AA and other recovery</a></strong> books. Visit Rebellion Dogs Publishing and discover new eBooks and paperbacks.</p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/6494876
2020-12-08T22:43:30-05:00
2022-04-21T03:50:22-04:00
International Conference of Secular AA December 5 2020
<p>So we did it: 2020 virtual International Conference of Secular AA. How did we do? There were some tech glitches, and I will get to that. A virtual International gathering for atheists, agnostics and freethinkers on this scale is something we’ve never done before. While it wasn’t a perfect conference, it was a perfect learning experience and I suspect we will have more of these, COVID-19 and/or post-COVID-19. </p>
<p>This blog will be living document. I will add more ICSAA 2020 content, as it gets edited. But I want to get the content out as it comes available. At the time of writing, we have the first two hours of content held in the Beyond Belief Room. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/6f140fced2e4667a27fa747bdf64707a93e5aa1f/original/icsaa-2020-podcast-page.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="" style="margin-right: 5px; margin-left: 5px;" /></p>
<p>Chair, Gregg O kicked off the meeting at 9 AM PST, Noon EST and 5 PM GMT. </p>
<p>Dr George Koob is the Director of the National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. He was as interested to engage with us as we with him. He came to talk about challenges for AA in the era of COVID, studies going on about us and the latest in neuroscience and recovery research. Incidents of alcohol use disorder, and other drug use, is up during COVID-19 and if you've seen an increase in the number of new people in your Zoom meetings, that would be part of it. In the last year almost 5 million emergency hospital visits have been alcohol related and (USA) 95,000 deaths this last year have been caused from alcohol use. But don't take my word from it; hear it from the good doctor...</p>
<p><a contents="CLICK HERE to HEAR the first hour" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://secularaa.buzzsprout.com/1536487/6728458-dr-koob-of-niaaa-talks-about-aa-in-the-age-of-covid-19-icsaa" target="_blank"><strong><span style="color:#f39c12;">CLICK HERE to HEAR the first hour</span></strong></a>. Along with Dr. Koob's comments, we invited participants to speak about diversity in AA and how special purpose meetings for LGBTQ+, Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC), young people's, women's, atheist/agnostic groups or meetings of languages other than English make a difference in our lives. Dr. Koob was quite keen to hear from us. </p>
<p><strong><a contents="VIEW or DOWNLOAD the slides" data-link-label="dr-koob-slides-secular-aa-12-5-20.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/1095219/dr-koob-slides-secular-aa-12-5-20.pdf"><span style="color:#f39c12;">VIEW or DOWNLOAD the slides</span></a></strong> from Dr. Koob's presentation.</p>
<p>More on <a contents="NIAAA" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;"><strong>NIAAA</strong></span></a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>We had a number of "It came from..." panels including "It came from Cleveland" introducing a comedy skit from our Higher Palooza friends debuting the first Hank Parkhurst Blackout Players and we have some infamous history writers who share in "It came from our past." "It came from London" will feature those who engineered the creation of <em>The "God" Word: Agnostics & Atheists</em> in AA leaflet, now available in three languages around the world. “It’ came from the Kitchen” is a tongue-in-cheek look at one of AA's persistent barriers. Not an Outside Issue: Are Sexism and Gender Bias Keeping AA Stuck? was our 1 PM Beyond Belief room panel that confronts some of the less helpful AA traditions and how we can correct micro-agressions and discrimination, starting from our home group.</p>
<p>Marya Hornbacher, journalism professor, author <em>Waiting: A Nonbeliever’s Higher Power and New York Times bestsellers.</em></p>
<p>Beth H, Phoenix AZ </p>
<p>Heather CV, Los Angeles CA </p>
<p><a contents="CLICK HERE to HEAR Not an Outside Issue: Are Sexism and Gender Bias Keeping AA Stuck?" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://secularaa.buzzsprout.com/1536487/6727135-icsaa-2020-virtual-not-an-outside-issue-are-gender-bias-and-sexism-holding-aa-back" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;"><strong>CLICK HERE to HEAR Not an Outside Issue: Are Sexism and Gender Bias Keeping AA Stuck?</strong></span></a></p>
<p>More presentations are coming soon. To view the whole program from <strong><a contents="AAsecular.org CLICK HERE" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://aasecular.org/2020/12/virtual-icsaa-december-5-2020/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;">AAsecular.org CLICK HERE</span></a></strong></p>
<p>Added December 13: <strong>THIS JUST IN hear it now...</strong></p>
<p><a contents="IT CAME FROM LONDON" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://aasecular.org/2020/12/it-came-from-london/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;"><strong>IT CAME FROM LONDON</strong></span></a>: The "God" Word leaflet, conference approved and other literature written by AAs for AAs, how to have more unabashed non-theist AA member's stories in widely read AA literature. Moderated by Karen, with Cyril, Antonia and Brendan + group participation. <a contents="CLICK HERE" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://aasecular.org/2020/12/it-came-from-london/" target="_blank"><strong>CLICK HERE</strong></a></p>
<p><a contents="IS IT EVERY OKAY TO LEAVE AA?" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://aasecular.org/2020/12/is-it-ever-okay-to-leave-aa/" target="_blank"><strong><span style="color:#f39c12;">IS IT EVERY OKAY TO LEAVE AA?</span></strong></a> with Vic Losick, New York, John Huey, Washington DC, Jon Stewart, PhD, Brighton UK. <a contents="LISTEN HERE" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://aasecular.org/2020/12/is-it-ever-okay-to-leave-aa/" target="_blank"><strong>LISTEN HERE</strong></a> </p>
<p>Now, for some not-so-good ICSAA 2020 stuff...</p>
<p>It started with our unexpected Zoom surprise. We kicked off at noon on December 5th, 2020 Eastern Standard Time as prepared as we could be for this new adventure. Our ICSAA program was using three Zoom platforms:</p>
<ol> <li>ICSAA’s own pro account (100 participants),</li> <li>OMAGOD’s (Our Mostly Agnostic Group of Drunks, Orlando FL) NY Intergroup Enterprise Account (300 participants) and</li> <li>Beyond Belief (Toronto)’s upgraded account, from 100 to 500 participants. That room—as many of you know—is where the problem emerged.</li>
</ol>
<p>It’s (supposedly) been a 500 participant account since about mid October when our Saturday 7 PM EST Beyond Belief Agnostics & Freethinkers group was routinely hitting the 100 limit. How many were left outside, 2, 20, 200? We didn’t know, but one’s two many so at our business meeting we agreed to pay the extra $75/month for a more roomy room. And we've been paying for the 500 participant upgrade for a few months, now.</p>
<p>At 12:05 we were at 100, no one else was getting in and we knew something was going south. By 12:06 we were getting messages on What'sAPP, Facebook, texts, and email. Called Zoom tech-support. By 12:10 we’re in the cue on the phone at Zoom.us. 12:20 a tech guy answers, I give him the account number, particulars and tell him what our problem is. “How do we fix it?” He writes down our account number, “Someone will call you,” he tells me. I remind him it’s urgent, we hang up, I turn up the ringer and wait.</p>
<p>You guessed it, no one called. </p>
<p>I did get a letter from sales - not tech - that made a recommendation:</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Thanks for reaching out. You can upgrade online by following the instructions here to add-on the Large Meeting Plan: 1. Upgrading from a Pro plan to a Business plan. ... </p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Cheers, <br>Jeremy Brace <br>Online Team @ Zoom Video Communications </p>
<p>What a great idea—except, if he looked at our account history, he would have seen that he (or someone in his office) already sold us the “Business plan” which wasn’t performing as promised. </p>
<p>I saw this letter hours later, well after our conference finished. I was tired. I sent him a pretty snotty note about how I thought he should do his job and why was upset that he - not the tech help I asked for and was promised - was contacting me. I felt let down by Zoom.us and I wanted that to be clear. </p>
<p>So, he wrote me back. Jeremy said he’s sad to hear what happened, he was forwarding my letter to billing/accounting for a refund or credit.</p>
<p>Billing contacted me and said,</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">"Thank you for contacting Zoom Billing. I understand your frustrations and this is simply not the way we would want our customers to experience. I know that what you had was a once a year event that it can never be redone again. Let me try to help you understand what could've happened and what we can do to avoid it moving forward. </p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I checked on your account in our system and I can see that you are subscribed to a Standard Pro Yearly plan and a monthly subscription of the Large Meeting 500. Maybe just maybe, the license for the Large Meeting 500 was not assigned to a user and that what was used during that time was just the Standard Pro which only has a default of 100 people. Please check on the link below for the complete information on how you can correct this glitch to host large meetings as well."</p>
<p>I followed the link, it was hardly intuitive but I followed the clicks and instructions and bingo - back to 500. Now that's good but what is so frustrating is WHY DIDN'T THE TECH GUY TELL ME THIS so we could have fixed it at 12:22 PM Saturday, not Monday morning, long after the conference ended. What the F***?</p>
<p>Now we did have contingencies for over capacity. We were set to go with a private live YouTube feed for people to watch in real time what was going on in the room. John S from AA Beyond Belief and the secular AA board posted it to the program page on aasecular.org and we put it on as many Facebook groups as we knew were announcing the conference. But a lot of people shared the announcement and we couldn't find all the links sending people to dead end, "Meeting full" notice.</p>
<p>Problem #2: Not even our speakers and panelists could get in; it was quite the scramble to find them, get them in and keep the program rolling without too much trouble. Whey you hear Marya Hornbacher's opening comments you'll get a feel for the chaos. It wasn't the come as you are, enjoy the previous presentation, visit our breakout room where you three speakers can discuss any last-minute preparations... It was ten to 1 'clock EST and none of our speakers could even get in the room or talk to each other. But they were poised and professional. They settled things down and killed it with a dynamic, impactful presentation.</p>
<p>The history panel, high on attendees list, featured:</p>
<ul> <li>moderator, 2022 AA History Symposium chair, Jackie B</li> <li>William Schaberg, author of <em>Writing the Big Book: The Creation of AA</em> (2019)</li> <li>Christopher Finan, author of <em>Drunks: The Story of Alcoholism and the Birth of Recovery</em>
</li> <li>
<em>Key Players in AA History</em> author, Bob K</li>
</ul>
<p>This review of historical research teed off at 3 PM and tops for many planning on being at ICSAA. I could see we were frozen at 100 participants still. There were 1,200 looking on the YouTube private feed so by 3 PM, hopefully most attendees figured out how to navigate our troubles.</p>
<p>There are plenty more ICSAA 2020 adventures and recordings to share. Keep this link and come back periodically as we'll add to the links and commentary through the week(s) to come.</p>
<p>At this point I would love to thank the volunteers who so freely gave of their time and energy and helped us through these uncharted waters. They helped you, they helped us. There is no question about "if" we will unveil another virtual mini-conference. The only question is when - and who? ICSAA's board is ready to help and we've learned a lot if anyone is interested in putting a program together. Let's talk.</p>
<p>The OMAGOD room worked perfectly, allowing up to 300 participants. The ICSAA Lounge was well utilized although we neglected to enable breakout rooms for small groups that wanted to chat privately... Oh well; next time we'll be better.</p>
<p>All of the presentations are now available in audio and a couple of YouTube videos at our <strong><span style="color:#3498db;">ICSAA site </span></strong><a contents="CLICK HERE" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://aasecular.org/2020/12/" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a></p>
<p>The official <a contents="ICSAA Podcast Page with hours of free panels/speakers CLICK HERE to HEAR!" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://secularaa.buzzsprout.com/" target="_blank">ICSAA Podcast Page with hours of free panels/speakers <span style="color:#f39c12;"><strong>CLICK HERE to HEAR!</strong></span></a></p>
<p>On the "Rule 62" side of AA life, let's never take ourselves too seriously. As mentioned earlier ICSAA 2020 was the debut of <em>Dialogue with Grod: Is belief in God(s) necessary for long term recovery in AA</em>, the inaugural comedy skit from the Hank Parkhurst Blackout Players - a troupe from <a contents="Freethinkers Cleveland " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.ftcleveland.com/higher-palooza" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;"><strong>Freethinkers Cleveland</strong></span> </a>who bring us connection with Higher Palooza on Zoom, monthly. Enjoy the show</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PxXETfB9ihg" width="560"></iframe></p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/6441009
2020-09-23T22:08:19-04:00
2021-10-16T12:14:40-04:00
October 2020 Rebellion Dogs Blog: New Ideas
<p> </p>
<p><a contents="Read in PDF" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-blog-october-2020-new-ideas.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/1079503/rebellion-dogs-blog-october-2020-new-ideas.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;"><strong>Read in PDF</strong></span></a></p>
<p><span class="font_large">New Ideas... Good for the individual, good for our society. Why are ideas hard to adopt and harder to sell? </span></p>
<p>October 2020: In this blog, <em>First, a shout-out to the AA silent majority - the 90% of middle-of-the-road AAs, unheard and overwhelmed by all the commotion from the impassioned edges, unabashed AA atheists and Big Book purists. We ignore you again today, but we’re thinking of you :-); James Clear and Johnathan Haidt on Why Facts Don’t Change Minds; Living Sober; The General Service Conference agenda for 2021; AA tribes; AA history’ AA’s future</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.success.com/10-inspiring-quotes-on-innovation/" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/cdb91386930989cef709f4ddf074404e47877972/original/way-to-do-it-better-edison.png/!!/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" alt="way to do it better" /></a></p>
<p>Rebellion Dogs has a voice. I feel heard. Philosophers muse over falling trees: do they only make a sound if the sound vibrations are received? The idea is that messages are not yet messages upon transmission. Messages become real if and when they are absorbed (received) by another, seeing or hearing the message. </p>
<p>It gets more complicated if the message from the voice is heard twice or more. Multiple receivers color the signal. While the message meant one thing leaving the voice, the message is interpreted uniquely by every individual receiver. And some law out there—Yin and Yang or the law of unintended consequences or some other “law”—dictated that if the message comforts one, the same message will disturb another. Can we empower the underdog without threatening the top dog?</p>
<p>That sounds like breaking even if, for everyone who is empowered by a message, one other perceives a personal loss. It gets more complicated when you aim to empower disenfranchised minorities of a society. A society (like AA or the larger recovery community) includes a majority and q minority creed-following constituency. So, if you empower one minority member, how many majority members hear the message, feel disturbed or threatened by a message intended only to empower another? We see a delicate peace between 12-step recovery’s under-served freethinkers and “our more religious” majority. Today, I’m not talking to, or about, zealotry. We can work with ignorance; combatting bigotry requires a bigger stick. Previously, we’ve blogged about secularphobic vitriol in the guise of AA stewardship. </p>
<p>Empowering ideas, in a pluralist society, are additive only; inclusivity is the right calibration of diverse views—not a zero-sum game. Sports are zero-sum games. The gain of one competitor is always at the expense of an adversary. If 12-Step communities were a zero-sum game, the empowering of the marginalized is subtracted from or taken away from the majority, or vice versa. AA’s “always inclusive, never exclusive” mantra is additive only—one’s gain is not at the cost of another. That’s the idea behind AA’s Traditions, anyway.</p>
<p>And also: we cannot transcend human instincts. Every time, legitimacy is proposed to marginalized members of our society, we—the majority—have reacted with fear and hostility. AA history reveals discrimination towards our first women, African American, LGBTQ+ and teenage members. Naturally, the same friction is experienced by AA’s non-theistic minority in a society with a theistic bias. Previously we’ve blogged and podcasted that AA is rife with unconscious bias and systemic discrimination, more so than overt contempt. See previous blogs/podcasts for time-consuming details[i]. </p>
<p>Rejecting a supernatural explanation of recovery and relying on a rational AA practice can and will create distress among some—not all—faith-based AAs. Natural and supernatural expressions of AA isn’t a zero-sum game but our nature is to sometimes get triggered by the assertions of the other. </p>
<p>Early AA was expressed by Bill W, as a binary dilemma:</p>
<p>“<em>We had to fearlessly face the proposition that either God is everything or else He is nothing. God either is, or He isn’t. What was our choice to be?</em>”[ii] </p>
<p>Was the either/or proposition rhetorical? Because when we chose “Oh, that’s an easy one, God is nothing. Superstitions like theism—irrational and unhelpful to me—are unhealthy and unnecessary,” then we are often coached to be more open-minded. How can openness to divergent views be a one-way street in a pluralist society? Such an assumption, hides that theistic bias in plain view. It is why AA is called by critics, “A religion in denial.” A refusal to confront our own bias is insincere and irrational. </p>
<p>The genesis of Rebellion Dogs was to unabashedly empower that natural choice—a godless AA recovery—as a rights-bearing equal choice in AA. Period. There is nothing that the theistic majority of AA is being asked to forfeit. Just share the space and let us all practice the unity and tolerance that is AA, to the best of our ability. If you, who hold a supernatural view, feel freethinkers are trying to marginalize you, some would go for that, but reversing the tyranny is not the intention of most secular AAs. We encourage the same unabashed expression of skepticism as you unabashedly encourage faith in your daily meeting refrain, “God could and would if He were sought.”</p>
<p>For us, it’s plain to see that “God could and would if He/She/It/They existed. And, having no experience or understanding of gods, our sobriety—our life—had to depend on more tangible supports. The legitimization of an atheist view to AA is not a war on faith. Breathing room for us is not going to limit the oxygen supply of the faithful. </p>
<p>The majority of AA members are not homophobic; yet our early literature is heteronormative. I have never heard anyone suggest that women are second-class citizens in AA; but our reified literature is bound by the sexist era from whence it came. Does anyone think that AAs in our teens and twenties are “scarcely more than potential alcoholics?” No, everyone with any empathy can see that we have real alcoholics in our midst who are younger than the legal drinking age. After all, people die of alcohol and other drug disorders before they reach the age of majority. Our newer literature isn’t sacred and no one guards are pamphlets from evolution. Hence, AA enjoys a defendable record, in how we make room for youth, LGBTQ+ humanists, visible minorities and non-male members. Minorities hear the message spoken by AA peers in their language. Nothing is taken away from the majority of AA. Secular AA literature is additive—not subtractive. Nontheistic AA is no more watered down than when we describe alcoholics as she/her/they. It doesn’t confuse or diminish the message. </p>
<p>This spirit of inclusion is assumed and obvious to the majority of AA. Our General Service gets dozens (not millions) of concerned calls and emails, weekly. Most correspondence GSO deals with is from the margins: </p>
<ul> <li>“AA will wither and die if we don’t discontinue the <em>Big Book</em>,” or </li> <li>“AA will wither and die if we don’t discontinue all literature, except the <em>Big Book</em>.” </li>
</ul>
<p>From both sides, we hear warnings about the other side causing the destruction of AA from within. </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/9fcefca7857dc39b0b23fbf935b9637fef82a4c1/original/2020-fall-blog-new-ideas.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="2020 fall blog" /></p>
<p>Recently we Rebellion Dogs spoke up about the value of <em>Living Sober</em>’s rational approach to sobriety in AA. We celebrated <em>One Big Tent</em> (Grapevine) and <em>The “God” Word: Agnostics and Atheists in AA</em> as further legitimizing secular AA as recovery without an asterisk. You’ve never heard me suggest that AA heathen’s worldview is superior to dependance on the mercy of gods of AA members. Still, when we celebrate efforts to liberate nonbelievers, fearful and hostile anti-atheist/agnostic AA reactiveness, our voice calls intolerance out of its closet. When Rebellion Dogs suggests, “If AA does not adapt, we run the risk of being marginalized by the larger, pluralistic society outside our meeting doors, that dismisses 12-Step approaches as old-fashioned and redundant,” you’d think we said, “God as you understand Him must be stricken from the AA canon.” The predictable refrain starts once again: “Those agnostics are trying to destroy AA from within; AA wasn’t meant to be for everyone, you know!” The percent of atheists that want to ban praying or burn <em>Big Books</em> is small. Our interest is about providing enough for a growing appetite for secular AA; you don’t hear me advocating for creating less for faith-based AA. </p>
<p>It’s true, some members would like to see <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em> re-written in a modern vernacular. Some AAs feel less praying would make AA attractive and more helpful to a larger percentage of those who suffer from alcohol use disorder (and other addictions). This progressive constituency is not strictly AA atheists; plenty of believers in a sobriety-granting, prayer-answering higher power would vote “Yes,” for an updated <em>Big Book</em>. </p>
<p>We think every group’s rights are inalienable. The purpose, the membership requirement, it’s the same everywhere in AA. Freethinkers want more secular groups and more articulate literature that represents our broad AA community. We don’t want less for others. Back to Basics, Primary Purpose groups, keep doing what you do for the people you do it for; celebrate your <em>Big Book</em>, thump away. If you want a sponsor who has a sponsor to take you through the Twelve Steps the way their sponsor took them through, precisely as outlined in the first 164 pages of<em> Alcoholics Anonymous,</em> go for it. If “no human power can relieve your alcoholism,” pray away. None of that should contradict or interfere with more meetings and literature for those of us who, unlike you, do not get what you get from a 1939 version of AA. We find our lifeline in one alcoholic talking to another in today's language more helpful than reified language. </p>
<p>“<em>Live and Let Live</em>” and “<em>Easy Does It</em>.” Now, there’s some <em>Big Book</em> talk from page 135 and it’s important because it is in italics, right? In our own words, “Peace out!” </p>
<p>While we are on a book-quoting roll, let’s look at something from Chapter 27 of AA’s conference-approved booklet,<em> Living Sober</em>: </p>
<p>“<em>We still don’t think it is very smart to keep trying to see in the dark if you can simply switch on a lamp and use its light. We didn’t get sober entirely on our own. That isn’t the way we learned to stay sober. And the full enjoyment of living sober isn’t a one-person job, either. </em></p>
<p><em>When we could look, even temporarily, at just a few new ideas different from our old ones, we had already begun to make a sturdy start toward a happy, healthier new life. It happened just that way to thousands and thousands of us who deeply believed it never could.</em>”[iii] </p>
<p>Being critical of ideas, even my own, and embracing change, has been essential to my AA wellness. Looking at new ideas or ways of seeing how (I think) things are, is a healthy, regular exercise for me. In early sobriety, I wrestled with the seemingly true idea that dope and booze were my truest friend, that sobriety was a provisional existence. I see-sawed between incongruent feelings about recovery. I was too cool for sobriety ... and I was undeserving of a wholesome life. </p>
<p>Addiction resists help. Call addiction a disease, or behavioral disorder, or whatever label rings true for you; but this characteristic of how we protect our self-destructive addiction from the threat of recovery is a bad idea and it was killing me. It was easier to resign myself to an inevitable, tragic addict’s death that to envision a sober life of meaning and community. Only the community of fellow sufferers inspired this new idea that recovery was possible. Someone else—AA members—turned a light on to help me see. </p>
<p>At the time of writing I see I just passed the 16,000 days sober mark. Time for an oil change, maybe. And coming up on 45 years after I got clean and sober, I still have to let go of old ideas about what addiction is, what recovery is, or how life should go for me. Shifting my position, beliefs and habits in my recovery does not make me wrong about my older viewpoint. Sometimes my thinking and beliefs were right for the times. Some of these ideas/beliefs are like old skin that must be shed in order for me to flourish. Other beliefs and ideas that I let go of, I will return to. </p>
<p>My relationships with sponsorship, meetings, the 12-steps are all relationships in flux. I am dependent on these tools for a time; then, I am indifferent to them. One state is not superior or more mature than the other. Seasons of sobriety change and they also cycle back. Ideas I deemed no longer helpful or immature at one time, I have sometimes come to embrace them again at a future date. A winter coat is essential at one time of the year and taking up space in my closet a few months later. I don’t throw out the coat during the sweltering heat and humidity of summer. What is obvious about seasonal clothes is not so obvious to me regarding different (seasonal) ways of seeing or navigating my world. </p>
<p>We can see by literature sales, you may not be a fan of <em>Living Sober</em>, I’m sure you’re getting along fine without it. But why be against it? Are you so sure the passage and the collective wisdom it expresses is antithetical to what the <em>Big Book </em>suggests? </p>
<p>Why can’t another way of explaining addiction and recovery be additive without threatening or “watering down” the AA’s message? I never read Alcoholics Anonymous until I was over ten years sober. It wasn’t unusual to have a Big Book-free sobriety in the 1970s where I got sober. Today, I hear people who swear by it—not my experience but no problem. I hear people who despise the Big Book—also no problem. Someone having access to <em>Living Sober</em> without burning all the <em>Big Book</em>s first... that’s an example of additive, not subtractive AA. </p>
<p><em>Living Sober</em> drew upon “thousands and thousands of us.” Not to knock our first attempt at a book <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em>, which draws from the less tested experiences of the few, expressed in the writing of the one. We have learned more than we once knew about addiction and recovery. This newfound know-how, in no way, discounts the wisdom of the ages—the newer book is additive, not a competitor of early AA findings. We also know more about how the early ideas came to be recorded which, again, adds to—not threatens our narrative about early AA. The <em>Big Book</em>, and the promises within, was inspiring speculation about what the future could be: </p>
<p>“<em>’I know I must get along without liquor, but how can I? Have you a sufficient substitute?’ </em></p>
<p><em>Yes, there is a substitute and it is vastly more than that. It is a fellowship in Alcoholics Anonymous. There you will find release from care, boredom and worry. Your imagination will be fired. Life will mean something at last. The most satisfactory years of your existence lie ahead. Thus we find the fellowship, and so will you</em>.“[iv] </p>
<p>If two fledgling groups can be called a “fellowship,” then that’s what AA was, when this claim was expressed. But, two people wouldn’t be a baseball team; could just a couple of meetings be called a fellowship? This idea of recovery and fellowship was not Bill’s account of the reality at the time so much as his vision for a hopeful future. </p>
<p>Today, AA—the fellowship—is a household name in much of the Western world. As of January 1, 2020 we were 125,000+ separate AA groups that spans 180 countries. At the time the book was written, you could live in the only two places AA was--Akron or New York City—and you probably still would not know where to find AA or what it was. This 1930s bold assurance of a fellowship that would bestow the restless, irritable, and discontent alcoholic with “release from care, boredom and worry,” was a figment of one author’s vivid imagination. Great importance was put on this fellowship and its healing powers. </p>
<p>One reason for the credit given to fellowship was that the Twelve Steps were nonexistent when the quote above was written. This passage about fellowship’s role in recovery is, if you read the book chronologically, from what we now call Chapter 11, “A Vision for You.” Author Bill W, would later write and inserted what is now, Chapter 5 and 6, “How It Works,” and “Into Action.” From <em>Writing the Big Book: The Creation of AA</em>, it’s December 1938, weeks before the book has to go to the editor. The stories are done, the “before” and “after” pictures are described, yet there’s no how or why AA works. </p>
<p>“<em>Wilson could not hold off any longer. He had to write something that described in precise detail ‘how [the] program of recovery from alcoholism really worked.’ Eight expositional chapters had already been drafted and edited providing more than ‘enough background and window-dressing’ for the book. Finally, he was going to have to put down in black and white and in simple declarative sentences, ‘a definite statement of concrete principles,’ telling the new man exactly what he had to do to get sober and then stay that way. It was the seemingly insoluble problem that he had been dodging for far too long, one that he later admitted ‘had secretly worried the life out of me, for some time</em> (p. 440).”[v] </p>
<p>This is why none of the 28 <em>Big Book</em> stories of alcoholics finding sobriety, published in the first printing of <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em>, mention or describe “the steps.” The stories of AA recovery were also written before Steps had been created by Bill W. The first edition also didn’t have any six-step program that AA folklore refers to as the precursor of the Twelve Steps. This six-step story first got legs 15 or 20 years after the first<em> Big Book</em> was published. I was told the story of how, pre-12 Steps, our members worked/shared a six-step approach, a skeleton of what would become our Twelve Steps; I’ve re-told this story and maybe you have too. It’s in our account of early AA written in 1955—20 years after the fact. The document-informed research reported in<em> Writing the Big Book</em> does not support this myth. That doesn’t make you, or me, or our founders liars. </p>
<p>But we now have a more accurate account of A) what actually happened and B) what the motivation of the members was in early AA. This more accurate account comes from research done from AA archives. </p>
<p>“<em>Bill Wilson was no great respecter of the actual facts when it came to A.A. history. When he wrote or talked, his purpose was not to deliver a precisely accurate accounting of what had actually happened. And whenever inconvenient or messy details were encountered, Bill would modify them (sometimes significantly) and then streamline the whole story for the dramatic impact he felt was necessary to underline the specific moral or inspirational message he was trying to deliver to his audience</em>.”[vi] </p>
<p>Written forty years after AA started, <em>Living Sober</em> is generations of experience—the collective wisdom that comes from decades of trial and error. Our wisdom, critically tested earlier theories and, with the advantage of experience, reports that ideas are not to be greedily held and codified. They are to be enjoyed, examined, and replaced. This is what we have found forges “a happy, healthier new life.” </p>
<p>And really, isn’t it describing the same principles Bill describes about the healing power of fellowship? “a fellowship in Alcoholics Anonymous. There you will find release from care, boredom and worry. Your imagination will be fired. Life will mean something at last.” Is this a watering down or a reinforcement from 40 more years of AA experience, expressed in the Living Sober passage above: “We didn’t get sober entirely on our own. That isn’t the way we learned to stay sober. And the full enjoyment of living sober isn’t a one-person job, either. </p>
<p>When we could look, even temporarily, at just a few new ideas different from our old ones, we had already begun to make a sturdy start toward a happy, healthier new life?” There’s a case to be made that one doesn’t threaten the other. </p>
<p>So, let’s go back to a thesis of the <em>Living Sober</em> quote above: if we can look at new ideas, different from our most comfortable ideas, this leads to being happier. Maybe it can lead to being a more effective agent of change, too. Let’s look at some new ideas about these views we’ve expressed above. If they are so easy for me to embrace these opinions as truths, why do these view (truths) threaten anyone? That’s an important question and knowing the answer could make life easier. </p>
<p><span class="font_large">Why proving that you are right is not very persuasive... </span></p>
<p>So, I’ve shared how the challenge of letting go of old ideas was and continues to be rewarding for me... challenging as change can be. Now what’s my role in persuading others to test new ideas. Honestly, it could be none of my business. Be an example, not an agitator. But because to-persuade-is-to-be-human, let’s explore this long and winding road, too. James Clear wrote <a contents="Atomic Habits: An Easy &amp; Proven Way to Build Good Habits &amp; Break Bad Ones" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://amzn.to/36fwy31" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;"><em>Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones</em></span></a>. In a blog, <em>Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds</em>, Clear reveals: </p>
<p>“<em>Convincing someone to change their mind is really the process of convincing them to change their tribe. If they abandon their beliefs, they run the risk of losing social ties. You can’t expect someone to change their mind if you take away their community too. You have to give them somewhere to go. Nobody wants their worldview torn apart if loneliness is the outcome. </em></p>
<p><em>The way to change people’s minds is to become friends with them, to integrate them into your tribe, to bring them into your circle. Now, they can change their beliefs without the risk of being abandoned socially</em>.”[vii] </p>
<p>I would add that we can model the receptiveness that we hope to influence. Why don’t <em>we</em> join <em>their</em> circle? Why don’t we reframe our idea of tribal differences—supernatural worldview vs. natural worldview. While Bill W did write the polarizing gods are or they are not line in (what we might call now) his early sobriety, he also at 30 years sober described all AAs as a fellowship of common suffering. So beliefs were not an insider/outsider issue as he went on to devise the Traditions, Concepts of World Service, Warrantees, and his expanded personal experience of AA diversity. </p>
<p>We all are influenced by the narcissism of small differences.[viii] Most of us in our recovery community agree about our broader goals and care about the same sufferers and while we agree on 99%, we create a crisis over the 1%. How many process addiction or substance use disorder fellowships are there? So much in common; so much room for individuality, too. </p>
<p>Some of us are more open to new experiences than others—one of the big-5 personality traits: OCEAN: </p>
<ol> <li>Openness to experiences: routine/practical vs. spontaneity/imaginative, </li> <li>Conscientiousness: discipline vs. impulse </li> <li>Extroversion: sociable vs. reserved </li> <li>Agreeableness: trusting vs. critical </li> <li>Neuroticism: anxious/pessimistic vs. easy-going/confident </li>
</ol>
<p>We can all change if we want to and none of us are zero or one-hundred in either of these scales (tests) but you can see how members of a group can easily cluster into infinite subgroups to find like-minded fellows. And as far as relatability to perceived “others,” how we rank on this five-point scale, we see how we are more suited to the agitator or the ambassador role. Every healthy society needs both. But if we can do both, we can be more effective in our objectives. </p>
<p>A newer measure, a five-point measure of our morality, has been recently used and associated with predicting feeling on a political scale from progressives to fundamentalists. But I expect it speaks to our visceral connection to our feelings about our worldview vs. alternative worldviews or beliefs, too. These five (or more) moral foundations determine how quickly and deeply we stand our ground or perceive others with disgust. We have talked about the ideas before from Johnathan Haidt’s <em>The Righteous Mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion</em>. The five factors here are: </p>
<ol> <li>Harm vs. Care </li> <li>Reciprocity vs. Fairness </li> <li>Ingroup/loyalty </li> <li>Authority: respect or subversion </li> <li>Purity/sanctity: how inclined we are to be disgusted over other’s ways </li>
</ol>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://yourmorals.org" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/f0fc0b7da91ae3db5cec79c047f3691689625d6f/original/your-morals-dot-org.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" alt="your morals dot" /></a></p>
<p>In Munich, Haidt told an audience that from 27 years of studying morality as a social psychologist, he agrees that facts don’t change minds—minds are more emotional than logical. Haidt finds stories not facts more compelling. </p>
<p>“<em>The fact remains that for any policy dispute, for any debate within our society, you can find some experts that back you up. And the reason is, because in any society, on the left and the right, people have different visions... To understand those visions, you have to understand the stories that people are telling... </em></p>
<p><em>Human reasoning does not happen in a logical world, based on facts; it takes place in an emotional world, based on stories. And we don’t even write these stories; we imbibe them, we drink them in as we grow up. We might not even be able to tell them ourselves; but when we see something, we hear something that fits with our stories, we get a feeling of familiarity. That tags it as ‘true.’ ... What we believe drives what we perceive.... We all have post-cognitive justification.</em>”[ix] </p>
<p><a contents="More about YourMorals.org" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://yourmorals.org" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;">More about YourMorals.org</span></a> Why does a good salesperson or a good therapist never win an argument? Because they never get into one. Training and practice will prepare them for clients/patients that are emotionally—not logically—attached to their positions so they know better than to argue someone out of a position with the facts when they came to the position, emotionally. </p>
<p>People don’t need to be told; we need to feel heard. </p>
<p>Some—salespeople and therapists for example—accommodate other’s need to feel heard. To persuade, they feed back the stories the other is telling; they mirror and ask for elaboration. This can flush out the flaws in a narrative that the teller now sees. It helps the subject start considering a new or more effective narrative. The best peer-support fellows have this same skill, not a knowledge skill, an empathic/emotional skill. One might ask the subject if it’s okay to relate their own personal story. The experience of the characters in the story are vehicles to emotionally resonate with the subject. </p>
<p>This differs from fighting the subject with attack-facts. Of course, to be effective, one has to be empathic, not domineering and the goal has to connect—not to one-up the other. </p>
<p>Have you ever heard, “Do you want to be right or do you want to be happy?” If my goal is to persuade another that they are wrong and I am right, conflict and hostility are the logical outcome. If I want communication and harmony, another stimulus is needed. </p>
<p>So what’s my goal? Is it the quick adrenaline hit of feeling better than another or am I aiming for “attraction rather than promotion”? </p>
<p>People who connect with me are more easily influenced—of course we are both influenced by each other. Agreement, peace, this is conducive to happiness as well as progress to policy or societal issues. </p>
<p>These are things we know already. Can I train myself to not giving in to my urge to retaliate at oppositional views? Can I, instead, step back and think about what is the most effective way to communicate? People don’t care how much we know until they know how much we care, right? We know that helping others is healing for both of us. We know the importance of storytelling from our mutual aid groups. Engagement in peer to peer groups for substance use disorder have better outcome rates than those who go it alone. Evidence reveals that exposure to this story-telling environment is one component that aids efficacy in overcoming substance use disorder. We are still debating the “why it works” but exposure to stories being told—AA, Women For Sobriety, NA, Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous, Life Ring, SMART Recovery—improves outcome rates compared to other therapeutic interventions. The most recent Cochrane study of over 10,000 patients, including randomized controlled trials finds that even compared to less accessible (more expensive, regionally restricted, waiting lists) modalities like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Motivational Enhancement Therapy, people in 12-Step meetings (etc.) had better outcome rates at less cost.[x] </p>
<p>It’s a moot point to argue what the message is; a group’s primary purpose is to carry its message. Scientific study of mutual aid groups (mostly AA) reveals that what matters more to the person we’re sharing the message with, is when they have a chance to share their story and the opportunity to be heard and consequently, to see their contribution helping others. Telling the story offers relief. The identification and appreciation from others further helps us heal. </p>
<p>So this is all to say that I am thinking about new ideas in how I communicate. Making a point has some good effect, while triggering some resistance. A new idea would be, “one person talking isn’t a conversation.” </p>
<p>I don’t have an answer about how to express less and communicate more. Blogging or podcasting can be a conversation starter. This forum can report or express. Does it readily evoke what others need to say/add/express? I have to think about that. In the last blog, I reported that last year the General Service literature desk were asked by members to explore if discontinuing <em>Living Sober </em>and <em>The “God” Word: Agnostics & Atheists in AA</em> would better help the newcomer. So this anti-secular voice is loud and unabashed. Does Rebellion Dogs “reach across the aisle,” inviting this voice to share their side of our story or are we ridiculing the Big-Book fundamentalists back into their echo-chambers where they feel safe? Even that label I used sounds hostile... how about Big Book purists? Yeah, maybe that is better than “fundamentalist.” </p>
<p>It’s a whole other story, the paradox of tolerating intolerance but you can be against intolerance and still make it worse, so we don’t want to do that. Before I spin myself into the ground, I will leave it at that and invite your input. Help us out, here. All feedback is sincerely welcomed. </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/964fc72b344a9a1abd8de455139f126cb541936b/original/johnmaynardkeynes-new-ideas.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="john maynard keynes new ideas" /></p>
<p><span class="font_large">A word about our book, <em>Living Sober</em> and it’s role in AA’s future... </span></p>
<p>Rebellion Dogs has talked about <em>Living Sober</em> recently; it’s on the lips of many AAs, right now. It seems our ideas about this books place in our canon of knowledge around the globe varies from: </p>
<ul> <li>wise and practical collective wisdom, to... </li> <li>watered down AA that distracts from the sacred “one true” AA message of the <em>Big Book</em>. </li>
</ul>
<p>This book was the dawn of the second generation of AA, our post-founder era. Bill W died in 1971. Arguably, there were pre-book old-timers still very much alive upon Bill’s death. No offense to Jim B, Clarence S and others. While we’re in a post Bob and Bill AA, there were still stewards of early AA here to witness when, in 1973, <em>Living Sober</em> joined our conference—approved literature collection. But as Bill Schaberg’s <em>Writing the Big Book: The Creation of AA</em> verifies “the” founder or the founder with legitimate supremacy, Bill W, as documentary research supports, was gone once <em>Living Sober </em>came to print. It may have been in consideration for many years—it could have been Bill W’s idea; I do not know. But what is known is Bill is the sole architect responsible for our Steps, Traditions, Concepts, he is the lone visionary of Alcoholics Anonymous, while others contributed to the pioneering workload. </p>
<p>As a tribute to these other pioneers, Bob K writes about, among others, Jim B the atheist that widened AA’s gateway and also Clarence’s influence on breaking away from the Oxford Group, “The Catholics had problems generally with participation in these Protestant services...” AAagnostica[xi] </p>
<p>Barry L wrote<em> Living Sober </em>as one of AA’s fulltime employees at the time. Barry wrote many of the conference reports, compiled and edited the stories of our 1976 pamphlet, <em>Do You Think You’re Different?</em> Barry isn’t credited in the book’s title page. Barry L asked AA World Services to recognize his authorship by way of royalties as we had paid Bill W (and Bob S while he was living). AAWS didn’t agree and the issue was pressed and litigated—all part of General Service Office archives. The courts ruled in favor of AA, dismissing Barry’s claim, and finding that he—as a paid employee—wrote for AAWS and held no legal claim to authorship or the royalties that such a title would afford. This disagreement did not spoil Barry’s otherwise loyal relationship to AA; he remained a spokesperson of AA and a confident to widow Lois W until his death which occurred shortly after his 1985 AA’s 50th Anniversary talk at the Montreal convention. Lois also spoke at the same conference and it wouldn’t have been unusual for the two to be traveling together. </p>
<p>So the dawn of a new era for AA began and this <em>Living Sober</em> booklet’s original look tells you a lot. It’s artwork, color-scheme and font screams early-1970s. I was around at the time. The yellow and brown book cover depict how earth tones were all the rage for that era of Americana. Man landed on the freakin’ moon in 1969 and we were all giddy with the infinite possibilities that lay ahead. <em>2001: A Space Odyssey</em> (1968) was a cinematic and dystopian science fiction warning about Artificial Intelligence; HAL 9000, the epitome of human engineering according to the story, reveals itself to be the sociopathic antagonist, as the story unfolds. In 1970 we all expected that, by today, we would have been travelling to Jupiter since 2001 and internal combustion engines and climate change would be barbaric relics of our past. HAL the imagined AI of the ‘60s, is now Alexa, Siri, and other HAL-like AI inside our phone’s and guiding our web-surfing. </p>
<p>A booklet—not a book, not a pamphlet—spoke to hybrid approaches to carrying the AA message. <em>Living Sober</em> remains a living document, subject to changes with the times. In 1983, for instance, changes were prepared and agreed upon to Chapter 21: “Avoiding dangerous drugs and medications.” Again in 1998, “The following sections from the pamphlet <em>The A.A. Member—Medications and Other Drugs</em> be added as an appendix to the booklet <em>Living Sober </em>ant it’s next printing: the lead-in and 8 points on page 5& 6 in the section entitled ‘A report from a group of physicians in A.A.’, Page 12, entitled, ‘However, some alcoholics require medication...’” </p>
<p>Again in 2012 “outdated language and practices” were revised, in 2016 under “Reading the A.A. Message,” that <em>The AA Service Manual/Twelve Concepts of World Service</em> be added, 2018 saw substantial change to the timely and topical, 'Note to Medical Professionals,' speaking to changing attitudes about AA members playing doctor and giving advice. The lengthy addition included: </p>
<p>“<em>Unfortunately, by following a layperson’s advice, the sufferers find that their conditions can return with all their previous intensity. On top of that they feel guilty because they are convinced that ‘AA is against pills.’ </em></p>
<p><em>It becomes clear that just that it is wrong to enable or support any alcoholic to become readdicted to any drug, it’s equally wrong to deprive any alcoholic of medications which can alleviate or control other disabling physical and/or emotional problems.</em>” </p>
<p>The original yellow and brown look was replaced by more traditional AA-blue with yellow lettering. At that time, the subtitle, <em>Some methods A.A. members have used for not drinking</em> was removed. </p>
<p>The 2020, 70th General Service Conference report notes that audiobooks of <em>Living Sober</em>, in three languages and “draft language regarding safety and A.A.” be added. </p>
<p>In keeping with these transformational goings-on, the subtitle, once removed, is being revisited this year. GSO is talking about it in this conference cycle. Ask your delegate or General Service Rep for information or if you have an idea what the sub-title should be. What would you want us to tell newcomers to catch their eye, if this is something that might be up their alley. For instance, maybe they want the AA staying sober stuff without the praying for guidance to an intervening higher power side of popular AA. Or maybe they like our recovery language to be more contemporary than 1939 literature affords. </p>
<p>So we ask you what should it be? </p>
<ul> <li>Practical approaches to recovery being practiced by AA’s today </li> <li>Common sense strategies to everyday challenges to getting and staying sober </li>
</ul>
<p>Decades of tried and true practical methods to achieving long-term sobriety are found in this book that’s been proven helpful to members alone and struggling or to groups looking for meeting starter ideas to spur conversation between members about AA recovery. </p>
<p>Is the old subtitle too long-in-the-tooth to go back to? How about: </p>
<ul> <li>AA’s secular way to long-term sobriety </li>
</ul>
<p>Would “secular” be a provocative term? Thumpers? Belligerent atheists? And hey, all of you non-extreme moderates; do you even read this stuff? What do you think? </p>
<p>My definition of secular is “neither religious nor irreligious.” </p>
<p>Doesn’t that describe the <em>Living Sober</em> tone and language? If <em>Living Sober</em> is a book you like and/or means something to you, have your voice heard on these changes. Attend your Area Assembly or talk or write with the trustees’ Literature Committee directly. I am sure the stewards of our literature would appreciate your input. </p>
<p>Let me share something I have written to the trustees’ literature committee about: </p>
<p>“<em>From aa.org you can read the book, </em>Alcoholics Anonymous<em>, cover to cover from the PDF book for free. You can read </em>Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions<em>, all of it, at no cost. Why not offer the same free access to </em>Living Sober<em> to the sober-curious or new-to-AA visitor?</em>” </p>
<p>I know the argument against it: “There is only one AA message it is found in the <em>Big Book</em>.” Some of you are petitioning to get rid of the <em>Twelve & Twelve</em>, too—also, a watered-down confusion to the newcomer, right? I think I follow how zealously you feel about this. But I am curious, if you took the same, reading aloud, highlighters in hand approach to <em>Living Sober</em> as you have to <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em>, what do you think you’d find? </p>
<p>Could you show me how the message in L<em>iving Sober</em> is undoing or counterintuitive to the experience of the <em>Big Book</em>? </p>
<p>What makes you sure it is a different message, based on different principles of AA? </p>
<p>Just because it does not speak to you, can you wrap your heart and mind around the idea that it speaks to me? </p>
<p>Books weren’t really a turning point in my getting sober—talking to other AA members was the key to my indoctrination into AA life. However, when I read <em>Living Sober</em> it describes my AA sobriety more accurately than the primacy of the Twelve Steps idea. Doing the Steps was more a “check all the boxes” exercise than a path to sobriety. I was already sober when I worked the Steps (which I’ve done more than once). I did need some self-reflection, new practices and habits, bonding with other sober alcoholics—The Steps gave me all that. But I don’t call that a “spiritual awakening.” The results were more practical for me. My natural—not supernatural—AA experience is awesome enough. I don’t feel anything is missing in my life or sobriety. </p>
<p>We only have one book with a clear, contemporary message in a secular language. I have heard testimony from others who feel <em>Living Sober</em> was a game changer when they were one foot in—one foot out of AA. <em>Living Sober </em>assured them that all the supernatural stuff wasn’t something pragmatists had to adopt or fake. </p>
<p>This booklet is a great resource for putting on our zoom meeting for atheist/agnostics. Should more of us ask our GSRs and/or delegates to direct GSO to offer online free access to <a contents="Living Sober " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://amzn.to/2HkzPDu" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;"><em>Living Sober </em></span></a>so that secular AA’s get the same access to useful AA material as “our more religious members” enjoy from the <em>Big Book</em> and <em>12&12</em>? </p>
<p>Write to AA here: </p>
<p><a contents="https://www.aa.org/pages/en_us/contact-literature-desk " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/pages/en_us/contact-literature-desk" target="_blank">https://www.aa.org/pages/en_us/contact-literature-desk </a></p>
<p>Where does <em>Living Sober </em>compare to this older and more popular AA literature? It’s a 12-Step program so let’s do a 12-year comparison of AA sales in 2019 and 2007. </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/15f0d475ef2d2077cb387c682d8f5f635eee3d7e/original/october-2020-blog-book-sales.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="oct 2020 blog book" /></p>
<p>Book sales are down in all languages. There are some interesting trends and stories within the data. </p>
<ul> <li>The supremacy of the <em>Big Book</em> in English speaking USA/Canada is dramatic and growing more pronounced: 25% less 12&12 and<em> Living Sober </em>sales occurred in 2019 vs. 2007; the <em>Big Book</em>—already #1 by a long shot—has fallen off only 5 ½%. </li> <li>For every <em>Living Sober</em> sold, eight <em>Big Books </em>are sold. </li> <li>In French USA/Canada, only <em>Living Sober</em> is in single-digit decline. The French buy over 40% less of the other two books compared to 12 years ago. </li> <li>For Spanish Americans/Canadians the <em>12&12</em> is the least bought book but is losing less sales than <em>Living Sober</em> and the <em>Big Book</em>. </li>
</ul>
<p>Outside of USA/Canada, our 2020 Conference Report indicates that AAWS “holds and manages nearly 1,500 active registered copyrights in trust for worldwide Fellowship. In 2019, the trending surge in the volume of international requests continued and projects moved forward for several different language communities.” There are dozens of International General Service Offices and all of them have rights to publish “conference-approved” literature. I don’t know how many languages and offices are in this 1,500 copywrites or if it includes each pamphlet separately or just books. </p>
<p>The above table of sales is hardcopy books only. Digital sales in USA/Canada are through Apple, Amazon and Barns and Noble. Some of what appears to be reduction of unit sales from 2007 to 2019 may be caused by an increase in digital sales. </p>
<p>Of course, AA, as an organizational structure doesn’t dictate what we should read or dismiss on our own or in a meeting, regardless of it being AA literature or other books/articles members and groups share formally or informally. </p>
<p>“<em>Conference-approved material always deals with the recovery program of Alcoholics Anonymous or with information about the A.A. Fellowship. </em></p>
<p><em>The term has no relation to material not published by G.S.O. It does not imply Conference disapproval of other material about A.A. A great deal of literature helpful to alcoholics is published by others, and A.A. does not try to tell any individual member what he or she may or may not read(SMF-29)A.A. World Services</em>.”[i] </p>
<p><span class="font_large">So, some ideas I am thinking about ... </span></p>
<p>If we feel that <em>Living Sober </em>supports our view of AA life, let’s support it. Do you have a digital copy of <em><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://amzn.to/2HkzPDu" target="_blank">Living Sober</a></em> for your AA zoom meeting? It doesn’t have to be an every-day reading in meetings but how about trying it out periodically—a new idea as the book suggests?; I am going to encourage my group to lead with Living Sober in our outreach to new members and the professional community. Our district is determined to offer free <em>Big Books</em> to prisoners and treatment center patients. Why don’t we encourage them to offer <em>Living Sober</em> also and explain how this book was more inviting and more helpful to our own sobriety and how it may resonate better with certain newcomers; if we take<em> Living Sober </em>for granted, it might not always be there. </p>
<p>I am going to pay more attention to how I speak about theism in AA or the love of the<em> Big Book</em>. Even some people in freethinkers AA meetings may pray to a higher power they believe in. Why wouldn’t I want them to feel respected and included in the way I want to feel respected and included? The most hateful of zealots can’t be reasoned with but they aren’t the majority of AA. If what I say rubs “our more religious members” the wrong way I can obnoxiously tell them to talk to their sponsor if they have a problem... that’s my prerogative. Or I can reach out more and lessen hostilities. Which would better realize my goals and my hopes for our recovery community in the future? I don’t like it when others judge my views and practices. I will try not to make the situation worse by fighting fire with fire. Being a freethinker is exhausting at times. But I will try to challenge my own views and review how reactive I’m being in my communications. </p>
<p> Feel free to communicate about this—with us, among yourselves—and/or share, re-post this blog if you think it will be helpful. As I like to do, I quote Harry Tuttle (Robert De Niro’s character in the dystopian fiction Brazil) says, “We’re all in this together.”[ii] </p>
<p>While almost no one gets the 1985 art-film reference, it brings back this message—for me—from a movie that when things appear to be bleak, we are no longer alone. </p>
<p><a contents="Read in PDF" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-blog-october-2020-new-ideas.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/1079504/rebellion-dogs-blog-october-2020-new-ideas.pdf" target="_blank"><strong><span style="color:#f39c12;">Read in PDF</span></strong></a></p>
<p>Notes and links... </p>
<p>[i] Conference-approved <a contents="https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/smf-29_en.pdf" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/smf-29_en.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/smf-29_en.pdf</a> </p>
<p>[ii] "All in This Together," from movie Brazil <a contents="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olXUIcb80N0" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olXUIcb80N0" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olXUIcb80N0</a> </p>
<p>[i] <a contents="https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/rebellious-radio" data-link-label="Rebellious Radio" data-link-type="page" href="/rebellious-radio" target="_blank">https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/rebellious-radio</a> </p>
<p>[ii] Wilson, William, Alcoholics Anonymous, AA World Services, New York: 1939, from “We Agnostics” p 53 </p>
<p>[iii] <a contents="Alcoholics Anonymous. Living Sober (pp. 72-73). AA World Services, Inc.. Kindle Edition" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://amzn.to/3jbVNqB" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;">Alcoholics Anonymous. Living Sober</span> (pp. 72-73). AA World Services, Inc.. Kindle Edition</a>. </p>
<p>[iv] Wilson, William, Alcoholics Anonymous, AA World Services, New York: 1939, from “A Vision for You,” p 152 </p>
<p>[v] Schaberg, William H, <a contents="Writing the Big Book: The Creation of AA" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://amzn.to/3cq0DxH" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;"><em>Writing the Big Book: The Creation of AA</em></span></a>, Central Recovery Press, Las Vegas, 2019 </p>
<p>[vi] Ibid., pp 440-441 </p>
<p>[vii] <a contents="https://jamesclear.com/why-facts-dont-change-minds" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://jamesclear.com/why-facts-dont-change-minds" target="_blank">https://jamesclear.com/why-facts-dont-change-minds</a> </p>
<p>[viii] <a contents="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism_of_small_differences" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism_of_small_differences" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism_of_small_differences</a> </p>
<p>[ix] <a contents="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=349&amp;v=iOu_8yoqZoQ&amp;feature=emb_logo" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=349&v=iOu_8yoqZoQ&feature=emb_logo" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=349&v=iOu_8yoqZoQ&feature=emb_logo</a> Jonathan Haidt (2014 Munich Minds) </p>
<p>[x] <a contents="https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD012880.pub2/full" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD012880.pub2/full" target="_blank">https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD012880.pub2/full</a> </p>
<p>[xi] <a contents="https://aaagnostica.org/2013/09/15/clarence-snyder-almost-co-founder/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://aaagnostica.org/2013/09/15/clarence-snyder-almost-co-founder/" target="_blank">https://aaagnostica.org/2013/09/15/clarence-snyder-almost-co-founder/</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/6415096
2020-08-22T15:15:16-04:00
2022-04-12T07:13:36-04:00
Young AA Experiences Then and Now
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/9f39e242a1410be9ee95adc2a976e854b7502c65/original/2020-sept-grapevine-thinner.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
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<p>What was AA really like and what’s AA like today? Dr. Earle, a 1955 Second Edition of <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em> author reflects back, 40 years later, in the 1995 <em>AA Grapevine</em>. When his story first appeared in print, he was a “youngster.” “Physician Heal Thyself” from the “They Stopped In Time” section along with a third of stories from women aimed at making AA a more inclusive brand. If that’s so last century for you, it is back to (virtual) school in our September <em>Grapevine</em>. Today’s AA youth speak out. </p>
<p>Earle, from AA’s first quarter-century, a friend to Bill W., came in young and outlived the co-founders. <em>Grapevine</em> ask him what AA was like? This month's<em> AA Grapevine</em> reflects AA today through young people in our fellowship. But first, before comparing what AA was like, a primary question that isn't always agreed upon is "What is AA?" Are you a 1, a 2, or a 3?</p>
<ol> <li>AA is what they wrote in that 1939 book, the be all... and end all. AA is the <em>Big Book</em>. </li> <li>AA is The Traditions, not a book (although we have a book that bears our name and contains a suggested program). Traditions—not rules—form our collective experience. To understand AA, read the Twelve Traditions. </li> <li>The group (my group) is AA. Big “T” and small “t” traditions are not binding on groups, the only “rules” an AA group has to follow are the ones they impose on themselves as a group. Our first Tradition is about “unity,” clearly different than “uniformity.” </li>
</ol>
<p>What do we think? Here is a shout-out for Door #3. If AA were the book, our anniversary would be April 1939 when our first book was published, but it is June 1935, when two alcoholics helping each other stayed sober, together: no program, no book. AA continued to sober up alcoholics, pre-book. Today, some groups—the real back to basics—channel that basic one-alcoholic-talking-to-another brand of AA. The <em>Big Book</em> is popular, but not scripture. While many swear by it, lots of us enjoy AA sobriety, without it. Most towns have more than their fair share of <em>Big Book</em> meetings—AA, and Cocaine Anonymous, even more so; do love them some <em>Big Book</em>. But in our last blog, a 20:20 look at the year & century to date, we see in more secular countries like The UK or Canada, show declining AA membership since Y2K. Is this connected to a lack of variety in AA approaches? </p>
<p>Twelve Traditions do not describe or defend any program of AA, nor assign any authoritative body or literature to regulate members or groups. Traditions help the AA members in their groups and each group of AA cooperating with AA as a whole. Traditions guide us; they do not govern. In any informed explanation of AA, the group is our highest and only authority. <em>The AA Service Manual</em> [i]describes AA as an upside-down triangle with members/groups at the top with a service structure doing the bidding of the groups. In the 2019 revised <em>The AA Group[</em>ii], each group that wishes, has the authority to do outreach (public information) directly, keep archives, run its own affairs and appoint a General Service Rep (and sometimes central office representative) to express the groups views to AA as a whole and to do our share of the work of AA that happens beyond our virtual or face-to-face meeting.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/a679d8e47ec1cffc7b5a6d6ae218118c59492b29/original/aa-group.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="" /> </p>
<p>Going back to the question, “What is AA like today?” what home-group do you go to? Is it online or in a physical space; how traditionalist or liberal, or big or intimate is it? What AA meeting could we point to today and say: This is quintessential AA? </p>
<p>Hasn’t that always been true? When all of AA was only two meetings, wasn’t the Akron group different than the New York group? Looking at AA then and AA now, we have no official format or sample 1950s group to compare to a sample 2020 group, we have to look at sample individual experiences of AA.</p>
<p>And in comparing the wellness of today’s society over yesteryear, one health-factor for any society would be how engaged and how empowered the younger demographic—the future of the society—feel. So, we measure the vibrancy of youth in two ways. First, Earle, 41-years-old when he sobered up in 1953, was considered a younger, high-bottom drunk of earlier AA. If 41 as "young" sounds like a stretch in any era, in AA crowds it is always on the younger side and also, as you get to know Earle he was young at heart—a natural seeker and trailblazer. Also, today’s young people (teens and twenties) have their say in our September2020 <em>AA Grapevine</em>.[iii]</p>
<p>Previously, Rebellion Dogs has talked about an inciteful autobiography, <em>Physician Heal Thyself: 35 Years of Adventure in Sobriety by an AA ‘Old-Timer</em>, that Dr. Earle wrote in 1989. See “Musings from San Francisco”[iv] </p>
<p>Six years after his book, Earle was interviewed by AA <em>Grapevine</em> about the old days. "Physician Heal Thyself!" author, Dr. Earle was interviewed by telephone at his home in California by <em>Grapevine</em> and asked about the current state of Alcoholics Anonymous (25-years-ago, in 1995): </p>
<p>“People say there is only one way to work the program. That is crazy. We talk about the suggested Steps—which are guides to recovery—not absolutes. Chapter five of The <em>Big Book</em> says ‘No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles.’ </p>
<p>If we had all the members of AA standing here, everyone would have a different idea what AA is all about. Bill's idea was different from Dr. Bob's, yours will be different from mine. And yet they're all based on one thing and that is: don't drink, and use the Twelve Steps in your own way.” </p>
<p>Riffing off the good doctor, everyone’s experience and description of AA differs. I say, “AA is the group,” and the group is not a McDonalds. McDonalds is not a chain of unique restaurants whose only commonality is serving food to hungry people. Being in a McD’s is a visit to anywhere-ica—anywhere in North America. Inside McDonalds you can’t tell if you are in Miami, Madison or Montreal. It’s the same menu, price, aesthetics—McDonalds delivers a predictable experience. I don’t see groups in AA, presenting the same uniformity. Some have 20 minutes of ritualistic readings; some have a chair introduce a speaker and then open up the discussion to the floor.</p>
<p>You don’t need to read from the <em>Big Book</em>, you don’t need to read the preamble, you don’t need to say, “My name’s Joe and I’m an alcoholic.” Each group is its own AA with shared culture and connection to the larger fellowship, but beholden only to the members of that group’s desires and chosen format.</p>
<p>My view of AA isn’t “the” view of AA. You say, “AA is a program, with instructions in a 1939 book.” Someone else says, “AA is a mutual-aid society, all of us helping each other, directly or indirectly.” I wouldn’t disagree with any of that; like you, I am just one voice and view in a collective of individuals that have an inalienable right to participation and self-expression. So, AA is orthodox, and AA is freethinking. </p>
<p>Eleven years sober, Dr Earle was a member of San Francisco’s The Forum AA group. Communally, members were concerned for the growing number of self-identifying drug addicts or irreligious members who found God-talk unattractive. Members re-wrote the AA Steps in 1965 for reading at meetings. See for yourself if the Forum AA Group’s interpretation, Ten Suggested Steps variation of our AA experience, doesn’t share Earle’s idea of many paths in AA: </p>
<ol> <li>We realized deeply that we cannot handle mind-altering drugs safely; our attempts to do so courts disaster. </li> <li>As we commit ourselves to abstinence, we welcome nature’s healing process into our lives. </li> <li>In the group, we discuss our common problems in recovery; to do so hastens healing. </li> <li>We find a friend, usually also recovering, with whom we can discuss our deepest, guarded secrets. Release and freedom become ours. </li> <li>By making amends to ourselves and to others, we put to rest past injuries. </li> <li>When we face our emotional problems squarely, we discover that change automatically happens. We do not seek change—it simply occurs. </li> <li>Our lives are orderly and full of meaning as we live second for second. </li> <li>Recovery together constitutes a fabric of unity. Each of us, however, follows a unique, personalized pattern of recovery. </li> <li>We share our lives with those who are still drinking or using. Many of them decide to join us. </li> <li>Our meeting doors are open to all users of mind-altering substances. The welcome mat is in full view. </li>
</ol>
<p>Is AA a program or a fellowship? Earle’s experience was that AA was family. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/38eaafc0274761678849784f1b25be47373f3ba8/original/physician-heal-thyself.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" />“Well, some AA groups have turned into kind of psychological forums and that isn't AA to me. Maybe it is, I don't know. But here's the way I feel about it, correct or incorrect: AA is my family, and every family has a mix of people in it. Every family has people who are braggarts who think they know everything—every family does. Every family has people who whine all the time—every family. And every family has people who go out and do very well and succeed at the art of living. So when I hear the whiners—well, they're kind of a bore, but on the other hand, a family always has boring whiners in it.” </p>
<p>Earle and Bill W met and talked often. Both wrestled to find contentment. In the 1960s, Bill and Earle wondered if better answers could come from Eastern philosophy. AA <em>Grapevine</em> asks, “Have you had periods in sobriety that were emotionally difficult?” Here’s a classic Dr. Earle story about his search for serenity: </p>
<p>“Let me tell you how I got at some emotional rest. Years ago, a medical college in the South asked me to go to Saigon as a visiting professor to help the Vietnamese set up a new department in gynecology and obstetrics. Before I left, I went back to see Bill and Lois and Marty M. and some others, and I spent about eight or nine days back in New York before I went to Asia. Bill took me to the airport and on the way there he said, ‘You know, Earle, I've been sober longer than anyone else in our organization. After all I was sober six months when I met Bob. But,’ he said, ‘I don't have too much peace of mind.’ He said, ‘I feel down in the dumps a hell of a lot.’ </p>
<p>So I said, ‘So do I, Bill. I don't have much serenity either.’ I was sober by this time maybe sixteen, seventeen years. </p>
<p>He said, ‘Do me a favor. When you get over to Asia, see if you can investigate, firsthand, the various religions in Asia. That means Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism, and Confucianism and ancestral worship and the whole shebang.’ </p>
<p>And I said, ‘All right, I'll do it.’ And he said, ‘Stay in contact with me and maybe we can find something in those religions. After all, we've taken from William James, we've taken from all the Christian religions. Let's see what these others have.’ </p>
<p>So I hugged Bill and got on the plane and went to Asia. I had three or four rest and relaxation periods a year but I didn't rest and relax. I was determined to find something that would bring peace and serenity to me. I spent a lot of time in Nepal and in Indonesia. I spent time in India. I went into these places looking, looking, looking for serenity. I spent two or three years just driving to find out something. I tried meditation, I read the Bhagavad Gita, the Vedas—everything. </p>
<p>I went to an ashram on the southeast coast of India, run by a very famous guru and saint. There were about a hundred and fifty East Indians there. I was the only Westerner and they welcomed me. I wore a dhoti—that’s a white skirt that men wear—and I wore one like the rest of them did. We all ate on the ground on great big banana leaves over a yard long. There would be food on the banana leaves and you'd make it into a ball with your right hand and throw it into your mouth. There were no knives or forks at all, so I did what they did. I didn't like the taste very much but I did it. </p>
<p>I happened to be there at the time of the Feast of Dewali. Dewali is like our time of Easter; it's the time of renewal. We were awakened on the early morning of Dewali around two o'clock. This ashram was located at the base of a mountain known as Arunachal. Now Arunachal in Hindi means sun, and the myth goes that one of the gods, Rama, lives inside of this mountain. We were told we had to walk around the base of this mountain--which was a ten mile walk—and as we walked, we were yelling to Rama. If you do it in a very firm and believing way, it's said that Rama will come up and wave at you and bless you. I was there, and I did it. We walked around and we were yelling "Rama, Rama, Rama" hoping that Rama would come up and bless us all. They all walked in their bare feet. I didn't, I wore my shoes. Gosh, I was tired. But I walked all night long, the whole distance. </p>
<p>After that event, I came back to my little apartment in Saigon, ready to return to my medical work. I was so beaten because I'd been driving and searching and clenching my fists for almost three years (and I kept writing to Bill about all this, you know). And I came into my apartment and I suddenly collapsed down onto the floor. I lay there breathing kind of heavily and I said to myself, ‘Oh, to hell with serenity, I don't care if it ever comes.’ </p>
<p>And I meant it. And do you know what happened? All of a sudden the craving to find serenity utterly evaporated—and there it was. Serenity. The trouble was the search . . . looking out there for what was right here. </p>
<p>You know, we only have this given second. There's always now. Once I realized that, serenity became mine. Now—I'm speaking about emotions—I haven't sought one single thing since that day because it's all right here."</p>
<p>... <em>Is there anything you'd like to say in conclusion? </em></p>
<p>"...I'm not a church-goer—I’m in church all the time. To me, prayer is utter awareness. I don't know if that makes sense to you but it does to me. It's being aware of things, of what's going on around me all the time, in a given second. That to me is a form of prayer, that to me is a form of righteousness, if you want to use that religious word. </p>
<p>A Buddhist might call that awareness mindfulness." </p>
<p>Read the whole interview online: <span style="display: none;"> </span><span style="display: none;"> </span><a contents="https://www.aagrapevine.org/magazine/1995/oct/interview-author-physician-heal-thyself" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aagrapevine.org/magazine/1995/oct/interview-author-physician-heal-thyself" target="_blank">https://www.aagrapevine.org/magazine/1995/oct/interview-author-physician-heal-thyself</a> </p>
<p>My take-aways from this look back at 20th century AA is that: </p>
<ul> <li>AA wasn’t the same for the first two members, Bill W and Bob S. Also true, AA is not the same for the most recent two members of AA, either. Earle mentioned the Bob and Bill’s experience was different from each other, just as yours and mine is not the same. </li> <li>Long-term sobriety comes with difficult circumstances and emotional challenges. The recently converted view of AA life is portrayed by Bill W, “a new freedom and a new happiness ... uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things ... self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change (<em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em>, pp 83-84).” This “happy destiny” turned out to be over-selling or wishful thinking as exemplified by both Bill W’s and Earle M’s actual experiences of AA sobriety. </li> <li> Detaching from self-seeking sometimes ends the fight and brings relief. Not doing sounds counterintuitive to the “do the work (The Steps for instance)” mantra. Effort has purpose but the relief is from letting go? That’s curious. As Earle observes, “I often say to people at meetings, ‘You're trying to find peace of mind out there. I do not blame you, but it isn't out there. It's here. Right here.’” </li>
</ul>
<p>But let us not get too bogged down in the old-timer past. In the September 2020 AA <em>Grapevine</em>, young people rule the day. </p>
<p>Emma from Philadelphia got sober at 14 and talks about AA life this century: “I was lucky to get sober in the middle of young people’s AA. No one there told me I was ‘too young’ or ‘couldn’t understand.’ They taught me how to do homework sober. They taught me how to get through lunchbreak sober. And, eventually, they taught me how to go to prom sober, to apply to college sober and to take the risk of moving across the country sober. </p>
<p>I made it to an AA meeting my first week in my new college town. I was 18, three years sober and living in the dorms. While my classmates were just discovering drinking, I was going to meetings, engaging in AA fellowship and learning how to be a sober college student.” </p>
<p>And from the what was old is new again file, Susan of Plymouth Michigan talks about how “I have had amazing experiences already with virtual AA meetings, and over time I’ve come to the conclusion that there is little difference between those and physical meetings,” she pulls a 1960 quote from Bill W out, who was maybe warning about anonymity in the advent of television in everyone’s homes. ‘Nothing can matter more to the future welfare of AA than the manner in which we use this colossus of communication.’"</p>
<p>Imagine Bill W. and Dr. Earle logging onto a meeting together, Bill from New York, sharing about anonymity on Zoom, Earle zooming in from Bangkok talking about the Dharma Recovery meeting he went to yesterday. </p>
<p>And Nachelle from Collingwood Ontario tells <em>AA Grapevine</em> that she got and stayed sober before her 24th birthday and she has been sober 15 years now. Her story puts an exclamation point on Dr. Earle’s, AA experience that is something different to all of us: “I was a bar drinker; I always drank in bars. So when I had just a couple of months sober, I remember asking people at a meeting what AAs did for fun. It was a legitimate question at the time, because so many people my age were busy partying. But luckily, I soon found ways to have fun sober. And many have been pretty amazing. </p>
<p>Since I got sober, I’ve gone hiking on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu and I’ve climbed mountains on various continents. I’ve gone snorkeling, skydiving, bungee jumping, white-water rafting, and I’ve even played with baby tigers in Thailand. </p>
<p>I’m so fortunate that many of my dreams have come true in AA. I came in only having been to three different countries and now I can say I’ve been to 63! </p>
<p>I love going to meetings all over the world, even if I barely speak the language.” </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/b52c09155b1e622678a7f365c16e28bf8f974f1a/original/2020-sept-grapevine.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p>Carole P from San Francisco’s share is so 2020: “In my own mind, my share that day was a disaster. I was horrified by how I looked on my smart phone. As I spoke, I got distracted by my cat and my landline kept ringing. Then I saw a good friend of mine ‘leave the meeting’ in the middle of my share! I was not in my body, nor in the spiritual solution. It was a case of ‘instincts on rampage.’ Another sleepless night. </p>
<p>Where had my program gone? I needed to get real and to practice the Steps like my hair was on fire. And so I did. I am reminded that I’m powerless over alcohol, the virus, technology and what I look like on video.” </p>
<p>We sometimes here about quality sobriety vs. watered down AA, or real AA for real alcoholics as if there is a gold-standard for how to get/stay sober in AA. For instance, “Working the Twelve Steps exactly as described in the book <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em>.” Well, that is “a" way to do AA. Not everyone has done that. For a sample of successful AA that did not follow the AA instructions as outlined in the <em>Big Book</em>, how about starting with the people whose stories appear inside that 1st Edition of <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em>. Their stories were recorded before the 12-steps were conceived. Bill W had written up to Chapter Four “We Agnostics” as well as “Working With Others,” and “A Vision for You,” that describe the benefits of AA. Completed, or near completed, were also chapters to employers, loved ones, about the post-recovery family, and all the stories that appeared in the book. </p>
<p>How many members there were—be it 40 or so, or the rounded-up 100 that is been popularized—there are 28 stories of AA members in the 1st Edition. Outcome rates were stellar, without the Twelve Steps, “exactly as written.” In fact we know that of 28 recorded stories, 14 never drank again after their story was recorded for the <em>Big Book</em>. Of the other 14, seven drank and never got back into sobriety, seven drank and came back to AA, dying sober. So a 75% success rate was achieved by this sample of AA members—14 who never drank again, being ½ and another seven who would get and stay sober, being another ¼ of this early AA sample. </p>
<p>In <em>Writing the Big Book: The Creation of AA</em> (2019), Bill Schaberg writes: </p>
<p>“Eight expositional chapters had already been drafted and edited providing more than ‘enough background and window-dressing’ for the book. Finally, he was going to have to put down in black and white and in simple declarative sentences ‘a definite statement of concrete principles, telling the new man exactly what he had to do to get sober and then stay that way. It was a seemingly insolvable problem that he had been dodging for far too long (p. 440).” </p>
<p>So, on the one hand, some espouse on the Twelve Steps panacea, as outlined in <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em>, as how the original members got sober, documentary research reveals that this characterization of members working a shared program in a uniformed way is false. On the other hand, Bill W’s attempted to describe his own, or our collective experience—as testimony, not direction—that’s fine; take what you like, leave the rest. Earle who knew Bill, wrote his step eight of ten steps of AA, “Recovery together constitutes a fabric of unity. Each of us, however, follows a unique, personalized pattern of recovery.” Earle was a maverick, doing AA his way and always restless, a seeker looking for a better. This was true of Bill W before him, 16 years Earle’s senior. We see in today’s youth this same restless tendency to extend themselves outside of their comfort zone, travelling, learning, trying out new experiences. <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/c74b1382029fc18864edb0124e9aa63e25ca2c05/original/experiencing-spirituality.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" />AA then and AA now is the experience of alcohol use disorder, the experience of recovery and the adventures (or our experiences) we tell each other.</p>
<p>Before his death in 2015, reunited with Katherine Ketcham, Ernie Kurtz wrote, <em>Experiencing Spirituality: Finding Meaning through Story Telling</em> (2014). This was a 20-year follow up to their previous collaborative work, <em>The Spirituality of Imperfection</em>. </p>
<p>“Experience carries numerous connotations. Many users have recognized both its strengths and its slipperiness. Oscar Wile is credited with, ‘Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.’ And although it does not originate with him, Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture (2007) is the most frequently cited source for ‘Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.’ Because the word’s power, experience has at times been twisted and used in attempts to justify all kinds of aberrations, especially claims to certainty.”[v] </p>
<p>When people quote Bill W—or Kurtz and Ketcham for that matter—aren’t we borrowing authority... making, or insinuating “claims of certainty”? </p>
<p>Each of us have our own experiences. Our explanation of an experience is as valid as anyone else’s. I think that putting too much weight on people who borrow the authority of what AA was or should be by <em>Big Book</em>-quoting or their understanding of Tradition so-and-so has folly in as far as we are subordinating our distorted memory and view for someone else’s distorted memory or view. </p>
<p>Clinging to the past isn’t the way of any generation in the wings. Youth don’t want to duplicate a well-worn path; in a healthy society, the young forge better ways, be it seeking enlightenment, summitting mountain peaks or embracing new technology. If the kids are alright, then AA is alright.</p>
<p>AA is as good (and incomplete) today as it was way-back-when. Alcoholism and recovery are just as mysterious today as it was in the 1930s. Yes, we know more in 2020; yes, we are better off for the increased body of discovery and evidence since Dr. Silkworth’s 1938 opinion. Yet, the secrets of who will stay sober by doing what-exactly, has still not been revealed to us, has it? All we have is stories. </p>
<p>So, why not take our cues from AA’s mavericks. Why rest on our laurels? Let’s be courageous enough to try novel approaches. People who hold themselves out as “truth-tellers” quoting authorities about why we should go back in time or resist change are fearful. And while we need not be reckless about our future, if we don’t adapt, we will perish as a society. There is wisdom to be gained from honoring those who have gone before us. But hanging on every word and duplicating every action, leads to reification. </p>
<p>It remains a balancing act. Why reinvent the wheel or impose change for changes sake? Yet, a body of evidence warns against holding our forefathers out as wiser, higher authorities or replicating every ritual and written expression from our past as if it were sacred. With humor, let us warn against putting our founders on pedestals; we defer once more to Ernie’s and Katherine’s who themselves borrow rabbinical parables. Hopefully, this will help us to not take ourselves, or others, too seriously.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">“The great rabbi was dying and, as we all know, deathbed wisdom is the best. So his students lined up, single file to receive his last words. The most brilliant student was at the bedside, the second most brilliant behind him, and so on, till the line ended at the student who was a room and a half away. The most brilliant student leaned over to the slowly slipping rabbi and asked, ‘Rabbi, what is the meaning of life?’ </p>
<p style="text-align: center;">The rabbi groaned, ‘Life is like a cup of tea.’ The most brilliant student turned to the second most brilliant student, ‘The rabbi said life is like a cup of tea.’ And word was whispered from student to student till it arrived at the fellow who was waiting a room and a half away. </p>
<p style="text-align: center;">‘What does the rabbi mean—life is like a cup of tea’? he asked. And his question was passed back up the line until the most brilliant student once again leaned over the dying rabbi. ‘Rabbi, what do you mean—Life is like a cup of tea?’</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">The rabbi shrugged, ‘All right, so maybe life is not like a cup of tea!’” </p>
<p><a contents="READ/Download PDF version" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-blog-september-2020-aa-then-and-now.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/1073647/rebellion-dogs-blog-september-2020-aa-then-and-now.pdf" target="_blank">READ/Download <strong>PDF version</strong></a></p>
<p>[i] <a contents="https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/en_bm-31.pdf" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/en_bm-31.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/en_bm-31.pdf</a> </p>
<p>[ii] <a contents="https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-16_theaagroup.pdf" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-16_theaagroup.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-16_theaagroup.pdf</a> </p>
<p>[iii] <a contents="https://www.aagrapevine.org/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aagrapevine.org/" target="_blank">https://www.aagrapevine.org/</a> </p>
<p>[iv] <a contents="https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/home/blog/musings-from-san-francisco-march-2019-rebellon-dogs-blog" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/home/blog/musings-from-san-francisco-march-2019-rebellon-dogs-blog" target="_blank">https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/home/blog/musings-from-san-francisco-march-2019-rebellon-dogs-blog</a> </p>
<p>[v] Kurtz, Ketcham, Experiencing Spirituality: Finding Meaning through Story Telling, New York: Penguin, 2014 (pp 32-33).</p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/6403718
2020-08-06T15:04:51-04:00
2021-09-18T16:46:19-04:00
A 2020 look at AA's year in review: progressive and traditionalist baby-zoomers
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/b435658b1f9fa5ae15d9d35e3abd251990c1468e/original/2020-08-06-3.png/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.png" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="" /><a contents="This blog available in PDF: CLICK HERE" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-blog-aug-2020-aa-year-in-review.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/1070747/rebellion-dogs-blog-aug-2020-aa-year-in-review.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;">This blog available in PDF</span>: <strong>CLICK HERE</strong></a></p>
<p>This just in:</p>
<ul> <li>The latest insights and stats from AA General Service Conference.</li> <li>New studies about worldview that explain our recovery culture a little bit better.</li> <li>COVID-19 life finds doors are shut; other doors are opening. We have lots to unpack in this blog. But hey, we do have some time on our hands. For your consideration, </li>
</ul>
<p>We offer recovery musings away from news/weather/sports for a half hour. </p>
<p>England and America—two nations divided by a common language—this quip was attributed to George Bernard Shaw in 1942 <em>Readers Digest</em>. So yes, this attribution is a similar time frame to Herbert Spencer being misattributed about the dangers of contempt prior to investigation in a re-writing of <em>Alcoholics Anonymous </em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">“The new 1941 Appendix lacked not only its later full title, but also the quote attributed to Herbert Spencer, which wasn’t added to ‘Spiritual Experience’ until the third printing of the second edition in 1959.(<em>Writing the Big Book</em>)”[i] </p>
<p>Oh, if only these icons of thought had immortalized their words on Facebook, like we do; we could “fact check”. But back to divided by a common language... In our new anyone-from-anywhere zoom meeting world, words mean different things to different boxes on the screen. Our language of the heart uses the same words but is open to interpretation and misinterpretation. </p>
<p>Alcoholics Anonymous, and all mutual aid groups, have a group-speak. If only these widely used words shared widely agreed upon meaning. Some recent studies comparing European and American communication about religious/spiritual concepts seems to reinforce the notion that “Yeah, but AA is spiritual—not religious,” means widely different things and we now have evidence to support the idea that the locality of our meetings has an influence over what these words mean. Pew Research findings shines a light on regional influences on 12-step culture from worldview to literature and slogans. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/c6815763b935ee3735fe96d15c7800477b30a7aa/original/usa-uk-flags.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="usa-uk-flags" /></p>
<p>Looking at Pew Research Group’s findings, in <em>The Atlantic</em>[ii], Segal Samuel mused over how Americans are different that Western Europeans (May of 2018): </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>“Americans are deeply religious people—and atheists are no exception. </strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Europeans are deeply secular people—and Christians are no exception.” </strong></p>
<p>How do these characteristics inform AAs community that includes “deeply religious” and “secular” AA members? Consensus on what AA members (& other 12-steppers) believe, might be wishful thinking. We hear that the inclusive 12-step culture does not demand that you or I believe anything. Still, some freethinkers feel the concern or hostility from others when we express ourselves candidly. And some progressives bemoan that an overbearing theistic orthodoxy in AA does not meet today’s newcomer where they’re at, the way AA-language did in the 1950s. </p>
<p>The earliest AA literature frames addiction as a state of powerlessness. The remedy is outside agency. In 1939, most AA’s were raised to understand outside agency as being supernatural. No belief system is a requirement for membership. Nonetheless, a newcomer could draw a connection that belonging and believing in AA, were tied together. This 20th century middle-America God <em>as you understand Him</em>" remains widely supported in the rooms. Meanwhile, a persistent secular wave challenges the supremacy of a theistic AA philosophy.</p>
<p>It is so simple if you enjoy the candor of <em>A Newcomer Asks</em> (AAWS p-24). Our pamphlet describes our membership as falling into one of three beliefs: the existence of a supernatural higher power, a secular power or no need/want for a higher power, at all: </p>
<p><strong><em>There’s a lot of talk about God, though, isn’t there? </em></strong></p>
<p>The majority of A.A. members believe that we have found the solution to our drinking problem not through individual willpower, but through a power greater than ourselves. However, everyone defines this power as he or she wishes. </p>
<ol> <li>Many people call it God, </li> <li>others think it is the A.A. group, </li> <li>still others don’t believe in it at all. </li>
</ol>
<p>There is room in A.A. for people of all shades of belief and non-belief. </p>
<p>The word “God” or “spiritual” are problematic insofar as there is less and less consensus of what these words mean in relation to recovery from alcoholism. Pew Research Group confirms that people who speak this abstract language don’t share concrete definitions to being or not being religious or secular. Europeans differ from Americans but in both cases researchers find it hard to tell what someone believes based on how they self-identify. </p>
<p>Pew widely reports that about a quarter of Americans are now part of the growing “nones (religiously unaffiliated).” A 2017 Pew poll[iii] gets more specific. Respondents in the USA were asked, “Do you believe in God or not?” </p>
<ul> <li>Yes: 80% </li> <li>No: 19% </li>
</ul>
<p>It’s settled then; oh, but wait... Of the 80% who answered, “Yes,” Pew Research Group probed further: 56% of Americans believe in “God as described in the Bible, “plus 23% of self-identified believers, “believe in some other higher power/spiritual force.” A rose by any other name is still a rose but this isn’t as true for abstractions. </p>
<p>Of the 19% of Pew respondents who identify as nonbelievers, we find the same ambiguity: 10% of Americans, “Do not believe in any higher power/spiritual force” Another 9% say, “No, I do not believe in God, AND I do believe in some form of higher power/spiritual force.” </p>
<p>Age is a factor. The survey of 4,700 Americans reveals self-identified nonbelievers in 16% of under 30-year-olds (“do not believe in God or higher power of any kind”). Of 30 to 49-year-olds, 13% do not hold supernatural beliefs. Atheism thins out among older Americans; 4 to7% of those aged 50+, do not believe in any higher power. </p>
<p>In a July 20, 2020 Pew report called, <em>The Global God Divide</em> [iv] current and relevant data that characterize the communities outside our meetings that must inform the local AA philosophy. Widely speaking, you can see the trend this century towards a secular view in developed countries. The USA does stay stubbornly theistic compared to others. Note for instance, only in America do more than ½ of people still see daily prayer as important. Other Pew investigations we will get to shortly, ask questions that are very AA-relevant. But here is a 2020 snapshot: while declining, the relevance of God remains greater in the USA than some other English-speaking AA countries</p>
<table align="center" border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width:525px;"><tbody> <tr> <td style="text-align: center;"><strong>Pew Research Questions 2019</strong></td> <td style="text-align: center;"><strong>USA</strong></td> <td style="text-align: center;"><strong>UK</strong></td> <td style="text-align: center;"><strong>Canada</strong></td> <td style="text-align: center;"><strong>Australia</strong></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="text-align: center;">Belief in God needed to be Moral</td> <td style="text-align: center;">44%</td> <td style="text-align: center;">20%</td> <td style="text-align: center;">26%</td> <td style="text-align: center;">19%</td> </tr> <tr> <td style="text-align: center;">God plays important role in life</td> <td style="text-align: center;">72%</td> <td style="text-align: center;">40%</td> <td style="text-align: center;">52%</td> <td style="text-align: center;">38%</td> </tr> <tr> <td style="text-align: center;">Prayer is important</td> <td style="text-align: center;">67%</td> <td style="text-align: center;">31%</td> <td style="text-align: center;">42%</td> <td style="text-align: center;">32%</td> </tr>
</tbody></table>
<p> </p>
<p>The Atlantic, which characterized USA and Euro differences in their relationship with the labels “secular” or “Christian,” was musing over one 2017 Pew Research Center study that made interesting comparisons. Respondents were asked if they “Believe in God with absolute certainty.” </p>
<p>Answering, “Yes:” compare 15% of W. Europeans to 63% of Americans. That is a big cultural difference. </p>
<p>Breaking respondents into people who identified as “Christian” vs. “religiously unaffiliated”... </p>
<ul> <li>23% of Christian European plus 3% of Unaffiliated Europeans(believe in God). </li> <li>63% of Christian Americans plus 27% of Unaffiliated Americans (believe in God). </li>
</ul>
<p>Irreligious Western Europeans don’t believe in gods. Some irreligious Americans do. If this Western Europeans vs. Americans difference is the same in AA meetings, then the way members self-identify and what that says about their worldview varies differently from opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean. So, are AA Americans deeply religious and AA Europeans deeply secular? </p>
<p>In a historical switch, the “old country” of AA is America and Europe is the brave new land. For Europeans, AA is imported from the USA. Did they import the literal interpretations? The “God as we understand Him/Her/Them” in American meetings means the “God of the <em>Bible</em>” or “some form of higher power/spiritual force,” by 90% of members (assuming AA members are the same demographic as research respondents). Only 10% of American members dismiss god(s) as superstition or use a G.O.D. acronym to describe a humanist aid found in AA sobriety. </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/5da1811759a04d91b4de50dd42227953cb762dd3/original/step-two-then-a-miracle-happens.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p>Across the Atlantic, a mere 15% of AAs holds an anthropomorphic “God as we understand Him/Her/Them” notion while 85% regard the god-idea as AA-talk that their American cousins use—more poetic than literal. </p>
<p>There seems no reason to believe “God could and would if He were sought” has the same meaning to the same number of members in Glasgow or Amsterdam AA as in the USA where belief in AA gods reigns supreme. Or do Europeans view AA as a solution to alcohol use disorder, only for the religious few? Neither American nor European members hold universally agreed upon worldviews. But is the godly AA language hurting AA's reputation outside of the United States?.</p>
<p>People are leaving AA outside America, according to January 2020 AA statistics. But for those who do stay in international AA, the secular voice is influencing AA literature and culture. Zoom brings members from around the world to each others local meetings. What impact is the blending of more secular and more orthodox AA having? . </p>
<p><strong>Hot Off The Press: 70th General Service Conference Final Report (2020) </strong></p>
<p>The 2020 General Service Conference was the first to be held online due to COVID-19. AA is 85 years old and this was our 70th General Service Conference to discuss the business of AA as a whole. According to this report and records reported in the Summer edition of Box 4-5-9: News & Notes from GSO {General Service Office] each year: </p>
<ul> <li>USA AA membership increased by 17% from 2000 to 2020. (up 200,000 members from 1,162,112 to 1,361,471 members) </li> <li>Canada shed 12% of its members in AA from 98,816 in 2000 to 87,840 in 2020). </li> <li>World members (Outside USA/Canada) lost 29% of members falling from 833,100 at Y2K to 588,703 members remaining at January of this year.[iv] </li>
</ul>
<p>Overall, AA is slightly smaller over two decades (-4%) but we are more of an American fellowship that we were at the turn of the century. </p>
<p>There is more in the Conference Report. Julio was in charge of inviting all of AA to Detroit in July of 2020. The city and convention center have been preparing for twelve years to welcome an estimated 75,000 AA and Al-Anon Family members. The breaks got put on our 2020 85th anniversary party’s physical gathering in Detroit and plans switched to a virtual online world convention. Julio reports on this great adventure. </p>
<p>The theme for the 2021 conference will be AA in changing times. If that resonates with you, get to your Area Assemblies and regional forums (on zoom) to discuss your passions. Every dollar, email and phone call are accounted for and reported on. Ask your General Service Rep for a PDF of the 2020 report if you want to read it yourself.</p>
<p><strong>The Literature Desk: every pamphlet tells a story don't it? </strong></p>
<p>Our United Kingdom General Service Office has influenced the AA language over the years. </p>
<p><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-24_anewcomerask.pdf" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/5759726f3ec5b0d351b1f496ae4f930293d845e9/original/2018-05-04-1.png/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsInNtYWxsIl1d.png" class="size_s justify_left border_none" alt="" /></a>Remember that <em>A Newcomer Asks</em> pamphlet that speaks so candidly about “room in A.A. for people of all shades of belief and non-belief?” While most literature is first written and printed by AA World Services in New York and then adopted by English AA around the world, <a contents="A Newcomer Asks" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-24_anewcomerask.pdf" target="_blank"><strong><span style="color:#f39c12;"><em>A Newcomer Asks</em></span></strong></a> is one of two exceptions. This was created in Britain for local use and outreach (Cooperation with the Professional Community and Public Information). </p>
<p>An American visiting the UK picked one up from a London literature table, brought it home to the States, one thing led to another, and in 1980, the USA/Canada General Service Conference adopted the UK pamphlet. </p>
<p>Today, this UK import, <em>A Newcomer Asks</em>, is the second-best seller in AA pamphlets next to<em> Is AA for You?</em> This expression of the equivalency of power of AA being explained as God, the group, or nothing at all, exemplifies a more European, more secular temperament especially compared to the deeply religious loudest voice in the American room. </p>
<p>As of 2016, the second British import to the USA/Canada literature racks was <em>The “God” Word: Agnostics and Atheists in AA</em>. Published by the UK GSO in 2014 to meet local demand,<em> The “God” Word </em>was sought-after by secular AA members and groups in USA and Canada, too. </p>
<p>The same atheist/agnostic pamphlet was explored by the USA/Canada General Service Conference eleven times from the 1970s until 2012 at the New York conference. For the more Christian American influenced conference, creating an equal voice to godless heathens was a bridge to far. Eleven proposals for Atheist/Agnostics literature were mothballed by our more Christian conference. </p>
<p>That wasn’t the fault of the USA/Canada’s literature committee. Valiant efforts over the years, to collect stories, create a draft pamphlet and make requested changes were all for not when the conference couldn’t muster enough votes to pass the Conference Literature Committee’s recommendation to approve a pamphlet of atheists and agnostics from Canada and the USA telling their stories of alcoholism and recovery. The closest GSO came was what got transformed into <em>Many Paths to Spirituality. Many Paths</em>, serves a purpose but it fell short from the decades long requests for nonbelievers talking about alcoholism and recovery in our own unabashed language. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, in the UK, the need was recognized in 2012 and by 2014, <em>The “God” Word: Agnostics and Atheists in AA </em>was available. An obvious need met by an uncontroversial solution in our more secular AA society. </p>
<p>Having a conference approved pamphlet for atheist and agnostics, from the British General Service Conference, forged a viable path for USA/Canada to satisfy an unmet need. Like<em> A Newcomer Asks</em> before it, it was far easier for North Americans to adopt an existing AA pamphlet, we had done it already. </p>
<p>Secular AA groups requested this in the most palatable way possible for the conference. Freethinkers AA groups from New York, Kansas City, Toronto and several other regions, approached their districts about bringing a motion to their respective areas to ask GSO to adopt the British pamphlet so it could be available to USA and Canada groups in English, Spanish and French. All districts felt the want and need and voted “yes.” District Committee Members expressed their General Service Reps views to Area committees who put the adoption of the British pamphlet on the agenda. The motion came to the floors of each Area Assembly. Supporters and dissenters had their sayand several of USA/Canada’s 93 areas directed their delegate to ask the conference to adopt and approve <em>The “God” Word</em>. It was put on the agenda, discussed in the run up to the conference, voted on and overwhelming unanimity righted the wrong of previous attempts to provide a voice of AA from atheist and agnostic members just like women, LGBTQ+ and young members, African American and indigenous members along with other underrepresented populations. </p>
<p>The 2020 <em>General Service Conference Final Report</em> notes that we ordered over 93,000 English copies in 2019 in Canada/USA, along with these French and Spanish orders. </p>
<ul> <li>
<em>Le Mot “Dieu”—Membres agnostiques et athées chez les AA</em> sold 5,807 of a total of 68,964 French pamphlets </li> <li>
<em>La palabra “Dios” — Los miembros de A.A. agnósticos y ateos</em> sold 3,116 of a total of 222,560 Spanish pamphlets. </li>
</ul>
<p>This year, the corrections committee reported that it has included <em>The “God” Word</em> in their package to wardens, inmates, and members of the criminal justice system. The “God” Word was quoted in an address by Shyrl B of Ohio, talking about “Recovery: Who Is Missing in Our Rooms?” Pointing out that AA groups are not above, “marginalization due to race, gender and other factors.” Shyrl reminds us, “to continue practicing love and tolerance with people whose skin color, language, sex, orientation, beliefs, and social status differ from our own.” </p>
<p>From the 70th General Service Conference there was some news about modernizing<em> Living Sobe</em>r. Maybe you would like to have your say, now’s the timee. </p>
<ul> <li>Some draft language regarding Safety in AA will be prepared in 2020 for our booklet,<em> Living Sober</em>. </li> <li>Request to add a subtitle to the booklet, <em>Living Sober</em>. </li>
</ul>
<p><em>Living Sober:</em> In 2019, USA/Canada members bought 115,000 English paperbacks and eBooks were sold, 10,500 Spanish editions and another 3,000 in French. </p>
<p><strong>Secularphobia in AA. </strong></p>
<p><em>The “God” Word </em>pamphlet origins are a case-in-point of deeply secular Europe and a deeply Christian American AA dynamic. Let us share some behind-the-scenes drama that tells more of the tale of two worldviews AA.</p>
<p>We all wrestle with conscious and unconscious bias, right? For some of our “more religious members,” fear and hostility smoldered from the conference legitimizing AA without a prayer. Secularphobia is an irrational fear and disgust felt by believers towards humanist, nontheist AAs. </p>
<p>Maybe if you see life as a zero-sum game, minorities getting catered to threatens the supremacy of theism. All this “no God—no problem” AA sentiment is threatening to the zealot. “They’re coming for our Big Books” is the kind of irrational flood-gate fear that fuels secularphobia. Some AA conservatives, asked, “Can we Make AA Great Again? Can this atheist-affirming literature be un-done?” </p>
<p>A request to reverse the good fortune on nonbelievers was brought to the 2019 Literature desk to deal with. To understand how inclusive AA as a whole’s positive overtures were in 2020 regarding secular literature, read the anti-atheist efforts that were dealt with by the conference literature report in 2019 (69th General Service Conference):</p>
<ul> <li>Consider discontinuing the booklet <em>Living Sober</em>. The committee considered a request to discontinue the booklet <em>Living Sober</em> and took no action. The committee agreed that there was not a widely expressed need in the Fellowship. </li> <li>Consider discontinuing the pamphlet <em>The “God” Word</em>. The committee considered a request to dis-continue the pamphlet <em>The “God” Word</em> and took no action. The committee noted that it was important to allow time to assess the Fellowship’s response to the pamphlet and that in four months over 38,000 copies of the pamphlet have been purchased since its release in October 2018. It was also noted that there was not a widely expressed need in the Fellowship for discontinuation of the pamphlet. </li>
</ul>
<p>If you are for inclusion—never exclusion in AA, the General Service Board has your back. Having done some primary research in the AA archives regarding literature, here is a simplified version of the process for literature being written and/or discontinued. </p>
<p>Any request from the membership will be considered by the General Service Conference. The breadth of the request has influence. If it’s one letter of support or condemnation, less sway is achieved than if a group, heard through their district and area delegate requests that the Conference direct AA World Services to explore the creation (or discontinuation) of a pamphlet or other form of literature. </p>
<p>Here are the several levels of review. The trustees’ Literature Committee (TLC) meets four times per year to explore these requests. If they agree to pursue ideas, they make suggestions to the Conference Literature Committee (CLC). The CLC meets once a year and is made up of trustees, staff and conference delegates. </p>
<p>A suggestion from the TLC will either be: </p>
<ol> <li>brought to the conference for a vote, </li> <li>sent back to the TLC by the CLC for more exploration or clarification or </li> <li>not proceeded with. </li>
</ol>
<p>Only a TLC recommendation that is approved by the CLC is brought to the conference for discussion and possibly a vote. Only when a motion to approve a recommendation is brough to the conference floor can a proposal be “conference approved,” and given back to the TLC to carry out the wishes of the conference, on behalf of members and groups. </p>
<p>The conference floor can send the proposal back for clarification or flushing out or with particular suggestions in which case, no vote would be taken; voting would be tabled for a future General Service Conference, which meets once a year in April. </p>
<p>You see how these things can go back and forth and take years before final approval or defeat. As every request from the membership is given consideration from the General Service Office/Conference that serves the members, this request to ban/discontinue the secular literature, <em>Living Sober</em> and <em>The “God” Word</em> were given the least amount of attention warranted. We see that the trustees discussed it and never passed it on to the Conference Literature Committee for consideration. Even when literature wanted/ needed by the few is disparaged by the many, control of the few by the many is often avoided in AA.</p>
<p>This painfully slow curve of the moral arch is frustrating to many. You or I would not be the first AA member to call the deliberation process backward because we are sure our ideas obviously are best for AA as a whole; “Save time, see it my way”. But this seemingly tedious process, not perfect by any means, does take the wind out of rash or short-sighted ideas. Even when we are a majority, we may be uninformed, misinformed, hasty or angry. Safeguards are in place to protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority.</p>
<p><strong>A case for petty tribalism in AA</strong></p>
<p>Below this general tolerance of our more religious members and our irreligious members there is a constant tension that ebbs and flows. On one hand, the anti-secular conservative cancel-culture counterparts tried to undo AA’s legacy of secular literature. Progressives would undo holy writ if they could, in the same way conservatives try to control the narrative. We rail against the sexism, heteronormative, religious, outdated Big Book, and demand that its preserved form be cancelled and replaced with a contemporary, scientifically validated, more culturally sensitive version. </p>
<p>This is the reality of coexisting secular and Judeo/Christian stripes. Sometimes one side or another gets our mini-victories or consolation prizes. Here’s an example of conservative AA encroaching on take-what-you-like-leave-the-rest altruism. </p>
<p>Can we agree that both liberals and conservatives love AA and want it to be here to help our grandchildren, if necessary? However, the left sees conservative’s refusal to update the AA narrative as forcing AA to early obsolescence. Conservatives see watered down AA as losing our way, moving away from a winning formula that works if you work it, 75% of the time. These are views, not empirical facts. </p>
<p>So it isn’t enough that one camp has the literature and freedom they need; the other side has to be contained; those people and their AA-deteriorating ways should be replaced by our more right way of doing things. In a culture-war way of seeing things, having complete autonomy to what my group wants isn’t enough. For AA’s survival, we need to cancel the dangerous culture of “others.” </p>
<p>Huffington Post writes:</p>
<p>“The panic over ‘cancel culture’ is, at its core, a reactionary backlash. Conservative elites, threatened by changing social norms and an accelerating generational handover, are attempting to amplify their feelings of aggrievement into a national crisis.”[i] </p>
<p>Let’s use the liberal UK A Newcomer Asks pamphlet as an example. More conservative USA adopts it and it catches on. Fundamentalists don’t like it one bit. This pamphlet that gets into the hands of over 200,000 per year says this: </p>
<p>[i] https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/cancel-culture-harpers-jk-rowling-scam_n_5f0887b4c5b67a80bc06c95e?ri18n=true&fbclid=IwAR0ThL8APZfgmKhY0jSao-nKxdnqLC4uKX7ZnTWsac4sZPHz0pAGYayNFLQ</p>
<p>What advice do you give new members? </p>
<p>In our experience, the people who recover in A.A. are those who: </p>
<ol> <li>stay away from the first drink; </li> <li>attend A.A. meetings regularly; </li> <li>seek out the people in A.A. who have success-fully stayed sober for some time; </li> <li>try to put into practice the A.A. program of recovery </li>
</ol>
<p>What do you think? For potential members or doctors/courts that might refer persons with substance use disorder our way, does this tell the AA story accurately? </p>
<p>Well, if you’re a thumper, you already know that this hogwash does not “show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered...”[vi] </p>
<p>So, whatever conservative political will was required to tip the scales, the 2009 General Service Conference agreed that this newcomer killing watering down of AA would be the “national crisis” Huffington Post writes about and therefore, modified for USA/Canada users to also say: </p>
<ol start="5"> <li>obtain and study the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous. </li>
</ol>
<p>Somehow, “4) try to put into practice the A.A. program of recovery” was not real AA for real alcoholics. The British GSO—more secular, less orthodox—continues to provide groups and members pamphlets with the original four advice points, confident that their message is clear and accurate as is. </p>
<p>“Another sure sign of a moral panic is the elevation of nonevents into national catastrophes. Again and again, the decriers of ‘cancel culture’ intimate that if left unchecked, the left’s increasing intolerance for dissent will result in profound consequences (Huffington Post).” </p>
<p>In AA, it goes both ways. Deeply secular AA’s aren’t satisfied that they can run their meeting any way they choose, read anything they like—conference approved or otherwise—but AA’s future is endangered if that Primary Purpose meeting down the road continues to force-feed newcomers a Big Book and encourage them to dismiss any other literature as psychological gobbilty goop. Huff Post puts it this way: </p>
<p>“And yet, most actual examples of ‘cancel culture’ turn out to have cartoonishly low stakes.” </p>
<p>I mean really, why concern ourselves with what the other AA meeting is doing, saying or reading? </p>
<p>This us vs. them tribal warfare—that in fairness only exists by the loudest extremes of AAs camps and may not reflect the views of the majority of more moderate AA—sounds destructive, unproductive. </p>
<p>Fundamentalists need a foe to push away from. I don’t know why deeply religious AA can’t happily tell their story without finger pointing at demons such as contemporary treatment center language and the idea that meeting makers make it. For progressives, the scapegoat is the mean-spirited thumpers and their superstitious AA orthodoxy which is turning away today’s newcomer. Stop them; they’re the cause of AA membership decline! Maybe, no one gets to play <em>Big Book</em> hero without a sinister foil. And maybe progressive AA saviors have no fuel to light their fire if not for the damage being done by the thumping and mucking. </p>
<p><em>Nir and Far</em> (2017) published an article about why anger is a helpful, motivating force. </p>
<p>“Besides making us feel more powerful, scapegoating can harness our instincts to resist threats to our freedom and autonomy, a phenomenon that psychologists call ‘reactance.’ ... Scapegoating uses the power of reactance toward productive ends. If we feel that someone or something is conspiring against us, we’re more likely to work harder to prove them wrong.”[vii] </p>
<p>Adore or abhor the book <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em>, either will get you sober if you can channel your energy into motivation. The buzz from proving those people wrong can be a great defense against cravings. </p>
<p>The author known as Bobby Beach wrote a priceless article lampooning deeply religious <em>Big Book </em>thumpers, entitled, <em>The shocking reality is that freaken Big Book fundamentalists hate freaken everything!!!</em> </p>
<p>“Big Book thumpers, as they call themselves really, really hate treatment centers, and are quick to attribute every non-BB slogan to these profiteers, whose main occupation over the past four or five decades has been to dilute the purity of AA’s message.”[viii] </p>
<p>Bob goes on down the list of fundies perceived threats to the naïve newcomers including secular AA, court-ordered meeting attendance, and 21st century medical and psychological wellness advocates. Even an emotional sober thumper should appreciate the humor in Bobby Beach’s article. If not, review Rule 62 with your sponsor. I know, I know, Rule 62 is not in the first 164 pages; that’s from that watered-down Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions mumbo jumbo. Earlier this century, Sandy Beach wrote the minority opinion, The <a contents="White Paper on Non-believers" data-link-label="The White paper on Non-believers[1].pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/73325/The%20White%20paper%20on%20Non-believers%5B1%5D.pdf" target="_blank"><strong>White Paper on Non-believers</strong></a> but it just isn’t nearly as funny so forget about that for now. </p>
<p>So about watered-down AA; there comes a time to caution people on a recovery journey about short-cuts or minimization. “Halfway measures are of no avail,” was borrowed, by Bill Wilson, from Richard Peabody’s 1931 <em>The Common Sense of Drinking</em> and plunked into the <em>Big Book</em>. Discomfort can’t be avoided in changing behaviors. That’s still true even though it’s a 1930s idea. </p>
<p>Maybe there is a cost to the morale of AA as a whole with divergent camps bad-mouthing the meeting down the street. But transcending our human biases isn’t one of the promises. Still, couldn’t both judgy anti-thumper liberals and judgy anti-modernization traditionalists each stick to our outcome rates in our meetings and not prop ourselves up by putting other groups down? None of us are getting everyone sober, all of the time. </p>
<p>One final bit of good news from this year’s General Service Conference comes from the A.A. Grapevine report. Disparaged by some in each of the traditionalist and progressive camps, One Big Tent: Atheist and agnostic AA members share their experience, strength and hope was the most pre-ordered Grapevine booklet of all time; so the moderate majority liked it and bought it. This last year, One Big Tent has been translated. Now available: Bajo El Mismo Techo, Emsta colección de experiencias personales escritas por alcohólicos ateos y agnósticos que han encontrado en Alcohólicos Anónimos una solución común. </p>
<p><strong>Let’s review the math: </strong>A more secular influence from Europe, Australia, Canada, South Africa, and other English-speaking AA strongholds has the effect of making AA more believer/nonbeliever balanced. </p>
<p>Yet, AA population growth only happens in our deeply Christian old-country, America (+17%). Deeply secular AA regions like Canada (-12%) and Internationals (-29%) are bleeding membership where tolerance of atheists and agnostics is culturally normal. </p>
<p>In previous blogs/podcasts we have reported that everywhere in AA, secular AA meetings are on the rise. Increasing from under 50 at the turn of the century, to over 500 pre-pandemic 2020, our sense is that agnostic/atheist AA continues to grow in a zoom environment with more and more meetings coming online. </p>
<p>Our future, it seems is still unwritten.</p>
<p><strong>So concludes another episode of “this year in AA.” </strong></p>
<p>At time-of-writing, the pandemic continues, zoom makes going to meetings in other countries the same one-click option as my regular meeting down the street. I am keeping my mind open. Online mutual aid is not a better new world for everyone. </p>
<p>Some members need to get out of their house or other living arrangement to get the most out of an AA meeting. Others don’t find that high-touch translates to high-tech. For some, our workday is all screen time, so sitting at our computer for another meeting? Oh please, no—not more screen time. Calling ‘Bull-shit,’ is it too much screen time or too much bum time? We can move around and zoom in ways that get us the recovery we need, the change of scenery we want, without disturbing everyone else in the meeting. Mind you, some would say, "It's a pandemic; suck it up. After work, go for a walk and log onto your zoom meeting by phone. Think outside the laptop-box." Other suggestions are to find a private place and a couple of backups for your meetings if you want to be away from the house. Be creative. </p>
<p>Others are falling in-like with AA all over again, finding secular AA for the first time, reconnecting with AA from far away treatment center alumni groups or hometown first meetings from long ago. </p>
<p>Our Toronto Beyond Belief Agnostics & Freethinkers group—when we met in a U of T classroom was full of Torontonians. Yes, we’re a city of the world and we have always had many visitors from other meetings and other places. But now, home-team members are the minority in a growing meeting. </p>
<p>We have people who speak AA in their native English, different that Canadian, eh. We have people candidly thank God and the members of AA in our agnostic meeting, unapologetically. We have atheist Big Book-apologists who espouse on how much good if found among the supernatural talk; “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.” Others would not use AA literature for kindling for their barbeque. </p>
<p>We are all types. And now, we are from all places, a fellowship joined by our common suffering and trying to navigate the divide of a common language and many accents and dialects. </p>
<p>Thanks for spending some time with us Rebellion Dogs. What is your experience with zoom meetings? Does our literature meet your needs or boil your blood? What are your feelings about this year’s General Service Conference and where should we focus our efforts in discussing AA’s collective business “in changing times?” </p>
<p>As always, we don’t always get our way, but here, you can always have your say—please comment. </p>
<p>Please be safe and be good to each other. </p>
<p>See you online. </p>
<p><a contents="Okay, so can I have a PDF (CLICK CLICK) of this BLOG?" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-blog-aug-2020-aa-year-in-review.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/1070747/rebellion-dogs-blog-aug-2020-aa-year-in-review.pdf" target="_blank">Okay, so can I have a <span style="color:#f1c40f;"><strong>PDF (CLICK CLICK)</strong></span> of this BLOG?</a></p>
<p>[i] Schaberg, William Writing The Big Book: The Creation of AA, Central Recovery Press, Las Vegas, 2019 p. 602 </p>
<p>[ii] Sigal Samuel, The Atlantic <a contents="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/05/american-atheists-religious-european-christians/560936/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/05/american-atheists-religious-european-christians/560936/" target="_blank">https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/05/american-atheists-religious-european-christians/560936/</a> </p>
<p>[iii] <a contents="https://www.pewforum.org/2018/04/25/when-americans-say-they-believe-in-god-what-do-they-mean/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.pewforum.org/2018/04/25/when-americans-say-they-believe-in-god-what-do-they-mean/" target="_blank">https://www.pewforum.org/2018/04/25/when-americans-say-they-believe-in-god-what-do-they-mean/</a></p>
<p>[iv] <a contents="https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/07/20/the-global-god-divide/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/07/20/the-global-god-divide/" target="_blank">https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/07/20/the-global-god-divide/</a> </p>
<p>[v] <a contents="https://www.aa.org/pages/en_US/box-4-5-9-news-and-notes-from-gso " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/pages/en_US/box-4-5-9-news-and-notes-from-gso" target="_blank">https://www.aa.org/pages/en_US/box-4-5-9-news-and-notes-from-gso </a></p>
<p>[vi] https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/cancel-culture-harpers-jk-rowling-scam_n_5f0887b4c5b67a80bc06c95e?ri18n=true&fbclid=IwAR0ThL8APZfgmKhY0jSao-nKxdnqLC4uKX7ZnTWsac4sZPHz0pAGYayNFLQ </p>
<p>[vii] Forward to the First Edition, Alcoholics Anonymous, p. xiii </p>
<p>[viii] <a contents="https://www.nirandfar.com/goals-enemy/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.nirandfar.com/goals-enemy/" target="_blank">https://www.nirandfar.com/goals-enemy/</a> </p>
<p>[viii] <a contents="https://aaagnostica.org/2019/02/24/freaken-big-book-fundamentalists-hate-freaken-everything/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://aaagnostica.org/2019/02/24/freaken-big-book-fundamentalists-hate-freaken-everything/" target="_blank">https://aaagnostica.org/2019/02/24/freaken-big-book-fundamentalists-hate-freaken-everything/</a></p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/6305966
2020-05-05T18:48:33-04:00
2022-01-07T06:43:30-05:00
Knowing AA History: Spotlighting Barry L
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/51cb45665904a21e220e22f605cd076246c03671/original/aa-50-years-booklet.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p>Many people had a hand in changing the course of Alcoholics Anonymous, and consequently, the entire peer-to-peer, mutual aid world. Some of these stories are lost or buried--not hidden from us, just so deep in archives that no one who's come across them had a grasp on their significance to you and me nor did they feel compelled to record and broadcast this revelation. Today we know more about Hank P thanks the the big reveal in <em>Writing the Big Book: The Creation of A.A.</em> by William Schaberg. We now know so much about Hank's role in shaping AA now because of Schaberg's eleven years of archival research: </p>
<p>“Another embarrassing story that raised serious problems for the Fellowship was the central role played by Hank Parkhurst—Bill Wilson’s right-hand man from 1938 to 1939—because Parkurst drank shortly after the book <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em> was published. Whenever possible, mention of Hank and his contributions to the program were judiciously dropped from the stories told about those early years. ...It is possible to imagine the creation and growth of Alcoholics Anonymous into the organization that we know today without the help of Dr. Bob Smith, but it is impossible to do so if the many substantive contributions made by Hank Parkhurst are eliminated from the picture.”</p>
<p><em>Writing the Big Book</em> fact-checks AA mythology and makes it clear to many of us who were told or read otherwise: No Hank, no book! Schaberg is not satisfied with all that he uncovered and he challenges hobby-historians and academics alike, Hank's autobiography must be written for the record. It didn't fall into the specific mandate of Schaberg's research but what he learned, he hopes someone else will take, research further and run with.</p>
<p>Learning what really happened is important. Learning informs and also help us let go of flawed recollections from memories that have been put to print as fact. Some memories are accurate of course, but, as is the nature of human memory, inaccuracies along the way are the rule, not the exception. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/8f63b8f717ae43de969cc437260e0336e0fe3c65/original/living-sober-quote.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" />So enough about history in general; let's spend some time a specific key player in our AA history, Bary L. Like Hank Parkhurst, Barry L's footprint is one we have all seen but do know, who's imprint we're looking at?</p>
<p>If you think you're different; if you're a member of a special purpose 12-Step subculture, your life has been touched by the handy work of this AA member. Barry L sobered up in 1945; that is year ten on the AA calendar - if AA was recording our history yet - and six years after the <em>Big Book</em> was published. In the course of his life in sobriety, Barry was a staff writer for AA, recording and reporting many of the early General Service Conference reports, working for A.A. Grapevine, editing nearly 40-years of AA collective experience in <em>Living Sober</em> (1973) and what the General Service Office hoped would be the black-sheep in AA pamphlet to end all black sheep pamphlets, Do You Think You're Different?</p>
<p>Remember the pre-Traditions tale of of an African American, cross-dressing, heroin addicted, paroled convict and alcoholic walking into our 1945 AA New York clubhouse? Guess who was at the front desk to meet this new AA member? Barry L.</p>
<p>Remember hearing about the controversy in the 1970s about listing Gay & Lesbian (LGBTQ+) meetings where AA delegates squared off in their redneck and liberal corners? Guess who was recording the discussion and outcome of these heated meetings? Barry L.</p>
<p>Were you moved by stories of AA's who felt different - even in AA: African American, Native American, atheist, member of the clergy, high bottom, low bottom, Jewish, lesbian, gay, old, young, agnostic? These were the stories of pamphlet P-13 <em>Do You Think You're Different?</em> compiled and edited by Barry L.</p>
<p>Remember the recent controversy about the original manuscript of the book <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em> being auctioned off at Southeby's Auction and AA's GSO petitioning the court to stop the transfer of AA's original property until a judge could determine if it was the rightful property of Alcoholics Anonymous? This will be talked about in this recording we're going to listen to...</p>
<p>In 1978 Lois gifted the manuscript to Barry, who signed a notarized letter in 1979, noting his intention to return the manuscript to A.A. World Services, upon his death. Through an "AA ought never be organized" chain of events, by Bary's death in 1985, A.A. World Services forgot about this arrangement. During the spirit of rotation at GSO, this material fact to those in the know was not etched in the memories of those then in charge at the time of Barry L's death. The unknown whereabouts of the manuscript remained a mystery until an auction in 2004 saw the manuscript sold for $1.5 million. It was auctioned again in 2007 and when it was on the auction block again a couple of years ago, AA World Services rediscovered Barry Leach’s notarized letter. In the end, AA's groups conscience was that it was not becoming of AA to own anything of significant value or engage in anything so controversial. Hence, AA made reparations for the delay we caused and it was, once again sold for $2.4 million.</p>
<p>Named after the book, Living Sober became the name of the oldest and longest running LGBTQ+ AA (and AlAnon) conference in the world. Once exclusively in San Francisco, now you can zoom to Living Sober at noon (PST) Monday to Friday every day.</p>
<p>Barry was a trusted friend to Bill Wilson and his widow, Lois. Barry and Lois both gave their last address to the AA World Convention in 1985. <em>Living Sober</em> is reviewed by <em>A Freethinker in Alcoholics Anonymous</em>, author John L who wrote for AA Beyond Belief, " My current Boston home group has the up-front name, “Atheists and Agnostics.” At each meeting, we start off by reading and discussing a chapter from <em>Living Sober</em>, which tells us how to get sober, stay sober, and lead a good life in sobriety. ...The <em>Living Sober</em> approach is neither for nor against religion, but independent from it. ... Those of you who attend regular AA groups should make sure that the literature table always includes copies of Living Sober. This is the book to recommend to newcomers and to those we sponsor."</p>
<p>These are samples of Barry-moments that altered AA's course, many would say, for the better. Rebellion Dogs is pleased to share with you the last talk Barry L ever gave. It was the 50th anniversary of Alcoholics Anonymous - Montreal 1985. He was talking at the Gay and Lesbian panel about Tradition Three: The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking. </p>
<p>Barry passed away 3 weeks after this talk.</p>
<p>Read about<em> </em><a contents="Living Sober the book, written by John L, @ AAbeyondbelief.com" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://aabeyondbelief.org/2017/01/15/living-sober-the-book/" style="" target="_blank"><em>Living Sober</em> the book, written by John L, @ AAbeyondbelief.com</a></p>
<p>Notes on <a contents="Barry's 1985 AA 50th Anniversary talk HERE" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://aaagnostica.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Directory-Listing-of-Gay-and-Lesbian-Groups.pdf" target="_blank">Barry's 1985 AA 50th Anniversary talk HERE</a></p>
<p><a contents="AA Grapevine remembers Montreal 1985" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://silkworth.net/downloads/pdf/aas-50th-anniversary-international-convention-july-4-7-1985-oct-1985.pdf" style="" target="_blank">AA Grapevine remembers Montreal 1985</a></p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/727d230506b4156badbac4b2301efe4e357e3be2/original/montreal-aa-1985-the-big-o.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p> </p>
25:15
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/6138879
2020-01-31T11:05:21-05:00
2021-08-05T21:33:35-04:00
February 2020 Aftermath: Bill W's Sober Second Thought
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/134f212a256c96b1cc4ecdd14a74a13acb2cf9df/original/bill-w-january-2020-blog.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p><a contents="READ at a PDF (CLICK)" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-blog-february-2020-sobriety-what-an-expeirence.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/1016684/rebellion-dogs-blog-february-2020-sobriety-what-an-expeirence.pdf" target="_blank"><strong><span style="color:#f39c12;">READ as a PDF (CLICK)</span></strong></a></p>
<p>Once every year or so, we look at the state of atheists/agnostics (and/or other underrepresented populations) in AA and the broader recovery community. I just read something—something I missed in a first go-around of <em>Writing the Big Book</em>—that means today’s the day for this review. I’m also reading <em>Pathways to Recovery and Desistance: the role of the social contagion of hope</em> (2019). </p>
<p>Each AA member is an individual, but today, we look at early AA members as being from two persuasions: </p>
<ul> <li>Our more “religiously inclined” members (supernatural worldview) and, </li> <li>“those agnostically inclined” members (secular worldview). </li>
</ul>
<p>We look at recently unveiled hints as to what was meant in “Appendix II” of AA’s <em>Big Book</em> and to whom was it intended. We’re also going to look at how some members use AA-speak to describe their story, borrowing from Alcoholics Anonymous language; other members talk about addiction and AA recovery in plain or contemporary language. Hopefully, we tie these ideas together in a look to how the future of recovery (and AA’s place in it) will adapt to accommodate a changing demographic of people with alcohol (and other substance) use disorders. </p>
<p>October 2019, I released a podcast interview with author Bill Schaberg, <a contents="Rebellion Dogs Radio Episode 49" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/rebellious-radio/blog/writing-the-big-book-talking-with-author-william-schaberg" target="_blank"><strong>Rebellion Dogs Radio Episode 49</strong></a>, about his (then) soon-to-be-released, <em>Writing the Big Book: The Creation of AA</em>. November 15th, <a contents="TheFix.com" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.thefix.com/the-big-book-creation-story-alcoholics-anonymous" target="_blank"><strong><em>TheFix.com</em></strong></a> posted a Rebellion Dogs interview called, “Facts and Fables: William Schaberg Explores the True Origins of AA.” (Click on the links to hear/read more.) </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/d7e216eebad04b7b5673311c4638f97c50835fd7/original/david-best.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" />I saw Professor David Best lecture at <strong><a contents="Recovery Capital Conference of Canada" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://recoverycapitalconference.com/" target="_blank">Recovery Capital Conference of Canada</a> </strong>(New Westminster, BC) and he was commenting on a body of evidence, longitudinal studies he has participated in around success factors to persons with substance use disorder re-integrating into life with a new, sober identity. I’m going to take a moment to talk about a five-part framework that Best has found in recovery successes. CHIME (Leamy et al, 2011) is an acronym for Connection, Hope, Identity, Meaning and Empowerment[1]. </p>
<p><strong>Connection</strong> includes a supportive mutual-aid network, recovering family, work and social relationships, access to medical, financial, health and wellbeing supports. </p>
<p><strong>Hope</strong> is in the subtitle: The role of the social contagion of hope, suggesting that hope is transmitted. Substance and process addicts have to have hope that recovery is possible, hope-inspiring relationships, aspirations and motivation. </p>
<p><strong>Identity</strong> is a factor in admitting to ourselves we have a problem—that comes with a new label, our identity as someone in recovery can be a source of pride and we need to feel safety in our identity being supported within a larger community. </p>
<p><strong>Meaning</strong> is the antidote to many barriers of sustained recovery: boredom, shame, anxiety and low self-esteem. Reintegrating into a social framework where we feel mastery and purpose and/or creating a new recovery community in which we feel valued is a key to recovery capital. </p>
<p><strong>Empowerment</strong> means personal responsibility and the support of community to overcome obstacles and identify our strengths and what we can control in life. </p>
<p>All five characteristics (CHIME) can be reinforced in peer-to-peer groups. The book, Alcoholics Anonymous, for better or worse, addresses all five. AA groups do as well. Identity—which will be a focal point of today’s essay—starts with first accepting and, later, hopefully embracing that I (and we) are alcoholics. This brings us together. But still, we are individuals and how much of culture, social status, gender-identity, age and worldview tribalize an otherwise one big tent of a recovery community. Identity binds persons with substance use disorder and it can also separate us into sub-cultures under a bigger tent. Some of us will go build another tent, somewhere else, focusing on the differences and fining a surrounding supporting our integrity. Home groups in mutual aid all have their own identity, style, rituals and purpose that both connects them to a whole and acknowledges unique characteristics as well. </p>
<p>We will talk about loyalty and integrity, not a one or the other proposition, a one AND the other balancing act in healthy identity. Some secular AAs identify their legitimate place in AA in the <em>Big Book </em>and others have to reject the theistic bias of the book to balance the integrity of their worldview and the loyalty to their AA tribe. </p>
<p>Fun fact: I actually just found this last chapter Thirty-one of <em>Writing the Big Book</em>, “Aftermath.” </p>
<p>I had read a PDF before the book was published and somehow, I went right from Chapter Thirty, “Publication Day” to the appendices and end notes. How did I miss it? I don’t know; the publisher’s page[2] reports the timeline of the book’s scope, “from October of 1937, when a book was first proposed, to April of 1939 when Alcoholics Anonymous was published.” </p>
<p>Imagine my surprise; it was like finding a whole new book when flipping through my hardcopy version, just recently. It felt like unburying a lost chapter. </p>
<p>Chapter Thirty-one just happened to be on a timeline and subject matter that I have agonized over: the motivation and rationalization for, and changes made in the second printing of the Big Book and especially, the insertion which we now know as “Spiritual Experience.” </p>
<p>As we learned from our interview with William Schaberg, the folktales of the creation of Alcoholics Anonymous included some widely held myths about how the book came to be and about life during AA’s early “flying blind” years. I call the two years between first and second printing, which informed “Spiritual Experience,” as Bill W’s “sober-second thought” years. </p>
<p>The addition of an Appendix signifies a perception change, something that Bill W felt needed to be said. Could this be an awakening—not a white light version this time like his Towns Hospital spell, but—“the educational variety” because [it developed] slowly over a period of time (AA, p 567).” In 1939 (and the three years leading up to the first edition, Bill had the collective experience of dozens of sober AAs to borrow from. Now it was 1941 when AA successes numbered 2,000. This larger, more diverse sample size would be eye-opening. The tone of Appendix II is so different from anything in the first 164 pages that I wondered if Bill W wrote what we call today, “Spiritual Experience.” I was assured by AA historians, and know it to be true today, that Bill did write it. </p>
<p>As we learned in Rebellion Dogs Radio #49, through the eleven years of primary document research, Bill Schaberg reports that Hank P’s, and atheists’ efforts to persuade Bill to offer a psychological, behavioral salvation for real alcoholics, in tandem with the “touched by the hand of God” narrative that Bill W so vividly describes based on his experience and testimony of others. </p>
<p>Here’s an aside from one armchair-quarterback, me: First, it’s part of the historical record that Bill W suffered from depression. Did our founder have a manic side, too? Bipolar wasn’t a thing—as far as diagnosis—back in the day; could it be that Bill’s writing spurts were during manic swings? Of our 164 pages of Big Book, I hear an undercurrent of the righteousness of the recently converted in the narrative. I’m not calling uncle Bill out on anything I haven’t done myself. Some of the poetic language could be construed as hyperbole: “you will surely meet some of us as you trudge the Road of Happy Destiny (BB p. 164);” all in caps, poetic yes, but is it overselling? </p>
<p>To any of you creative people out there who struggle with mood swings, are inspirations that find you burning the midnight oil, happening when your higher mood and energy is engaged? I don’t mean to play doctor; my mental health doesn’t put me in any position to throw stones—I do relate, is all I’m saying. Maybe I’m projecting, but it’s something to think about. </p>
<p>Secondly, I think the Big Book would read better—and be less contentious—with less use of adjectives. Let’s look at some adjective-dependency examples: </p>
<ul> <li>rigorous honesty </li> <li>entirely ready </li> <li>complete abandon </li>
</ul>
<p>Ask a grade-school student about honesty—the only honesty is rigorous. And “ready,” isn’t it like pregnancy; either you are ready, or you aren’t? Why make an addict agonize about if we are honest or ready enough? Take my own AA recovery as an anecdotal case. My case is prove-positive that some honesty, some open-mindedness and some willingness will do—no rigorousness, entirety or completeness needed to muddle through. </p>
<p>So, I think “having had a spiritual experience, as a result of these Steps” is a case of adjective-dependency (yes, I made up this compound word); “spiritual experience” sounds grandiose. </p>
<p>What would be so lacking in “Step Twelve: Having an experience as a result of these Steps we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all of our affairs”? </p>
<p>I think it’s still a dramatic statement without an adjective. And, if you are spiritual, do you/should we go around boasting about it? </p>
<p><strong>A history of irreligious AA - the white-light-lite group:</strong> </p>
<p>For the 1941 atheists and agnostic, who this new appendix may have been reaching out to—” it is true that our first printing gave many readers the impression that these personality changes, or religious experiences, must be in the nature of sudden and spectacular upheavals”—referring to alienating statements like, “God could and would if He were sought,” “having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps,” or the glorious “But there is one who has all power; that One is God. May you find Him now.” </p>
<p>The caps alone—today’s millennial might tell Bill, “Dude, don’t yell.” </p>
<p> Could it be that this exclusive—not inclusive language was what Bill was making amends for? Or maybe he was compelled to share his more expanded, more enlightened insights. </p>
<p>As many of us in early recovery might be, Bill was enchanted with his own transformation; a spiritual experience, he called it, that worked where so many other attempts to overcome drinking had failed. With two more years of his own sobriety and 2,000 sober samples instead of a few dozen, like any dynamic, perceptive person, he would know more and he would have expanded his view of the varieties of AA transformations.</p>
<p>So, it was 1941 and Bill knew more sober atheists, agnostics. If AA was similar to the USA average of 5%[3], at the time, that’s 100 sober unbelievers. Not too shabby of a sample size. Of course, we had more believers, too. Let’s call these one hundred secular AA members, the “white-light-lite group.” </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>“This was the great contribution of our atheists and agnostics. They had widened our gateway so that all who suffer may pass through, regardless of their belief or lack of belief.” Bill W, AA Comes of Age, p. 167 </em> </p>
<p>A common misapprehension is that it was always more religious in the past. These cultural cycles wax and wane. An article points out that the 40’s were about as religious as 2013, the publication date of this article: </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>“Earlier generations were always more religious than we are, right? Not always. Religiosity can rise and fall just like other things do over time. In fact, America of the 1940s was about as religious as America today[2013]. </em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Coming out of World War II, America was not very religious. … The economy improved. The baby boom ensued. And religion grew. </em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>The 1950s were also a time when America began to see itself as a Christian nation in a cold war with atheistic communism. President Eisenhower joined a church after being elected, becoming the first president to be baptized while in office. In 1954, the phrase ‘under God’ was added to the pledge of allegiance to signify the religious stance of the country.”[4] </em></p>
<p>Check out any <em>Big Book</em> and your attention will be drawn to a footnote reference to “Appendix II, Spiritual Experience” on pages 25, 27 and 47, directing you to pp 567-568. </p>
<p>This appendix has a story to tell; the story takes us back to the year, 1941: time for a second printing of the Big Book. The first few thousand copies were finally running out. The book wasn’t “selling like hotcakes” until after the Jack Alexander, March 1, 1941 article in <em>The Saturday Night Post</em>[5]. </p>
<p>More revelations from William Schaberg’s <em>Writing the Big Book: The Creation of AA</em> come beyond page 600. Simply called “Appendix” in the second printing (The Twelve Traditions now occupy Appendix I and “Spiritual Experience is bumped to II). Here’s what Writing the Big Book reports: “in the back of the book, which at this point lacked a formal title ('Spiritual Experience') that was added to the first printing of the second edition in 1955.” </p>
<p>Today’s Appendix II says, “... Yet it is true that our first printing gave many readers the impression that these personality changes, or religious experiences, must be in the form of sudden and spectacular upheavals. Happily for everyone, this conclusion is erroneous...” Schaberg reports, “Bill’s original edits to the piece have been preserved and they provide some interesting insights into his March 1941 thinking on the issue.” This is what was originally penned by Bill W: </p>
<p>“Happily, for those agnostically inclined, this conclusion is erroneous.” </p>
<p>The, then-unnamed appendix goes on to describe a secular transformation or recovery from alcoholism. </p>
<p> “Most (not some) of our experience” is an educational process that takes time, less often, it’s a sudden flash of light and/or insight. Bill talks of a “an unsuspected inner resource” as agency for recovery. Interesting. I don’t know what Bill’s personal evolution was, but his tone changed. This earthly, practical way to look at learning sobriety is/was clearly set apart in explanation, if not experience, with another eye-opener; here’s more of what was originally written in <em>Writing the Big Book</em>: </p>
<p>“Our more religiously inclined members call it ‘God-consciousness’” </p>
<p>This is instead of today’s, “Our more religious members…” </p>
<p>The first draft’s wording gave “those agnostically inclined” and “our religiously inclined” members in recovery from alcoholism separate identities but celebrate equality: “educational variety” or “religious experience.” Is that Bill’s intent, I wonder? </p>
<p>I understand why this sober second thought would be of interest to all members and prospective members: “Happily for everyone, this conclusion is erroneous.” It speaks to both camps. There’s no need for our non-theistic members to fear that the power of example, inner resource and/or Group of Drunks relied upon for sustained recovery is second rate in any way—full stop! This is of course a departure from the tone of the first printing. Also, the message ought to be heard by our theists that there is no need to insist to the not-God squad that a supernatural higher power will eventually have to take the place of their earthly leaning post. </p>
<p>But is this the message and is it clearly conveyed to “everyone”? </p>
<ol> <li>Please dismiss our warnings that only a personal, anthropomorphic higher power can get a real alcoholic sober </li> <li>Learning is a suitable replacement for praying when it comes to staying sober </li>
</ol>
<p>Every path is an AA path—secular or spiritual. Like anything, some get it; some don’t. </p>
<p>As a thought experiment let’s imagine the first draft survived and the message from AA’s author was directed specifically to the secular/agnostically inclined; would/could this have made AA as comfortable for atheists and the non-Judeo/Christian adherents as for practicing or lapsed Christians? </p>
<p>“Thankfully for those agnostically inclined” may or may not have solved the worldview-gap that exists in today’s AA. For the nonbeliever who’s been on the receiving end of a condescending, “Keep an open mind” or a “Keep coming back; you’ll get it, eventually,” these microaggressions suggest “Appendix II,” didn’t serve the author’s intended purpose. </p>
<p>Bob K, in his analysis of<strong> <a contents="Appendix II, “Short of a Game Changer" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://aaagnostica.org/2012/10/21/short-of-a-game-changer-appendix-ii/" target="_blank">Appendix II, “Short of a Game Changer</a></strong>”[6] felt that the concession to nonbelievers didn’t go far enough. In his own “Life’s a (Bobby) Beach” way of seeing things, we read: </p>
<p>“that such a change could hardly have been brought about by himself alone” is easily answered by the secularist – ‘Yes, by myself I am without power, but together we are strong.’ The caveman needs no God to conquer the saber-toothed tiger, but he does need other cavemen.” </p>
<p>This 2012 commentary got an “Amen” from the choir but not so much from the rest of the spiritual-not religious congregants: </p>
<p>“the Appendix does not fall into the category of a game changer. ... The “Spiritual Experience” ... doesn’t change the game, but it is nice to at least be in the game, even if barely showing on the scoreboard.” </p>
<p>Bobby, would it have been more satisfying to you, if the original scrip survived, “Happily, for the agnostically inclined, this conclusion is erroneous”? </p>
<p>Well, it’s got me thinking anyway. </p>
<p>While we nit-pic about Appendix II, any third or fourth edition Big Book hanging around the AA clubhouse, page 566 ends with: </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>“There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and </em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance—that principle is contempt prior to investigation.” </em></p>
<p style="text-align: right;">—Herbert Spencer </p>
<p>It’s widely held today (and never disproven) that Herbert Spencer never said this. He certainly never wrote it anywhere that was published. </p>
<p>This misattribution, wasn’t always in the <em>Big Book</em>: </p>
<p>“the quote attributed to Herbert Spencer, which wasn’t added to ‘Spiritual Experience’ until the third printing of the second edition in 1959 (<em>Writing the Big Book</em> p 601).” </p>
<p>For those of you in the “We should update the <em>Big Book</em>” camp, maybe removing the quote or disassociating it from Spencer would be a good test to how receptive The General Service Conference is to change. Why start with original text; can they comfortably change that which Bill Wilson previously changed? And I wonder if there are any records around to answer why the (mis)quote was added in the late 1950s. Remember that 1941 America was no more religious than 2013 America and it saw a spike in Christianity and secularphobia[7] through the Cold War years. Is the suggestion that contempt prior to investigation, the suggestion of open-mindedness a flip-flop return to the Chapter Four idea that non-theism is intellectual pride? Willingness and open-mindedness to other views can’t be strictly as suggestion for unbelievers is it? </p>
<p>Understandably, if 1959 just isn’t cutting edge change enough for you, for readers who find the Big Book too religious, or patriarchal, homonormative or unscientific, no one needs to make peace with the Big Book or any book to get or stay sober. Put it away. Donate it to a Salvation Army. There are more contemporary books, or migrate from the book covers to YouTube videos, podcasts or other 21st century expressions of the addiction and recovery experience. The 12-Step approach, itself, is optional—in or out of AA. </p>
<p><strong>Secular Recovery Today: </strong></p>
<p>Both inside AA and beyond, the secular view of 12-Step recovery continues to be told. The AA story isn’t strictly something that happened in 1939; it’s an ongoing, everchanging story. </p>
<p>For those who do want to be at one with your 12-Step community, without denying your values, set aside either/or thinking. How about loyalty AND integrity? In any relationship—family and me, work and me, AA and me—the balancing act is blending loyalty and integrity. I don’t have to piss away one to respect the other. We don’t have to speak in 12-Step-ese to be included. </p>
<p>John S nailed it on <a contents="Episode 145 of AA Beyond Belief " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://aabeyondbelief.org/2020/01/19/episode-145-joe-k-from-the-only-requirement-group/" target="_blank"><strong>Episode 145 of AA Beyond Belief </strong></a>podcast, speaking with Joe from New Jersey: </p>
<p><em><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://aabeyondbelief.org/2020/01/19/episode-145-joe-k-from-the-only-requirement-group/" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/9613b33ed50eb77c06b197c1fcb6b69f10dc16d7/original/aa-beyond-belief.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsInNtYWxsIl1d.jpg" class="size_s justify_left border_none" alt="" /></a>“Over the last five years, I guess I’ve had to unlearn AA speak ... I’m 57 now, and I’ve been in AA since I was 25. And for 25 years, that was my life, and I knew the language and the lingo, and knowing the language and the lingo kind of got me by. And so, after that 25-year period when I realized I was an atheist, I had enough. I couldn’t even bear going to the meetings anymore. … So, we did start a secular meeting here in Kansas City and since that time, I have been unlearning the language and the lingo. [chuckle] </em></p>
<p><em>So, like, ‘higher power’, that’s not the way I talk. … That’s not my language. I never would have, the first place I ever heard that was an AA, you know. … If people want to talk about that, that’s their deal. But I don’t use that language, I just use my regular everyday language. Other people help me.” </em></p>
<p> Boom; mic-drop. That’s it right there. Completely integral without hostility towards AA. John, previously was loyal to AA but set aside integrity in exchange for belonging, using AA-speak as cover. Now, he doesn’t tip-toe around AA with his words: Loyal to AA AND integral to his core-beliefs. We can be unabashedly atheist, feminist, millennial, and be good AA citizens. We need not fit our language into G.O. D. acronyms. </p>
<p>How unorthodox can you go without being “kicked out of the pool?” Read John Lauritsen’s <a contents="A Freethinker in Alcoholics Anonymous." data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.amazon.com/Freethinker-Alcoholics-John-Lauritsen/dp/0943742234/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=rebeldogspubl-20&linkCode=w00&linkId=XAQNI7QAP45J2CBA&creativeASIN=0943742234" target="_blank"><strong><em>A Freethinker in Alcoholics Anonymous</em>.</strong></a> He got sober while Bill W was still alive. Always candid about his atheism, John sees the Steps as being as religious as praying. So, he didn’t do Steps. He’s still sober today. What does he do that is AA? </p>
<p><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.amazon.com/Freethinker-Alcoholics-John-Lauritsen/dp/0943742234/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=rebeldogspubl-20&linkCode=w00&linkId=XAQNI7QAP45J2CBA&creativeASIN=0943742234" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/de835725be253e7895d654393864b60549c1bca3/original/a-freethinker-in-aa.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">“Probably all sober alcoholics would agree that a requirement for sobriety is not picking up the first drink. Aside from that, alcoholics would give a variety of answers, for A.A. is an individual program. </p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I would say that for me, A.A. consists of the realization that I am powerless over alcohol; that total abstinence is required on a 24-hour basis; that alcoholics can provide practical help and moral support for each other; that life is worth living and things can get better; that honesty is the basis for lasting sobriety; and so on. </p>
<p style="text-align: center;">There is no evidence that religious belief is necessary for good sobriety. Thousands of alcoholics have stayed sober and helped others to sobriety without having the slightest belief in the supernatural. …” </p>
<p>Intriguing? Read the rest of the book. It’s real life AA recovery. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/c11c7f55e08ba7cb7c356ee79beeb82e840ab6d2/original/living-clean.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsInNtYWxsIl1d.jpg" class="size_s justify_left border_none" alt="" />More contemporary 12-Step literature logically offers a more inclusive way to explain what happens in the transformation from addiction to wellness. Here’s an example from NA’s 2012<em> Living Clean</em>: </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>“We become increasingly aware of our choices, our motives, and our behavior. We come to know what we were thinking when we made a decision, and we recognize the difference between thinking through a decision and reacting or acting on impulse. Listening to our intuition means that we can be open to others without being naïve or foolhardy. We learn to trust our intuition and honor feelings (Living Clean p. 172).”</em> </p>
<p>The Victorian era was the setting for Bill W. and Dr. Bob’s formative years; no matter how much inclusivity or spirituality they muster, we would never hear them talking about “trusting our intuition and honor(ing) feelings.” It takes a 21st century book to speak in a contemporary language. </p>
<p>Marijuana Anonymous literature was late-20th century; Life with Hope was first written in 1995 and guess what? They update it as needed. My 2012 version says: </p>
<p>“Some of us believe in no deity; a Higher Power may be the strength gained from being part of, and caring for, a community of others. There is room in MA for all beliefs. We do not proselytize any particular view or religion. In MA, each of us discovers a spirit of humility and tolerance… The program of recovery works for people who do not believe in God and for people who do. It does not work for people who think they are God Living With Hope pp. 7-12).” </p>
<p><strong>More from Writing the Big Book: The Creation of AA: </strong></p>
<p>Have you heard the Big Book enthusiast’s refrain, “None of the original 164 pages have ever been changed—don’t fix it if it ain’t broke!” in automaton-like drone? </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/1b38ff1ef687707a2a1467cbfce98d06c4749c3e/original/img-0094-2.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" />First, they mean well; their ability to help the “still-suffering” is focused on a particular constituency, amiable to bowing to authority in search of sobriety. These enthusiasts are a big help to someone receptive to supernatural intervention. In most cases, they don’t force themselves on anyone. But if you face belligerence, here’s some ammunition—a few selections—some more substantial than others that deconstruct the idea that the sacred text has not been altered. Chapter Thirty-one of Writing the Big Book reports, “Edits to the text of the Big Book did not end with its publication. There were a number of major changes made during the sixteen printings of the first edition (1939-1955) and some less striking ones made to early printings of the second editions (1955-1974). Here’s a rebuttal notes to the “Big Book has never been altered” myth: </p>
<p>1) The first printing was 179 pages, not today’s 164. </p>
<p>2) Five times in the first printing we referred to ourselves as “ex-alcoholics.” We don’t anymore; I think that’s substantial. </p>
<p>“There were five places in the text where the hyphenated word ‘ex-alcoholic’ had appeared and this was obviously a problem given the Fellowship’s growing insistence that ‘once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic.’ In the eleventh printing three of these phrases were changed to read ‘ex-problem drinker,’ one was changed to ‘understanding fellows’ and the final one became a ‘non-drinking doctor.’” </p>
<p>3) “The changes made to the text for the second printing were among the most substantive ever made. Most important, the wording of the Twelfth Step was changed from ‘Having had a spiritual experience as the result of these steps…” to “Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of those steps…’ And at the end of this Step, an asterisk was added sending readers to the bottom of the page where they were directed to the newly added [Appendix] in the back of the book … the change of the word ‘these’ to ‘those’ became a touchstone for argument over the next several years. Saying the necessary ‘spiritual awakening’ was ‘the result of those steps’ rather than ‘these steps’ effectively contributed to one’s spiritual awakening.” </p>
<p>So, if one did subscribe to the AA experience as being a “spiritual experience” and not simply a “sober experience,” the argument would be—on one side—the eleven steps give you enlightenment and then you pass it on, but Bill put so much emphasis on “nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics. It works when other activities fail (<em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em> p. 89).” Because Bill’s position is that working with drunks helps keep you sober—with or without seeing any burning bush, first—anyone who admitted to alcohol dependency could work with other drunks and help themselves, also. </p>
<p> There were Big Book changes that seemingly—not actually—are set in stone. Other changes had a little back and forth in the first 25 years or so. </p>
<p>4) “The word ‘those’ continued to be used in the final fifteen printings of the first edition and also in the first printing of the second edition but it was changed back to the original ‘these’ in the second printing of the second edition (1957).” </p>
<p>Now this is a nit-picky, personal pet peeve note, a bee in my bonnet that didn’t get any ink… In all these changes, why is this error still standing: page one of the book, “Bill’s Story,” still misspells Plattsburgh as “Plattsburg.” Didn’t anyone who was combing through the Big Book have a map!??! </p>
<p>There are plenty more changes if you’re into minutia—or more than I am, anyway—especially, if you read Bill Schaberg’s Chapter Thirty-one, “Aftermath.” </p>
<p>If you’re still reading <em>Writing the Big Book</em>, don’t skip the Appendices or End Notes; they’re chalked full of good stuff. Of course, don’t do what I did and miss a chapter, either. Oh well. And the new-found chapter (for me) ends with: </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>“’… one thing I feel vitally important is to get the story of how the book was actually written. We get some many distorted stories on the [West] Coast. People talk about the one hundred men that wrote the book. Actually, there weren’t a hundred, as Bill will bear me out, but he said one hundred to make it sound good as though it really was going to work. The people talk as though there were one hundred men, that all went saintly and were talking straight up to heaven and God just guided Bill’s hand—that Bill just sat there and let the words come through. Actually, it wasn’t anything like that at all.’ </em></p>
<p style="text-align: right;">Dorothy Snyder (Interviewed by Bill Wilson August 20, 1954) </p>
<p style="text-align: center;">No… it wasn’t anything like that at all ….” </p>
<p>We need inner resources, self-will—demonized by some—is an inner resource. Also, we need help; what are our external resources? “Recovery Capital is the breadth and depth of internal and external resources, that can be drawn upon to initiate and sustain recovery from severe alcohol and other drug problems.”[8] </p>
<p>AA sobriety is a pathless land. Many repeat the mantra about the book as the design for living and these Steps “precisely as written.” Despite seeming influences to conform, we can be empowered in 12-Step recovery. John S’s story is a good example; despite his willingness to go along that satisfied a need for approval, he reflected, made a new boundary and he owned it; others respected it. How many members owe their sobriety to the book? On the other side of the equation, how many members ignore the book completely? How many started it and found another book about addiction and recovery that they found more relatable? I don’t know. I’m happy for everyone’s sobriety. </p>
<p> Sure, the thumpers see the Big Book as the way all real alcoholics got sober. I know too many who never read the book and are shining examples of AA sobriety and we can’t unlearn what we see. Others read <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em> years after finding contented sobriety in AA. </p>
<p>If we lean towards echo-chambers and limit the types of groups we attend, our views will naturally narrow about what is and what should never be. One thing is for sure is that demographics shift and consequently, the attractiveness of cultural touchstones of the past become less compelling. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/856c5ef43fba09ef2cac53eee3b95ef4843c6a9e/original/letting-go-of-religion-pic.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" />Pew Research, at the end of last year, compared America to a decade before: </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> <em>“the share of ‘nones’ – religiously unaffiliated adults who describe their religion as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” – has reached 26%, up from 17% a decade ago and Nearly 14% of people living in the U.S. in 2017 were born in another country, extending a steady increase over the past few decades.”[9] </em></p>
<p>Working the 12-Steps exactly as written is “a” way, not “the” way. As <em>Writing the Big Book</em> points out, whatever we believe about the 12-Steps “exactly as described in the book, Alcoholics Anonymous,” we’re learning that not everything we read and heard is/was true. Of course, developing a more critical view of things is not an AA-thing; we wrestle with new mysteries as we see further into the universe or deeper into sub-atomic particles. We adapt—or we ought to. </p>
<p>Thanks has to be extended again to William Schaberg for his tireless discipline to bring <em>Writing the Big Book </em>to fruition. And, today’s final thought aptly goes to Bill White and Ernie Kurtz as the looked at AAagnostica’s third anniversary with their usual context and vision in 2014. </p>
<p>“There have been efforts by some within A.A. to Christianize A.A. history and practice, and there have been simultaneous efforts to forge more tolerant space for agnostics and atheists within A.A. Each trend has been sometimes castigated by alarmists as a sign of the corruption and impending downfall of A.A. </p>
<p>From the perspective of its history, we view such diversification within A.A. as an inevitable process of adaptation to the increasingly diverse religious and cultural contexts inherent in the fellowship’s worldwide growth. It also reflects adjustment to the realities of religious diversification and secularization in the United States. The future growth and vibrancy of A.A. may well hinge on these adaptive capacities. It remains to be seen whether such developments will nurture and celebrate the growing diversity within A.A., or whether A.A. boundaries will be reactively tightened, likely triggering group schisms, member attrition, and flight to existing or new secular and religious alternatives.”[10] </p>
<p style="text-align: right;">The adventure continues…</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a contents="READ at a PDF (CLICK) " data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-blog-february-2020-sobriety-what-an-expeirence.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/1016684/rebellion-dogs-blog-february-2020-sobriety-what-an-expeirence.pdf" target="_blank"><strong>READ as a PDF (CLICK) </strong></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a contents="listen to William Schaberg interview (Rebellion Dogs Radio)" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/rebellious-radio/blog/writing-the-big-book-talking-with-author-william-schaberg" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;"><strong>listen to William Schaberg interview (Rebellion Dogs Radio)</strong></span></a></p>
<p>[1] Best, David, <a contents="Pathways to Recovery and Desistance: The role of the social contagion of hope" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/pathways-to-recovery-and-desistance" target="_blank"><em>Pathways to Recovery and Desistance: The role of the social contagion of hope</em></a>, Bristol UK: Policy Press, 2019, p.110 </p>
<p>[2] <a contents="http://www.writingthebigbook.com/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.writingthebigbook.com/" target="_blank">http://www.writingthebigbook.com/</a> </p>
<p>[3] 1948 USA census data show 91% Protestant or Catholic, 4% Jewish, O% other religion and 5% none or unreported. <a contents="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_religion_in_the_United_States" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_religion_in_the_United_States" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_religion_in_the_United_States</a> </p>
<p>[4] <a contents="https://religionnews.com/2014/12/11/1940s-america-wasnt-religious-think-rise-fall-american-religion/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://religionnews.com/2014/12/11/1940s-america-wasnt-religious-think-rise-fall-american-religion/" target="_blank">https://religionnews.com/2014/12/11/1940s-america-wasnt-religious-think-rise-fall-american-religion/</a> </p>
<p>[5] <a contents="https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-12_theJackAlexArticle.pdf" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-12_theJackAlexArticle.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-12_theJackAlexArticle.pdf</a> </p>
<p>[6] <a contents="https://aaagnostica.org/2012/10/21/short-of-a-game-changer-appendix-ii/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://aaagnostica.org/2012/10/21/short-of-a-game-changer-appendix-ii/" target="_blank">https://aaagnostica.org/2012/10/21/short-of-a-game-changer-appendix-ii/</a> </p>
<p>[7] Dr. Phil Zuckerman coined the anit-atheist term, ‘secularphobia” <a contents="https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/the-secular-life/201406/why-americans-hate-atheists " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/the-secular-life/201406/why-americans-hate-atheists" target="_blank">https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/the-secular-life/201406/why-americans-hate-atheists </a></p>
<p>[8] Granfield and Cloud, 1999; Cloud and Granfield, 2004 </p>
<p>[9] <a contents="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/12/13/19-striking-findings-from-2019/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/12/13/19-striking-findings-from-2019/" target="_blank">https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/12/13/19-striking-findings-from-2019/</a> </p>
<p>[10] <a contents="http://www.williamwhitepapers.com/blog/2014/08/aaagnostica-and-the-varieties-of-aa-experience-ernie-kurtz-and-william-white.html" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.williamwhitepapers.com/blog/2014/08/aaagnostica-and-the-varieties-of-aa-experience-ernie-kurtz-and-william-white.html" target="_blank">http://www.williamwhitepapers.com/blog/2014/08/aaagnostica-and-the-varieties-of-aa-experience-ernie-kurtz-and-william-white.html</a></p>
<p><a contents="A Freethinker in Alcoholics Anonymous link" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.amazon.com/Freethinker-Alcoholics-John-Lauritsen/dp/0943742234/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=rebeldogspubl-20&linkCode=w00&linkId=XAQNI7QAP45J2CBA&creativeASIN=0943742234" target="_blank">A Freethinker in Alcoholics Anonymous link</a></p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/5915421
2019-10-05T11:35:00-04:00
2020-09-24T02:03:18-04:00
Recovery, Wellness, Lunchtime and Eco-Stewardship
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/aca35cdd81db7235cb29fea6f819484740397a95/original/plant-based-protein.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p>View or read this blog in a <a contents="PDF here" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-blog-oct-2019-recovery-wellness-and-eco-stewardship.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/414120/rebellion-dogs-blog-oct-2019-recovery-wellness-and-eco-stewardship.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f1c40f;"><strong>PDF here</strong></span></a>.</p>
<p><span class="font_regular">Do you suffer from something called, eco-anxiety? </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">Senior Editor at <em>The Atlantic</em>, James Hamblin defines this Century-21 contagion as the dread and helplessness that come with watching the impact of climate change. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">“He has tasted good and evil in your bedrooms and your bars and he’s traded in tomorrow for today,” to borrow from Kris Kristofferson[i]. Ecology, economy, consumption, addiction: these environmental systems within which that we interact, make us—as the environment’s stewards—look more like the monkeys being put in charge of the zoo (and I suspect this is unfair to monkeys). How do you feel when you hear about our pollution causing catastrophic climate change, the less fortunate starving in the countries that produce the goods and food that we consume? Is your reaction worry, guilt, anger, despondency or a call to action? </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">In his 2017 book, <em>Recovery</em>, Russell Brand shared his views regarding our human consumption tendencies: </span></p>
<p><em><span class="font_regular"> “I believe we live in an age of addiction where addictive thinking has become almost totally immersive. It is a mode of our culture. Consumerism is stimulus and responses as a design for life. The very idea that you can somehow make your life alright by attaining primitive material goals … is quite wrong. Addiction is when natural biological imperatives, like the need for food, sex, relaxation or status, becomes prioritized to the point of destructiveness.”[ii] </span></em></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">On a more positive note, recovery capital is a measure of our wellness—it’s not strictly “abstinence from a stated substance/behavior”; it’s more global than how many days away we are from our sobriety date. Optimal recovery isn’t merely restoring ourselves to some previous status; for me, certainly for many, recovery is better than any time in our past. Dr. Ray Baker and Last Door’s Jessica Cooksey of Last Door Recovery Society defined “recovery capital”, on tour for the September 2019 cross-Canada Recovery Capital Conference, and it includes four elements: </span></p>
<ol> <li><span class="font_regular">Cessation of addictive behavior </span></li> <li><span class="font_regular">Improved global health </span></li> <li><span class="font_regular">Improved level of function </span></li> <li><span class="font_regular">Increased prosocial behavior </span></li>
</ol>
<p><span class="font_regular"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/b3c12d13b9e76a7cf9bd27e226722d7ec2786084/original/recovery-capital-conference-2019.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_left border_none" alt="" />This four-part measurement isn’t a rigid framework that demands consensus from everyone—each of us may all have a unique definition of our recovery—but it’s the framework to which researchers measure efficacy and/or addiction recovery outcomes. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">In our recovery capital, we live better, get better and interact better in the world. The Recovery Capital Conference drew attention to recent studies of people living in recovery, conducted in the last few years around the world. Results reveal that not only are people in recovery more charitable and more engaged in cooperative citizenry compared to our previous lives in addiction; we are also more altruistic that the general population. Nothing assuages our guilt or quiets our self-absorbed rumination than empathy for another. Living in Recovery studies show that—maybe as part of our recovery regimen—we are civically engaged and generous with time, talents and our discretionary income. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">This August, <em>The Atlantic[</em>iii] presented some simple facts to counter the helplessness of “What can I do about climate change?” </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">In the article, “If Everyone Ate Beans Instead of Beef: With one dietary change, the U.S. Could almost meet greenhouse-gas emission goals,” James Hamblin demonstrates that it doesn’t take all-or-nothing change to make a difference. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">Stop eating beef. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">This isn’t a vegan rant; he invites us to keep eating our bacon and chicken wings. Just eat plant-based meat replacements instead of burgers and steak. This one half-measure sacrifice you and I could make, can change the world. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">Even in recovery, addicts like me still have a bag of tricks for avoiding-techniques that don’t require a new sobriety date; these tricks include distraction, obsession, compulsion and magical thinking. Still, we can’t un-ring a bell and it’s hard to unlearn hard truths or even inconvenient truths. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular"><em>The Atlantic</em> connects greenhouse gases and our breakfast, lunch and dinner choices. You can dismiss this, take on the challenge for 90-days or go all the way with food choices that’s best for the environment. Some of our recovery community abstain from participation in the whole supply and demand of animal protein (dairy, fish, chickens, pigs, sheep). No more honey or leather, either for all-in vegans. We may do it because we care about animals or about our precarious fate tied to our eating habits. People are going hungry today. If that’s your call to action, this remedy is also found in lowering the demand for animal protein in our diet. My math might be slightly off, but where beef is concerned, I believe it takes 17 pounds of plant protein to create one pound of beef. Is this a way to nourish 17-times more people? And besides addressing malnutrition, we also lessen the demands on scarce ground water and reduce greenhouse-causing methane. There’s a big carbon footprint to this weekend’s pot-roast. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">We have more access to information than our recovery predecessors did. <em>The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition</em>[iv] findings have been out since 2003: </span></p>
<p><em><span class="font_regular">The World Health Organization recently reported that more than 3 billion people are malnourished. This is the largest number and proportion of malnourished people ever recorded in history. In large measure, the food shortage and malnourishment problem is primarily related to rapid population growth in the world plus the declining per capita availability of land, water, and energy resources. </span></em></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">If my burger depletes more land/water/energy resources that the equivalent nutritional injection from plant-based food, and that means someone else goes hungry as a result, how can this not influence my sober second thought? </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/4bf229793187983083b80144df1d9583a5a0bc7f/original/beans-for-beef.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" />The point <em>The Atlantic</em> makes is small changes count, too. </span>Feel hostile about having your steak or burger taken away? Cut down to one beef serving each month or each week, instead of completely. If you buy the science argued in the article, any positive change will help. When offered <em>The Atlantic</em>’s means of reversing our ecological damage, that takes away the hopelessness of, “What can one person’s actions do?!?!?”<span class="font_regular">” </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">But wait; isn’t diet or climate change an “outside issue” that risks dividing recovery communities who ought to be sticking to our primary purpose? This “stick to the knitting” thinking isn’t widely held among your recovery peers. In the Canadian 2015 study, <em>Life in Recovery from Addiction</em>. Participants were asked a number of questions over several themes about substance use and what recovery from alcohol and other drugs looks like, today. Along with meetings, therapy, medicine or treatment, respondents were asked to report on their recovery life more broadly. From a menu of choices, participants checked of one or more supports to their recovery… </span></p>
<ul> <li><span class="font_regular">“Nutritional plan or diet” was checked off by 70% of respondents and </span></li> <li><span class="font_regular">“Relationship to land and natural environment” was a factor for 67% of respondents. </span></li>
</ul>
<p><span class="font_regular">Contextually, diet and the environment ranked lower than “relationships with friends and family,” “meditation,” “recovery reading” and “exercise.” However, diet/environment were more important supports to recovery than “smartphone apps,” “yoga” or “social media.” So, yeah, most people in recovery consider the food they eat and our environmental impact to be more vital to their recovery than this blog. I’m fine with that. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">Of respondents who recognize diet as integral to recovery, 89.5% rate this support as very important or somewhat important. Relationship to land or natural environment was somewhat or very important to 88.3% of respondents.[v] </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">So, can we really call food and climate “outside issues”? Our 12-Step fellowship wont’ be campaigning on pro-vegan behavior any time soon but our fellow home group members are taking a stand and voting with their grocery and menu choices. These <em>Life in Recovery</em> Canadian findings are not unusual when compared to other surveys from other countries. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">Altruism is done, of course for the wellbeing of others but the unavoidable psycho/ social/physical karma-pay-back from acts of selflessness include: </span></p>
<ul> <li><span class="font_regular">the release of endorphins, </span></li> <li><span class="font_regular">improved mental and physical health, </span></li> <li><span class="font_regular">feelings of gratitude and satisfaction.[vi] </span></li>
</ul>
<p><span class="font_regular">This isn’t self-help leftist woo-woo. This is scientific findings. Charity and kindness evokes happiness, self-efficacy and enhanced positive self-evaluations.[vii] </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">We take our own inventory and we don’t judge others, right? Still, our inventory may lead to thinking about the company we keep. The “Group of Druggies” or “Group of Drunks” does represent a type of higher power, or power of example that influences our choices. Positive prosocial behavior is contagious and so is enabling destructive behavior. Hanging around AA or NA, we may be more likely to be in the company of smokers and excessive coffee drinkers? What a rich history; AA’s founders, died of cancer (Dr. Bob) and emphysema (Bill W), possibly both associated with preventable, reversible illness affected by lifestyle choices. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">A higher percentage of people in recovery smoke, compared to the general population. I see some treatment facilities offering a smoking area for clients and others include smoking cessation as part of the treatment. I don’t smoke but I wonder if this no drugs, no drinking, no smoking rigidness is an overreach into radical purity, forgetting that even smokers in recovery are better citizens and family members than they were when these smokers were drinking. My inclination may be true, but what is bearing out is that by continuing smoking relapse is more likely than for non-smokers: </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular"><em>The researchers found that people who smoked cigarettes at the initial interview and who were still smoking 3 years later were about 1.5 times more likely to use drugs and twice as likely to have [Substance Use Disorder] SUD at follow-up than those who quit smoking. Among non-smokers at the initial interview, those who had started to smoke between interviews were almost 5 times more likely to report substance use at the follow-up compared with those who did not smoke. </em>(National Institute on Drug Abuse May 2018)[viii] </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">If you or I keep smoking while giving up addiction to other substances, relapse is statistically more likely. If we smoke and we’re a bad influence on others, they are more likely to relapse on their drug of (no) choice. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">A 2008 Browns University Medical School research study[ix] camped out around AA meetings in Nashville and concluded, “coffee and cigarette use among AA members is greater than among the general U.S. population.” </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">“Hey, let me show you my 25-year NA key tag; hold my coffee and cigarette and I’ll get it out of my pocket.” Yes this “clean and sober” example of the 12-Steps at work is in recovery and meets the definition of recovery capital referred to above. Recovery is a continuum, no matter how black-and-white we want to define it. My sobriety date from drugs and alcohol hasn’t changed since 1976 but my trajectory has not been 100% improving health, 100% improving prosocial, 100% improving functionality. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">Ten and twenty years in, I’ve found myself starting again in other mutual-aid groups; I’ve struggled with mood and behavioral disorders. No one gets to dictate to you or me what our recovery journey ought to be. Mine hasn’t been a puritan’s life; it’s not about being perfect. For me, recovery involves a periodic inventory of what I stand for and how I’m doing. How am I being influenced by those around me? What kind of example am I to others? These are questions I ask. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular"> I am more than comfortable in the company of society’s undesirables. People who need love the most, deserve it the least. How many people have loved me more than I deserved over the years? I can surely play it forward. I don’t refuse to talk recovery with smoking newcomers. But I need to balance this with positive influences; I have people who subscribe to a whole-food, plant-based diets in my life, people who are as committed to exercise as they are to meetings, people who talk about good sleep-hygiene, civic engagement and environmental stewardship. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">In terms of my own food-righteousness; I am gentle with myself. Being better about eating food with a lower carbon footprint is a “progress—not perfection” tenet for my sobriety. Rigidity is its own addictive trap. It’s the unhealthy extreme of order in my life, the same way chaos is the unhealthy extreme of spontaneity. I aim for wellness, not perfection. </span>“Impossibly good” as a goal, depletes recovery capital as far as I’m concerned.</p>
<p><span class="font_regular">I’ve talked before about my new mantra of, “I strive for ‘sober enough’ today.” </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">I’m not trying to be the poster child for all that recovery can be. I’m a sample of recovery and I don’t want the weight of being “the” example. Growth for me affects all the choices I make, in how I vote, spend my free time, the food I eat are part of this growth. I never wake up the next morning and I wish I had the burgers and chocolate cake the night before. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">I hope this blog hasn’t regressed into a preachy rant. What “sober enough” means for each of us is very personal. What’s for lunch? </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">Here’s the “Beans for Beef” <em>The Atlantic</em> article: <a contents="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/08/if-everyone-ate-beans-instead-of-beef/535536/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/08/if-everyone-ate-beans-instead-of-beef/535536/" target="_blank">https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/08/if-everyone-ate-beans-instead-of-beef/535536/</a> </span></p>
<p>View or read this blog in a <a contents="PDF here." data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-blog-oct-2019-recovery-wellness-and-eco-stewardship.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/414120/rebellion-dogs-blog-oct-2019-recovery-wellness-and-eco-stewardship.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f1c40f;"><strong>PDF here.</strong></span></a></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">[i] The Pilgrim Chapter 33, Kris Kristofferson </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">[ii] Brand, Russell, Recovery: Freedom from our Addictions, London, Bluebird 2017 </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">[iii] <a contents="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/08/if-everyone-ate-beans-instead-of-beef/535536/ " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/08/if-everyone-ate-beans-instead-of-beef/535536/" target="_blank">https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/08/if-everyone-ate-beans-instead-of-beef/535536/ </a></span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">[iv] <a contents="https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/78/3/660S/4690010/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/78/3/660S/4690010/" target="_blank">https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/78/3/660S/4690010/</a> </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">[v] <a contents="https://www.ccsa.ca/sites/default/files/2019-04/CCSA-Life-in-Recovery-from-Addiction-Report-2017-en.pdf " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.ccsa.ca/sites/default/files/2019-04/CCSA-Life-in-Recovery-from-Addiction-Report-2017-en.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.ccsa.ca/sites/default/files/2019-04/CCSA-Life-in-Recovery-from-Addiction-Report-2017-en.pdf </a></span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">[vi] <a contents="https://www.addictionland.com/index.php/blogs/entry/altruism-in-recovery-benefits-more" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.addictionland.com/index.php/blogs/entry/altruism-in-recovery-benefits-more" target="_blank">https://www.addictionland.com/index.php/blogs/entry/altruism-in-recovery-benefits-more</a> </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">[vii] <a contents="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5011126/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5011126/" target="_blank">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5011126/</a> </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">[viii] <a contents="https://www.drugabuse.gov/news-events/nida-notes/2018/05/cigarette-smoking-increases-likelihood-drug-use-relapse" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.drugabuse.gov/news-events/nida-notes/2018/05/cigarette-smoking-increases-likelihood-drug-use-relapse" target="_blank">https://www.drugabuse.gov/news-events/nida-notes/2018/05/cigarette-smoking-increases-likelihood-drug-use-relapse</a> </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">[ix] <a contents="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/ace-cac071308.php" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/ace-cac071308.php" target="_blank">https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/ace-cac071308.php</a></span></p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/5742821
2019-05-04T14:07:03-04:00
2020-09-24T02:07:19-04:00
Have your say at AA's annual USA/Canada Business Meeting
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font_large">Rebellion Dogs Blog - May 2019 </span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font_xl">Have your say at the 69th </span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font_xl">General Service Conference of AA </span> </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/94e5dd7ba6720baf7b0faf2413fea3c12a59fb36/original/may-2019-blog.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p><a contents="READ THIS AS A PDF instead" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-2019-may-blog-questions-from-aa.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/391708/rebellion-dogs-2019-may-blog-questions-from-aa.pdf" target="_blank"><strong><span style="color:#f39c12;">READ THIS AS A PDF instead</span></strong></a>.</p>
<p>Are you an AA member; a member of a group that has a General Service Rep? Do you know what (General Service) Area you live in? In case you feel or suspect that AA sees itself as a top-down operation, telling our groups what’s best, what to read, how to apply AA in our life, well, the General Service Conference wants you! </p>
<p>The 69th General Service Conference (usually in April) will take a week in May to discuss what AA members want for the future. </p>
<p>Your opinion/experience is sought and would be appreciated. Ninety-three Area delegates in Canada and the USA have shared at our Area Assemblies, with our General Service Reps, the topics being discussed this year. My delegate—maybe like yours—has reached out to members and groups for some directions in the decisions to be arrived at during this year’s conference. </p>
<p>Have a look through some of the topics of this year’s rendition of AA-as a whole’s business meeting and see if there are any topics that you have a feeling about or opinion on. You might be skeptical that your opinion is/will be considered, but read on… </p>
<p>Here’s some of what’s on the table at the 69th General Service Conference: </p>
<p><span style="color:#f39c12;"><em><strong>Should we write/print a 5th Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous? </strong></em></span></p>
<p>Background: First printed in 1939, the 2nd Edition was 1955 featuring AA leading the world with affirmative action; one-third of the stories would be women AAs even though they made up less than 25% of our population. Added was a new “Foreword” and additional Appendices. I recall the 1976 the 3rd Edition being introduced without much fanfare. Early this century—2001—our current/4th Edition was published. Letters from four of our Areas have expressed an interest in a new <em>Big Book</em> with stories that better reflect our diverse membership. Of special interest is members who got sober before they reached 25-years-old. There is talk of a fourth section in the <em>Big Book</em> to accommodate these new stories. </p>
<p>In 80 years, there have been four editions; the last one was 18 years ago so is it time for something new? </p>
<p>There isn’t much chance that the 164 pages of basic text will be changed. A vote in 2002 agreed that the writings of Bill W should not be changed. We could vote again, but that’s not on the table at present. However, this would be a good time to add a new *asterisk* or two to give contemporary context to the 1939 view of alcoholism and AA recovery. Here’s an example I suggested to my delegate: </p>
<p><em>What if when “God as we understood Him” was mentioned, an asterisk noted that today AA is made up of members that include atheists/agnostics as well as members whose spirituality doesn’t fall into our monotheistic narrative. We have secular AA meetings today that members with alternative worldviews share about AA in their own language.</em> </p>
<p>Will AA bow to my demand? It’s not a demand; it’s my two cents. Maybe others will express similar sentiments. But now the delegate voting for Area 83 knows how I feel and what I think would be good for AA as a whole. </p>
<p>Fact: I just learned this the Area 83 delegate, who was at the conference in 2001, was given a first printing Edition Four. I’ve included a picture of the end of the first printing Edition Four “Foreword.” It contained a sentence that rose the ire of some of our AA members who felt at the time that online AA is second-rate to face-to-face(f2f) AA. They didn’t like how AA World Services represented us and they demanded a change. An entire sentence was removed (in bold): </p>
<p>“The stories added to this edition represent a membership whose characteristics—of age, gender, race, and culture—have widened and have deepened to encompass virtually everyone the first 100 members could have hoped to reach. </p>
<p>While our literature has preserved the integrity of the A.A. message, sweeping changes in society as a whole are reflected in new customs and practices within the Fellowship. Taking advantage of technological advances, for example, A.A. members with computers can participate in meetings online, sharing with fellow alcoholics across the country or around the world.<span style="color:#f1c40f;"> </span><strong><span style="color:#f1c40f;">Fundamentally, though, the difference between an electronic meeting and the home group around the corner is only one of format</span>. </strong>In any meeting, anywhere, A.A.’s share experience, strength, and hope with each other, in order to stay sober and help other alcoholics. Modem-to-modem or face-to-face, A.A.’s speak the language of the heart in all its power and simplicity.” </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/abb40f335ceda2ec219d5b0efb2eeded20f1e6c8/original/aa-fourth-edition-first-printing.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="" />Check your own copy of Alcoholics Anonymous, if you have one or <a contents="look here" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/en_bigbook_forewordfourthedition.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f1c40f;"><strong>look here</strong></span></a>[i]: You’ll see that we removed a whole sentence. </p>
<p>I’m trying to remember back in 2001, did we have MySpace then? Maybe ICQ was the main platform of individual or group typing/ talking back and forth. I recall being part of an ICQ AA forum. When MySpace did come on the scene it really attracted AA members (and the larger recovery community). We grouped up to share pictures, topics, discussion, discuss anonymity, break our own anonymity, out other AA members, etc. We were learning as we went along. Can you imagine the essays Bill W would have written in Grapevine about the internet? </p>
<p>Pre-Facebook and pre-Google Yahoo Groups was the best of interactive “anonymous” fellowship. There was a Yahoo Group called AAWR (A.A. Without Religion) and it was a collective of atheist/agnostic/freethinkers around the world starting topics about recovery and AA life. </p>
<p>So what do you think about AAWS’s vision of 2001 AA? What do you think of AA as a whole’s outrage at the suggestion that online AA was just as good as f2f AA? </p>
<p>I don’t know; maybe it was little liberal mythology about how adaptive AA was and the General Service Office got a little ahead of our collective conscience. Certainly, GSO got an ear-full and in-box full of heated reaction to the “Foreword” and they took the sentence out that seemed to be causing the bulk of the dissention. I though it was fine the way it was but people like me that liked it, never wrote to tell anyone. So, the members asked for a change and they were accommodated. </p>
<p><strong><span style="color:#f39c12;">Another literature issue is about adding something on the Twelve Concepts to <em>Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions</em> (The <em>12 & 12</em>) to complete the triangle of three legacies. </span> </strong></p>
<p>Recovery, Unity and now the Service version of a dozen principles are being discussed to thicken up your 12 & 12. </p>
<p><span style="color:#f39c12;"><strong>The <em>A.A. Grapevine</em> section: “Alcoholism at Large” </strong></span></p>
<p>Colloquially known as the Gray Pages, since 1948 we’ve reported medical, social, legal issues in the world regarding alcoholism. Uncle Bill W wrote, “<em>The Grapevine</em> should have freedom to print news articles relative to the whole field of alcoholism, excepting, however, those which might provoke needless dissension.” </p>
<p>Some AA members, be they fearful or hostile about outside influences, have tried to shelter the fragile newcomer from our holy writ. Our conference has had to review (and reaffirm) this section in 1974, 1984. The anti-AA-at-Large faction succeeded in having it removed in 1991 and it was brought back in 2007. New motions to toss these contemporary doctors’ opinions were brought to the floor in 2008, 2009 and 2014. Expect another heated round in May. </p>
<p>If you let your <em>Grapevine</em> subscription lapse with your <em>Life</em> and <em>Rolling Stone</em> magazines, don’t worry about it. If you have a feeling about <em>Grapevine</em>, share your position with your Area delegate and/or email Grapevine right away. </p>
<p><span style="color:#f39c12;"><strong>AA Branding - our current perception from professionals and the general public</strong></span></p>
<p>If you read the 68th <em>General Service Conference Final Report</em>, you’ll see that we spent some money on an outside agency, Impact Collaborative, to advise us on our messaging. How well was AA communicating with the public? What can we alter or improve? Well, it’s time to either take action or moth-ball the extensive report reveals through interviews and surveys what the current professionals and public perception of AA is. Here’s a clue… no one but AA says, “If it works, don’t fix it!” </p>
<p>“The trustees’ Committee on Cooperation with the Professional Community/Treatment and Accessibility (CPC/TA) discussed these items and asked the secretary to work with the consultant on the creation of a LinkedIn page.” </p>
<p>Your delegate will have all the background information. There are shortcomings in our branding with professionals. Surveys came back with a range of positive and negative comments; “AA still exists?” was among the responses. The term “Cooperation with the Professional Community” sounds like AA thinks we’re doing doctors and lawyers a favor—in their view. There are a lot of suggestions and ideas about modernizing our outreach and the awkward dance of maintaining online-anonymity and carrying the message whenever, wherever, blah, blah, blah. If you have concerns, questions, bright ideas, now’s the time; talk to your delegate or General Service Rep. </p>
<p><span style="color:#f39c12;"><strong>But wait; there is more:</strong></span> </p>
<p>We AAs are looking at how we deal with our relationship with correctional facilities. </p>
<p>There is a limit to how much AA will accept from any member in a single year, including as a bequest. In 1967 it went up to $200 from $100. There were 1972, 1979, 1986, 1999, 2007 and 2018 increased – most recently $3,000 to $5,000. Should it be more/less? </p>
<p>What about anonymity and Public Service Announcement videos. There is a movement to hire actors to play AA members for a PSA. Is that a good way to carry our message? </p>
<p>The <em>Final Report of the General Service Conference</em> is under review. Any changes you’d like to see? </p>
<p>If you have new ideas, tell your delegate. They can make a floor motion and if others agree with your idea it will be discussed. </p>
<p>Nothing that takes place at AA’s annual business meeting compels our groups or us as members in any way. The conference serves the groups and members—it doesn’t tell us how to conduct ourselves or enforce changes or old or new rules. The conference's hope is to be the collective voice of AA. So, if you have something to add to the conversation, there’s more that you or I can do than simply talk about it at the coffee shop like we are Monday-morning quarterbacks that never get asked for our input about the big game. </p>
<p>Now’s the time. </p>
<p>[i] <a contents="https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/en_bigbook_forewordfourthedition.pdf" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/en_bigbook_forewordfourthedition.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/en_bigbook_forewordfourthedition.pdf</a></p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/5675212
2019-03-10T23:05:15-04:00
2021-08-27T16:25:20-04:00
Musings from San Francisco - March 2019 Rebellon Dogs Blog
<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span class="font_large">The Program of Alcoholics Anonymous: Interpretive by Design </span></em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span class="font_large"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/32c6e63deb59a511ad22ad0262138a890408c2ff/original/san-fran-colague.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_" alt="san-fran-colague" /></span></em></p>
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<p>Just try to refute that membership in AA is based on individual interpretation of Tradition Three, <em>“The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking.”</em> Or if you like long-form Traditions: </p>
<p>“Our membership ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism. Hence, we may refuse none who wish to recover. Nor ought A.A. membership ever depend upon money or conformity. Any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group, provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation.” <em>Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions</em> pg. 189 </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/38eaafc0274761678849784f1b25be47373f3ba8/original/physician-heal-thyself.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" />The program of AA has always been suggested, i.e. optional, i.e. open to individualized re-wording. This rugged individualism extends to our groups, too—our groups being collective iterations of our individual inalienable rights as AA members. </p>
<p>To nurse anger at groups who interpret the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous (re-write them), requires a lack of AA historical knowledge in order to get maximum indulgence in the dopamine-rush of righteous indignation. Rigid obedience to a literal interpretation of AA is permitted within any AA group—join such a group, form such a group—purge the demons, knock yourself out. However, such a literalist view cannot be imposed on other AA groups. At least, not by you or me. Only that group’s membership can judge that group’s rituals and practices; so it is written. </p>
<p>February 2nd at 11 AM I was presenting on special purpose gathering of AA. I keep researching these topics, I keep presenting and you—the people I present to—keep offering me new information, new books to read, new archival items to seek out. History in AA is a collective, ever-evolving document and my trip west was no different. I read this book (pictured) which includes a story of 1965 San Francisco meeting which replaced the AA Twelve Steps with a ten-Step reading that is both secular and multi-substance (not alcohol only). My depth of knowledge continues to expand. </p>
<p>Central offices serve groups, “they do not govern.” From time to time, our attention is drawn to the drama of central offices that express a negative view or exercised punitive actions upon groups that “break Traditions.” </p>
<p>The Forum Group of AA. Founded in AA’s 30th year by Dr. Earle M., author of “Physician Heal Thyself!”, now pg. 301 in <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em> Edition Four, 2001 and first printed in the Edition Two, 1955. The Forum Group founders found AA’s interpretation of higher power and the mono-focus on alcohol, unhelpful for their purposes; so, as I mentioned, they adapted. </p>
<p>Dr. Earle describes in his book, a journey through long-term sobriety. Something Earle heard from those who came before him, was the Four I’s in his 1989 book, , <em>Physician Heal Thyself: 35 Years of Adventure in Sobriety by an AA ‘Old-Timer’</em>: </p>
<ul> <li>Infatuation, </li> <li>Irritability, </li> <li>Inventiveness, </li> <li>Insight </li>
</ul>
<p>“I had my last drink on June 15, 1953,” Earle writes. “I’ve experienced the joys as well as the struggles of a growing, long-term sobriety. The Four I’s of Recovery have always intrigued me, and I have personally—and intensely—experienced each phase.” </p>
<p>During his Inventiveness phase, Earle crafted a secular Ten Step version of the AA program focused on all addiction, not just alcohol use disorder. While it may have turned the odd eyebrow up, not only was this liberalism in keeping with 1960s San Francisco zeitgeist. It was Bill W who championed the idea of Earle’s story going into the Second Edition. Bill and Earle were close for at least the ten years leading up to The Forum coming to be. Would AA’s Twelve Step author disprove of someone taking artistic liberty with his Twelve Steps? Bill W’s on the record accounts of groups that act autonomously, such as re-writing Steps or ignoring Traditions, was delight expressed by Bill for these group’s pioneering spirit. </p>
<p>Here are the Ten Steps of the Forum Group of AA (1965):</p>
<p>1. We realized deeply that we cannot handle mind-altering drugs safely … our attempts to do so courts disaster. </p>
<p>2. As we commit ourselves to abstinence, we welcome Nature’s healing process into our lives. </p>
<p>3. In the group, we discuss our common problems in recovery; to do so hastens healing. </p>
<p>4. We find a friend, usually also recovering, with whom we can discuss our deepest, guarded secrets. Release and freedom become ours. </p>
<p>5. By making amends to ourselves and to others, we put to rest past injuries. </p>
<p>6. When we face our emotional problems squarely, we discover that change automatically happens. We do not seek change . . . It simply occurs. </p>
<p>7. Our lives are orderly and full of meaning as we live second for second. </p>
<p>8. Recovery together constitutes a fabric of unity. Each of us, however, follows a unique, personalized pattern of recovery. </p>
<p>9. We share our lives with those who are still drinking or using. Many of them decide to join us. </p>
<p>10. Our meeting doors are open to all users of mind-altering substances. The welcome mat is in full view. </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/ad332a840d886d1136eb4117d0a1911b802f7ff1/original/ten-steps.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p>Twenty-five years after founding The Forum AA Group with fellow AAs, Earle recounts his pleasure with returning to the Bay-area to see his group still going strong. Earle M had other criticisms of our early writings. Earle didn't believe alcoholism was caused by underlying psychological issues. In his 1989 book, many original AAisms are refuted: </p>
<p>"Alcoholics have the same psychological and emotional problems as everyone else before they start drinking. these problems are aggravated by their addiction to alcohol. Alcoholism undermines and weakens the alcoholic's ability to cope with the normal problems of living. Furthermore, the alcoholic's emotions become inflamed both when [drinking] excessively and when [they stop] drinking. Thus, when drinking and when abstinent, [they] will feel angry, fearful, and depressed to exaggerated degrees."[i] </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/09a104d5175eed96fbe69c0d113a35f1fe0f62ce/original/4be284da-c3df-416e-a314-c0e466c6725e.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_right border_medium" alt="" />This biogenetic view was broadly introduced to professionals and the addiction/recovery community in 1981’s <em>Under the Influence: A Guide to the Myths and Realities of Alcoholism</em> by James R. Millam and Katherine Ketcham. </p>
<ul> <li>“Myth: People become alcoholics because they have psychological or emotional problems which they try to relieve by drinking. </li> <li>Reality: Alcoholics have the same psychological and emotional problems as everyone else. These problems are aggravated by their addiction to alcohol.” </li>
</ul>
<p>Doctors Earle M was surprised to learn that he informed James Millam's views. Millam had heard a tape of one of Dr. Earle's chalk-talk presentations. Earle was thrilled to finally meet Dr. Millam.</p>
<p>I don't believe addiction is strictly psychological or physical. There is a case for alcoholism as a coping technique for managing trauma, loss, etc. Many identify with this correlation meaning causality.</p>
<p>Today, led in part by expanding neuroscience, the AA idea of addiction as symptom is back in vogue. In 1939 AA’s how-it-works—”Our liquor was but a symptom. We had to get down to causes and conditions.” <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em>, pg. 64. Here's a couple of credible advocates of the environmental cause and addictive effect: </p>
<ul> <li>Johann Hari, 2015 Ted Talk, “I've been talking about how disconnection is a major driver of addiction… the opposite of addiction is not sobriety. The opposite of addiction is connection.”[i] </li> <li>Dr. Gabor Mate <em>In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts</em>, “Don’t ask ‘Why the addiction?’ Ask, ‘Why the pain?’”[ii] </li>
</ul>
<p>Personally, I’m agnostic about this chicken and egg question of what is cause and what is effect. I think it's complex; I'm not a reductionist. I prefer an abstract vs. binary reasoning approach to such constructs; Is either/or the best way? I'm not convinced. </p>
<p>My story? I had traumas/emotional turmoil before my drug use. Yes, I did medicate those uneasy feelings with drugs/booze. The medicating started once I experienced how being high made me feel more like a stud and less like a dud. But also, alcoholism is found in my family (another risk factor). So, were my environmental or genetic factors to blame? </p>
<p>I appreciate what I learned in my time in the rooms with Adult Children of Alcoholics. Many ACAs with my same environmental and genetic issues didn't develop addiction. Instead, ACA members developed other manipulative coping techniques: The Adult Child “Laundry List” articulates some of these: seeking approval, merciless self-criticism, difficulty having fun, hyper-responsible, lying, inability to see projects through to conclusion, etc.[iii] </p>
<p>Some of us in AA drank with impunity for decades as high-functioning alcohol users, never crossing an invisible line from copious consumption to self-destructive 'survival drinking' until our retirement years. These people seem to have become alcoholic from excessive long-term use. </p>
<p>It seems that many roads lead to addiction. I’m not married to the “disease” model of addiction, either. “Disease” is way better than the “moral-failing” model but it’s not perfect. We could spend a day on recovered vs. recovering and/or behavioral vs. biogenetic causal factors. These are great debates for a long drive. </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>For those who come to San Francisco Summertime will be a love-in there <br>In the streets of San Francisco Gentle people with flowers in their hair</strong></em></p>
<p>Thanks for your hospitality, San Francisco. I spent a week on your west coast during the Symposium on AA History February 1-3, 2019. San Fran feels like a home away from home to a hippy-at-heart like me. To everyone who drove me around, housed me, sat and talked, invited me to their meeting, had coffee or tea, broke bread with me—thank you. </p>
<p>I’m really enjoying reading, re-reading and quoting <em>Physician Heal Thyself!</em> I know how great it is to share books and music with the people I love. While at a meeting, a member gave me their own cherished Thrift Books copy. How great is that? </p>
<p>With all due respect and appreciation for Johann Hari, the connection I’ve always felt to books and music didn’t prevent or cure my addictions. But books and music are essential recovery capital builders in the treatment of said chronic conditions. Many a trouble time has been lessened by connecting to the right song or story. </p>
<p>April 2019 marks 80 years since the <em>Big Book</em> came off the printing presses. Is that a long time or a short time? I’ve heard 100 miles is a great distance to Europeans and 100 years is a long time to Americans. That said, I don’t expect consensus on how long-in-the-tooth AA lore is. I can say this: AA has helped many and fell short for many, many more. But in 80-years, AA wasn’t stopping others from finding a better way; were we? If you or your group finds a method that brings recovery to every addict, my home group and I will stop what we’re doing and start doing what you do. Wouldn’t that be a relief? </p>
<p>But until we find a way that works for everyone, <em>Vive la difference</em>. Let’s celebrate the pioneering spirit and remember that to question is to be a freethinker. Being critical isn’t being cynical. A beginner’s mind, an open heart and the right blend of cherishing the wisdom of ages and a willingness to test new things is still our best hope against a relentlessness, omnipresent addiction crisis. </p>
<p>Through a 2019 lens, a book about a Caucasian, hetro, professional male talking about infatuation, irritability, inventiveness and insight challenges today’s attitudes about the privileged vs. marginalized classes. Earle’s book was written thirty years ago. I remember 1989; things have changed; how does <em>Physician Heal Thyself!</em> hold up? Earle comes across as being as self-aware and sensitive as any white male could be from the late-1980s. It didn’t read like misplaced entitlement to me. I say this as a reader fresh off my research and writing about underrepresented populations in AA navigating the unintended but undeniable systemic discrimination. </p>
<p>Our LGBTQ members, women, non-theists and youth look at irritability and inventiveness differently that those who hold the privilege of the majority. Infatuation, irritability, inventiveness and insight are described as phases. Being gay or atheist isn’t a phase. The reaction to women, youth, visible minorities informs the irritability more so than a phase or recovery. The need for groups that speak our own language does inspire inventiveness but that’s not best described as a phase either, but more of duty born of our responsibility (declaration). </p>
<p>If you’re interested in the <a contents="Symposium on AA History presentation on The Debate Over Special Purpose Groups, click HERE" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VryZaXjl5w&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">Symposium on AA History presentation on The Debate Over Special Purpose Groups, click HERE</a> for the YouTube link. </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VryZaXjl5w&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/06205b3e103b095b551cbc2f614d0922dc2d98de/original/symposium-on-aa-history.png/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.png" class="size_m justify_center border_medium" alt="" /></a></p>
<p>I really enjoyed presenting at the Symposium. It was an honor to sit in all the other presentations.[i] on AA. Thinking about early women or indigenous members in a white-man’s Alcoholics Anonymous, gay men and lesbians in 20th century AA meetings, young people and atheists/agnostics, in the case of these underrepresented members, irritability in AA, and the need for inventiveness are more acute. While systemic discrimination is rarely intentional, it still drives away more members even as we aim to widen our gateway. </p>
<p>In the same year Dr. Earle M. was finding sobriety, the April (1953) <em>A.A. Grapevine</em> published an article, “Women are only Tolerated in AA; they are the Orphans of AA.” AA’s meeting in print went on to say: </p>
<p>“<em>I never dreamed there existed so much hostility toward women alcoholics until I started to attend AA meetings. I bless the woman member who steered me to a woman's discussion group in the hard first months of my sobriety, because without its guidance and intimate group therapy I might have dropped out as countless other women do. </em></p>
<p><em>The few women who have ‘made’ the program have done so despite the tremendous handicaps placed in their way by other women, by men members, and by non-alcoholics. I know for a fact that too many women AAs are suspicious of and hostile toward their own sex. The men, conditioned by their bar experiences, also view the female alcoholic with suspicion and hostility. There are many exceptions, of course, and my present group is one of them</em>.” </p>
<p>Again, what may be a phase for the privileged majority, is something more for underrepresented populations in AA. For women, indigenous peoples, youth, non-theists, LGBTQ members, The Four I’s of Recovery ensure that “whenever someone reaches out, the hand of A.A. will be there.” Long live infatuation, irritability, inventiveness and insight. </p>
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<p>[i] Pronouns in [ ] replace male pronouns used in the day with gender-neutral terms. </p>
<p>[ii]<a contents="https://www.ted.com/talks/johann_hari_everything_you_think_you_know_about_addiction_is_wrong?language=en" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.ted.com/talks/johann_hari_everything_you_think_you_know_about_addiction_is_wrong?language=en" target="_blank">https://www.ted.com/talks/johann_hari_everything_you_think_you_know_about_addiction_is_wrong?language=en</a> </p>
<p>[iii] <a contents="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARyq_BtCVMo" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARyq_BtCVMo" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARyq_BtCVMo</a> </p>
<p>[iv] <a contents="https://www.verywellmind.com/common-traits-of-adult-children-of-alcoholics-66557" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.verywellmind.com/common-traits-of-adult-children-of-alcoholics-66557" target="_blank">https://www.verywellmind.com/common-traits-of-adult-children-of-alcoholics-66557</a> </p>
<p>[v] Get the audio for the 2019 Symposium on AA History and hold the date for the 6th Symposium: <a contents="https://www.aahistorysymposium.org/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.verywellmind.com/common-traits-of-adult-children-of-alcoholics-66557" target="_blank">https://www.aahistorysymposium.org/</a></p>
<p>[vi] San Francisco, Scott McKenzie <a contents="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I0vkKy504U" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I0vkKy504U" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I0vkKy504U</a></p>
<p> </p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/5640186
2019-02-12T20:32:48-05:00
2023-01-22T01:20:03-05:00
The future of "Suit Up and Show Up" in AA culture
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/d92862e82a6cbd4b4f10091eb9dab47b460dd839/original/1958-icypaa.jpeg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpeg" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p>“Suit up and show up!” Who’s heard this Circa 1958 AAism? The picture above is from the first International Conference of Young People in AA, Niagara Falls New York, 1958. Is business-wear the best way to represent AA from the podium today? Let’s think, think, think about this ritual’s potential impact on the future of Alcoholics Anonymous, good bad or indifferent. </p>
<p>Does wearing formal clothing help our personal self-image and thus, impact how we project ourselves? Do members in evening gowns and suits give the AA gathering credibility with the public? Do suited and skirted AAs at the podium, attract newcomers in ways that casual-wear members can’t? </p>
<p>Is this AAism true for you?: “The newcomer is the most important person in the meeting.”</p>
<p>“What if someone here, is at their first AA meeting,” is among our considerations when a group conscience sees fit to tell/suggest to each other, how to talk or dress when we chair or speak at an AA meeting. Such discussions are not the prerogative of the group but also a duty. This individuality of our groups is by design, regardless of how structured or spontaneous, how formal or casual, each group chooses to present itself.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/808d9d14f4964ec31858b5fb2cb5d63ed86078fa/original/bill-w-speaking-2.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="" />My feeling is that there is a principle embedded in the “suit up and show up,” saying that is timeless and noble. But also, the habit is dated and possibly antithetical to attracting new people and coaxing back the good ol’ days of a remembered AA that was growing year-over-year, decade after decade. </p>
<p>Let’s remember that in the good ol’ days we’re talking about included cancer from second hand smoke in AA meetings and driving our kids in cars without seat-belts. </p>
<p>My self-image does improves when I take care of myself and treat myself well. Even if dressing nicely is the most superficial of self-care, I think pop-psychology or even common-sense concedes that by applying personal hygiene and dressing for success (whatever that means to us), we feel better. Going to the meeting will improve our mood and/or enrich our sober-swagger. I’ve also adhered to "come as you are," unshaven and in scruffy cloths; I was made to feel welcome. I felt good about being at that meeting, too. </p>
<p>What I want to explore is if suits and evening wear, worn by speakers at conventions or AA meeting, add value to the new member and/or the long-term health and prospects for AA. My local regional annual AA/Al-Anon/Alateen conference attracts 2,500 to 3,500 annually. This year the Ontario Regional Conference[i] is 76-years-old. When I’m invited to speak, like anyone, appropriate attire is <em>suggested</em>. At our Area 83 Assembly, the Area Committee uniform is suits and ties for men, the equivalent business-wear for women. General service volunteers and others who are presenting over the weekend or standing for an elected position on the biennial election Sunday are almost always suiting up, most likely as coached by the sponsor—or this century-21 label I hear now—”service sponsor.” Sporting a $800 sweater and $400 jeans, you may still be unelectable at my Area Assembly. </p>
<p><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://aaorc.ca/" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/c9175cd6ac9117b8cc0d3959b42b1f947c2ba419/original/orc-2019.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></a></p>
<p>“Suit up and show up” is common in my neck of the AA-woods since I moved to Toronto—the business capital of Canada—in 1985. The purpose of “suit up” then, was to inspire confidence in AA with the public, to make AA sobriety look attractive to the still-suffering alcoholic. Remember the 1980’s “dress for success?” Double-breasted jackets and women’s pant-suits of the 70s gave way to retro 1950s thin ties and suits and body-glove tube dresses for women. And in 1985, AA was still growing, correlation was assumed to mean causality. It was working because we suited up and showed up. </p>
<p><strong>AA Growth vs USA </strong></p>
<p>Population in AA stopped growing in 1991 (according to our own communication between the General Service Office and home groups). We were 2.1 million AAs worldwide in 1991. The USA had 253 million citizens. In 2018 there were 29% more Americans: 327 million. If AA grew by the same 29% we would be 2.83 million members. Yet, our data shows 2,087,840 worldwide AAs (1/2 of our membership is in the USA). </p>
<p>As TV doctor’s would say, “How’s that working out for you now?” AA membership is not growing, and our membership is aging. Is the hipster-Tao wardrobe of Refuge Recovery winning over potential AA members? Does the come-as-you-are of SMART Recovery account for their adding numbers while AA wanes? I don’t think it’s that simple. Many influences of newer offerings—Women for Sobriety, LifeRing, more contemporary 12-Step models like Marijuana Anonymous and Meth Anonymous (just to use the Ms as an example), have a more contemporary vibe. AA’s nostalgia-adoring rituals maybe are a contributing factor in our decline in attractiveness with today’s newcomers. </p>
<p>I was invited to speak when I was out of town at an AA group. It was a traditional meeting and as the secretary prepared me in advance with the meeting rituals—what they do and do not like to hear from the podium—appropriate attire was brought up. A couple of things here… Without prompting, I would have showered, combed or tied back my hair and wore something nice, but I wouldn’t have worn a suit. I don’t work or live in suits, even though I have a fairly professional job. My clients—also professionals—don’t wear ties, either.</p>
<p>Still, I think it’s just fine for meetings to honor rituals in the autonomous manner to which we've become accustomed and be above reproach from fellow AAs; different strokes for different folks. If my meeting inadvertently make one still-suffering feel awkward, we may inspire hope in another still-suffering. Some in our meeting would prefer your meeting; vive la différence </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/df617f8341923a3e25e6bc8175d9472b5ce44074/original/aa-speaking.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_left border_thick" alt="" />I don’t feel controlled or constrained or prejudiced because a meeting secretary makes such a friendly request. Again, I don’t think AA ought to be 120,000 uniformed meetings. We are not McDonalds fast-food chain. I don’t think AA meetings ought to be uniformed, either in my image nor anyone else’s. When I visit your group, I want to both respect group customs and be authentic. </p>
<p>In part, I dawn the hippy-like hair to say, “I got to be me.” Even though I’m a member of the Toronto business world where long-hairs aren't in the majority, authenticity is valued more than insincerity. I don’t think that’s unusual, today. So, my long hair—in the style that I first presented to the world in the 1970s as an emerging adult, just in this new <em>50 shades of grey</em>—is how I roll. Maybe I’ll change; I have in the past. For a long time, it was quaffed in business-savvy conformity. Maybe you’ll see me doing it again if I feel like it. But today, I tend away from actions that suggests I am trying to win the approval of others. I’m not a rebel for rebellion’s sake but I don’t want to get drawn into establishment trappings mindlessly, either. </p>
<p>So, I found myself in a foreign city, I’m a guest at someone else’s meeting; what do I do to maintain my non-conformity and also be a good guest? Authenticity and amenability are both values I hold. Well, hair down would be less conforming than tight back in a ponytail, so I lose the hair-tie. Secondly a white shirt screams conformity and lack of imagination, so I didn’t even pack one. I have long held that bow ties are <em>sassier</em> and a little less <em>playing the game</em>, so a bow tie, and never a clip on. Even in non-conformity, I’m still a cultured gentleman. </p>
<p>There’s still a way to bend the rules or at least, rock the conformity-lite look. I don’t want to offend the group’s long-time members. I am also mindful of, and hold an affinity for, the member who is wondering, “Realistically, is there a place in AA for me?” I know that feeling. I relate; after all these years, I still know doubt. </p>
<p>I relate to the group who meets, takes inventory and wants AA to flourish and send a message that there is hope, no matter how far down the road one has gone. I want the same. I just don’t know that regurgitating every trick in the good-ol-days book is the right choice for a bright future. Nostalgia serves a mature organization; but a citizenry committed to challenges still to come, adapting to change, or better still, anticipation, offers more assurance for the future. </p>
<p>Instead of reading, “During the meeting, please silence your mobile devices,” will we ever say, “During the meeting, better utilize your mobile devices to help carry the AA message to the alcoholic who still suffers.” </p>
<p>What worked for AA back in the day? That's a useful question. More potent still would be, “What are the needs and expectations of those yet to come?”</p>
<ul> <li>Should my home group have a pay-pal account for people who prefer to tap thumbs than dig into pockets?</li> <li>Should our group have a blog or a podcast?</li>
</ul>
<p>Are these not the 21st century version of the pamphlet and the basket? </p>
<p>The AA I was introduced to, ran a public service announcement in the “Personals” section of the Montreal Gazzette and we had a sandwich-board sign just outside the door to our meeting. So, while I can find clues from what worked for AA before, what is today’s equivalent of the personals-ad and the sandwich-board? Today, how do we convey AA’s message to the public, “If you want to drink and can, that’s your business; if you want to quit but can’t that’s our business—try AA.” Few read a newspaper anymore and the people who would have been walking by our sign in the 1970s have their eyes on their screen today. </p>
<p><strong>Back to the suits, Back to the Future </strong></p>
<p>In AA, we want to be credible; maybe even respectable. The means to that end: “suit up and show up,” is based on an era when you and I found suited business and political leaders credible and respectable. Generation-Z’s attitudes might view the same suit on the screen that instilled confidence in us, as untrustworthy—based on the lessons of their informative years. </p>
<p>Depending who you ask, Generation-Z were born on or after either 1995 or 1999. Since the turn of the century we’ve talked about Millennials as they took their first key-strokes and crafted their first social media pages. Millennials are Gen-Y and some are turning 35-years-old this year. Older Z-gen youth are turning 20 or 24-years-old in 2019. </p>
<p>Demographic data is being tweeted about the tastes of a new generation; the World Health Organization is concerned about how youth views should shape policy, The UK Guardian is interested in social implications, Inc.com wants to know what Gen-Z buy and how to market to them. How does The Hunger Games generation feel about the suits who are asking young people to buy their products or vote for their candidates? Survey says: </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">“One-in-ten trusts the government to do the right thing. The number among millennials is a slightly rosier 20 percent. … a pathetic six percent of Gen Z trust corporations to do the right thing. The number for adults in general is 60 percent.”[ii] </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/c53ce60e5bbcbc93987e763fca082cb128bae00f/original/suits.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_medium" alt="" /></p>
<p>So, does this picture above inspire trust and confidence? Your age, gender, social status and nationality will have a bearing on how you answer this question. Results will vary. </p>
<p>So if we greet the next generation with the business look, youth, in turn, will greet us with their business reaction, which is opposite of how Baby Boomers feel about suited stewards. Steve Jobs never wore a tie; he understood that this would lose the next-gen of smartphone consumers. </p>
<p>Also, AA culture struggles to attract underrepresented populations as our race/age/gender stats reveal in P-48,<em> AA Membership Survey</em>[iii]. America and Canada, as is the case in all of the AA world, is multicultural. Will dawning the attire of an Anglo-Saxon cliché build bridges or barriers to cultural minorities? </p>
<p>Every principle in AA that we embrace is timeless—as Bill W said, “A.A. was not invented! Its basics were brought to us through the experience and wisdom of many great friends. We simply borrowed and adapted their ideas[iv]”—but while we continue our legacy of <em>borrowing</em> from the past, <em>adaptation</em> remains vital to maintaining our relevance and attractiveness. </p>
<p>Looking at this picture from the 1958 first ICYPAA at the top of this blog, we Americans and Canadians in attendance dressed and acted appropriately for the day. We carried the message; we made AA proud. But how effective would this wardrobe be at the 61st ICYPAA in Boston, September 1, 2019? I haven’t been to an International Young People's AA gathering for a couple of decades but, while we respected our past at ICYPAA, we represented AA’s future. </p>
<p>For more on Gen-Z, Rebellion Dogs Publishing recently contributed to TheFix.com[v] as we explore the worldview of youth today and ask if “spiritual-not religious” is a broad enough 12-Step gateway to be relevant to teen alcoholics. Yes, I'm a teen alcoholic; at fourteen, I was brought to my first meeting. AA would eventually work for me. As I turned 20, my fourth clean and sober anniversary was just around the corner. I remember my head going down at meetings when I heard “AA is a fellowship of men and women…” not wanting to draw attention to the fact that, as a teenager, “men and women” didn’t include me. <em>AA Grapevine</em> didn’t intentionally dis-include me; much of discrimination is subtle, even below our awareness. Still, all of our rituals, attire, readings and meeting customs, if not reviewed from time to time, may grow ineffective for the new person with substance use disorder who is suffering.</p>
<p>With each ritual or reading, we can ask if this does more to attract or more to alienate. If we're not sure, try new things. AA is always trying new things, isn't it? All par for the course in a daily-inventory peer-to-peer group of common suffering like ours. </p>
<p><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/rebellious-radio/blog/rebellion-dogs-43-practical-vs-supernatural-recovery-parenting-teen-addiction" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/9cc5c53e09a9c3511868daa878ffcd086e13242a/original/rebellion-dogs-radio-43.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsInNtYWxsIl1d.jpg" class="size_s justify_left border_none" alt="" /></a>OTHER PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT THE FUTURE: On Episode 43 of Rebellion Dogs Radio we have two authors discussing future trends. M. Andrew Tennson wrote <em>Killing the Bear: Surviving Teen Addiction </em>and addiction and family therapist, Jeffrey Munn speaks to a youth more secular than their parents in <em>Staying Sober Without God: The Practical 12 Steps to Long-Term Recovery from Alcoholism and Addiction</em>. Two tunes, two interviews, commentary, all this in less than an hour of February Twos - to kick the February Blues. <a contents="CLICK HERE from Rebellion Dogs Radio" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/rebellious-radio/blog/rebellion-dogs-43-practical-vs-supernatural-recovery-parenting-teen-addiction" target="_blank">CLICK HERE from Rebellion Dogs Radio</a>.</p>
<p>[i] <a contents="https://aaorc.ca/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://aaorc.ca/" target="_blank">https://aaorc.ca/</a> </p>
<p>[ii] <a contents="https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/gen-z-is-anxious-distrustful-and-often-downright-miserable-new-poll-reveals.html" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/gen-z-is-anxious-distrustful-and-often-downright-miserable-new-poll-reveals.html" target="_blank">https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/gen-z-is-anxious-distrustful-and-often-downright-miserable-new-poll-reveals.html</a> </p>
<p>[iii] <a contents="https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-48_membershipsurvey.pdf" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-48_membershipsurvey.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-48_membershipsurvey.pdf</a> </p>
<p>[iv] Bill W letter 1966 </p>
<p>[v] <strong><a contents="https://www.thefix.com/aa-too-religious-generation-z" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.thefix.com/aa-too-religious-generation-z" target="_blank">https://www.thefix.com/aa-too-religious-generation-z</a></strong></p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/5334978
2018-07-07T00:01:22-04:00
2022-04-13T09:54:47-04:00
July 2018: Resentements Coffee Pots and new AA Meetings
<p><a contents="Read or print PDF version HERE" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-blog-july-2018-resentments-and-coffee-pots.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/342806/rebellion-dogs-blog-july-2018-resentments-and-coffee-pots.pdf" target="_blank">Read or print PDF version <strong>HERE</strong></a></p>
<p> Our Summer <em>Box 4-5-9: <a contents="News and Notes from the General Service Office of A.A" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/newsletters/en_US/en_box459_summer_2018.pdf" target="_blank">News and Notes from the General Service Office of A.A</a>.</em>[i] reports about 15,000 less AAs, year-over-year. Also, of us two million +/- members, we are spread between 2,000 more meeting options than in 2017. </p>
<p>Trends in membership and group totals might reveal changes in AA through the years. People joke, “The only two thing you need to start a new AA group is a resentment and a coffee pot.” Of course, new meetings start for a variety of reasons. </p>
<p>Sobriety is dynamic for many of us; if we’re doing AA “right,” we change. Maybe, we want our group to change, too. Have you ever brought a motion to your home group to change, add or replace a group ritual or reading? </p>
<p>How did it go? What did you do about the outcome? </p>
<p>Yes, groups do change. But it’s also not uncommon for the group to resist change and those who championed the change, they either let it go, or they go start a new group “that does things right.” </p>
<p>If you follow AA membership trends, you know that AA grew and grew and grew some more; then we stopped growing. We were half a million when I came to my first AA meeting in the 1970s. We doubled to one million before I was six years sober (1,064,784 in 1982) and we doubled again eight years later (2,047,252 in 1990). For 38 years since, we’ve had flat membership totals, up or down 10% from this two million mark. </p>
<p>The number of groups keep increasing. The last ten years shows that while we had the same population in 2008 as we have today, two million members have spread out over 7,000 extra groups, growing from 113,168 to 120,300 registered groups in a decade. Looking further back, in 1998 we had just a few less members, but we gathered in only 98,710 groups. The members per group isn’t substantially different; 20 members per meeting 30 years ago vs. 17 members per meeting, today. </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/9b2adc7ad5203d65695b5b8414b12f41e0d01523/original/blog-july-2018-table.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p><strong>History of AA Growth: eighty years of resentments and coffee pots </strong></p>
<p>Meet someone in the know about early AA… </p>
<p>Between New York City and San Francisco, for two decades, Jackie B has been a director, playwright, administrator and performing arts producer. Along with her professional endeavors, Jackie is an AA historian. Drawing on her playwright skills, Recovery Plays by Jackie B[ii] creates a living connection between the recovery community and the early experience of AAs and our groups. </p>
<p>In 2006 <em>In Our Own Words: Pioneers of Alcoholics Anonymous</em> was the first to be created. Jackie’s second AA-history play about the Traditions, <em>Our Experience Has Taught Us</em> closed after four years of touring, raising $30,000 for recovery service organizations in the Pacific Southwest. <em>I Am Responsible</em>[iii] premiered last year (February 2017). A struggling skeptic newcomer—Joe—wonders if there is a place in AA for his atheism. He talks with Lou at their home group; Lou knows a little something about struggling with, “Do I belong in AA?” Lou was the first African American General Service Conference delegate in 1966-67. In 1951, “Blacks weren’t even allowed in the clubhouse,” Lou tells our newcomer. “There was only one meeting in Philadelphia he could attend—the inter-racial group.” </p>
<p>Jackie B is looking ahead to the International Conference of Secular AA (ICSAA 2018)[iv] where she’ll be presenting some of her research in a workshop called Underrepresented Populations in AA, Sunday August 26th. Also, in Jackie’s foreseeable future, she will be presenting at the 2019 Symposium of AA History[v] which, I found announced on the East Bay AA Intergroup website.[vi] </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/fc3dc34dd3999fa2853fced2dd7dc4c984276adc/original/blog-july-2018-symposium.jpg/!!/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_" />I note two things: First, the location for Symposium of AA History has been moved from Sedona Arizona to Northern California; secondly, The Bay Area AA seems to have a lot more fun going on than my Toronto Intergroup website; the grass is always greener on the California side of the fence. </p>
<p>I remember learning about early LA group history from the characters in Jackie B’s Recovery Plays #2, Our Experience Has Taught Us: A Sensational History of our Twelve Traditions. Through the characters, we hear about the second Los Angeles area group starting in early AA. The first group reacted, “You can’t do that! We’re in charge of AA in California.” </p>
<p>If you’ve been involved in AA-service, this doesn’t sound so unbelievable. Sometimes, fear and ego take hold when love and humility ought to be guiding us. </p>
<p>Talking with Jackie by phone, I ask about archives she was drawing upon. Let me share some of those details. If you know Los Angeles history documents and recordings, you know Sybil C. </p>
<p>“From a 1985 speaker tape, Sybil talks about the second LA group starting, “Instead of going down and listening to the speakers at the mother group, [Tex] said ‘Why, the drunks ought to have a chance to talk. I’m going to start a participation meeting. […] Tex is starting this group out there in Huntington Park, and the powers that be downtown are saying to me, ‘What’s your brother up to?’ and I said, ‘Well he’s starting a group out here in Huntington Park.’ </p>
<p>‘Well, he can’t do that!’ </p>
<p>‘Well, he has!’ </p>
<p>‘He can’t do that, we’ve incorporated Alcoholics Anonymous in California. That means no one can start a group unless they have our permission.’ </p>
<p>So Tex went down there, and [the founders] bawled him out and they said, ‘We don’t want you here, sir! You came down here a few times, and caught on how to do it, and now you’ve started a rival group out there in Huntington Park!’ ‘It’s not a rival group,’ Tex said. ‘We’ve just got folks who are driving so far from Long Beach to the Friday night meeting, we thought we’d start one halfway [on a different night.] See?’ They said, ‘No, we don’t see! Now our attorney has incorporated Alcoholics Anonymous of California and if you don’t fold that group up, we’ll sue you and we’ll run you out of town, because you are hurting this group!’ […] </p>
<p>And Tex sat down and laughed, and he said ‘You might as well try to incorporate a sunset. I’ll bet you that in a couple of years, you’ll have groups [all over the state] …” </p>
<p>Group #2 in LA, started by Sybil’s brother, Tex, was called the Hole in The Ground. Jackie reports that Matt M (Sybil’s sponsee), on the AA History Lovers Yahoo Group elaborated, “Back then, if you started a meeting you owned it. They [LA founders: Cliff W., Frank R. and Mort J.) got furious at Tex A, Sybil's brother, who started the Hole in the Ground Meeting in Huntington park. He told them it was a long rough drive to downtown LA from his home (no freeways back then, no route 10, no route 5).” </p>
<p>“And we know about Clarence in early-day Cleveland,” Jackie adds, “Largely from <em>How It Worked</em>, by Mitchell K[vii],” Jackie adds. On pages 150-151, we read, “Clarence was fond of saying ‘All you need to start a meeting is a resentment and a coffee pot.’ He said felt that if there were any real unity, all that there would be in the world is one very large and boring meeting. He said, ‘A.A. didn’t start, or grow in unity. A.A. started and grew in riots.’ </p>
<p>“Clarence also said, ‘When we had our first UNITY in Cleveland, we didn’t split into two groups. We did one better. We split into three.’” </p>
<p>From Akron to Cleveland, from the G. Group to the Borton Group to the Orchard Grove Group, Ohio AA grew the same way it sometimes does everywhere, “Fine then! We’ll go start our own meeting; we’ll show you.” </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/09d4968e5c4c0e282b4b2d03ac8fa1d42d974b53/original/blog-july-2018-75-years.jpg/!!/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_left border_" />This year at the Ontario Regional Conference of AA in Toronto, the 24-page glossy booklet, 75 Years of A.A. in Ontario was given to attendees. It reports the first Canadian gathering of AA in January 13, 1943 where six alkies and two friends of alkies met at Little Denmark Tavern and Restaurant. Later they moved to a church where six attended the first AA meeting January 28th. </p>
<p>Along the highway from Toronto to Detroit, meetings started in Windsor and London Ontario. More Toronto groups and an AA clubhouse were added. By 1945, meetings were started in Ottawa, Sterling and Hamilton and a Women’s group started in Toronto. </p>
<p>Dorothy C was at the first AA gathering in 1943. The booklet reports, “This fledgling [Women’s] group had only twelve members. Frequently less than eight were in attendance. In 1945, for women, family responsibilities were supposed to come before their own sobriety. </p>
<p>GSO records reports that within ten years (1953), there were 503 AA groups in Canada. The 75th booklet celebrates other firsts through the years, too. Our first correctional meetings (in jails) are recorded, the adventures of Pat, Rubin, Jerry and Dennis—founders of the first young people’s group (1950), the December 1973 first Gay AA, encouraged from a California group, Alcoholics Together (AT). “The name came about because the local intergroup office would not allow the group to be listed as an A.A. group. The Toronto members faced a similar problem here.” </p>
<p>Care to take in a little Canadian AA history next month? ICSAA 2018 Attendees can visit the Friday 5:30 PM open Big Book group called Stained Glass in Trinity Anglican Church where the first Gay meeting was held in Toronto. The church is on the same property as our Marriott Toronto Easton Centre Hotel. “The founding members were David C., Jack M., Kevin B. and Ron P. Combined, they had a total of about 35 years sobriety and were well known in Toronto A.A. and active in their home groups. </p>
<p>”Grupo Nueva Esperanza opened its doors April 24, 1984” as the first Spanish speaking Ontario group. Little know in secular AA circles the booklet reports, “Secular meetings are first documented by Bill W. in A.A. Comes of Age. District 22 [Toronto East] Minutes of Sunday September 10, 1995 show in New Business, the formation of We Agnostics, a new group with two founding members.” </p>
<p>I never knew about the meeting at the time, or I would have enjoyed going. AAagnostica.org recently posted an article from Moncton New Brunswick’s Michael who travelled in early sobriety and had gotten to Quad-A meetings in Chicago (AA for atheists and agnostics) and he started what might be Canada’s first: “I started to think my home city of Moncton, New Brunswick, needed a similar meeting. With one other member with similar “grievances” we started a secular group in 1992 – the “AA 4AF” group – Alcoholics Anonymous For Atheists, Agnostics and Freethinkers. The group was registered with GSO February 14 with the Service Number 000170694.”[viii] </p>
<p>Michael moved to another town and the meeting didn’t last—maybe an idea ahead of it’s time for Atlantic Canada. </p>
<p>75 Years of A.A. in Ontario also includes a shout out to the first International Conference of Young People in AA, intentionally held on a border town—Niagara Falls, NY, 1958—both American and Canadian AA’s conspired to put it on. The 60th ICYPAA will be in Baltimore at the end of August. Keep reading for info and a cool, new video from ICYPAA. </p>
<p>The LGBTQ Toronto Gratitude Round Up is recorded in the Ontario history booklet as is the upcoming ICSAA 2018 in Toronto. Kudos to the archivists/editors for remembering that AA’s history is still being made and always has been a work-in-progress. The <em>75 Years of A.A. in Ontario</em> is quite polite—not much of “the dirt” or the riots that we heard Jackie attribute to Clarence’s recollection of AA beginnings. </p>
<p>I recently acquired Quebec’s history booklet. <em>The Beginnings of AA in Quebec: The Charisma of an Ambassador</em> is published by La Vigne Inc (French Grapevine 2010). This is 82 pages with pics of old Bill W letters and other memorabilia. It also has some of the dirt. The book is mostly about Dave B. Dave wasn’t the first AA sobriety in Montreal, but the founding member lost interest and lost contact with New York. When GSO heard from Dave they were happy to pass on a bundle of “please help” letters from 400 fellow Montreal alcoholics. Dave joined AA April 7, 1944. He went to work on the 400 prospects. By 1945 the 28 members meeting at Dave’s home needed a bigger space. Montreal growth included growing pains. The Forum, where the Montreal Canadians hockey team played, was renting a hall to AA. “In 1947, when there was about a hundred members, the Forum took back their hall after having discovered that certain members stayed there till three or four in the morning to play cards… Sainte-Mathias group opend so as to better welcome members from the city’s west. Preston Hall became home to the first French Canadian group (p. 31).” </p>
<p>According to <em>La Vigne AA</em>, Vol 21, no 1, April-May 1985, “In 1949, Montreal had 400 members and 18 AA groups.” </p>
<p>We’ve talked about some of the early Canadian secular AA meetings (agnostics/atheists/freethinkers/humanists/skeptics). It was overseas Buddhists that started the first AA meetings without prayer or gods; the first North American Quad-A (AA for atheists and agnostics) was held in 1975. </p>
<p>At the time of posting the blog, there’s just seven weeks to ICSAA 2018, August 24-26 in Toronto. Courtney S of SecularAA.org reports there are currently 451 secular meetings in 363 locations. In 2015, there were 200 worldwide secular meetings, 100 in 2012 and ten years ago, we had about 50 agnostic/atheist groups. </p>
<p>Over the last ten years, this subculture has doubled in size, twice. Is the population of natural vs. supernatural worldview holding alcoholics growing? Are non-believers coming out of the closet and saying, “To tell you the truth, I don’t believe in a prayer-answering higher power so, I’m going to stop talking like I do”? Some closet-agnostics/atheist just prefer meetings where they need not self-edit the experience of our recovery. </p>
<p>One thing this rapid growth in secular AA might suggest, along with the overall growth in other new groups, could there be an overall demand for more specialized/ personalized AA? I expect that back-to-basics is growing just as rapidly as secular AA. Some like more of “this” and others need more “that.” </p>
<p>We’ve looked a bit at how meetings/groups got started in different regions and wherever you’re from—I’d love to hear the story of your region’s early AA. Jump into the discussion. </p>
<p>We’ve talked about—for lack of a better word—special purpose groups (women, youth, LGBTQ, other-language and secular meetings). If membership numbers stay stagnant and the number of groups keeps getting larger, are we fracturing into more and more special-interest echo chambers? </p>
<p>Speaking of early AA, in 1946 Cleveland, from a club house wall, a poster reflected AA attitudes of the day: </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/281cd10f00ff8dff57c58bd89e1f1ed10f044d1f/original/2018-07-05-2.png/!!/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.png" class="size_m justify_right border_" />“AA groups are fundamentally little bands of people who are friends, who can help each other to stay sober. Each group therefore reflects the needs of its own members. The way a group is managed is the way its members want it to be managed for their common benefit. As a result, we have large groups, small groups, groups with refreshments, groups which never have refreshments, groups which like long meetings, groups which like short meetings, social groups, working groups, men’s groups, women’s groups, groups that play cards, groups which specialize in young people and as many other varieties as there are kinds of people. Each group has its own customs, its own financial problems, and its own method of operation. As long as it follows as a group the same principles AA recommends for individuals on selfishness, honesty, decency and tolerance it is above criticism.”[ix] </p>
<p> This is pre-Twelve Traditions; this is early mid-West AA. Say what?!? Does that sound a little more permissive that your last district General Service meeting? Wouldn’t you love this poster hanging on your meeting wall when someone goes all bug-eyed and says, “You can’t read that at an AA meeting!” You could just say, “Show me where it says what is forbidden or sacred on the wall… take your time.” </p>
<p>The pamphlet “The AA Group (P-16)[x]” is worth reading if your home group no longer gets your juices flowing. The pamphlet might give you some ideas for what you like or don’t like in a meeting. Maybe you want more structure in your group. Maybe more spontaneity is how you’re sobriety roles, today. </p>
<p><strong>HOT OFF THE PRESS: A Resentment and Video Software – starting your own video…</strong> </p>
<p>Getting active is going to be a must if you’re thinking of stating a new group that better suits your style. AA’s young people just put out a video on service (June 20, 2018); Millennials are so You-Tube! It’s called Service is The Secret[xi] - check it out, it’s very contemporary… as always, controversially so. Anyway, here’s what Millennials say about running their grandparent’s AA. It’s 7 ½ minutes. </p>
<p>When I was on the EastBayAA.org site I noticed things going on in the hood. Camping for Young People, a weekend workshop called, “Legal, Tax, and Insurance Considerations for A.A. Groups,” “12th annual Courageous Women in AA,” Giants vs. A’s baseball outing, 23rd annual LGBT AA at Yosemite, “Unity & Service Conference,” “In-Between Fellowship 58th Anniversary (I don’t even know?!?!)” and of course—who’s coming (I know I am)—Symposium on A.A. History February 1-3, 2019. </p>
<p>Under the East Bay group list, you can shorten your preferences with the following choices of AA Meeting: Fragrance-free, Dual Diagnosis, Cross-dressing permitted, Child-friendly, Living Sober, Smoking permitted, People of Color, Tradition Study, Transgender, Sign Language, Wheelchair Access, Candlelight, Spanish, Cross Talk Permitted and all the other garden-variety speaker, discussion, Big Book, open, closed, Women, Men, secular, Young People, LGBT, etc. Now there a variety of groups who prefer meditation over reading, some have Al-Anon participation, some leave it entirely up to the chair to pick a format. </p>
<p>I expect each of these groups meets the criteria of the 1946, Ohio “What is an AA Group” definition, don’t you? We have meetings for AA doctors, lawyers and pilots, too. Fewer of these options were available when I first came around. Maybe the creation of more AA for specific demographics is why our meeting choices keep increasing while our population stays the same. Social media (and other internet sites) has provided AAs and the larger recovery community to commune under any number of umbrellas, too. </p>
<p>I’ve heard, “If you haven’t met anyone you don’t like in AA, you haven’t been to enough meetings. Maybe if you don’t have a group that’s just right for you, you haven’t started one, yet. </p>
<p>Is there a down side to AA groups continuing to be fractured into smaller more individualized groups? </p>
<p>There is something to be gained by exposing ourselves to views and approaches outside our comfort zone. That has to be weighed against the benefits of a save, predictable atmosphere. I don’t know if it’s a “down” side but there is a financial cost to fewer members in more groups.</p>
<p>In family life, when mom and dad split up, kids and assets get divided between two homes. If kids are old enough they have a choice where they live; if they’re young, the parents or courts decide how much time they spend here and there. This might not be a broken home like many of us call it; it could be a healed home. In some cases, the environment(s) are better for all involved if mom and dad have grown incompatible. But when a family unit on a fixed income adds the cost of an extra home, that can lead to both mom and dad spending less time with kids (more work hours), it can thin out discretionary spending at best and cause financial chaos or collapse in a worst-case scenario. Two households increase cost of living and breakup rarely increases income to meet the new cost of living. </p>
<p>AA groups are the same way; if half of a 20-member group start their own group then there’s less people at each meeting—less total financial contribution and (like the split-family) added costs. AA operates, by design on a corporate poverty model. Our service structure owns no, or very little, property, groups try to maintain their own prudent reserve but any excess seventh tradition accumulation above that prudent reserve, is sent to district, area, GSO or and/or our local central office to contribute our share to their expenses. Member and group participation is never predicated on ability to carry our weight. AA is never going to try to make a profit, but we do run on a razon-thin margin. GSO’s overall operating budget is about $16 million which is about $8 per member. Collective wisdom is that it would be great if General Service was 100% funded by groups/members/Areas but contributions only fund about ½ of our General Service expense; the balance is subsidized by publishing sales. The publishing world is going through changes right now and the dependence on a consistent <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/3da68beec68592369f9efc122cc8211b19d9a823/original/2017-fianl-report.jpg/!!/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" />income from future book sales in a digital era as a model for long-term viability has its critics. </p>
<p>So at one end, GSO is wanting to be move towards being solely group/member funded (dependent) and at the same time members are starting more groups and taking on more local expenses so we don’t realistically have the prospect of extra money in the coffers to sent on to General Service. </p>
<p>The resentment is free; the coffee pot has to be paid for by group contributions, just like the room rent where the power-outlet is that we plug that coffee pot into. </p>
<p>Still, GSO’s long-term financial peril isn’t supposed to be the first consideration when thinking about breaking away from your current home group and starting one more to your liking. But it’s worth thinking about periodically and that’s part of what we like to muse over, once a year—our annual “AA by the numbers.” </p>
<p>If you want to know more AA World Service income and expenses, ask your group GSR to get your group a copy of the latest General Service Conference Final Report. It’s a confidential document with some AA members names, addresses and phone numbers in it so it isn’t a publicly posted document. But it is every member’s right to read it each year. The 2018 68th General Service Conference Final Report will be printed in French, English and Spanish and available soon. Most GSRs have a 2017 report in their group binder. </p>
<p>Thanks for following along.</p>
<p>[i] <a contents="https://www.aa.org/newsletters/en_US/en_box459_summer_2018.pdf" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/newsletters/en_US/en_box459_summer_2018.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.aa.org/newsletters/en_US/en_box459_summer_2018.pdf</a> </p>
<p>[ii] Recovery Plays by Jackie B <a contents="http://www.recoveryplaysofjackieb.org/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.recoveryplaysofjackieb.org/" target="_blank">http://www.recoveryplaysofjackieb.org/</a> </p>
<p>[iii] Jackie's play: <a contents="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SnH1Wwp9Qc" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SnH1Wwp9Qc" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SnH1Wwp9Qc</a> </p>
<p>[iv] <a contents="https://www.secularaa.com" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.secularaa.com" target="_blank">https://www.secularaa.com</a> </p>
<p>[v] <a contents="https://www.aahistorysymposium.org/ " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aahistorysymposium.org/" target="_blank">https://www.aahistorysymposium.org/ </a></p>
<p>[vi] <a contents="https://eastbayaa.org/symposium-on-a-a-history-february-1-3-2019" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://eastbayaa.org/symposium-on-a-a-history-february-1-3-2019" target="_blank">https://eastbayaa.org/symposium-on-a-a-history-february-1-3-2019</a> </p>
<p>[vii] <a contents="https://orlandorecoveryfamily.com/2015/06/03/how-it-worked-the-story-of-clarence-h-snyder/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://orlandorecoveryfamily.com/2015/06/03/how-it-worked-the-story-of-clarence-h-snyder/" target="_blank">https://orlandorecoveryfamily.com/2015/06/03/how-it-worked-the-story-of-clarence-h-snyder/</a> </p>
<p>[viii] <a contents="https://aaagnostica.org/2018/06/14/addiction-recovery-and-personal-character/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://aaagnostica.org/2018/06/14/addiction-recovery-and-personal-character/" target="_blank">https://aaagnostica.org/2018/06/14/addiction-recovery-and-personal-character/</a> </p>
<p>[ix] More on early AA with Ernie Kurtz and Bill White: <a contents="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEab222byp0" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEab222byp0" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEab222byp0</a> </p>
<p>[x] <a contents="https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-16_theaagroup.pdf" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-16_theaagroup.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-16_theaagroup.pdf</a> </p>
<p>[xi] AA Service Video by ICYPAA participants: <a contents="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utl2Xy1_vK4" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utl2Xy1_vK4" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utl2Xy1_vK4 </a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/utl2Xy1_vK4" width="560"></iframe></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a contents="PDF version to read/print/post or save" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-blog-july-2018-resentments-and-coffee-pots.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/342806/rebellion-dogs-blog-july-2018-resentments-and-coffee-pots.pdf" target="_blank">PDF version to <strong>read/print/post or save</strong></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a contents="More on member/group trends from 2017" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/home/blog/reviewing-aa-s-2017-membership-tally-a-look-at-love-tolerance" target="_blank"><strong>More on member/group trends from 2017</strong></a></p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/5217557
2018-05-04T15:59:34-04:00
2021-10-23T15:56:48-04:00
Best Way to Predict the Future is to Create It
<p><span class="font_large">Rebellion Dogs Blog, May 2018 </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/d0d423204ba1dc61dfeab2bd5ee61a3fcff927f3/original/beliefs-wordle.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></span></p>
<p><a contents="read/download as PDF" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-blog-may-2018.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/334258/rebellion-dogs-blog-may-2018.pdf" target="_blank"><strong><span style="color:null;"><span class="font_regular">read/download as PDF</span></span></strong></a></p>
<p>Why Now? </p>
<p>With over 90% support of voting members, the 68th General Service Conference (2018), for USA/Canada, adopted and approved the pamphlet “The ‘God’ Word; Agnostics and Atheists in AA.” What has changed inside and outside of AA in such a short order? </p>
<p>Rebellion Dogs Publishing and AA Beyond Belief are teaming up soon for a detailed look at the long road that brings this pamphlet to our home-group literature tables. I’m looking forward to that presentation which I hope you will find entertaining and informative. </p>
<p>This is not that. </p>
<p>Today, let’s look at changing mood, changing demographics and the continuing history of Alcoholics Anonymous. We see demographic shifts, particularly in America. Let’s also look at how the USA born Alcoholics Anonymous is managing outside the most monotheistic leaning of developed nations, the United States of America. </p>
<p><strong>Background:</strong> Just a few years ago, under the stewardship of then-chair of the General Service Board, Rev. Ward Ewing, the trustees’ Literature Committee had collected agnostic and atheist stories from Canada and the USA to create a home-made pamphlet. The format was like others, welcoming other underrepresented populations in AA: youth, the LGBTQ community, African Americans, women, indigenous people, persons with disabilities and/or requiring accommodation, etc. </p>
<p>This noble endeavor failed to illicit the 2/3 majority that any advisory action requires on the General Service Conference floor. Instead, the rejected pamphlet was replaced with a working title pamphlet called “AA: Spiritual not Religious,” which would eventually be affirmed as “Many Paths to Spirituality.” </p>
<p>How did we get from “the nays have it,” a few years ago, to “yes we will,” this spring? </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/3635798a433546dd701df26672eed05e841660c3/original/AA-GSO.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>Here’s where our General Service Conference stood in 2011: </p>
<p><em>“…the trustees’ Literature Committee continue to develop literature which focuses on spirituality that includes stories from atheists and agnostics who are sober in Alcoholics Anonymous. The committee expressed support for the trustees’ efforts to develop a pamphlet which reflects the wide range of spiritual experiences of A.A. members and asked that a draft pamphlet or progress report be brought to the 2012 Conference Committee on Literature for consideration.” </em></p>
<p>As history recalls, the draft agnostics and atheists pamphlet didn’t get the substantial unanimity that “conference approved” requires. Instead, in 2014 we ushered in, “Many Paths to Spirituality.” Personally, I think “Many Paths” is a pamphlet with merit; but it falls short of satisfying the unmet need of atheists and agnostics stories in our own language. If other underrepresented populations have such a pamphlet, why not us? </p>
<p>In Laval Quebec, the biennial Eastern Canada Regional Forum welcomed feedback from members in 2014. I remember asking Class B (alcoholic) literature committee trustee Joe D, standing at the podium, if the view of AA World Services Publishing was that “Many Paths” met the need of agnostics and atheist seeking a pamphlet. Joe D replied that, “Yes, ‘Many Paths’ was thought to satisfy the unmet need for atheist/agnostic literature.” </p>
<p>I respectfully offered that in my discussion with members from my atheist/agnostic home group to the larger online secular AA community, it is widely felt that “Many Paths” does not satisfy our request. We still feel, literature with nonbelievers expressing what it was like, what happened and what it’s like now, belonged alongside, “AA for the Woman,” “AA for the Gay/Lesbian Alcoholic,” “Young People and AA,” “AA for the Native North American, “AA for the Black and African American Alcoholic.” </p>
<p>Amy B of Grapevine and other Grapevine staff were in attendance. That’s when the idea first germinated for a previously published Grapevine atheist and agnostic stories be collected for a book. First, they got home from Quebec and put out a call to readers to tell our agnostic/atheist stories for the October 2016 issue of Grapevine. This Fall (2018), Grapevine books will include a collection of some of these stories and previous Grapevines going back to Jimmy B and other contributions. </p>
<p>Through other regional forums and communication between AA groups and meetings with the General Service Office, it was affirmed that there was still an unmet need. I am sure that several of you, reading now, had your say. AA owes you a debt of gratitude for speaking up; if nothing happens, nothing happens. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the General Service Conference of the United Kingdom, which has the autonomy to create any literature requested by their own constituents, drafted a collection of atheist and agnostic AA stories from Britain. In 2016, “The ‘God’ Word: Agnostics and Atheists in AA”[i] was conference approved. </p>
<p>“The ‘God’ Word” contains ten stories of experience, strength and hope. Some of these include recoveries from alcoholism in AA without our literature or 12-Step process. Other stories include experiences of adapting theistic Steps with more secular higher powers such as the AA group, the power of example, the healing power of one alcoholic talking to another. Unabashedly, “The ‘God’ Word" stories are told the same way believers stories go, take what you like (what works) and leaving the rest. </p>
<p>As we’ve discussed before the General Service Conference has a president for adopting British conference approved literature for USA/Canada. In 1980, “A Newcomer Asks” became part of the USA/Canada literature offerings. “A Newcomer Asks” is the second most ordered pamphlet, next to “Is AA for You?” This year, our General Service Conference approved the following advisory action: </p>
<p><em>The pamphlet “The God Word” (currently published by the General Service Board of A.A., Great Britain) be adopted by A.A. World Services, Inc. with minor editorial changes.</em> </p>
<p>If you’re wondering what has changed so dramatically in mood and attitudes inside AA over just a few years, let’s consider how moods and attitudes are changing in America, where a little over ½ of AA’s approximately two million members go to meetings. </p>
<p>Tobin Grant blogs for <em>Religion News Service at Corner of Church and State</em>, a data-driven conversation on religion and politics. He is a political science professor at Southern Illinois University and associate editor of the <em>Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion</em>. In March of 2015 in <em>The Christian Century</em>, Tobin Grant reported on the following changes in Americans beliefs and behaviors: </p>
<ul> <li>Fewer Americans Pray: The percentage who say they never pray climbed from 10% in 2004 to 15% in 2014. </li> <li>34% of Americans “never attend a worship service (other than weddings and other ceremonies). This is a three-point increase from just a few years earlier.</li> <li>The 2014 General Social Survey… shows that since 2012, the United States has about 7.5 million more Americans who are no longer active in religion. </li> <li>“When asked their religious preference, nearly one in four Americans now say, “none.” … There are nearly as many Americans who claim no religion as there are Catholics… If this growth continues, in a few years the largest <em>religion</em> in the United States may be no religion at all.[ii] </li>
</ul>
<p>To a more secular audience, in <em>The New Republic</em>,[iii] Isaac Chotiner points out that demographic changes are no changing of the guard. There is no score to settle, even if that’s to the chagrin of the anti-theist camp of secularism. Chotiner concludes his essay this way: </p>
<p><em>“The truth is that this wave of secularism, like previous waves of secularism, will leave believers in perfectly fine shape. Religion, much to the dismay of diehard atheists, has a way of adapting itself to current conditions. This era will prove no exception.” </em> </p>
<p>Some of the discrimination that nonbelievers have suffered in AA and other 12-Step meetings comes from an ignorance that nonbelievers will become believers if they open their mind. Some discrimination is from a secularphobia that sees irreligion as a threat to the majority faith-based Americans and/or AA member. But Chotiner’s conclusions are that we’ve been here before, secularism isn’t contagious. To the grounded theist, secularists having their say or their own space is no threat to any true-believer. Perhaps in AA, there is more of a unity vs. uniformity vibe and less of an “AA under siege” fear. </p>
<p>Consider that this vote wasn’t nonbelievers outvoting believers on the General Conference floor. The "yes" vote was inclusive-minded AA’s wanting everyone to feel included. Any slippery slope dread of what might happen if vulnerable newcomers are exposed to secular AA literature, has dissipated with moderate AA members. “The ‘God’ Word is blunt, but it doesn’t throw stones at traditional AA. The stories display a range – from those who disregard the 12-Step process to those who adapt strongly held AA tenets about powerlessness and power-sources to more behavioral/educational narratives of overcoming “a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body.” </p>
<p>If AA reflects a cross-section of the world outside our meeting room doors, then fewer AA’s hold a supernatural view of what “a power greater than ourselves” means to each of us, personally. </p>
<p>Also, if AA is like the rest of the community, apostacy affects some of our membership. In the rooms, I hear about members jumping into the AA idea of a loving higher power listening to our prayers and sending guiding messages. Some of us were outspoken about letting go and letting god (of our understanding). Gradually, some of us outgrow this conception of an intervening higher power. This isn’t to say a secular worldview is more evolved that a supernatural worldview. The point is that a secular approach to AA is no longer considered an intellectual holdout. Not-god is a perfectly workable view to AA sobriety. </p>
<p>And the world we live in isn’t just theists vs. nonbelievers; some religious adherents don’t believe in an anthropomorphic higher power and others who believe in such an intervening supernatural power, don’t envision a “Him.” The creator is not called, “God” by all theists. </p>
<p>From <em>the Washington Post</em> in 2014, Reid Wilson looked at the second-largest religion (next to Christianity) in each State: </p>
<p>“In the Western U.S., Buddhists represent the largest non-Christian religious block in most states. In 20 states, mostly in the Midwest and South, Islam is the largest non-Christian faith tradition. And in 15 states, mostly in the Northeast, Judaism has the most followers after Christianity. Hindus come in second place in Arizona and Delaware, and there are more practitioners of the Baha’i faith in South Carolina than anyone else.”[iv] </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/e05b72487e20afe9cbbb7baa2a47fdb0314c7993/original/2018-05-04.png/!!/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>As for AA as-a-whole, AA’s greatest growth is coming outside the USA/Canada. Many developing countries are not monotheistical in their dominant culture. The Spring 2018 <em>Box 4-5-9: News and Notes for GSO </em>celebrated AA growth outside of our conference’s jurisdiction. Iran has 400 meetings, there was a women’s AA convention in New Delhi India, AA is growing in Uzbekistan.[v] </p>
<p>The Spring <em>Box 4-5-9</em> also announces under Items and Ideas on Area Gatherings for A.A.s, “August 24-26: Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 3rd.International Secular Conference Info: https://secularaa.com. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/5759726f3ec5b0d351b1f496ae4f930293d845e9/original/2018-05-04-1.png" class="size_orig justify_left border_" />While we await the 2018 member/group estimates (posted Summer Box 4-5-9), the 2017 report showed that 50,555 of AA’s 118,305 groups and 705,850 of our 2,103,184 members are from outside the USA/Canada jurisdiction. Year-over-year, membership held firm with thanks to double-digit increases in new members, internationally. While monotheism is known worldwide, polytheism such as Hinduism and non-theism such as Jainism or Buddhism will continue to account for more of AA’s cultural background. It’s great to ponder, as we have accommodated non-supernatural worldview members, will we continue to accommodate a growing variety of views of AA recovery, both natural and supernatural?</p>
<p>In that first United Kingdom pamphlet that USA/Canada adopted and amended, one of the “A Newcomer Asks”[vi] queries is answered this way: </p>
<p>There’s a lot of talk about God, though, isn’t there? </p>
<p><em>“The majority of A.A. members believe that we have found the solution to our drinking problem not through individual willpower, but through a power greater than ourselves. However, everyone defines this power as he or she wishes. Many people call it God, others think it is the A.A. group, still others don’t believe in it at all. There is room in A.A. for people of all shades of belief and nonbelief.”</em> </p>
<p>It would be interesting to poll members to understand who, A) “Calls it God,” B) think of it as the A.A. group” or C) don’t believe in it at all.” Maybe a future triennial membership survey will ask us and then track changes in our beliefs through the years. </p>
<p>I’ll look for reader help in sourcing our closing line. Peter Drucker, Abraham Lincoln and Alan Kay are all credited for saying this: </p>
<p>“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” </p>
<p>[i] <a contents="http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/download/1/Library/Documents/Literature%20Downloads/3267%20The%20God%20Word.pdf" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/download/1/Library/Documents/Literature%20Downloads/3267%20The%20God%20Word.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/download/1/Library/Documents/Literature%20Downloads/3267%20The%20God%20Word.pdf</a> </p>
<p>[ii] <a contents="https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2015-03/75-million-americans-lost-their-religion-2012" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2015-03/75-million-americans-lost-their-religion-2012" target="_blank">https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2015-03/75-million-americans-lost-their-religion-2012</a> </p>
<p>[iii] <a contents="https://newrepublic.com/article/116509/secularism-america-good-everyone-including-christians" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://newrepublic.com/article/116509/secularism-america-good-everyone-including-christians" target="_blank">https://newrepublic.com/article/116509/secularism-america-good-everyone-including-christians</a> </p>
<p>[iv] <a contents="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/06/04/the-second-largest-religion-in-each-state/?noredirect=on" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/06/04/the-second-largest-religion-in-each-state/?noredirect=on" target="_blank">https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/06/04/the-second-largest-religion-in-each-state/?noredirect=on</a> </p>
<p>[v] <a contents="https://www.aa.org/newsletters/en_US/en_box459_spring18.pdf" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/newsletters/en_US/en_box459_spring18.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.aa.org/newsletters/en_US/en_box459_spring18.pdf</a> </p>
<p>[vi] <a contents="https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-24_anewcomerask.pdf" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-24_anewcomerask.pdf" style="" target="_blank">https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-24_anewcomerask.pdf</a></p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/5086927
2018-02-19T02:50:35-05:00
2020-11-17T05:16:15-05:00
From Genius Recovery "What’s the Future of the Word 'Alcoholic'?"
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/4483ea75835d8577c920702730cd3449847c3826/large/alcoholic-word-definition-in-dictionary.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font_large">What’s the Future of the Word “Alcoholic”?</span> </p>
<p><em><strong>Written for (reprinted from) <a contents="Genius Recovery" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://geniusrecovery.com/whats-future-word-alcoholic/" style="" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f1c40f;">www.GeniusRecovery.com</span></a> by Joe C. January 18, 2018 [Click links below for videos, blogs and Genius Recovery resources]</strong></em></p>
<p><a contents="Read in PDF (CLICK HERE)" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-blog-february-2018-the-future-of-the-word-alcoholic-from-genius-recovery.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/325049/rebellion-dogs-blog-february-2018-the-future-of-the-word-alcoholic-from-genius-recovery.pdf" target="_blank"><em><strong>Read in PDF (CLICK HERE)</strong></em></a></p>
<p>Here’s a couple of thought experiments for fellow AA (and other 12-step) members: </p>
<p>First, if you were asked to change one way you do things, which may make you uncomfortable for a while but might help others, would you do it? </p>
<p>Here’s Question #2: would and could Alcoholics Anonymous adapt to a world whereby none of us called ourselves “alcoholic”? The same can be asked about your 12-step fellowship if you identify as a sex, food or marijuana addict. </p>
<p>Medical, legal and cultural language evolves. In healthcare, person-first is replacing problem-first language. This isn’t hyper-liberalism; studies verify that person-first language promotes dignity and diminishes stigma. “Disabled people” or “the disabled” is problem-first language. Societal norms dictate “persons with disability” is less stigmatizing. We call ourselves alcoholics in AA. Outside our meeting doors, caregivers address us as “persons with alcoholism” or “persons with alcohol use-disorder.” </p>
<p>The word “alcoholic” had a good run; great. We made it part of AA’s name; will that be a problem? If the word is going out of circulation, two-million people may feel duty-bound to preserve the word, "alcoholic."</p>
<p>Can we? Should we? </p>
<p>AA was a breath of progressive, fresh air in the 1930s. “Alcoholic” identified people like me as having a medical problem instead of a character flaw or a moral depravity. Nobody in AA identifies as an “inebriate” or “deviant” in 2017; that sounds old-fashioned. In society at large, “alcoholic” is being retired. A younger, more empathetic, next-gen, person-first label will take over. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/aa6f6d227b3e4526f5811d13e689eead31434a47/medium/genius-recovery-william-l-white.jpg" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" /><em>Here are some insights I sought out from professionals early in the summer of 2017 and finally found a place to be shared on Genius Recovery January of 2018.</em> </p>
<p>William L. White is Emeritus Senior Research Consultant at Chestnut Health Systems / Lighthouse Institute and author of the award-winning <em>Slaying the Dragon – The History of Addiction Treatment and Recovery in America.</em> Bill reminds us of pre-alcoholic labeling. “Since the early 1900s, persons entering treatment for such problems have been labeled inebriates, dipsomaniacs,” and White continues with unflattering monikers that we still hear, “drunkard/drunk, sot, tippler, wino, boozer…suggestions have been made that the addictions field and the larger culture abandon all such terms, and like the larger health care and disabilities fields, embrace person-first language.” </p>
<p>Back in January 2017, then director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Michael Botticelli put out a memorandum from the Executive Office of the President focusing on “Changing the Language of Addiction” to de-stigmatize our attitudes towards persons with alcohol and other drug-use disorders. On <em>Here and Now</em> in August, 2017, Botticelli told Robin Young that when looking at reasons that people cite for not seeking treatment, the #1 answer is stigma; they don’t want their neighbors finding out, they don’t want friends finding out. And one of the contributory factors to that stigma is our language. Botticelli said, “Often when we call people things like ‘addict’ or ‘junkies,’ not only are they incredibly judgmental words, but they also kind of pigeonhole someone’s entire being to that one single characteristic. And, again, this is where we’re beginning to have much more direct clinical evidence that words matter.” </p>
<p>Person-first language is part of a bigger effort to destigmatize all marginalized minorities.</p>
<p>The American Psychological Association (APA), in a policy paper on disability, advises:</p>
<p>"Non-handicapping language is to maintain the integrity of individuals as whole human beings by avoiding language that implies that a person, as a whole, is disabled (e.g., disabled person), equates a person with his or her condition (e.g., epileptic)…” The APA emphasizes, “In focusing on the disability, an individual’s strengths, abilities, skills, and resources are often ignored. In many instances, persons with disabilities are viewed neither as having the capacity or right to express their goals and preferences, nor as being resourceful and contributing members of society.” </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/f9119943d0237d20bdb3e6e480e3dafdd8b5224c/medium/genious-recovery-disability.jpg" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" />William White draws from history:</p>
<p>“The twin challenges such movements face—from the civil rights and women’s movements to the disability rights movement—are to expunge (or re-purpose) objectifying, disempowering words and images and forge new words and images that convey respect, inspire new possibilities, and invite inclusion. The import of such efforts far transcends matters of superficial political correctness.” </p>
<p>Last year (2017), with my brain locked on how words stigmatize and/or empower, I found myself in a conversation with David B. Bohl MA, CSAC, MAC, Director of Addiction Services at Rogers Memorial Hospital in Wisconsin [recently, author of his memoir, <em>Parallel Universes: A Story of Rebirth</em>]. I wanted to get his take on language, stigma and shame. Our conversation is broader than “is the word alcoholic outdated?” The entertainment industry exceedingly stigmatizes addiction and objectifies sufferers, for fun and profit: </p>
<p>"I watched A&E’s<em> Intervention</em> on YouTube. Larry Peterson, CEO at Astoria Pointe treatment, is characterizing Ivan, who’s completed treatment, 'He’s faced his demons and the wreckage of his past. He’s done everything he can do on an in-patient basis.'</p>
<p>I switch to Episode One (2016); A&E depicts the story of ...'Jennifer: A young mother’s eating disorder has been a life-long affliction, now compounded by drug and sex addiction–but to get rid of her demons she’ll have to eliminate more than just her food'.”</p>
<p>I wanted to get Bohl’s feedback about these carefully chosen words the writers crafted. </p>
<p>“‘Demons?’ Really? Is this the way we articulate a chronic, treatable brain disorder?” Bohl quipped.</p>
<p>“I went to A&E’s website just to see what they say because I have some notions about this. What jumped out at me was, ‘Each addict must confront their darkest demons, in order to begin their journey to recovery and turn their lives around before it’s too late!’ That’s the passion, the plea, the shaming that evokes emotions from the people they want to watch.</p>
<p>Demons? What happened to the medical language around the disease, or disorder, of addiction? This language ignores 20 years of exciting neuro-biological research and results. Addiction is a chronic brain disorder; in my opinion, that’s what it is.</p>
<p>Stigmatization remains the greatest barrier to people getting treatment and getting engaged. ‘You’re just a junkie, unworthy of medical care’—that’s the extreme, right? ‘You’re not deserving of these services or self-efficacy or being treated as a human first; look at your history,.” </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/7b1e6d4bce15a8aef25f9feb818f563322b14b6e/medium/genius-recovery-david-b-bohl.jpg" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" />After we trashed TV's depiction of addiction, David B. Bohl (pictured) pointed me towards an American Psychiatric Association blog, <em>Talking about Addiction: Language Matters</em> (January 2017). Staff writers emphasize:</p>
<p>“Stigma about people with substance use disorders exists even among clinicians. One study found that even mental health professionals judged an individual identified as a substance abuser more harshly than an individual identified as having a substance use disorder. The language used about addiction reflects, and can perpetuate, negative perceptions about people with substance use disorders.”</p>
<p>The article emphasizes that we ought to:</p>
<p>“..Use person-first language, such as has been widely adopted for use with other conditions and disabilities, for example ‘person with substance use disorder’ (or replace with specific substance) rather than ‘substance abuser’ or ‘addict’ or ‘alcoholic'.” </p>
<p>Personally, I’m desensitized by any stigma the word “alcoholic” may carry; I’ve been sober a while.</p>
<p>But, it’s not about me, is it? It’s about the still suffering. I’m convinced by the evidence that while “alcoholic” was an improvement over “dipsomaniac,” people—individuals impacted by addiction to alcohol and other drugs/processes, along with the healthcare professionals that serve us—can’t transcend our visceral, derogatory reactions to the stereotypes of problem-first language.</p>
<p>In the rooms, some members are already adapting how they self-identify. Maybe we’ve all heard, “My name’s Olga and I’m in long-term recovery.” The idea is to identify with the solution—not the stigmatized problem.</p>
<p>Another member says, “My name is _______ and I have alcoholism.” For him, while he still uses the stigmatized “A” word, it’s not who he is, it’s just one of many things that defines him. “My name is ______ and I’m an AA member,” is another that I’ve heard. </p>
<p>No one is going to tell AA to change our name or forgo an age-old ritual of what we say before we share. But, if we want to change things—even our name—we can. Nothing is scared; nothing is forbidden. </p>
<p>Bill W. wrote in the July 1965 Grapevine:</p>
<p>“Let us never fear needed change. Certainly, we have to discriminate between changes for the worse and changes for the better. But once a need becomes clearly apparent in an individual, in a group, or in A.A. as a whole, it has long since been found out that we cannot stand still and look the other way. The essence of all growth is a willingness to change for the better and then an unremitting willingness to shoulder whatever responsibility this entails.” </p>
<p>Personally, the need for change has become apparent; so, what responsibility will I shoulder? I’m not going to petition the General Service Office. I’m not going to tell you what I think you should do. I’m going to do what I think I should do. </p>
<p>I’m going to try changing the way I identify in the rooms. Others have already. The evidence suggests that it will benefit the still suffering. Why wouldn’t this old dog try new tricks, if only for other’s benefit? “My name’s Joe and I have alcohol use disorder.” That felt weird. I’ll keep trying. </p>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;">VISIT GENIUS RECOVERY:</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a contents="Joe Polish &amp; Dr. Gabor Maté VIDEO" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://geniusrecovery.com/videos/" style="" target="_blank">Joe Polish & Dr. Gabor Maté <strong><span style="color:#f1c40f;">VIDEO</span></strong></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a contents="Genius Recovery Video with Best-seller and editor, Anna David" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://geniusrecovery.com/anna-david/" style="" target="_blank">Genius Recovery Video with <strong><span style="color:#f1c40f;">Best-seller and editor, Anna David</span></strong></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a contents="Genius Recovery Video with Dr. Patrick Cares: Sex &amp; Love Addiction" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://geniusrecovery.com/dr-patrick-carnes-leading-sex-addiction-expert-video-interview/" style="" target="_blank">Genius Recovery Video with <strong><span style="color:#f1c40f;">Dr. Patrick Cares: Sex & Love Addiction</span></strong></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a contents="More blogs, stories and video on Genius Network" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://geniusrecovery.com/stories-and-videos/" style="" target="_blank">More blogs, stories and video on <strong><span style="color:#f1c40f;">Genius Network</span></strong></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>other links:</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a contents='View the A&amp;E Intervention episode "Ivan" that David B Bohl and Joe C discussed' data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lRb9rcSlM0" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;"><strong>View the A&E Intervention episode "Ivan"</strong></span> that David B Bohl and Joe C discussed</a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a contents="View the A&amp;E Intervention episode Jennifer" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uccbr3mvmIk" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;"><strong>View the A&E Intervention episode Jennifer</strong></span></a> that David B Bohl and Joe C discussed</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">David B Bohl's <a contents="Parallel Universes: The Story of Rebirth" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.amazon.com/Parallel-Universes-David-B-Bohl/dp/1595985786/ref=as_sl_pc_as_ss_li_til?tag=rebeldogspubl-20&linkCode=w00&linkId=808ffdbd1fdef13db9dea434c9b0d736&creativeASIN=1595985786" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;"><strong>Parallel Universes: The Story of Rebirth</strong></span></a></p>
<p> </p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/5021291
2018-01-12T19:33:16-05:00
2021-09-03T13:42:31-04:00
Think Think Think: Recovery & Conflict Resolution
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font_large">Rebellion Dogs Blog, January 2018 </span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font_large">Your Best Thinking got you where!?!? Freethought, 12-Step Rooms and Conflict Resolution </span></p>
<p><a contents="READ, VIEW OR DOWNLOAD AS A PDF CLICK HERE" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-blog-january-2018-think-think-think.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/318287/rebellion-dogs-blog-january-2018-think-think-think.pdf" target="_blank">READ, VIEW OR DOWNLOAD AS A PDF <strong>CLICK HERE</strong></a> Online bullying led to the suicide of another youth. I was moved by what I read. It was an Australian child; of course, it could be anyone’s daughter or sister. In a striking reaction, the father invited the perpetrators to the funeral. I read on the BBC website: </p>
<p><em>One in five children in Australia say they were bullied in the past year. </em></p>
<p><em>In his emotional Facebook post, written on Sunday, Dolly's father, Tick Everett, gave no details of the bullying, but said she had wanted to "escape the evil in this world". </em></p>
<p><em>He said he hoped the attention on Dolly's death last week might "help other precious lives from being lost". </em></p>
<p><em>He also invited the bullies to her funeral, saying: "If by some chance the people who thought this was a joke and made themselves feel superior by the constant bullying and harassment see this post, please come to our service and witness the complete devastation you have created." </em></p>
<p><em>On Wednesday, the family released a statement to media outlets saying Dolly had been "the kindest, caring, beautiful soul"</em>.[i] </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/ffa8ffbf4ba11aa30aa7cf5265b7651933affe25/original/think-think-think-coffee-cup.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" />Wow. A lot of parents wouldn’t want the perpetrators anywhere near their grieving friends and family. In part, the dad wanted those who took his daughter to suffer from the loss, too. I see this not so much as revenge but an understanding (wisdom). In a corrupt system—as bullying is—everyone engaged in the corrupt system, victims, persecutors, enablers and rescuers are all controlled by the corrupt system. In an elaborate sense, everyone engaged in the system is corrupted, is victimized by the corruption. It’s natural to demonize the perpetrator and who can blame those who suffer for feeling angry or vengeful; full stop. Trauma and grief have stages and the perspective (and empathy) demonstrated by the suffering father, is remarkable. </p>
<p>But this Australian father wants the corrupt system, that took his daughter, to end. He doesn’t want the system taking any more victims. That demands an understanding of the system; that asks the seemingly unthinkable—empathy for your perpetrator. Resolution requires truth and reconciliation. </p>
<p>I can’t avoid a 12-Step slant; I didn’t learn everything I know in an AA meeting, but 12-Step culture intervened in my accelerating trip down a dead-end street. It gave me a chance to stop, to think, to breath and learn to think <em>more better</em>. I’ve been persecuted by injustice in my life. Also true is that I am a white male in a world that offers me privilege at the expense of others.</p>
<p>Example: Everyone In 12-Step communities have been discriminated against; there remains a persistent stigma foist upon we addicts. How many people with eating disorders have not been body-shamed?</p>
<p>Have you ever tried asking the pastor where your local AA meeting is or the facilities coordinator in the local library if you Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous group can meet there every week, maybe right after daycare, just before Palates? If you haven’t, can you imagine the fish-eye you might get from someone who’s also the landlord to parents and child-care professionals? Are sex and love addicts a bigger risk to toddlers than a random group from the public? I don’t know. But what do you think the general attitude is towards people with sexual compulsions looking for a place to hang out? </p>
<p>Here’s a personal example: I’ve faced discrimination. As a youth—I was 14-years-of-age at my first meeting and sober by age 16—I had older members roll their eyes at me, dismissively. Also, as someone who is skeptical about the popular AA belief that a loving, intervening higher power is the agency to our sobriety, I have faced the typical suggestion that I am the one with a closed mind, I should save time (and my life) by seeing it their way. I’ve been told that my candidly expressed views could be damaging to impressionable newcomers. You know and I know that it’s wrong to treat minority atheists any differently than the majority theists but you and I also know it happens.</p>
<p>But for me, I walk out (or storm out—my choice) of that meeting and I’m a peer among peers on the streets. My beliefs or lack thereof are invisible to the crowd outside. Now let’s consider a woman in a meeting who expresses the injustice of AA literature that treats her as the second-sex who is told her feminism is an outside issue… She can storm or walk out of the meeting too, but she walks onto the streets of a city or town that still pays her $0.75 on the dollar for the same work a man does and where she’s inclined to be objectified and judged without even opening her mouth. A woman alcoholic’s suffering from systemic discrimination doesn’t end her victimhood when she rejects the meeting. So that’s very different than my predicament isn’t it? I walk out the door, leave discrimination behind and re-join privilege. </p>
<p>Creating a better society requires thought and empathy and cooperation. I’d like to strike up a conversation about such things. The relationship with thinking and recovery is evolving. AA, of course had something to say about thinking and addiction—denial, distortion, rationalization, these are thinking traps that have led some to think of addicts as having a different brain than others, “That’s your addict’s brain taking there, boy.” I do find it remarkably powerful how, that while in addiction, with all the harmful consequences that ought to repel me from continued self-destruction, quite irrationally, I rationalize, minimize, postpone or avoid help and stay married the pay-off despite the diminishing returns and mounting consequences. It is hard for me to remember how compelling and habitual my own addictive cycle was. When I hear it, I relate to the idea that addiction seized control of the bridge (to borrow a <em>Star Trek</em> term) and I seemed powerless to help myself. Yes, that’s the same brain that I rely on to avoid temptation today, to make measured, healthy choices for myself, and to guide me to being a helpful member of my family, home-group and society at large. </p>
<p>I’ve borrowed from author/brain scientist/addict Marc Lewis, <em>Memoirs of an Addicted Brain: A Neuroscientist Examines His Former Life on Drugs</em> & Doctor Vera Tarman,<em> Food Junkies: The Truth About Food Addiction</em> who have shared on Rebellion Dogs Radio about chemistry and science of a brain hijacked by addiction. Long before YouTube videos and Ted Talks about neuroscience and addiction, the idea of addiction distorting or circumventing brain functions had at least a metaphorical place in addiction/recovery talk. Here’s a clip of what we learn since 1939; this is now covered in the first week in treatment or easily accessible from browsing the web. We have a whole language around “your brain on drugs” now: </p>
<p>"<em>In the brain, pleasure has a distinct signature: the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the nucleus accumbens, a cluster of nerve cells lying underneath the cerebral cortex. Dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens is so consistently tied with pleasure that neuroscientists refer to the region as the brain’s pleasure center. All drugs of abuse, from nicotine to heroin, cause a particularly powerful surge of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens. … Addictive drugs provide a shortcut to the brain’s reward system by flooding the nucleus accumbens with dopamine. The hippocampus lays down memories of this rapid sense of satisfaction, and the amygdala creates a conditioned response to certain stimuli. …According to the current theory about addiction, dopamine interacts with another neurotransmitter, glutamate, to take over the brain’s system of reward-related learning. This system has an important role in sustaining life because it links activities needed for human survival (such as eating and sex) with pleasure and reward. The reward circuit in the brain includes areas involved with motivation and memory as well as with pleasure. Addictive substances and behaviors stimulate the same circuit—and then overload it.</em>”[ii] </p>
<p>Our addiction/recovery community’s understanding of thinking and recovery evolves. By the time <em>Alcoholics Anonymous </em>was written, we had slogans, folk-therapy to help reconceptualization in early recovery, which in today’s language is in part the “cognitive” component of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Let’s talk for a moment about what might be my favorite AA slogan: </p>
<p>“Think, Think, Think…” Show me another AA slogan that doesn’t get the respect it deserves. Everyone loves, “Easy Does It,” and “Live and Let Live.” I’ve seen sober club houses that hang “Think, Think, Think” upside down. What is that supposed to mean? Meditation isn’t Step One in AA so perhaps it’s a more advanced tool in the kit than, “First Things First.” </p>
<p>On the other hand, some of our members have reduced AA’s creed into bumper-sticker rebuttals. One member who quotes the <em>Big Book</em> is contradicted by another member quoting the <em>Big Book</em>, both borrowing an authority that neither the book nor its author(s) laid claim to. Have you seen the Monty Python’s Flying Circus skit called “Cheese Shop?”[iii] Fans of the comedy troop have made up a Cheese Shop game from this skits premise. Here’s how the game works: player 1 is buyer. you come up with a type/brand of cheese. Player 2 is the shopkeeper; you come up with a new excuse why that cheese isn’t available, today. Whoever runs out of cheese varieties or excuses first, loses. AA members could bet each other a second cup by seeing who runs out of AA slogans first. Sounds like fun? Try it with a friend. Someone’s buying coffee refills; maybe it won’t be you. </p>
<p>From meetings like these—that most of us know where to find—whereby members spout out AA platitudes as keepers of the holy grail, some critics of AAism label AA as anti-intellectual. This characterization asserts that members who gather together to gang up on freethought with a bludgeoning of well intended, yet out-of-context quotes from the book <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em> is disparaging towards a more individualized approach to recovery. This could be a CA meeting, an AA meeting and of course some NA bleeding deacons delight in wielding <em>Basic Text</em> quotes with the same smack down insensitivity towards neophytes or NA titan vs. NA titan. </p>
<p>How many AA slogans are there? Some would say, “Three, because the Big Book says so:” </p>
<p>We have three little mottos (p 135, Alcoholics Anonymous “The Family Afterward”) which are apropos: </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font_large"><em>First Things First </em></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font_large"><em>Live and Let Live </em></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font_large"><em>Easy Does It.</em></span></p>
<p>Others would say, “Five,” because GSO has added two to your <em>AA Literature Catalogue</em>. Look up specialty item, MS04 Slogans (Set of 5) $4.50. Along with the three slogans mentioned above, we AAs added: </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font_large"><em>But for the Grace of God </em></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font_large"><em>Think, Think, Think </em></span></p>
<p>These two additions, viewed with the hindsight of today’s polarized society, do these two add-ons seem to have evolved from two diametrically opposing camps in the rooms of AA? In today’s context, “God” and “thinking” seem to some people to be juxtaposed coping mechanisms. But going back to the meetings I attended in mid-1970s indoctrination into AA, these five slogans in their AA stylized letterings and humble frames, hanging on a wall, this is what I see when I close my eyes and think, “What does an AA meeting look like?” Not only were these five mottos ubiquitous in the day, I remember them as yellowed—they had been there for a long while before I got there. </p>
<p>So, who wins the “how many slogans are there, officially” debate? </p>
<p>In 1980 the General Service Conference looked to resolve this issue and the Literature Committee was recommending that defining “the slogans” be added to <em>As Bill Sees It</em>. The Conference said, “No.” Why? Here was the thinking at the time: </p>
<p>“<em>The suggestion to add to the book As Bill Sees It a definition of the slogans not be accepted because it was felt that the slogans may be defined in many different ways</em>.” <em>Advisory Actions of the General Service Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous 1951 – 2012</em>, p. 69 </p>
<p>So, back to thinking… Here’s one of the great misunderstandings of AA platitude-nation: “Your best thinking got you here.”</p>
<p>The suggestion is that you ought to not rely on your reasoning because, “Now, now, didn’t your best thinking fail you, delivering you and your compromised situation to the doorway and then a chair inside a 12-Step meeting?” </p>
<p>Don’t trust your thinking; get a second opinion, trust the group, trust Yahweh <em>as you understand Him</em>. </p>
<p>Fact checking: It wasn’t my best thinking that led me from indulgence to addiction and the risky, reckless life that necessitated some form of intervention. It was my impulsive thinking, not my best thinking whereby my addiction thrived and me—not so much in the thriving department. My life was nearly snuffed out. Impulsive thinking is to be avoided; “best thinking” is something to strive towards, something to cultivate. </p>
<p><span class="font_large">Deep thoughts… addicts write about thinking and mind: </span></p>
<p>I interviewed Jack Grisham about his book, <em>A Principle of Recovery</em>. If you haven’t already heard the show, there’s a link below (You’ll also find interviews with Marc Lewis and Dr. Vera Tarman mentioned above). </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/0ba1b2b7e1bb2d7b2f7ad65c3d73ec5dd65a43d4/medium/a-principle-of-recovery-episode-19.jpg" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" />As a totally unrelated aside, inside this “thinking” aside, around the 18-minute mark of the podcast, Rebellion Dogs Radio Episode 19, you’ll hear Jack G and me talking—I am in the home studio of Rebellion Dogs and Jack is heard calling in from Huntington Beach California over the phone—and you’ll hear my call-waiting notice (from my phone) go off. I didn’t take the message, of course. I continued on with our discussion. It was bad news. It was the Royal Canadian Mounted Police calling from Saskatchewan to notify me that my mom had died. It was October 28, 2015 that I interviewed Jack Grisham. Every time I hear that recording and that call-waiting tone sounds off, I think of my mom. My mom’s a writer, too. She is also one of the two editors I relied on for <em>Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life</em>. Amelia C, Beyond Belief Agnostics & Freethinker's AA Group (Toronto)'s current serving General Service Rep. That “beep, beep,” gets me every time. It got me now. Anyway, back to Jack. </p>
<p>Jack Grisham who has a Punk Rock something to say about a good many things, doesn’t shy away from thinking and AA. In fact, he makes a pretty good case to rebut those, “Your best thinking…” automatons. Jack, like many of us, points to the supreme leader and his <em>Big Book</em> for validation. </p>
<p><em>“… we’ve awakened, we’ve become aware that a life based on selfish will is one of pain and strife. Our thinking has changed—maybe only slightly as we are still new, but it’s changed enough to move forward. We’ve had an awakening and been given a new mind and now, a new way of thinking. On pg. 86, Bill hits us with this: </em></p>
<p><em>‘On awakening let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonesty or self-seeking motives. Under these conditions we can employ our mental faculties with assurances, for after all God gave us brains to use. Our thought-life will be placed on a much higher plane when our thinking is cleared of wrong motives.’ </em></p>
<p><em>Seven times he asks us to think. Seven times, in one paragraph—read it. If I turned a paragraph like that into an editor I’d be called up on redundancy. Bill seemingly didn’t care. He wanted to develop our thinking…”</em> Jack Grisham, <em>A Principle of Recovery: An Unconventional Journey Through The Twelve Steps </em>(2015)[iv] p. 133 </p>
<p>Jack Grisham 2016 Rebellion Dogs Book Review in Renew Magazine[v] </p>
<p>Jack Grisham as Guest on Rebellion Dogs Radio Episode 19[vi] </p>
<p>So, these 12-Step members, who liberals might call anti-intellectual, can they also find confirmation for their biases in the Bill Wilson words on page 86? First, the bolding in the Big Book quote above is Jack G’s highlights (bolded in the pages of <em>A Principle of Recovery</em>). I am sure that some <em>Big Book</em> zealots don’t find thinking to be repulsive or counterproductive to sobriety, what about some of the others who see the devil holding court in the playground of alcoholic’s thoughts? </p>
<p>If there is a class of members we dare look down at as anti-intellectual, they would highlight their own choice words and phrases. It’s just as easy to downplay the pro-thinking ideas. The same page 86 passage also says, “we ask God to direct our thinking (we don’t rely on our free will)” and that the brain we have is a gift from God. This argument pits God’s will as diametrically opposed to the alcoholic’s self-will. Most believers wouldn’t see freethought disciplining our self-will to serve us better as demonic, blasphemous or un-AA. Members who characterize the thinking alcoholic as on a slippery slope are a minority (not a majority), a vocal minority who might hold themselves out as representing AA as a whole.</p>
<p>I don’t think so. Do you?</p>
<p>Worth noting, various AAs with various worldviews have found success in AA. Skeptics, zealots and every variety of belief-construct and IQ score have the miracle (or cause and effect) of AA to prove they’re right. Many are the paths from addiction to recover, in AA meetings and in the ever-growing larger recovery community beyond 12-Step meeting walls. </p>
<p>The Refuge Recovery approach to thoughts is a holistic one. While addicts have a proclivity to impulsive thought and snap judgement such as, “What a lucky break!” or “This is the worst luck!” the whole point of recovery is to learn better coping strategies. Noah Levine writes about “intentional nonreactivity” and in a chapter on Mindfulness/Meditation, we’ll find: </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/200158f7b1e6c053d00115adcbd00810cf72a6d5/medium/refuge-recovery-noah-levigne.png" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" />“<em>Rather than reacting with our usual attachment or aversion, taking everything personally and felling the need to do something about it, we relax into the experience, seeing it clearly and simply letting it be, just as it is. </em></p>
<p><em>This is important on two levels. First, we become intimate with our mind states and with how they affect our mood and actions. Second, we begin to see more and more clearly that states of mind and emotions, like everything else, are impermanent.</em>” Noah Levine, <em>Refuge Recovery: A Buddhist Path to Recovering from Addiction</em> (2014)[vii] p 81 </p>
<p>So, the think, think, think idea or mindfulness is about first, taking a more scientific or critical or even curious look at our thoughts (along with feelings and sensations). Instead of impulsive reaction, I’ve learned to ask if what I’m observing is as it appears, what else could it mean, why do I see it as either good or bad? Secondly, as Noah Levine suggests, I remind myself that feeling are not facts; I think of them as indicator lights. How I feel may change. Sometimes a wider view, including what might be going on for others in the scene, may lend some context. </p>
<p>Here is personal example of how exercising mindfulness, problem solving and/or thinking situations through, is something that I’ve learned to do better, thanks in part to what I’ve learned in the rooms. This is a small, interpersonal issue but I hope that dealing with this better, can help me with more global issues than this petty personality clash. </p>
<p>It bugs my ass when someone starts to share with, “What you need to do, if you’re going to stay sober, is…” </p>
<p>I don’t want to be told what to do; I don’ think 12-Step meetings have teachers and students; we are equals, we are peer-to-peer. So, anyone who sounds like they are instructing, intimidating or dominating, I get my nose out of joint. “Tell your own experience,” I think. “AA has no expertise, we merely have our individual experiences.” </p>
<p>I sometimes get just as bent out of shape with “We” talk; “We, in our turn, sought the same escape with all the desperation of drowning men,” “We will be amazed before we are half way through…” The nice thing about talking in we-authorship is it includes, or aims to include, the reader with the larger group. Isolation is a common problem for newcomers to recovery. Addiction is a demanding mistress and many have suffered a loss of intimacy as we isolate and deny, lie & minimize when it comes to talking to others. So, it’s good to try to, or want to, make the reader (or another member) feel included. The downside to a narrative like, “We stood at the turning point…” is that some readers will surmise, and even promulgate the erroneous idea, that we have some universal experience. The idea that we are the same, we are having a collective experience, is not true at all. I believe we may be a fellowship of common suffering. That said, while the labels are the same—fear, shame, self-loathing, resentment, self-pity—the particulars remain unique and individual (not universal).</p>
<p>Recovery is a pathless land; no two members share the same clean/sober path. No two people who follow the same suggestions find identical results. Similar themes? Yes. Identical needs, process or results? No. </p>
<p><span class="font_large">Utilizing Mindfulness Where Reactiveness Comes So Naturally </span></p>
<p>Here’s how mindfulness or “intentional nonreactivity” helps me. So, let’s say a member at a meeting starts sharing with “We” or “You;” I feel hostility—a knee-jerk reaction. Could there be a difference between the way this member is expressing themselves and the message meant from her/him/them? Assuming I catch myself, I picture this person sharing their own personal experience through the lens of their own biased explanation. That’s the message, regardless of pronouns. Members might use the word, “You,” or “We” but they mean I or me. Could it just be a language thing and have nothing to do with them presuming to teach newcomers? Can I interpret what she/he/they are saying instead of getting hostile or defensive? Isn’t it fair to say that what’s being said is, “This is what worked for me and I really feel strongly about it.” </p>
<p>So, I can let the We/You thing go or I can cross my arms and clench my teeth. Those are my choices, aren’t they? If I overlook the pronouns and finger-pointing, maybe there are some take-aways from what my fellow traveler is sharing that I can benefit from. And maybe I don’t care for or relate to what is said; is it possible that someone else will be helped to stay sober another day by what they have to say? </p>
<p>Then, there’s how I get touchy about some 12-Step literature, AA’s <em>Big Book</em> for instance. Personally, there are principles I support underneath the wording I am sometimes disproving of, within AA’s Twelve Steps. Letting go is just as effective as Letting go and letting God—that’s not two separate ideas, one is secular and one is religious. But it’s the same principle. As for our Steps and any benefits they yield; are they only accessible for theists? Or were the Steps, back in 1939 written by theists in the native tongue of theists at the time? The underlying principles transcend a belief in supernatural guidance in the lives of women and men. Because the explanation of the Steps—in <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em>—is written in Judeo/Christian language will I protest about inequality, or shall I translate them in the language of my worldview? Everyone has to translate something in the <em>Big Book</em> to personalize the narrative. If and when I’m attending a meeting that reads or refers to the book, I have the right to interpret any way I want, or go to a different meeting. </p>
<p>I want to make a distinction, here. AA is discriminatory. Having a book that members tout as the “basic text” of the AA way which is blatantly theistic, favors those who believe in a personal higher power. As long AA stays stuck in a 1939 explanation of the world, which cared little for anywhere or anyone beyond the Ohio—New York corridor that made up our membership, we’ll appear naïve or arrogant to many religious adherents from the rest of the world. Imagine how AA founders might have felt if they were sent to a mosque to find their sobriety. “Keep an open mind; Allah of your understanding; don’t be argumentative; If you’ve had enough of booze, you’ll kneel to the East and praise Allah.” </p>
<p>To a feminist, youth or member of the LGBTQ community, there are greater barriers in <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em> than to a white, middle-class, middle-aged, heterosexual man. Suggestions for modernization of AA language (including the 164 pages of the <em>Big Book</em>) may go unheard or be met with hostility. While a gender identifying/sexual-orientation/de-stigmatizing/creed and culture neutral language would clearly be fair, and I argue, more effective to AA’s sworn purpose, the tyranny of the majority is an unyielding opposition that is arguably, evidence of AA systemic discrimination. I am against such discrimination. For the sake of the fellowship and in terms of standing up for my own rights, I oppose such discrimination.</p>
<p>In the recent Ontario Human Rights case (Larry K vs. Intergroup & AA World Services), we learned that failing to accommodate members based on creed (just like sexual orientation, gender, disability, race and other identified characteristics) is a violation of the law. We are protected by and bound by the Human Rights Code. I am for the law; I am for fairness. When confronted by the tribunal, AA yielded. Other than the legal fees and hurt pride from kicking up a fight and losing, AA really didn’t lose. Other groups or AA as a whole, the imaginary victim that anti-atheist AA’s claimed to defend, never suffered the imaginary injury or indignity projected by a rigid, rule-making Intergroup </p>
<p>If it came down to a vote, I would vote for a newly written <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em>, written with modern, culturally inclusive wording. Add a newer “Doctor’s Opinion” while we’re at it, along with psychological and therapeutic updates. So, when the vote comes up, let me know. In the meantime, I have a choice every day to voice dissatisfaction with what is read and/or interpret accordingly. </p>
<p>Thinking more about this of course, I can ignore the <em>Big Book</em> completely and have a perfectly happy AA life. No one checks AA member’s homework. I am sure there is a larger percent of membership than we think who never worked the Steps to didn’t complete them. Not every member has read Alcoholics Anonymous and the 12 & 12 in their entirety. I certainly know plenty who have candidly dismissed the Steps along with any form of psycho-babble navel gazing. Others still want a thorough self-assessment but there are more therapeutic options now than ever before. </p>
<p>So, if I feel strongly about our literature being discriminatory, why not rail against those who demonstrate this harassment and discrimination? To do so is to personalize the complaint. The problem is a corrupt system. Even those who protect it and/or are entitled from it are also victimized by this corrupt system or limited or controlled by it. To fault people for finding comfort in the theistic view of recovery dripping with early 20th century outdatedness isn’t helpful. That isn’t in any way, solution-based. I need—we need—the majority (who do relate to the 164 pages, as written) on our side to right a ship that is veering off course. AA intended to be a refuge for everyone. In the context of mid-20th century middle America, AA did welcome everyone—all the white hetro guys. Seriously, it was a different time then and I argue that AA was ahead of our time in terms of accommodating anyone who had a desire to stop drinking. </p>
<p>Some of our literature and some of our meeting rituals have not changed with the times. We’ve discussed the nature of AA literature before. Our literature is sub-standard because it is sexist, hetro-normative, theistically biased, American-centric, etc. Again, I’m for following AAs principles of inclusion, love, service. I’m for laws such as the Human Rights Code in Canada and civil, rights enshrined in the Constitution of the United States of America and UK’s Equity and Human Rights Commission. Every developed world has their code; the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights says: </p>
<p>“<em>All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status</em>.”[viii] </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/65409f09b697c750dcdf95aab771be35f8d74c16/large/un-human-rights.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>I find something poetic and profound with <em><strong>the3ThinKs</strong></em>: looking at Think, Think, Think hanging on the AA meeting wall. I struggle with: </p>
<ol> <li>my impulse thoughts </li> <li>how I think I ought to feel and </li> <li>how I really think and feel about something. </li>
</ol>
<p>Then there is the question of what others need, think, feel and what impact do I have on their rights? Often tribunals in domestic matters or diplomats in international matters, navigate competing needs. How does one individual or group’s right get elevated without impinging on the rights of another? </p>
<p>For women to vote the support of men was needed. USA civil rights required the advocacy of the white majority. For change to take place the system ought to be demonized; not the benefactors of such injustices. Tyranny of the majority presents challenges. How does a minority or individual overcome an angry, frightened, hasty or indifferent majority? Since 1975, atheists and agnostics have lobbied the General Service Office of USA/Canada for a pamphlet; you’re likely aware this petition will be heard once again in April of 2018. The trustees’ Literature Committee has already begun preparations. Over ten times this benign request has been entertained by previous committees and it’s always been denied. Was it fear? Haste? Indifference? Ignorance? Hostility? I don’t know; that never makes it into the General Service Conference Final Report that is available to all AA members to read. Only the outcome of advisory actions, financial data and edited versions of speeches and reports are printed or reported. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/1fb9376c04f9497d7f19815669b96c33f0c05153/medium/chappelle-netflix.jpg" class="size_m justify_left border_" />Who’s seen any of the latest David Chappelle routines?</p>
<p>In a comedy club in LA, Chappelle gets real; that’s how he describes it; others would say he offended everyone. He talks about oppression, discrimination, Black Lives Matter and Me Too headlines. American football player Colin Kaepernick’s protest movement against police brutality merits a shout-out. USA civil rights, the #MeToo movement and Apartheid are all discussed. Trigger alert: Many have been offended or incensed by Chappelle’s critique of group-think (political correctness), public outrage and issues that any audience would surely line up on one side or the off these topics. Many comics would stay the hell away from this hot-politico. </p>
<p>Neither for nor against, here are some uncensored highlights from Chappelle’s latest—and maybe last for a long time (depending on how it goes for him): </p>
<p>“<em>Every fucking person who takes a stand for someone else gets beat down and we watch, over and over and over again and we watch. … We should fight for one another… real talk, man. It’s not a racial thing; it’s about us making our society better. It’s like these women who are coming forward (Me Too); we say they’re brave and many of them are … That’s a huge omission from the narrative; this wouldn’t have gone as far if some women weren’t willing to do it. You can’t expect every woman to hold the line. Some women can carry things heavier than others. We should fight for one another; we should forgive the ones who are weaker and support the ones who are stronger. Then we can beat the thing. </em></p>
<p><em>You [guys] keep going after individuals; the system is going to stay intact. You have to have men on your side. I’m telling you right now; you’re going to have a lot of imperfect allies. </em></p>
<p><em>Ladies, I want you to win this fight. I’ve got a daughter so I’m rooting for you; if you win she wins. I don’t know if you’re doing it just right but who am I to say. I don’t think you’re wrong, but you can’t make a lasting peace this way. You got all the bad guys scared; that’s good. But the minute they’re not scared anymore it will get worse than it was before. Fear does not make lasting peace; ask black people. </em></p>
<p><em>Without irony, I’ll say this: the cure for L.A. is in South Africa. You motherfuckers need truth and reconciliation with one another. The end of apartheid should have been a fucking bloodbath by any metric in human history, and it wasn’t. The only reason it wasn’t is because Desmond Tutu and [Nelson] Mandela and all these guys figured out that if a system is corrupt, then the people who adhere to the system, and are incentivized by that system, are not criminals. They are victims. The system itself must be tried. But because of how the system works, it’s so compartmentalized as far as information, the only way we can figure out what the system is, is if everyone says what they did; tell them how you participated.</em>” Dave Chappelle, E-qua-nim-i-ty & the bird revelation Nexflix (2017) </p>
<p>The front cover to summary of the <em>Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada</em>[ix], in block letters, reads: </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font_large">“<em>Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future</em>” </span></p>
<p>This is the 2015 report on a 100-year lasting residential school program that targeted indigenous youth, separating them from family culture and indoctrinating children into the legally dominant Euro-Christian society. Within the report, 6,000 victim testimonies are heard including cases of sexual, physical and emotional abuse. Truthing was intended not to shame and blame. As a nation that prided ourselves on a reputation of democracy, peace and kindness, we—the majority—had to take our own inventory and hear from those we had harmed. Those who had been discriminated against, harassed, abused and dehumanized, needed to be heard. The aim of honoring truth was in aid of reconciliation. </p>
<p>I attended the 2017 Indigenous Health Practice and Research Conference in Hamilton, Canada. One of the speakers, a York University professor, Maya Chacaby[x] said something that sounded both poetic and profound to me. She is Anishinaabe, Beaver Clan from Kaministiquia (Thunder Bay, Canada) and she refers to Canadians in two categories: indigenous and settlers. What can settlers do who care about truth and reconciliation?</p>
<p>Maya Chacaby says, “Get un-settled.” True-that; confronting my own privilege and the historical oppressive context of it is … unsettling. I have committed to trying to mindfully be more un-settled. </p>
<p>Honoring the truth and reconciling is akin to taking inventory and making amends? These are also good themes for group inventory (or fellowship-wide inventory) and how to right wrongs and/or improve our society. We need to unabashedly record and face truth, as victims and perpetrators of harms done to us, to ourselves and to others. Recovery peer-to-peer programs aim to make a better future—we embody a program of action. A better future, as far as I’m concerned involves thinking globally and acting locally. I’m an atheist in AA. Yes, I welcome an AA whereby literature better addresses underrepresented minorities. I will lobby for this. Also, what can I do, in my home group, in my larger 12-Step community, in my own way, taking into consideration my skills and limits? Not every improvement requires consensus or waiting around for others. </p>
<p>David Chappelle reflected on South Africa overcoming Apartheid without revenge upon the ruling white class. Would I be happy to see the dawn of a new, inclusive 12-Step community without calling out those who have promulgated our systemically discriminatory ways? Yes, I am. It helps to see them as—in a way—victims—or controlled by—the same oppressive system. What enjoyment can there be from fear-based stewardship that stifles any attempt to try something different? In an unfair, unbalanced system like AA, it’s not like there is financial reward for being a <em>Big Book</em> fundamentalist. There is no 1% because there is no wealth. Winning—if there are winners and losers of a dysfunctional system, doesn’t look like what I think of as winning. </p>
<p>Examples of a fellowship, refusing or avoiding accommodation of reasonable requests from minorities, sets a course for reification, a hardening of the attitudes leading to our own self-engineered extinction. Many would blame outside forces for our demise but only our own intolerance and unwillingness would be to blame for our downfall.</p>
<p>Old-fashioned AA and Tradition-talk includes, unity. What does unity mean in our increasingly multicultural, label-resisting society? I think, think, think unity is best achieved by accommodation. Our current system, from the group to our General Service Conference, requires the many to give their blessing to the few. The literately-challenged can’t have a simplified <em>Big Book</em> without the approval of those who will never read or need the book. A contemporary title for the Gay and Lesbian AA pamphlet requires the cooperation of the hetro-normative majority. Maybe, I think, think, think it would be better to try a policy of accommodation where decisions-by-substantial-unanimity have held us back. </p>
<p>Human Rights Tribunals favor requests for accommodation when asked. The exception would be when granting them causes undue hardship to the larger society. Yes, there will be time, expense and growing pains to any accommodation. While that’s hardship, is the not the kind undue hardship that would bankrupt or render an organization dysfunctional.</p>
<p>In AA for instance, following the General Service Conference in April, every new advisory action costs money and takes time away from limited staff and volunteers already doing their share. So, if change for the better costs money and takes time, that’s not undue hardship; that’s simply the price we pay for progress. There should be hardship when it comes to bettering AA. Any claim of undue hardship ought to hold the onus of proof. </p>
<p>For example, the plain-text request for an easy-reading <em>Big Book</em> would have cost money and taken time. That isn’t undue hardship. I am inclined to believe that this request was denied because of fear—not a fear about what would happen but a catastrophizing of what could happen, “If we make changes for this group then the women and the trans-genders and the atheists will all want changes and our message will be lost.” </p>
<p>Accommodation will change the way things are. “But it’s always been this way,” is a poor excuse to not grow, improve and widen our gateway.</p>
<p>Why fear change? There is no basis for slippery slope (or opening the flood-gate) arguments for not accommodating most requests made of 12-Step fellowships coming from underrepresented minorities. Remember one of the objections to listing Gay/Lesbian meetings? “If we start listing these meeting what’s next—child molester AA meetings?” </p>
<p>The anger and polarization that this catastrophizing brought, delayed the agenda for a whole year. That argument wouldn’t be entertained or have derailed the Conference in an accommodation model. Accommodation would have proceeded this way: “We’ll allow the Gay/Lesbian group to hold themselves out as such. Then, if—and we mean if—an AA meeting for child molesters asks to be so-identified, we’ll deal with that at the time.” </p>
<p>Slippery slope arguments are not rational; they are raised from hidden emotional catastrophizing. To use 12-Step folk-language, “That’s your disease talking there buddy. Turn it over; Easy does it.” </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font_large">"Since my release, I have become more convinced than ever that the real makers of history are the ordinary men and women of our country; their participation in every decision about the future is the only guarantee of true democracy and freedom." Nelson Mandela 1990. <em>The Struggle is My Life</em> </span></p>
<p>The struggle is our life. I’ve heard some say, “the struggle and hardship IS the spiritual journey.” Archbishop Desmond Tutu was the chairman of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) which was created by Nelson Mandela’s Government of National Unity in 1995 to help South Africans come to terms with their extremely troubled past. Archbishop Desmond Tutu was the chairman of South Africa’s TRC in this is his guidance on forgiveness, informed I’m sure by his own personal story. </p>
<p><em>To forgive is not just to be altruistic. It is the best form of self-interest. It is also a process that does not exclude hatred and anger. These emotions are all part of being human. You should never hate yourself for hating others who do terrible things: the depth of your love is shown by the extent of your anger. </em></p>
<p><em>However, when I talk of forgiveness I mean the belief that you can come out the other side a better person. A better person than the one being consumed by anger and hatred. Remaining in that state locks you in a state of victimhood, making you almost dependent on the perpetrator. If you can find it in yourself to forgive then you are no longer chained to the perpetrator. You can move on, and you can even help the perpetrator to become a better person too.”</em>[xi] </p>
<p>The examples are out there. I’ve seen an unfortunate inclination for AA to look only to our own history for clues; how limiting. Learning from others is not—I don’t think—an outside issue. As Uncle Bill W thought, thought, thought, with over 20 years of sobriety: </p>
<p><span class="font_large"><em>“A.A. was not invented! Its basics were brought to us through the experience and wisdom of many great friends. We simply borrowed and adapted their ideas.” </em></span></p>
<p>Thanks, thanks, thanks, Bill W. We’ll try to keep your pioneering ways alive in AA. </p>
<p>[i] <a contents="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-42631208" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-42631208" target="_blank">http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-42631208</a> </p>
<p>[ii] <a contents="https://www.helpguide.org/harvard/how-addiction-hijacks-the-brain.htm" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.helpguide.org/harvard/how-addiction-hijacks-the-brain.htm" target="_blank">https://www.helpguide.org/harvard/how-addiction-hijacks-the-brain.htm</a> </p>
<p>[iii] Based on a Monty Python sketch Cheese Shop, a purchaser enters a Cheese Shop and asks for various cheeses only to be disappointed by various excuses as to why that cheese type isn’t available in the store today. Some people – Maybe even Monty Python’s Flying Circus in book form—have turned the skit into a game of skill. Who will run out first, the customer listing cheese types or the shop owner coming up with original excuses. The original skit was performed in audio and TV forms. Here is one: <a contents="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3KBuQHHKx0" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3KBuQHHKx0" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3KBuQHHKx0</a> </p>
<p>[iv] <a contents="https://www.amazon.com/Principle-Recovery-Unconventional-Journey-Through/dp/0692520538/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=rebeldogspubl-20&amp;linkCode=w00&amp;linkId=HBEMLVACQRECWHDK&amp;creativeASIN=0692520538 " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.amazon.com/Principle-Recovery-Unconventional-Journey-Through/dp/0692520538/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=rebeldogspubl-20&linkCode=w00&linkId=HBEMLVACQRECWHDK&creativeASIN=0692520538" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/Principle-Recovery-Unconventional-Journey-Through/dp/0692520538/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=rebeldogspubl-20&linkCode=w00&linkId=HBEMLVACQRECWHDK&creativeASIN=0692520538 </a></p>
<p>[v] http://www.reneweveryday.com/principles-of-recovery-from-the-punk-rock-pulpit/ </p>
<p>[vi] <a contents="https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/rebellious-radio/blog/a-book-a-priciple-of-recovery-a-comedy-show-sober-but-never-clean" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/rebellious-radio/blog/a-book-a-priciple-of-recovery-a-comedy-show-sober-but-never-clean" target="_blank">https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/rebellious-radio/blog/a-book-a-priciple-of-recovery-a-comedy-show-sober-but-never-clean</a> </p>
<p>[vii] <a contents="https://www.amazon.com/Refuge-Recovery-Buddhist-Recovering-Addiction/dp/0062122843/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=rebeldogspubl-20&amp;linkCode=w00&amp;linkId=7MMQGES2X2DE72X5&amp;creativeASIN=0062122843" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.amazon.com/Refuge-Recovery-Buddhist-Recovering-Addiction/dp/0062122843/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=rebeldogspubl-20&linkCode=w00&linkId=7MMQGES2X2DE72X5&creativeASIN=0062122843" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/Refuge-Recovery-Buddhist-Recovering-Addiction/dp/0062122843/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=rebeldogspubl-20&linkCode=w00&linkId=7MMQGES2X2DE72X5&creativeASIN=0062122843</a> </p>
<p>[viii] <a contents="http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/index.html" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/index.html" target="_blank">http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/index.html</a> </p>
<p>[ix]<a contents="http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/File/2015/Honouring_the_Truth_Reconciling_for_the_Future_July_23_2015.pdf " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/File/2015/Honouring_the_Truth_Reconciling_for_the_Future_July_23_2015.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/File/2015/Honouring_the_Truth_Reconciling_for_the_Future_July_23_2015.pdf </a></p>
<p>[x] Maya Chacaby http://www.amikobiin.com/ </p>
<p>[xi] <a contents="http://theforgivenessproject.com/stories/desmond-tutu-south-Africa/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://theforgivenessproject.com/stories/desmond-tutu-south-Africa/" target="_blank">http://theforgivenessproject.com/stories/desmond-tutu-south-Africa/</a></p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/4918169
2017-11-03T14:46:22-04:00
2022-05-08T12:55:55-04:00
After AA: Stories of people who graduate 12-Step rooms
<p><a contents="Download or view PDF Many Paths and Many Myths about AA Graduates" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-blog-november-2017-aa-graduation.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/310055/rebellion-dogs-blog-november-2017-aa-graduation.pdf" style="" target="_blank"><strong>Download or view PDF </strong>Many Paths and Many Myths about AA Graduates</a></p>
<p>This May, Steve K posted an essay by Lisa Martinovic on 12StepPhilosophy blog. Lisa shares wise words about “neuroplasticity … the phenomenon by which the brain changes itself through experience. It does so by strengthening the neural connections (synapses) associated with a particular course of action every time we take that course.” This is important in understanding addiction and recovery... <a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://12stepphilosophy.wordpress.com/2017/05/17/what-gets-you-sober-god-or-your-neurons/" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/abe95a8d89644ee2701c2842a788627c91c4ce15/medium/2017-11-03.png?1509732133" class="size_m justify_right border_" /></a></p>
<p>But that’s not what I’m writing about. Lisa Martinovic shares her story about “graduating” 12-Step meetings--a phenomenon more popular than we 12-Steppers know. We should talk about more, understand the various paths of recovery more. What really happens to all those who leave 12-Step meetings? </p>
<p>People once believed our world was flat. If you lived on the coast you would be told that when you looked to the horizon you were seeing the end of the world. Anyone who sailed past the horizon, out of view, fell off the earth; so we would be told. Do you and I tell the same fables about people who stop going to meetings? True enough, the tragic and familiar relapse stories that we hear often, start with complacency, disconnection and then, boom! Disaster strikes. I would have to wager that all of us, sober ten years or more, knows someone who got on with their life without meetings and is still fine. What are the numbers? What are the chances? Is there myth-busting that is needed to clear up misconceptions? We are well-served to understand recovery more broadly. Some of us feel that maintaining this "every slip starts with not going to meetings" is a necessary negative reinforcement that is keeping people alive, keeps drunks from sailing over the edge of the earth. I do not share that view.</p>
<p>Not everyone who stops meetings will get very sick and die. Yes, some relapses have a starting point that included reducing/stopping going to meetings. I’m not going to quit meetings any more than I’m going to stop exercising. I don’t know for sure that either activities extend the length of my life, but exercise as well as attending recovery gatherings are enjoyable parts of a balanced life. I like recovery and I’m still learning at meetings. </p>
<p>I don’t feel confined to 12-Step rooms. AA, NA (etc.) meetings is more to me than somewhere for sober people to gather where people remember my name. Recovery, for me, is entertaining, social, rewarding and educational. </p>
<p>So, we hear the relapse horror stories. What we hear less about is that many rich and remarkable lives start with freeing up the time and commitment that are taken up by meetings and 12-Step service. At least, we don’t hear about it in meetings. Since I’ve been a consumer of podcasts and blogs and other peer-to-peer content, I hear how these stories of transcending meeting/sponsor/service-dependency. While we don’t have a pamphlet on the literature table about life after meetings, is this not a legitimate track for successful recovery?</p>
<p>Some leave AA angry or frustrated. True, that. Sometimes the loudest in the room are the anti-social, cantankerous bullies that seemingly raise their self-image by crushing others instead of encouraging their new, or long-term recovery fellows. So, I understand that there comes a time when AA meetings are more re-traumatizing than helpful for any of us who've been abused. </p>
<p>The site <strong><a contents="leavingaa.com" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.leavingaa.com" style="" target="_blank">leavingaa.com</a></strong> is a community for recover from recovery. The 12-Step are not a sanctuary away from predators who sexually, financially or emotionally prey on the vulnerable. Sharply critical of AA’s laissez faire resistance to a central authority, outrage is voiced that AA doesn't impose and enforce rules. Why won't GSO directs and discipline members or groups? This heated criticism/concern is felt on-line, in magazines and in the rooms, too. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/7fa64fb17b3f31c01a891598044e6094f05faea8/small/img-0012.jpg?1435178717" class="size_s justify_left border_" />Hot off the press (September 2017), the General Service Office of AA published, <strong><em>Safety Card for A.A. Groups: Suggested Statement on Safety</em></strong> which states: </p>
<p><strong><em>“Our group endeavors to provide a safe meeting place for all attendees and encourages each person here to contribute to fostering a secure and welcoming environment in which our meetings can take place. … we ask that group members and others refrain from any behavior which might compromise another person’s safety. </em></strong></p>
<p><strong><em>…If a situation should arise where someone feels their safety is in jeopardy, or the situation breaches the law, the individuals involved should take appropriate action. Calling the proper authorities does not go against any A.A. Traditions and is recommended when someone may have broken the law or endangered the safety of another person. … problems found in the outside world can also make their way into the rooms of A.A. For this reason, groups and members discuss the topic of safety—to raise awareness in the Fellowship and to seek through sponsorship, workshops and meetings to create as safe an environment as possible.”</em></strong>[1] </p>
<p>I’ve worked through some issues of my own. As a young person I faced periodic dismissiveness. As someone who declines dependence on a deity for my own recovery, I have faced discrimination and hostility. There have been periods of time I didn’t go to AA. Too be clear, in some cases it was career or family. Other times, I tired from a certain anti-intellectualism that—if not a condition of AA, is widely tolerated in certain regions of 12-Step meetings. There have been years in which I went to six or seven meeting in the whole year. Of course, there have been times when I go to that many face-to-face meetings every week. </p>
<p>Regarding aggressors in the room, I found them to be more bark than bite. Still, plenty of our members find a more tranquil network outside the rooms, away from bullies and bleeding deacons. So, it’s a personal decision to stay or go. There is no obligation. I feel that I owe something to the still-suffering, so I stay. I still find stimulation and community. To some extent, in my case, some of that duty is codependent, and some of it is gratitude. </p>
<p>Some get what they need from us and move on to new routines. They don’t leave us to spite us; they graduate. Here’s what Lisa says about her turning point after double-digit years of sobriety: </p>
<p><strong><em>From the very beginning, I challenged certain aspects of the twelve-step party line. … But the basic framework of the program did work for me, so I kept coming back and kept staying sober. Ten to fifteen years in, I started to chafe. … So, did I still need to go to meetings to maintain my sobriety? Our community was rife with people who had returned to meetings after trying and failing to stay sober alone. We were constantly warned that catastrophe awaited anyone who stopped working the program. (Such fear-mongering is but one of the reasons twelve-step is called out as a cult by detractors.) … Though I never made an official break with twelve-step, I found myself going to meetings less and less often until eventually I stopped altogether. The habits that I had practiced with such devotion for so long had made permanent changes to my brain and behavior. And they live in me to this day. </em></strong></p>
<p><strong><em>I would not suggest that everyone should ultimately graduate from twelve-step. It’s just what worked for me. </em></strong></p>
<p>Over the years, good friends in AA (and other 12-step fellowships) have found what they needed in the rooms and move on. Sometimes, this transition is after decades of regular meeting attendance and personal enmeshment (being a sponcee, being a sponsor, service work, etc). Is it frightening or liberating to leave your NA, OA or other 12-Step fellowship behind? Does everyone get the same hyperbolic warning: "Don't sail to far from shore; you'll fall off the end of the world"? Maybe graduates knew they would be okay. Maybe it’s a new leap of faith. Maybe for some, it’s gradual—tapering off 12-Step dependency. </p>
<p>Being a parent is a series of worries as our kids reach new stages of independence. It can feel the same way with my close recovery network. I've been indoctrinated with the stark warning from those who drift from meetings, then lost their way and suffered, often met with near-death encounters, re-enslaved to their drug of choice. Returning to the fold, they share their tragic tale. So I worry (a little) when loved ones take a sabbatical from 12-Step engagement. </p>
<p>A personal view that I have of 12-Step rooms is that there is a false intimacy in AA. We may feel a close bond that proves to be illusionary when it meets a real test. I’ve seen members who take a sabbatical and no one calls from their home group. After years/decades of intimate discussion, picking up the phone late at night, during work or meal time, countless favors, and then a year after leaving their home group, members are left to wonder, “Why did no one call?” Now, it’s understandable—even healthy—that we don’t stalk newcomers. If they stop coming, should we track them down or leave them to their own devices? Attraction rather than promotion is a personal boundary issue, isn’t it? But if you’ve known a person and said, “Good to see you,” for years and then you don’t see them for a couple of months, are they out-of-sight-out-of-mind? How cold is that? Damaged people—and let me just speak for myself, here—have boundary issues. Behaving badly is still a regular occurrence for me and I have said, well-meaning but inauthentic things, platitudes, and I try today to be clear about how I communicate but I am not always skillful and vigilant. </p>
<p>For the record, I have my own experience as far as drifting away from meetings. I never quit Adult Children of Alcoholics; but I haven’t been to a meeting in over 15 years. Has my “laundry list” of mal-adaptive coping techniques come back to overwhelm my life? Not often. I’ve been to SLAA, NA, Al-Anon, DA, GA, and other process or substance use disorder fellowships and I haven’t quit any of them. But have I been to a meeting in the last year? No. I go to AA and mostly secular AA and service meetings (hospitals and institutions). I spend more time online (podcasts, YouTube, blogs, chat groups) than I spend in my face-to-face AA groups. I feel akin to several other fellowships, but I haven’t been back and don’t know when I’ll be back. </p>
<p>Lisa Martinovic’s account is the opposite of the relapse horror stories when it comes to moving on from AA indoctrination. We have much to learn from ex-12-Steppers? </p>
<p>AA doesn’t study these patterns, but researchers do.</p>
<p>Lee Ann Kaskutas et al, in 2005, published <em>Alcoholics Anonymous Careers: Patterns of AA Involvement Five Years After Treatment Entry</em>. Over 300 of us were recruited for this long-term study as we were going into treatment. While it may not be definitive, it offers more subjectivity that my or your anecdotal observations and I find these studies worth noting: </p>
<p><strong><em>“Some individuals just never connect with the program; some connect but do not stay with it; some immediately feel at home in AA and rely on meetings daily or almost daily; and some embrace AA but their life is not dominated by meeting attendance. It will be important to replicate these results in other treated (and untreated) samples, and to follow AA participants over longer periods of time to more fully understand patterns of meeting engagement and disengagement throughout recover. </em></strong></p>
<p><strong><em>Of course, meeting attendance is but one component of AA engagement. As shown in our mapping of meetings with others AA beliefs and activities, decreasing in AA meetings do not necessarily signal disengagement from AA (especially with respect to feeling like a member of the fellowship).</em></strong>”[2] </p>
<p> A 2003 Heath C. Hoffmann offering called, <em>Recovery Careers in Alcoholics Anonymous: Moral Careers Revisited</em>[3] looked at 12-Stepers and identified four AA 'careers' an academics term for what we call, 'many paths.' Here are the four 12-Step carriers (trajectories): </p>
<ol> <li>Insiders (including rank and file members, bleeding deacons/elder statesmen and circuit speakers) </li> <li>Tourists </li> <li>Chronic Relapsers </li> <li>Graduates. </li>
</ol>
<p>We have plenty of stories of insiders—some become circuit speakers, sponsors, sponsors, sponsors or trusted servants. Others are the rank and file members. Tourists are motivated to attend AA by outside forces (court, employer, doctor, family, etc.) Graduates—and this is what I would characterize Lisa and others we are talking about as—have had their experiences documented by researchers. Graduates… </p>
<p><em><strong>“…experiences some level of conversion to the Twelve Step ideology of AA but at some point ‘graduates’ from the program after he has been able to resolve conflicts.” </strong></em></p>
<p>Note that, according to Hoffmann’s findings, not all graduates stay stopped. Some, </p>
<p><em><strong>“…having been able to resolve conflicts surrounding his drinking … no longer requires frequent attendance at AA meetings and might even resume alcohol consumption without experiencing related conflicts.”</strong></em> </p>
<p>Hoffmann notes that this means that AA dogma that “once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic” may not be true for everyone. Also, Hoffmann notes that some AA argue that these cases were never “real alcoholics” in the first place, satisfying their need to defend the once a drunk—always a drunk position to which they seem to find comfort and satisfaction. </p>
<p>The tourist may do 90-meetings-in-90-days, go to conferences, get a sponsor, work the steps, maybe even get booked and after six to 18 months, they have gotten what they needed—sustained sobriety—and they get on with their life. Some say, "The only time I thought about drinking was when I went to AA meetings." Other tourists—members who were coerced to go to meetings—change their attitude and become insiders. </p>
<p>Chronic relapsers come back to our meetings, remorseful, desperate and in a act of purging, flog themselves with testimony of their humiliation. Some don't come back, because sometimes they die. And if we ever cared enough or were engaged enough to get their last name, we might hear about their death and attend their funeral. In many more cases, we wonder, "What ever happened to Sandra?" Sometimes the relapser becomes the rank and file member and they have a happy ending. </p>
<table align="right" border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width: 340px;"><tbody> <tr> <td><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/6ca097d3853225553f0ac983148555a1773a0047/medium/lisa-martinovic.jpg?1509734572" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td> <p>Lisa Martinovic ́ is a native San Franciscan who — to the surprise of everyone, most especially herself — spent most of the 1990s in Hogeye, Arkansas. Yet it was there that she came into her own as a slam poet, writing and performing political satire, ribald erotica, Ozark character studies and a genre she calls poemedy—a hybrid art form combining the most compelling qualities of poetry and stand-up comedy. She has ten self-published books to her credit and the CD Snake Dreams, a joint production with fellow Ozark poet Brenda Moossy. </p>
<p>Lisa has toured as a performance poet throughout the US, featuring everywhere from New York City, San Francisco and New Orleans Lollapalooza.</p> </td> </tr>
</tbody></table>
<p>The AA graduate stays longer than the tourist and has a career path that looks like the insider member for many years (or decades); then life changes. I've seen member who moved towns. They never feel the community in their new AA environment that they enjoyed at home. They didn't get engaged and they faded from the 12-Step scene, without fanfare. Sometimes they still had plenty of AA friends that they kept in touch with and sometimes I was lucky to be one of the few. Sometimes they out-grow their community.</p>
<p>In some cases, they see their group(s) changing for the worse, becoming more dogmatic or anti-intellectual. More conservative members might feel the same way about a completely different set of changes. It could be the meeting gets more spontaneous and less structured. Drug talk, cross-talking or texting starts to make them feel uncomfortable in their own meeting. After a while they stop enduring the bad experience of going to meeting and find they prefer their nights off to their home groups and/or other AA service commitments. </p>
<p>We need more of these graduate stories. I am not asking for volunteers. I am just saying we should collect and celebrate these personal accounts, just as we celebrate the insider 12-Stepper. </p>
<p>Jon Stewart is an online friend who’s no enemy to AA but his recovery community has expanded and his meeting attendance has faded to periodic. He’s still a great contributor to the recovery community, talking about the Sinclair Method and other avenues to recovery. He’s an active online recovery participant and there’s nothing about his recovery that appears to me to be any shakier than rank-and-file NA, AA, SLAA (and other process and substance addiction mutual-aid societies) members I know. </p>
<p>While relapse can happen when someone stops going to meetings, relapse also happens to treatment professionals that enjoyed decades-long engagement in 12-Step rooms. No one is immune from relapse. More of these graduate stories would help us replace our current mythology. Who wants to trade one slave-master for another? I don’t want to go to AA because it’s a crutch that I can’t get along without. I want to go because I want to go. AA doesn't fail someone who stops going. And people who recovery with the help of AA don't owe a lifetime debt of repayment. It's an AA success story that some graduate—not to take anything away from the individual commitment to sobriety. How do we know that the people who leave AA aren't our best success stories? </p>
<p>Life offers opportunity. Opportunity imposes risk. For me, I want to hear all the stories of the many paths of recovery. Thank you, Lisa, for sharing your success story. It isn't disloyal to AA to point out our flaws. I thought Lisa posted a very balanced account of AA's attributes and some of our shortcomings. I've found some of these other graduates. Podcasts, like The Bubble Hour, and several others, offer stories of people whose life choices don't always include a meeting a day or even a meeting every week. </p>
<p>I hope this story gets shared and enjoyed. I for one, highly recommend it. Steve K, surely feels the same.Steve writes for recovery lifestyle magazines including In The Rooms. He is author of <em>The 12 Step Philosophy of Alcoholics Anonymous</em>: <em>An interpretation by Steve K.</em> and host/blogger to 12stepphilosophy.wordpress.com From his website you can read the whole article by Lisa about how the brain reacts to addiction and recovery. There are plenty more good blogs posted by Steve, so take your time and scroll around.</p>
<p><a contents="https://12stepphilosophy.wordpress.com/2017/05/17/what-gets-you-sober-god-or-your-neurons/ " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://12stepphilosophy.wordpress.com/2017/05/17/what-gets-you-sober-god-or-your-neurons/" style="" target="_blank">https://12stepphilosophy.wordpress.com/2017/05/17/what-gets-you-sober-god-or-your-neurons/ </a></p>
<p><a contents="http://leavingaa.com/about/ " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://leavingaa.com/about/" target="_blank">http://leavingaa.com/about/ </a></p>
<p><a contents="Lisa's BLOG http://slaminatrix.com/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://slaminatrix.com/" target="_blank">Lisa's BLOG http://slaminatrix.com/</a></p>
<p>[1] <a contents="https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/f-211_SafetyCardforAAGroups.pdf " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/f-211_SafetyCardforAAGroups.pdf" style="" target="_blank">https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/f-211_SafetyCardforAAGroups.pdf </a></p>
<p>[2] <a contents="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16340455 " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16340455" target="_blank">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16340455 </a></p>
<p>[3] <a contents="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/009145090303000306" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/009145090303000306" target="_blank">http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/009145090303000306</a> Contemporary Drug Problems 30/Fall 2003 pp. 647 - 684</p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/4895509
2017-10-17T16:03:40-04:00
2022-09-25T11:10:46-04:00
Can You Hear Me? Understanding Worldviews and how each Sees 12 Steps
<p>Step Language – is there an expression of AA for everyone in their own, authentic native tongue?</p>
<p>Download or view <a contents="PDF version of Blog HERE" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-blog-october-2017-12-step-language-in-many-native-tongues.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/307908/rebellion-dogs-blog-october-2017-12-step-language-in-many-native-tongues.pdf"><strong>PDF version of Blog HERE</strong></a></p>
<p>Very, very soon, some of us will meet in Sedona Arizona for “Beyond Belief: A Secular Journey through the Twelve Steps” (October 27 – 29). I’m excited; New data/research is waiting to be shared; I’m looking forward to a sober and multi-cultural conversation about expressing AA in everyone’s native tongue. This includes a growing need for AA in unbeliever-ease.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/7d24b126c9be3c43b475481fab45e9045967890d/medium/fred-h-toronto.jpg?1508268037" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" />For not-so-sure-agnostic or adamant atheist, does “By ‘God,’ we mean your conception of God” really create a level playing field for everyone? “No,” in my experience. But can the Steps be articulated in the authentic, plain language for anyone, regardless of one’s worldview? In my experience, “Yes.” The suggested process can be translated to truly authentic languages that speaks each AA’s sincerely held beliefs. “Meet people where there at,” in my view, is more inviting than asking them to speak back to us using G.O.D. acronyms. It’s like wearing clothes that just don’t fit. It covers a woman or man up but you can see the solution wasn’t tailored to her or him. Yes, you can access age-old wisdom without having to parrot dated language.</p>
<p>Instead of focusing on how the first 100 got sober; emulate how the most recent 100 AA’s journeyed through the Twelve Step process. Plain, contemporary language is more conducive to deeply personal experience; it fits better.</p>
<p>This past weekend, I was getting ready, including getting inspired. Renascent House (Toronto) teamed up with Hazelden—Betty Ford, Friday afternoon and Saturday to treat people to Fred H., author of <em>Drop the Rock… The Ripple Effect</em> (2016). Nearly forty years in addiction treatment, Fred (pictured) is the director of “The Lodge,” a retreat center on the Hazelden Minneapolis campus that some of my best Toronto AA friends rave about. Threatening retirement, Fred continues international speaking events on The Big Book and the principles of the Twelve Steps; he cares deeply about the Steps. His conviction is contagious.</p>
<p>Fred’s Friday following was mostly addiction/recovery professionals. The focus was Twelve-Step Facilitation between counselor and client. Saturday was the general recovery community. People could attend for free. There was a suggested donation to the Renascent Foundation but no one was turned away.</p>
<p><strong>Here are some highlights:</strong></p>
<p>Twelve Step Facilitation is better understood—not as an “Evidence Based Practice,” but—as, “Practice Based Evidence.”</p>
<p>This twist is more than witty; I think it’s a meaningful distinction. This idea coat-tails off other thoughtful advocates, such as Ward Ewing (AA General Service Board Chair emeritus)’s, “Experience trumps explanation,” and the Kurtz/Ketcham wisdom of <em>Experiencing Spirituality</em> and that book’s predecessor, <em>The Spirituality of Imperfection</em>. One great Kurtz/Ketcham-ism from <em>Spirituality of Imperfection</em> is, “Humor, humility, humanity … we cannot work on one without working on the others.” More Kurtz/Ketcham later; back to Fred H.</p>
<p>There are six things Alcoholics Anonymous (The Big Book) teaches us hundreds of times…</p>
<ol> <li>Alcoholism is an illness of the body</li> <li>Alcoholism is an illness of the mind</li> <li>The solution is spiritual</li> <li>Overreliance on self, blocks us from the solution</li> <li>We need to follow directions to bet unblocked</li> <li>We need to continue to follow directions to stay unblocked</li>
</ol>
<p>Fred describes one and two as, “The body can’t handle what the mind can’t leave alone.” That’s a conundrum.</p>
<p>The word “sin” is a Hebrew word, whose origin means “off the mark,” an archer’s term, not the popular moralizing idea widely held, today.</p>
<p>Times for renewal in sobriety or times to be mindful of relapse-prevention are when we are in a state of “emotional inebriety,” the opposite of what Bill wrote about in The Grapevine—"emotional sobriety.” In January 1958 Bill wrote about …</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em>“the development of much more real maturity and balance (which is to say, humility) in our relations… Those adolescent urges that so many of us have for top approval, perfect security, and perfect romance—urges quite appropriate to age seventeen—prove to be an impossible way of life when we are at age forty-seven or fifty-seven. Since AA began, I’ve taken immense wallops in all these areas because of my failure to grow up, emotionally and spiritually…” </em></p>
<p>Fred H’s, <em>Drop the Rock… The Ripple Effect: Using Step 10 to Work 6 and 7 Every Day</em> (2016) is the natural follow up to Hazelden best-seller, Drop the Rock: Removing Character Defects (1993) by Bill P., Todd W., and Sara S. Steps Six and Seven get about a paragraph each in The Big Book. Our maladaptive coping techniques, as the cool-kids call them, are the rocks that the 1993 book helped hundreds-of-thousands let go of. The Ripple Effect is about how our incompleteness affects others and that’s where Step Ten comes into play—periodic inventory and making corrections.</p>
<p><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.amazon.com/Drop-Rock-Ripple-Effect-Using/dp/1616496002/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1508274034&sr=1-1&keywords=drop+the+rock+the+ripple+effect&linkCode=li2&tag=rebeldogspubl-20&linkId=14560a6f3053087824ea9c8cb9e480a0" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/ef4ae709e43329c2b9be530f46518c802b1f8934/medium/drop-the-rock-the-ripple-effect.jpg?1508268146" class="size_m justify_left border_" /></a><strong>From Drop the Rock… The Ripple Effect:</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em>“On any given day, most of us make hundreds of small and large decisions, act in hundreds of different ways, and say hundreds of different things to a wide range of people. Each interaction and conversation has its own Ripple Effect, and we can't control them all. What we can do is—after having cleaned house with Steps Four through Nine—relax, knowing that we now have the insight and tools with Step Ten to face each day and moment with openness and serenity.” </em></p>
<p><strong>Looking ahead to Sedona October 27 – 29 and the challenges of AA language </strong></p>
<p>Did you know there is no word for “sober” in French?</p>
<p>Our home group, Beyond Belief Agnostics & Freethinkers Group (Toronto Canada), decided to devote room on our literature table to other-than-English AA literature. In Toronto, 911 calls are answered in 150 languages and we have members whose native tongue in Polish, Spanish, Russian, Punjabi, French or other. So, we got some Living Sobers and pamphlets in other languages.</p>
<p>The French Living Sober is Vivre… Sans Alcool! (directly translated as living without alcohol; they don’t have a word for “sober”). It makes me wonder how many AA-isms, commonplace in English speaking meetings, don’t translate due to cultural or linguistic variations in our more exotic AA homegroups. While “God as you understand Him” was an open invitation for everyone in 1939, has it stood the test of time? “God” alienates many who either do not culturally identify with the Judeo/Christian traditions so ubiquitous in 1939 or the 2017 member has reasons for rejecting said indoctrination.</p>
<p>What’s the atheist’s word for “God?”</p>
<p>Just as the French don’t have a word, for “sober,” is it fine to say, “That word isn’t in my vocabulary and that construct isn’t How It Works for me?” Or do we want our AA atheist to talk in G.O.D. acronyms? Does that help “our more religious members” feel assured that in AA, atheism is permitted—not accommodated?</p>
<p>I hope everyone whose worldview doesn’t include a prayer-answering, sobriety-granting higher power can find an integral language to articulate their addiction/recovery experience AND feel equal, valued, and part of AA—without an asterisk. But it’s not unusual for AA’s who reject speaking in theism-ese to be met with stigma, dismissiveness and hostility. This isn’t obvious to everyone, but when newcomers object to the Twelve Steps on religious grounds, they get met with the knee-jerk—say it with me— “But AA is spiritual, not religious” and the newcomer says nothing… their silence doesn’t always mean, “You know you’re right, sorry for my close-mindedness.” Some of us find any talk of reliance on supernatural forces to be a very religious notion. AA isn’t an organized religion but for many, our practices and language are small-r religious.</p>
<p><strong>This just in:</strong> Ipsos just released the<strong> Global View on Religion 2017</strong> . This data reveals some strained relations between nonbelievers and their more religious neighbors. While I suspect these findings aren’t exactly analogous to Main Street AA, let’s just see what clues this latest poll offers. The term “religious beliefs” is used in the Ipsos poll.</p>
<p>For the record, if you want to understand AA non-theists, an example of AA’s religious beliefs would include, “God could and would if He were sought,” or “Became entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.” Much of the Global View on Religion poll is eye-opening. Of note, poll respondents were presented with the statement, “I lose respect for people when I find out that they are not religious.” While 60% “strongly disagree,” why isn’t it 100%? That’s 4 out of ten who “somewhat disagree” or more concerning, “somewhat agree” or “strongly agree.”</p>
<p>We’ve talked before about “secularphobia”—the irrational fear or distrust of people who don’t believe in God. That isn’t everyone in AA and maybe it isn’t most. Today, when a white, heterosexual middle-aged male of privilege says, “everyone is equal and has the same opportunity,” that can frustrate women, African Americans and the LGBTQ membership. Similarly, nonbelievers watch our backs and pay attention to how people are reacting to us in a way that other members need not do. Like 1960s LGBTQ members, some 2017 agnostics and atheist are “in the closet” to feel safe.</p>
<p>AAs who don’t believe in an AA higher-power have reported to me that they were told:</p>
<ul> <li>You must be more open-minded,</li> <li>You will relapse if you don’t find God, and</li> <li>AA never intended to be for everyone and maybe you will be happier starting your own secular fellowship down the street.</li>
</ul>
<p>The Ipsos poll looks at country by country comparisons. Great Britain had ½ the number of people who loose respect for nonreligious people, compared to the USA. Maybe it is no coincidence that the UK General Service Conference approved and published The ‘God’ Word: Agnostics and Atheists in AA. Meanwhile, the GSO located in the USA has been inundated with double-digit requests since 1975 for a pamphlet for unbelievers. These requests came from individuals, groups, districts and area delegates. Each time, it’s been a variation on the refrain, “Sorry, not at this time.”</p>
<p>So, if we can agree that not all agnostics and atheist feel equal in AA, then a discussion in the desert about Twelve Step language for non-theists is timely. GSO isn’t AA’s boss. October 27 – 29 we take our concerns to the top of the AA hierarchy, you and me, your home group and my home group. How can you and I be more accommodating to ensure that AA is for everyone, regardless of their belief or lack of belief?</p>
<p><strong>Better communicating: We don’t need to be told; we need to feel heard </strong></p>
<p>To take credit for solving the communication breakdown issue, I will remind you of what you already know. From <em>Experiencing Spirituality: Finding Meaning Through Storytellin</em>g by Ernie Kurtz and Katherine Ketcham:</p>
<p><em>“Humility and obedience are two painfully misunderstood virtues that are really the arts of listening. Humility involves the refusal to coerce, the rejection of all attempts to control others. … Spirituality is experienced in our Listening.” </em></p>
<p>In the role of counselor, sponsor or friend, we try to inspire Twelve-Step creativity and fearless self-expression. Dismissing someone by telling them they are closed-minded is a pretty good way to do just the opposite. Instead of rebutting someone with, “Higher Power can be anything you want it to be,” why not listen more deeply? Why not empathize? Ask another question instead; invite your subject to elaborate. We fear open-ended questions because we can’t control what happens next. As Kurtz and Ketcham reminds, “humility involves the refusal to coerce, the rejection of all attempts to control others.”</p>
<p>To hear where people are coming from, I find it easier to picture them in a place instead of holding a position. If we are in the same cabin at the peak of a mountain, and they can only see out of a North-East window and I only see out of the South-West window, we experience the world differently. To empathize, I listen more to what they see.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/cdfa2b6962d779df4e92f38d64447a7b1b9c9530/large/worldview-2-dimentions.jpg?1508268706" class="size_xl justify_center border_" />The one-dimensional idea of atheists at one end of a line and theists at the other end, with agnostics teetering in the middle, doesn’t work for me. Our worldview comes about from a combination of reason and intuition. A one-dimensional line offers degrees; we can have true believers and ardent non-theists at ends of the spectrum and moderates closer to the center.</p>
<p>Linear thinking is black and white… maybe with some agnostic grey in the middle. Can we think instead of worldviews like “blue?” We don’t just have dark blue or light blue. Blue with a yellow influence has a whole spectrum of green influence. Blue with a red influence also has a wide spectrum of purple. Like purple is a blend of blue and red, I see worldview as a blend of intuition and reason. First, we intuitively lean towards a supernatural worldview or a natural worldview (Gods or no gods). This puts our intuitive-brain to work. But complementary to that is our reasoning style that colors how we articulate our gut-feeling intuition. We all reason. Some of us reason concretely. Some of us are abstract reasoners. This linear way to categorize people suits the concrete thinkers only. Binary or reductionist thinking finds this to be satisfactory, maybe even scientific. But if we think abstractly about how the universe operates, then the nature of the question is equally or more important than the answer to that question. An abstract thinker doesn’t see philosophical or existential questions in ones and zeros. So, to divide people into worldviews,</p>
<p>I prefer to plot worldviews two-dimensionally—on a quadrilateral graph—instead of a line. I’ve seen this paradigm illustrated before and it resonates more with me. Integrating both intuition (Y-axis) and reason (X-axis) feels holistic in understanding a more complicated question that, “Want a coffee?”</p>
<p>A Quadrilateral Look at Worldviews (Four—not three--types)</p>
<p>Quadrilateral graphs have a North/South Y-axis and a West/East X-axis. On the Y-axis let’s look at intuitive predisposition. Is it gods or is it nature? What is our visceral, gut feeling? Is the supernatural our personal experience or an outdated superstition? Forget for a minute what your rational is; how do you feel about it? Let’s consider terminology for our North and South of the Y-axis. I like Natural (worldview) for North, Supernatural (worldview) for South. Yes, it’s true that I really like that N is short for both North and Natural (or Naturalism) and the same for “S”. But I also have issues with other ways of defining these hemispheres. Believer vs. non-believer implies that some people can’t or won’t hold beliefs of any kind; we all believe something. The same problem comes up with theist vs. atheist. The a-theist does not believe in intervening deities but who wants to be identified by what one does not believe? It’s no better if we identify atheists as rationalists; what would we call the other hemisphere? Non-rationalist? That’s hardly fair or accurate. I like natural/supernatural because, like pro-choice and pro-life, no one is against something; they each believe something to be true for themselves.</p>
<p>Please use whatever labels you like; encourage others to use their language. I’m not trying to control the conversation.</p>
<p>For Naturalism, I borrow the definition from Skeptic Magazine editor Michael Shermer who wrote an article in a peer-reviewed journal, Theology and Science, Volume 15, 2017 – Issue 3. It’s called “Scientific Naturalism: A Manifesto for Enlightenment Humanism” and his definition of holding a naturalism worldview is…</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em>“The belief that the world is governed by natural laws and forces that can be understood, and that all phenomena are part of nature and can be explained by natural causes, including human cognitive, moral and social phenomena. The application of scientific naturalism in the human realm led to the widespread adoption of Enlightenment humanism, a cosmopolitan worldview that places supreme value on science and reason, eschews the supernatural entirely and relies exclusively on nature and nature’s laws, including human nature.”</em></p>
<p>There are plenty more definitions for supernaturalism and feel free to use your favorite for either. For me, a supernatural worldview recognizes a universe or life governed, not only by material forces but also, by non-material (spiritual) forces. Feel free to add to that gods, higher powers or any ideas you hold about a supernatural worldview. With Naturalism to the North and Supernaturalism in the Southern hemisphere, that invites a cross-section of East/West hemispheres as well— our reasoning style to collaborate with our intuition. This West/East difference could be expressed as concrete vs. abstract, binary vs. complex, reductionism vs, relativism.</p>
<p>Earlier I used Bill Wilson’s “We Agnostics,” challenge: God is or He is not; it can’t be both; what is our answer to be? That’s a concrete (binary) language. But if you are of the Eastern hemisphere, abstract or relativism style or reasoner, the question is a fool’s errand. The answer is unknown and unknowable. “I don’t know and you don’t either.”</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/355d6eee2ef9a6b74ddb6e6dfa6be90441c8d975/medium/debate-craig-harris.jpg?1508269686" class="size_m justify_left border_" />Recently, YouTube has been flush with new debates about the existence of god(s) and only Western X-axis speakers were invited to the debate. New atheists line up to match wits against the greatest theologians of our time, also excited to match wits. University Halls would sell out and YouTube hits would be the envy of any pop star recording artist. People love these cage-match debates. While they’re entertaining, do they help us understand each other? What we’ve learned from gender identity is that we don’t label others based on our perceived criteria; everyone gets to self-identify, now. Even if we perceive another as being of a distinct gender identity, it’s not up to us to label anyone other than ourselves. Like someone looking out only a North-East Window she, will draw conclusions that you or I would not, based on the inescapable realities we draw from our limited South-East, North-West or South-West window. We don’t only color our definitions but we want you to use our definitions for labels, too.</p>
<p>How many times have I had a theist tell me what it means to be an atheist? Frustrating.</p>
<p>In these worldview debates, each side wanted to dominate how each term must be defined for all. Just as we now invite people to gender-identify without imposing another’s criteria, it’s better to allow each of us to choose and define our worldview labels. It doesn’t require consensus. I don’t ask someone what their conception of God is? That’s pigeonholing someone into 1940s AA language. Vikings would use the term Oden; Muslims and Sikhs discourage descriptive narration for the almighty. I ask a fellow member how they see the world working? Is there outside agency at play, from their vantagepoint? Do they believe we’re here to figure life out on our own or is there a source or anther dimension? People can tell if they’re being tested or if I really want to know how they feel about things. People love to talk about themselves, if they feel safe. I can meet them where they are. If they believe in outside agency, I ask them about it. If they believe that such a belief is superstitious, I ask them to tell me how they believe life and the universe works.</p>
<p>This existential question, or the answer to it, isn’t superficially arrived at and isn’t easily moved from. People might have a strong feeling or a slight hint. AA can work for them regardless. In how others explain their position I might get a sense if they are more concrete or abstract in how they reason. If I’m not sure, I can just ask, “Do you think it’s a black and white thing?” I find people who hold concrete reasoning styles are easier to identify that those who hold abstract views.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/5f9d2319a94adcd17405f4642055531881947420/large/4-quadrants.jpg?1508270229" class="size_xl justify_center border_" />Abstract thinkers aren’t so concerned with absolutes.<strong> Abstract supernaturalism</strong> might be in the form of somethingism: “I don’t think the only reality of life is what we sense or measure. It makes sense to me that there is something.” Even “higher power” might be too restrictive for an Abstract Supernaturalist. Some in this quadrant might identify with Ietsism. This is a belief system that might relate to “spiritual but not religious” but maybe not “God of our understanding.” Ietsists beliefs are unspecified and the transcendent force is undefined or undetermined. Ietsists might think the ability to understand Him, Her, It or They is beyond human capacity. To try or to lay claim to an understanding—to an Abstract Supernaturalist—seems either arrogant or delusional.</p>
<p>You might never find someone in this SW, Abstract Supernaturalism quadrant talking about the will of the gods for them. They may or may not have a defined sense of what this immaterial force is or how concerned it is with our day to day decisions or our values. Abstract Supernaturalists may balk at the idea of understanding the unknowable. If angered, they may retort that claims of “understanding,” is the simplicity of an under-developed mind. Who are we to “understand” that which is greater than us. It can’t be both a higher power and a comprehendible power, can it? And don’t answer that question; it’s rhetorical. Empathize with their unwillingness to try to capture the unknowable in mortal terms. Abstract Naturalists might be quick to jump to, “Because it’s unknown or unknowable, how helpful is it to talk about, pretend, or worry about it? I get on with life, satisfied that somethings are unknowable and I don’t worry myself much about it.” Some people call themselves apa-theists. “I don’t know and I don’t care; can we talk about something more interesting, now?” The futility of seeking is endless and a natural world is awesome enough without supernatural explanation for the unknown. Either supernatural or natural abstract thinkers may lose respect for anyone who argues for or against creation, a parking-spot-finding higher power or any of the concrete arguments and language that seem to amuse so many in AA.</p>
<p>If you subscribe to <strong>Concrete Supernaturalism</strong>, you’ve won the Twelve-Step lottery. Most of the Big Book or other Twelve-Step literature is written in your language: “When, therefore, we speak to you of God, we mean your own conception of God. This applies, too, to other spiritual expressions which you find in this book.” If you’re a Concrete Supernaturalist, you’ll wonder why everyone doesn’t feel included by this language.</p>
<p>But we don’t all feel “This book gets me!” For many in the naturalism hemisphere, “spirituality” is a woo-woo word for the superstitious. It is a projection from the ego of man, an inescapable tendency to see patterns even when there are none, to feel thinks that are not categorically real. But that isn’t universally true. Sam Harris talks about the spiritual life of atheists. Some AA’s do, too. I have met AA atheist who pray. They no longer believe in god(s) they were taught to pray to as kids; but the ritual of prayer (to nothing), still gives comfort.</p>
<p><strong>Concrete Naturalists</strong> might be anti-religion, they might roll their eyes during the reading of “How It Works,” and blurt out, “Nobody here believes this shit, do they?!?” This might be stereotypical of other’s conceptions of non-theists. Some will be activists and fight for separation of church and state. Some might argue that religion is more harmful than good. But Concrete Naturalists aren’t mad at God; how can you be mad at something you don’t believe exists? Some are frustrated that others (in their view) are so weak that they make things up to cope with their finite, chaotic life. On the other hand, many Concrete Naturalists just never give the idea of a supernatural realm the slightest thought. The world is awesome and wonderful as a natural phenomenon. They just don’t think of god during a sunrise and no—they don’t pray in a foxhole; atheist are the soldiers returning fire while others fall to their knees in prayer.</p>
<p>In a secular environment you rarely see an angry Concrete Naturalist. They have no religion to react to and they are content in their awesome natural and finite world. With no belief in an intervening deity, someone from this quadrant might make peace with a secular power greater than themselves. It could be a power of example, a higher purpose, the power of inspiration or persuasion. But there is no need for Naturalists to talk in Supernatural constructs. For example, an atheist might not believe “God could and would if He were sought,” but she or he may volunteer that the power of fellowship or the power of program is keeping her or him clean and sober. On the other hand, they might wonder why others would demonize will, self-will, freethought. It isn’t willpower that’s to be avoided, it’s self-will-run-riot. One is healthy, one is not. It’s not “our best thinking” that caused our downfall; it was impulsive thinking. Reason or sanity may be a naturalist’s higher power but don’t expect all of them to talk in this theistically biased language.</p>
<p>The more we exercise empathy, the more empathic we become. If you’re a believer, you suffer doubt. If you’re a naturalist, you wonder about infinite possibilities. Consider that each person, from each quadrant has a distinct personality, too. Extroverts will communicate different than introverts, for example. Highly conscientious people will have strict boundaries around the language we use, but if conscientiousness is something you rank lower in, you won’t be so rigid. Every quadrant has personality traits, beyond what they believe.</p>
<p>Do you know about the Big Five in psychology or the Five Factor Model that influence our personality? There are two acronyms: CANOE or OCEAN and the five characteristics—depending how high or low you score—effects how you relate to your worldview and others.</p>
<p>These are the five factor modle traits </p>
<ol> <li>Openness to New Experiences, </li> <li>Conscientiousness, </li> <li>Extraversion/Introversion, </li> <li>Agreeableness and </li> <li>Neuroticism. </li>
</ol>
<p>Test Yourself: <a contents="https://www.psychologytoday.com/test/1297" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/test/1297" target="_blank">https://www.psychologytoday.com/test/1297</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>How someone ranks in these five factors will weigh on how they express themselves or if they express themselves about worldview. Someone ranking high on “agreeableness” might be difficult to get talking candidly, especially if they are concerned that their view isn’t the popular view. An extroverted abstract person might loudly dismiss concrete thinkers as infantile thinkers. Extroverted concrete thinkers will call abstracts “indecisive fence-sitters.” Introverts might not say anything during a debate; even if they have a clear view about the topic. If you or I score low on our openness to new experiences it will be hard to listen to opposing views. We would interrupt with rebuttals or try to persuade them that ours is the more enlightened point of view. If you want to know how you rank on the Five Factor Model (FFM) follow the Psychology Today link above.</p>
<p><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.sedonamagoretreat.org/beyond-belief/" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/c141be3f4a4352483a60a8690e625ddf45a1f8fe/large/sedona-2017.jpg?1506116305" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></a>If you’re joining us in Sedona Arizona, come for a discussion—not a lecture. I have some prepared material but we will be breaking into smaller workshops and sharing our own concerns or experiences with the language of addiction/recovery. Even AA’s Big Book—with its theistic bias—has some all-inclusive language. “We found we tapped an unsuspecting inner resource.”</p>
<p>Newer fellowships have more contemporary language and less reification. For fun, I’ve borrowed some newer (than 1939) Steps. Some are from 21st century fellowship and some have been around a surprisingly long time, helping addicts with alternative language to express the same universal process.</p>
<p>Hopefully, these suggestions open our minds to alternative ways of seeing and articulating the process. None of these Steps (see bellow) in this list are theoretical; they are all being used somewhere with success. Many of them can be found in a helpful reference for anyone working with others who are working the Steps: <em>The Little Book: A Collection of Alternative 12 Steps</em>, by Roger C, AA-Agnostica. This 70-page booklet can be found on <a contents="RebellionDogsPublishing.com" data-link-label="Bookstore" data-link-type="page" href="/bookstore" target="_blank"><strong>RebellionDogsPublishing.com</strong></a> bookstore page, AAagnostica.org, Amazon or anywhere you buy books.</p>
<p>Let’s keep this discussion going…</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Notes:</p>
<p>Preview or buy<a contents=" Drop The Rock ... Ripple Effect CLICK HERE" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.amazon.com/Drop-Rock-Ripple-Effect-Using/dp/1616496002/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1508274034&sr=1-1&keywords=drop+the+rock+the+ripple+effect&linkCode=li2&tag=rebeldogspubl-20&linkId=14560a6f3053087824ea9c8cb9e480a0" style="" target="_blank"> Drop The Rock ... Ripple Effect <strong>CLICK HERE</strong></a></p>
<p><a contents="http://www.sedonamagoretreat.org/beyond-belief/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVG0eyENfeg" style="" target="_blank">More about Sedona Mago Retreat October 27 - 29 http://www.sedonamagoretreat.org/beyond-belief/</a></p>
<p>More Fred H: <a contents="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVG0eyENfeg" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVG0eyENfeg" style="" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVG0eyENfeg</a></p>
<p>More about Renascennt <a contents="https://renascent.ca/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://renascent.ca/" style="" target="_blank">https://renascent.ca/</a></p>
<p>Ipsos Survey Details: <a contents="https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2017-10/globaladvisor_Religion_Charts_AUSTRALIA.pdf" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2017-10/globaladvisor_Religion_Charts_AUSTRALIA.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2017-10/globaladvisor_Religion_Charts_AUSTRALIA.pdf</a></p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/3236493c701a93ee6ce126cd6301f208c4db83b0/large/12-alternative-steps.jpg?1508270338" class="size_xl justify_center border_" /></p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/4821136
2017-08-21T19:30:58-04:00
2021-07-30T12:56:04-04:00
How Baby Boomers are Killing AA and Four Ways You and I can Stop Them
<p style="text-align: center;">Rebellion Dogs Blog August 2017: Generational issues and How to Accommodate Them </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p><a contents=" Download or read the PDF (click HERE)" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-radio-august-2017-generation-issues-and-aa.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/300912/rebellion-dogs-radio-august-2017-generation-issues-and-aa.pdf" style="" target="_blank">Download or read <strong>the PDF (click HERE)</strong></a></p>
<p><a contents="Come visit the podcast (Radio) page and listen along (click HERE)" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/rebellious-radio/blog/how-baby-boomers-are-holding-aa-back-and-4-ways-to-fix-it" target="_blank"><strong>Come visit the podcast (Radio) page and listen along (click HERE)</strong></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font_large">Today: How Baby Boomers are killing AA and 4 ways you and I can stop them!</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font_large"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/0733437cefa09f047010cf0c8fa1c518b9999780/large/douglas-coupland.png?1503415485" class="size_xl justify_center border_" /></span></p>
<p>“We stood at the turning point... we practice these principles in all of our affairs…” Douglas Coupland, is it something we said?</p>
<p>The above quote is from a Foreword written for a book I am awaiting arrival of. It's by Rosa Harris and it's called, Boomerville - Musings on a Generation that Refuses to Go Quietly. Coupland is talking about Baby Boomer's stranglehold on all of society but he could have been speaking directly to 12-Step culture. If this speaks to needs of future generations, what does this say about AA sustainability? </p>
<p>Long before AA’s centennial birthday (2035), we will be a mostly-millennial fellowship. Will our literature resonate with newcomers and 2035 long-timers in the same way that <em>we-loving</em> Baby Boomers feel about AA verses, today?</p>
<p>Here’s something else to think about: Is our job as stewards to preserve AA as it was, or prepare AA for those yet to come? </p>
<p>According to U.S. Department of Health Services National Center for Health Statistics this is how the break down goes generations-wise in and outside of 12-Step rooms: </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/4dc8220c896dfe6a253ba7ed5d4d04cdcc799eeb/large/august-2017-blog-table.png?1503355778" class="size_xl justify_center border_" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p>I’m a Boomer. According to Coupland, when I—or we of my era—say, “What AA needs to thrive in the future is to …” what I really mean is, “What I want …,” “What makes me most comfortable ...” Also, if Coupland has nailed it, I am under the misapprehension that I am speaking for everyone; I am unaware of projecting my own biases. Speaking in the authorial “we“ might not be an empathetic, community building way to treat fellow addicts. Certainly, things are different since my foggy memories of what made me start to feel comfortable in AA and want to get sober. Maybe this is a serious generational thing—a communication breakdown. </p>
<p>Unless someone (younger) points it out, how would I know that the way I express myself is repugnant to the generation of AA that matters most—generation-next. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/296f97344fa8440d7c47f91db28092a723494049/medium/aa-membership-survey-2014-age.png?1503356076" class="size_m justify_left border_" />Above and to our left are charts look at generations and AA population. According to demographers (first chart), there are five generations in AA, today. On the left is AA’s age (2014 AA Membership Survey)[i]. AA conducts a triennial survey. At the time of writing this, AA is collecting 2017 data but it won’t be available to membership until mid-to-late-2018.</p>
<p>Currently in AA, our average AA is a Gen X (50-years-old). About 25% of us are millennials.</p>
<p>That number can only grow, if one assumes that AA will grow or at least stay the same as our current (roughly two-million) population. Exactly 0% of our literature was written by Generation Next. As Bill Sees It dried up for new content upon Bill’s 1971 death when the oldest Gen-Xers were six-years-old. </p>
<p>Is it possible that the way the older ½ of our fellowship likes to be read to from the podium is turning off the younger generation? Could this be a contributory factor to AA’s population stagnation or decline (depending on how you measure it) since late last century? </p>
<p>Today, let us take inventory of AA literature and the bulk of copy-cat 12-Step books that followed AA’s lead. Let’s look at the authorship of “we” and consider how big a problem it is and what we can do about it. </p>
<p>First, let’s look at AA’s generational trending, as studied and reported by the Pew Research Group[ii]. The 2016 report starts off with this zinger: </p>
<p><em>Millennials have surpassed Baby Boomers as the nation’s largest living generation, according to population estimates released this month by the U.S. Census Bureau. Millennials, whom we define as those ages 18-34 in 2015, now number 75.4 million, surpassing the 74.9 million Baby Boomers (ages 51-69). And Generation X (ages 35-50 in 2015) is projected to pass the Boomers in population by 2028. </em></p>
<p>Again, 2028 is well before AA’s centennial birthday in 2035. If AA still gathers around a 100-year old—never updated—Big Book, how large will the 100th birthday cake have to be? Who will be left to care about AA’s legacy? If our literature inadvertently polarizes our current and future demo, AA loyalists will be sharply declined. </p>
<p>The Pew Report by senior researcher, Richard Fry goes on to further future-shock us: </p>
<p><em>For a few more years, Gen Xers are projected to remain the “middle child” of generations – caught between two larger generations of the Millennials and the Boomers. They are smaller than Millennials because the generational span of Gen X (16 years) is shorter than the Millennials (17 years) … Baby Boomers have always had an outsized presence compared with other generations. They were the largest generation and peaked at 78.8 million in 1999.” </em></p>
<p>“Talking ‘bout my generation,” as The Who sung to us, Baby Boomers have taken back what we sung so loud; we no longer hope we die before we get/got old. AA language started getting old in 1999. If we continue to “party like it’s 1999 (OMG—even Prince is dead)” we are dreaming if we imagine AA having a relevant place in a 2035 discussion about addiction and recovery. </p>
<p>Our literature is written most often in this we-authorship. As a writer, I can tell you it is not natural and if we were to replace it with a better way, we could solve some uncomfortable and clumsy obstacles. Just writing and re-reading that last sentence, I find this we-thing to be an insidious habit. I struggled with this very dilemma when I wrote a book for people with alcohol and other substance use disorders. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/c926ee2b449b0334a1dcd98b6ec1604c686ab54b/small/BookTumbprint.jpg?1380569603" class="size_s justify_left border_" />I remember trying this out as an author. Was I going to write <em>Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life</em> in first person, I, I, I, finger pointing you, you, you second-person or with “we” authorship? To 12-Step rooms, of any generation, we-talk begets eyeball rolling. </p>
<p>So, from the Preface of <em>Beyond Belief</em>, here’s how I recounted this editorial conundrum leading up to our January 2013 release: </p>
<p><em>The daily musings in this book are written in the customary we voice. I know—only obnoxious people talk this way in meetings. However, this is the style used in self-help writing. There are imperfections with the English language and they become even more pronounced using this we voice. Technically, “God of our understanding” should be “Gods of our understanding.” If two people believe in God, the God of one’s understanding is a different one than the others—hence, Gods. “Clearing away our side of the street” would be more grammatically correct as “our sides of the street” but nobody talks that way. “Our drug of choice” should be “our drugs of choice” and “our inner-child” should be “our inner children” to be consistent with the plural “our.” As an editorial turning point there was no way to be grammatically correct and not come across awkwardly. Most daily reflection books are penned in a we voice so we do too, despite the ambiguity</em>.[iii] </p>
<p>In light of Douglas Coupland's new information, with Beyond Belief, would I make the same editorial decision—if I’m thinking about the average person new to recovery, today? She is a millennial. Or maybe she’s Generation X or a teenage Gen Z. </p>
<p><span class="font_large">We-authorship: the good, the bad and the ugly </span></p>
<p><strong>The GOOD:</strong> Our first literary effort wasn’t written from an exclusive we-authorship perspective, originally. It was written in second-person— “You...” The original manuscript and the edits to Chapter Five (“How It Works”) includes the statement, <em>“If you are convinced, you are at step three, which is that you make a decision to turn your will and your life over to God as you understand Him.”</em> The next edit was <em>“Being convinced we were at step three, which is that we decided to turn our wills and our lives over to God as we understood Him.” </em></p>
<p>This you-to-we-authorship change was a reaction to broad criticism that our manuscript was going to confront and alienate our prospective new members. Doctors who worked with inebriates reminded us that telling a problem drinker what to do would not be well received. Better, we tell them what our experience has been; stop pointing a finger at the alcoholic. “Use suggestions; don’t make commands,” we were told by the academics, religious and medical experts of the day. It made sense that this would be more palatable to our reader. </p>
<p>Other examples of the original “you”/second-person language was: </p>
<p><em>“Half measures will avail you nothing. You stand at the turning point. Throw yourself under His protection and care with complete abandon. Now we think you can take it: Here are the steps…”</em> Alcoholics Anonymous manuscript </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/b695906e96229502b79c8efb46955be5d1ca22a3/large/original-manuscript-aa-bigbook-page1.jpg?1503356429" class="size_xl justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>So, the “we language” reflected our experience, it didn’t presume to instruct; we made a list, we stood at the turning point was a big improvement over “you must this” and “you will find that…” It was just right for a time. It took from 1939 until 1973 for AA to sell one million we, we, we Big Books. By 1990 we sold over ten million and then sold one million per year until 2010 where we exceeded thirty million cumulative Big Books sales. </p>
<p>From a 2009 high of 1,220,138 annual Big Books we sunk nearly 30% to 887,532 in 2010. We would rest below one-million annual sales for years. In 1990 when we were regularly selling a million per year, Baby Boomers were between 26 and 44 years old—prime time for coming to AA for the first time. By 2010, Boomers were 46—64, past the average age that sufferers of alcohol and other drug use disorders first come to AA. Since 2010, the average newcomer is either Gen X, 30 to 45-years-old or even late 20s millennials. </p>
<p>The unconsciously (according to Coupland) blissful Baby Boomers talked up our we, we, we, experience during our heyday. This phenomenon turned Alcoholics Anonymous into one of USA’s largest publishing companies, driving Bill W books (Alcoholics Anonymous, 12 & 12, AA Comes of Age and As Bill Sees It) to over fifty-million copies by 2010. Along with book sales, membership growth follows the <em>We-Gen</em> Baby Boomers, too. AA broke two-million members in the early 1990s when Boomers were 30 to 45-years-old which is prime newcomer-age. The 2017 first-time-to-AA member of 30 to 45-year-olds are Gen X and Millennials. </p>
<p>We are at the end of the “our experience has taught us” generation and we are now starting the era of the, “I mistrust you if you keep talking that way” AA members. </p>
<p>No problem; if the literature as written is no longer communicating effectively, we can just change a few pronouns, right? </p>
<p><strong>The BAD:</strong> In 2002, The General Service Conference affirmed the following advisory action: </p>
<p><em>“The text in the book, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, written by Bill Wilson, remain as is, recognizing the Fellowship’s feeling that Bill’s writings be retained as originally published.” </em></p>
<p>It should be no surprise that the lion’s share of 2002 delegates and other Conference members were we-loving Boomers. </p>
<p>Reflecting on the challenges of a new millennium, AA at least asked the question; “Ought our literature be updated? Is this mid-20th century language up to code for the millennial generation?” The blowback was unwavering. In 2003, as they looked at proposed Twelve and Twelve fixer-upers, the General Service Conference voted unanimously to re-assert the 2002 idea of never altering Bill W’s writings… not one wee (we) word. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/83b04d2bcbbf1e04bff1d041ba56d23919b7b224/medium/bill-w-1-web-2.jpg?1503356737" class="size_m justify_right border_" />Hence, the General Service Conference’s welcome the new millennium introduction to the 12 & 12 is what the Conference calls, “a unified response to questions regarding specific language, idioms, and historical figures or events from A.A. members, newcomers and non-alcoholics.” Thus, your Twelve and Twelve intro now starts off as follows: </p>
<p><em>“Alcoholics Anonymous first published Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions in 1953. Bill W., who along with Dr. Bob S. founded Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935, wrote the book to share 18 years of collective experience within the Fellowship on how A.A. members recover, and how our society functions. </em></p>
<p><em>In recent years some members and friends of A.A. have asked if it would be wise to update the language, idioms, and historical references in the book to present a more contemporary image for the Fellowship. However, because the book has helped so many alcoholics find recovery, there exists strong sentiment within the Fellowship against any change to it. In fact, the 2002 General Service Conference discussed this issue and it was unanimously recommended that: “The text in the book Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, written by Bill W., remain as is, recognizing the Fellowship’s feelings that Bill’s writing be retained as originally published. </em></p>
<p><em>We hope that the collective spiritual experience of the A.A. pioneers captured in these pages continues to help alcoholics and friends of A.A. understand the principles of our program.”</em>[iv] </p>
<p>So, Boomers, who prefer the we-language, pretty much reified AA best-sellers into our own likeness. It isn’t wrong to preserve a legacy. The question is about our primary purpose. As asked previously about stewardship: is our duty to preserve AA in the likeness of our founders or prepare AA in the best way we can for the AA member yet to come? </p>
<p><strong>The UGLY:</strong> One point has already been made; Generation-Next is saying loud and clear, “We don’t feel comfortable with this “we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs,” language, and, as Gen-X Douglas Coupland describes us, Boomers <em>unselfconsciously</em> retort with glee, “If it works why fix it? We will be amazed before we are half way through.” </p>
<p>The other more insidious consequence of a generation of we-talk is a tendency towards believing that or representing the AA experience as being universal. The thinking goes, if we did this and we got that then we must be the same. To all but the unselfconscious, this just isn’t true. If I do twelve things exact as you explained that you had done, I will get a different result than you. If you do the same as me, you will get a different outcome. Results may vary. </p>
<p>Take AA’s love-in with the word, “spiritual.” Contrary to Big Book warnings, bristling over the word "spiritual" is harmless. Being united as AA members isn't to abandon authenticity and cave to group-think. It's fine to have a practical experience as a result of these steps... or just an experience as a result of these steps. It's cult-like to take our literature literally and encourage conformity. If spiritual is the word you would have used to describe your experience, run with it. “Spirituality” isn’t a bad word. Just don't worry about those who take a pass on claiming to have had a spiritual experience. We will get and/or stay sober just like you - in our own individual way. </p>
<p>From “We Agnostics:” </p>
<p><em>“…we often found ourselves handicapped by obstinacy, sensitiveness, and unreasoning prejudice. Many of us have been so touchy that even casual reference to spiritual things made us bristle with antagonism. This sort of thinking had to be abandoned.” </em>Alcoholics Anonymous, P 48 </p>
<p>This is one fly in the ointment of taking our literature literally or isolating a single statement without context. This very statement from page 48 was walked-back in so many ways over the years. By the second printing of the same Big Book more had been revealed. </p>
<p>“The Spiritual Experience (Appendix II),” is our sober-second-thought about AA. We note that, while “our more religious call it God-consciousness,” many AAs identify their sobriety as being a “personality change sufficient to bring about recovery from alcoholism… the ‘educational variety’… a profound alteration in his reaction to life…” and so on. </p>
<p>Recovery can be pragmatic—or material vs. spiritual—if you prefer. This problem of group-think starts or at least is compounded with we-authorship. To quote AA Chair of the Board emeritus, Rev. Ward Ewing, as I am apt to do, “Experience trumps explanation.”[v] We all share the transformative experience from compulsive drinking to being freed from the bondage of addiction. Calling it a spiritual experience is an explanation which doesn’t help everyone identify. While many sincerely identify it as a spiritual experience, AA isn’t faith healing and it’s an established fact that conformity to a religious explanation of recovery isn’t necessary. To encourage conformity is not helpful and this misstep is front-of-mind for millennials. </p>
<p><span class="font_large">HOPE for a FUTURE that includes AA </span></p>
<p>Baby Boomers threw an anchor in the water by declaring the writings of Bill W. to be sacred. I share the opinion that it was not Bill W’s wish to be reified as casting the final world, or a more precious word, than any other AA member. It’s not the founders that are to blame for resistance to change; it’s my nostalgia-snorting Baby Boomer generation that is the problem. </p>
<p>I’ve asked before, “If the book Alcoholics Anonymous was a text book, wouldn’t it be updated every five years or so?” Grade Five math principles are largely the same today as they were in 1939. However, we change the books that each generation of students reads for good reason. </p>
<p>If I sound nihilistic or defeatist, maybe I’m just trying to show that I can relate with Generation Z, the cool kids. They love that #post-apocalyptic stuff so maybe I played the prognosticator of hell-and-damnation a little heavy. The future is not predetermined. We aren’t held hostage, waiting for AA as a whole to change its editorial policy. There are things we can do today, at our home group. You and I can save the AA day. </p>
<p><span class="font_large"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/d75bc2951e68af5635dbbbdeed20b22859b3ddce/medium/grapevine-too-much-too-soon.jpg?1503358111" class="size_m justify_left border_" />Four Ways to Save AA from Baby Boomers </span></p>
<p><strong>Save the day Action #1: Stop Reading from the Big Book at Open Meetings</strong>. August 2017 Grapevine has an article “Too Much Too Soon” suggests that reading “How It Works” at meetings <em>“might not be best way to set newcomers on the right course… most newcomers don’t need to know all the Steps at their first meeting.” </em></p>
<p>That’s a sober idea that sounds radical, only because of what you and I are accustomed to. If I stop reading from the Big Book at my home-group I eliminate a lot of we-talk. You don’t have to ban the book; just stop drowning our meeting in it. Dr. Bob got sober shortly after he talked to Bill W. Bill had no book, no Steps and no “How It Works” but the two men helped each other get and stay sober. </p>
<p>In the absence of traditional readings, newcomers hear firsthand accounts—not we-talk. I might say that I read this-or-that in AA literature and how it helped me. So it’s not forbidden fruit. But leave the book on the library table for now—attraction rather than promotion. Curious minds will find it. </p>
<p><strong>Save the day Action #2: Focus sharing at meetings on personal experience</strong>. There is nothing sacred and nothing forbidden in how an AA meeting is formatted. There are no must or must-not rituals. Stop praying, stop saying “I’m ________ and an alcoholic”; any of these customary rituals are just that—not all of them were done in the meetings that got our founders sobers.</p>
<p>Here is a local example:</p>
<p>Toronto’s, We Are Not Saints Group lights up Friday night by opening with the AA Preamble, the chair identifies (an AA lead) for 2—3 minutes, then she asks for three topics from the floor, writes them down, passes around the paper with the topics, everyone can share or pass or talk about something else, the meeting closes with the Responsibility Declaration. If the Steps are talked about, it’s first person experience, not “we this,” or “we that.” If higher power is talked about, it’s a personal experience and not a “God as we understand Him.” </p>
<p>AA literature is found at the library table next to coffee, tea and treats. Reading literature on one’s own time is encouraged but firsthand accounts dominate the meeting time instead of what one hundred now-dead white guys did 75 years ago. </p>
<p><strong>Save the Day Action Plan # 3: Stop quoting from the Big Book or 12 & 12. </strong>Why do I do that, anyway? It lends authority and I get to say “we” when I mean “I.” It’s sneaky, it’s inauthentic and it’s obvious what I’m doing and unattractive to today’s newcomer. </p>
<p>It’s also unnecessary. If I say what I mean, in my own words, it may not be as articulate as Uncle Bill W but it’s sincere. People don’t remember what they heard; they remember how the meeting (members) made them feel. Memorizing what Bill wrote won’t leave an impression with the people who matter most—the newcomers. </p>
<p><strong><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/64a0fc5c43c942d903c31e7787e8236bc90dc0cb/medium/august-2017-abe-lincoln.png?1503357795" class="size_m justify_right border_" />Save the Day Action Plan # 4: Don’t go away mad but start your own meeting with alternative readings and a coffee pot.</strong> There are plenty of books about alcohol use disorder written in this century; some of them are written by AA members who were just as sober and just as smart as any of our first members. The Rebellion Dogs bookstore has plenty of my favorites. I can find one of these books and read from it at my meeting or each week’s chair can pick any book or magazine article she likes. This isn’t blasphemous, it’s just an uncommon suggestion. </p>
<p>From the General Service Office of AA, a clarification is made about this matter. </p>
<p>“Conference Approved,” an often-misunderstood term,<em> “does not imply Conference disapproval of other materials about A.A. A great deal of literature helpful to alcoholics is published by others, and A.A. does not try to tell any individual member what he or she may or may not read.”</em>[vi] </p>
<p>My meeting—and yours—is the highest authority in AA. If I can’t persuade my meeting to try another way of running the meeting for a trial period and see what happens, how am I going to persuade the General Service Conference? Write to your delegate; write to The Grapevine or your Intergroup newsletter; share this blog on Facebook; write your own blog. These are all worthwhile ideas. While you do that, I don’t want to think globally and forget to act locally. </p>
<p>The AA way is that we share experience; we have no expertise to offer and we make no demands. </p>
<p>If a better way works in even one group, it will catch on. AA was created by trial and error and our history is ongoing. We can still try new things without hyperbolic fear of ruining everything. I can ask myself, “Does what I say during our meeting resonate with the next generation? Is my meeting a welcoming place to the next generation?” </p>
<p>That’s how I’m going to change AA. And if one change doesn’t have lasting impact, I’ll try another. It doesn’t matter to me what other groups read or say or pray. Let every member read every book that holds the key to sobriety for those members—or no book at all. </p>
<p>I’ll try new things and see how people respond. Maybe I will ask you what you’re doing at your meeting and maybe I’ll try that next week. </p>
<p>So, from a Baby Boomer, on how to save AA from Baby Boomers narcissistic nostalgia, there you have it; one meeting at a time, one member at a time. I don’t remember where this quote come from which I take artistic liberty with. I believe it has indigenous origins.</p>
<p>For me I will try to think of it as “<em>We do not inherit AA from our founders; we borrow it from the next generation.” </em>I will do my best to leave it in a better state of readiness than I found it in. </p>
<p>Check out <a contents="BOOMERVILLE: Musings on a Generation that Refuses to Go Quietly" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.amazon.com/Boomerville-Musings-Generation-Refuses-Quietly-ebook/dp/B0165SOKTM" target="_blank"><em><strong>BOOMERVILLE: Musings on a Generation that Refuses to Go Quietly</strong></em></a> by Rosa Harris</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="true" src="https://www.podomatic.com/embed/html5/podcast/4794267?style=normal&autoplay=false" style="width: 504px; height: 208px;"></iframe></p>
<p><a contents="PDF of this BLOG" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-radio-august-2017-generation-issues-and-aa.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/300912/rebellion-dogs-radio-august-2017-generation-issues-and-aa.pdf" target="_blank"><strong>PDF of this BLOG</strong></a></p>
<p>[i] h<a contents="ttp://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-48_membershipsurvey.pd" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="ttp://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-48_membershipsurvey.pd" target="_blank">ttp://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-48_membershipsurvey.pd</a>f </p>
<p>[ii] <a contents="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/04/25/millennials-overtake-baby-boomers/ " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/04/25/millennials-overtake-baby-boomers/" target="_blank">http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/04/25/millennials-overtake-baby-boomers/ </a></p>
<p>[iii] Joe C., Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life, Toronto: Rebellion Dogs Publishing, 2013 (Preface) </p>
<p>[iv] Wilson, Bill, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, New York: AA World Service, 2012 </p>
<p>[v] AA Grapevine, “We Share Common Ground” October 2016 </p>
<p>[vi] <a contents="http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/smf-29_en.pdf" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/smf-29_en.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/smf-29_en.pdf</a></p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/4740926
2017-06-10T22:01:43-04:00
2023-03-10T13:08:21-05:00
Founder's Day and other AA Myths... Busted!
<p>AA’s birthday - June 10 - was chosen in hindsight as the start of AA. Happy 82nd anniversary (with an asterisk) everyone! </p>
<p><a contents="DOWNLOAD the PDF of Founder's Day and Other AA Myths" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-blog-founders-day-and-other-aa-myths-june-10-2017.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/292975/rebellion-dogs-blog-founders-day-and-other-aa-myths-june-10-2017.pdf" style="" target="_blank"><span style="color:#3498db;"><strong>DOWNLOAD the PDF of Founders' Day and Other AA Myths</strong></span></a></p>
<p>Fact-checking shows this “Founders' Day” celebration to be inaccurate. Bob S's last drink would have been about 10 or 11 days later. It wasn't a fraud or a conspiracy. Nor is this blog a fault-finding mission. Yet, to set the record straight, June 10th is a symbolic date that signifies AA's second member sobering up with the help of AA's first alcoholic. Because one sober alcoholic does not a fellowship make. Technical accuracy, isn’t that important. But it is important to take periodic inventory. Fact-checking is good for our collective integrity and credibility. </p>
<p>First, if you or I were there, back in the day, witnesses to Dr. Bob's relapsing ways, who would have been confident that Bob S would not have drunk again after Bill gave Bob—what turned out to be—his last beer before surgery to steady our proctologist-co-founder’s shaky hands? There was an inside joke with local professionals in Akron for the unfortunate souls whose asses were in the (alcoholic) doctor Bob Smith’s hands. </p>
<p>Only later, after it seemed that, Bob S, AA #2 was sober for good, and other had joined them, that they worked backwards to pick an AA start-date. They didn't have google or internet to see what the Dr. was posting on Facebook June 10th, to corroborate their guess and, as history recalls, they got it wrong. For those who care, AA history lovers have pieced the facts together. You can google search some of the facts yourself and you’ll come up with June 20th or 21st as the good doctor’s sobriety date. </p>
<p>Here's how you and I first heard about AA's birthday; it was from "Dr. Bob's Nightmare," a story he written or dictated from memory, three or four years later: </p>
<p><em>“I went to Atlantic City to attend several days’ meeting of a national society of which I was a member. I drank all the scotch they had on the train and bought several quarts on my way to the hotel. This was on Sunday. I got tight that night, stayed sober Monday till after the dinner and then proceeded to get tight again. I drank all I dared in the bar, and then went to my room to finish the job. Tuesday, I started in the morning, getting well organized by noon. </em></p>
<p><em>I did not want to disgrace myself so I then checked out. I bought some more liquor on the way to the depot. I had to wait some time for the train. I remember nothing from then on until I woke up at a friend’s house, in a town near home. These good people notified my wife, who sent my newly made friend over to get me. He came and got me home and to bed, gave me a few drinks that night, and one bottle of beer the next morning. </em></p>
<p><em>That was June,10, 1935, and that was my last drink. As I write nearly four years have passed.”</em> (Alcoholics Anonymous, pp. 179-180) </p>
<p> Again, it was in hindsight that June 10th was chosen as day one of AA. Who would have been confident that Bob S would not have drank again, as was his habit, on June 11th? Who would have known that anything called Alcoholics Anonymous had been born from that turning-point? It was a few years later, as Bill and Hank’s dream of a book was being realized that we looked back nostalgically and picked that date as a best-guess. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/b7626a1843b28258bf0ab28e5cf8894e8927abce/medium/ama-1935.jpg?1497145678" class="size_m justify_left border_" />The “national society” that Bob mentions attending was the American Medical Association annual conference in Atlantic City. History books tell us that the 1935 gathering started on June 10th, 1935[i] and continued through the week, as did Bob’s drinking. We read about Bill nursing Bob from his drunken stupor back in Akron. Days later, Bill would give a shaky Dr. Bob a beer before surgery approximately 11 days after our June 10th anniversary date. That beer before performing surgery would be Dr. Bob’s last drink. So if that marks the birth of Alcoholics Anonymous, June 20 or 21 would be accurate. </p>
<p>Here’s an account from Silkworth.net called, “Dr. Bob’s Last Drink” based on the research of Mitchell K.: </p>
<p><em>… Dr. Bob kept his promise to Anne. That is, until he boarded the train to Atlantic City. Once on the train Dr. Bob began to drink in earnest. He drank all the way to Atlantic City, purchased more bottles prior to checking in to the hotel. That was on a Sunday evening. </em></p>
<p><em>Dr. Bob stayed sober on Monday [June 10, 1935] until after dinner. He then resumed his drinking. Upon awakening Tuesday morning [June 11, 1935] … Dr. Bob's blackout lasted over 24 hours. There was a five-day period from when Dr. Bob left for the convention to when the nurse called Anne and Bill. They took Dr. Bob home and put him to bed. The detoxification process began once again. That process usually lasted three days according to Bill. They tapered Dr. Bob off of alcohol and fed him a diet of sauerkraut, tomato juice and Karo Syrup [approx. June 17, 1935]. …Bill had remembered that in three days, Dr. Bob was scheduled to perform surgery. On the day of the surgery, Dr. Bob had recovered sufficiently to go to work. In order to insure the steadiness of Dr. Bob's hands during the operation Bill gave him a bottle of beer [approx. June 20 or 21, 1935]</em>.[ii] </p>
<p>So, it’s not like Bill or Bob were thinking “Hey, we just created Alcoholics Anonymous—write this date down!” As Melvin B (1925-2017) recorded, as author of Pass It On: The Story of Bill Wilson and How the A.A. Message Reached the World: </p>
<p>“Of all the plans Bill and Dr. Bob had discussed in 1937, the proposal to publish a book about the program was the most realistic.”[iii] </p>
<p>When did Bob write his story down? When did we know we were AA? Maybe the first time our fellowship was publicly referred to as “Alcoholics Anonymous” was on the program of the infamous Rockefeller fund-raiser diner. Of course, the book’s title would have many incarnations including: </p>
<ol> <li>The Dry Way, </li> <li>One Hundred Men, </li> <li>The Way Out, </li> <li>Dry Frontiers and </li> <li>The Empty Glass. </li>
</ol>
<p>The favorite was <em>The Way Out</em> and it was voted on. Too many books were already called<em> Way Out</em> or<em> The Way Out</em> and none were called <em>Alcoholics Anonymous </em>so group conscience saw the wisdom of caving on the previous vote and going with the alternative name. The book was published in April 1939 and the following month, Clarence S started the first group named Alcoholics Anonymous in Cleveland.[iv] </p>
<p>Whenever it came time for Bob’s story to be written and edited a lot of time had passed since our foggy beginnings and an innocent mistake has been reified into annual Founders' Day ritual and false-memory. </p>
<p>I am understanding and forgiving based on my own history. I celebrate November 27th as my sobriety date. The truth is I don’t remember exactly. My last drink might have been at the Kon Tiki bar in Alexis Nihon Plaza in Montreal just before I went to a Friday night meeting (November 26, 1976). </p>
<p>Or it’s possible, the Saturday afternoon before the Sharenity AA Group in Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Quebec. I was jamming at a friend’s house. Someone passed a joint around which I remember smoking. I remember we were jamming Paul McCartney’s song “Bip Bop (1971)”[v] and I was on the Xylophone (generally a guitar player but I love to experiment). I imagine that McCartney was smoking some weed when he wrote the song, too; it is very much groove-based. The thing is, I don’t remember if that weekend music jam was the weekend before (November 20th) or November 27th so November 27th is either my first clean and sober day or the date of my last mind-altering substance as I took a few tokes and folk-rocked out with my friends. </p>
<p>So, Dr. Bob, I understand how fuzzy the head can be at a time when recording milestones seems so important. Dr. Bob didn’t know he was having his last drink when he had that one beer and I had no idea that my finale was the end for me, either. Some have dramatic finishes. Co-founder Bob and I – not so much. </p>
<p>There you have it; AA’s anniversary is off a few days. We’re absolutely bang-on with the year. Why sweat the small stuff, right? </p>
<p>While we’re myth-busting and I have my First-edition Pass It On open, let’s look at some other AA history that gets distorted by fundamentalists and others. </p>
<p><strong>The Twelve Steps—exactly as written—is how AAs found a 75% success rate before the program was watered down… truth or fiction? </strong></p>
<p>There is this folklore about the Twelve Steps: The hand of God, upon Bill’s shoulder, guided the co-founder a-la Moses and the ten commandments. Another favorite back-to-basics myth is that the Twelve Steps, exactly as written and in the order that they appear, is how the founding members all got sober. In this good-ol-days, every newcomer got sober, every group was in harmony with all others. The good-ol-days were before AA got so “watered down.” </p>
<p>Fact check: Let’s count them—exactly zero is the number of the founding members who worked these (Twelve) Steps exactly as currently recorded. Early AA’s – those who worked a small-p-program with sponsors or on their own had multiple variations of six-step programs. Pictured is one version Bill W. wrote down from memory for Father Ed Dowling: </p>
<ol> <li>Admitted hopeless </li> <li>Got Honest with self </li> <li>Got honest with others </li> <li>Made Amends </li> <li>Helped others without demand </li> <li>Prayed to God as you understand him. </li>
</ol>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/b6a8fc3a13989eb5b1f29d6b76cdabdccbb57679/large/aa-six-steps.jpg?1497145830" class="size_xl justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>Other versions of the six-step program had God in #2. I expect there were other version that were never preserved for posterity. I expect any steps—six, ten, twelve or twenty—sincerely applied, worked for some, not for others. </p>
<p>What we call Twelfth Step work was an oral tradition before it was codified in a text; one alcoholic would talk with another. Did it work? Did we need Twelve Steps because six was ineffective? The original 28 stories of alcoholics in the first Alcoholics Anonymous speak to this question. </p>
<p>As I’ve mentioned before, their stories were being collected around the same time as versions of our present-day Twelve Steps were being massaged into “How It Works.” I don’t know how random or controlled this first 28 list of story-writers is. I can’t imagine how anyone could cherry-pick future winners from a random group of AA members. With 40-years sobriety today, I couldn’t go to my home group and pick out members with six-months to three years sobriety and identify the future winners. I have found no way of looking someone in the eye and knowing if they have taken their last drink or not. People fool me who I think have it made. People fool me who I think are doing it all wrong. Chaos points a fickle finger. </p>
<p>If you’ve been a loyal blog follower you’ve seen these numbers before and you can chant them with me. Of the 28 First-edition Big Book AA stories, 14 never drank after they wrote the stories. Seven returned to drinking. Seven relapsed but regained sobriety and died sober. All 28 are dead now and some historian knows where everyone is buried so while unscientific, in measurement, this is a better sample than any member’s anecdotal memory of AA’s they’ve worked with over the years. This sample bears out the oft quoted 75% success rate; the first 50% never drank again, 25% didn’t stay sober and another 25% relapsed but returned to AA to find lasting sobriety. </p>
<p>Here’s how Mel B tells the story of the Twelve Steps journey from rough draft to Big Book reification. </p>
<p><em>He [Bill] completed the first draft in about half an hour, then kept on writing until he felt he should stop and review what he had written. Numbering the new steps, he found that they added up to twelve—as symbolic number; he though the Twelve Apostles, and soon became convince d that the Society should have twelve steps. </em></p>
<p><em>The very first draft of the Twelve Steps, as Bill wrote them that night, had been lost. This is an approximate reconstruction of the way he first set them down: </em></p>
<ol> <li><em>We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable. </em></li> <li><em>Came to believe that God could restore us to sanity. </em></li> <li><em>Made a decision to turn our wills and our lives over to the care and direction of God. </em></li> <li><em>Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. </em></li> <li><em>Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. </em></li> <li><em>Were entirely willing that God remove all these defects of character. </em></li> <li><em>Humbly on our knees asked Him to remove these shortcomings—holding nothing back. </em></li> <li><em>Made a complete list of all persons we had harmed; became willing to make amends to them all. </em></li> <li><em>Made direct amends to such people wherever possible except when to do so would injure them or others. </em></li> <li><em>Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. </em></li> <li><em>Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our contact with God, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. </em></li> <li><em> Having had a spiritual experience as the result of this course of action, we tried to carry this message to others, especially alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs. … </em></li>
</ol>
<p><em><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/6eb39dec4aa0e177cbfd20f95e8df73a3856e102/medium/aa-pass-it-on.jpg?1497145843" class="size_m justify_right border_" />Ruth Hock said that Bill appeared in the office one day with the steps practically compete. But when he showed the manuscript to local members, there were heated discussions and many other suggestions. Jimmy B. opposed the strong reference to God, in both the steps and the rest of the early chapters; Hank wanted to soft-pedal them; but Fitz insisted that the book should express Christian doctrines and use Biblical terms and expression. Ruth [Hock] remembered: ‘Fitz was for going all the way with ‘God’’ you [Bill] were in the middle; Hank was for very little and I—trying to reflect the reaction of the nonalcoholic—was for very little. The result of this was the phrase ‘God as we understood Him,’ which I don’t think ever had much of a negative reaction anywhere.’ </em></p>
<p><em>Bill regarded these changes as ‘concessions to those of little or no faith’ and called them ‘the great contribution of our atheists and agnostics. They had widened our gateway so that all who suffered might pass through, regardless of their belief or lack of belief.’ … </em></p>
<p><em>Dr. Howard, a psychiatrist in Montclair, New Jersey, made a vitally important contribution. He suggested that there were too many ‘you musts.’ Bill said the psychiatrist’s ‘idea was to remove all forms of coercion, to put Fellowship on a we ought basis instead of a you must basis.’ </em></p>
<p><em>Jimmy B. had a colorful description of this interchange: ‘Dr. Howard read [the manuscript] and brought it back the next day,’ he recalled. ‘He said Bill was making a damn big mistake. ‘This is the Oxford Group,’ he said, ‘You have to change the whole damn thing.’ </em></p>
<p><em>‘We asked, ‘Why? What is the matter with it? It’s is perfect’ </em></p>
<p><em>‘He said, ‘You have to take out the must. You have to take out the God.’ Did Bill go into a tizzy then! He almost blew his top. Here was this baby being torn apart by a screwball psychiatrist.”</em>[vi] </p>
<p> So, while there are those who profess the hand of God attribution to our first text, if it was an act of God, it was less flash-of-light inspiration, and more the works in mysterious ways scenario. The hand of God expressing himself, herself, their self or itself in our group conscience, twisted and changed from iteration to iteration. </p>
<p><strong>Not one single word in the first 164 pages has ever been changed—true or false? </strong></p>
<p>Another favorite historical fabrication is the myth that “not a word has changed in the first 164 pages.” A striking change, for me was the addition of the “Spiritual Experience” Appendix which reframes a lot of words in a lot of ways. I’ve heard a podcast with someone who has identified 200 grammatical changes and alterations. Significantly, I think, is the replacement of the first-printing word “ex-alcoholic” as we once described ourselves in our Big Book and replacing this with “ex-problem drinker” (Big Book, pg. 19 and 151). </p>
<p>Otherwise, you would have been programmed to start every contribution at an AA meeting, with, “My name is __________ and I’m an ex-alcoholic.” </p>
<p>So, happy Founders' Day, happy anniversary, AA!</p>
<p>Our Akron mecca hosts AA pilgrims June 9, 10 & 11, to ring in the 82nd anniversary[vii]. We are okay with partying it up on June 10th, June 21st, 22nd, or any day this year you want to celebrate. </p>
<p><strong>AA is stagnant—true or false?</strong> </p>
<p>AA is evolving, in my opinion. We are more than a book or a program. This January, resulting from discussions at Area Assemblies, Regional Forums and the General Service Conference, an AA-guideline was released on Group and Member Safety. </p>
<p>"Safety and A.A.: Our Common Welfare (SMF-209)[viii]" aims to make AA gatherings a safe place for everyone, regardless of race, creed, sexual-orientation, socioeconomic status, gender, age or personal position on medication, recovery or lifestyle. Here are some highlights: </p>
<p><em>While most groups operate with a healthy balance of spontaneity and structure, there are a number of situations that can threaten group unity and challenge the safety of the group and its members. Often this can center on disruptive individuals, those who are confrontational, aggressive, or those who are simply unwilling to put the needs of the group first. Such behavior can hijack the focus of a meeting and frighten members, new and old... </em></p>
<p><em>Alcoholics Anonymous is a microcosm of the larger society within which we exist. Problems found in the outside world can also make their way into the rooms of A.A. As we strive to share in a spirit of trust, both at meetings and individually with sponsors and friends, it is reasonable for each member to expect a meaningful level of safety. … Some people, however, come into A.A. without an understanding of the type of behavior that is appropriate in meetings or in the company of other members. A person can be sober in A.A., yet still not understand what is acceptable… </em></p>
<p><em>Situations that groups have addressed through their group conscience include, sexual harassment or stalking; threats of violence; bullying; financial coercion; racial or lifestyle intolerance; pressuring A.A. members into a particular point of view or belief relating to medical treatments and/or medications, politics, religion, or other outside issues. In addition, there may be other behaviors that go on outside of typical meeting times that may affect whether someone feels safe to return to the group. … </em></p>
<p><em>A.A. membership does not grant immunity from local regulations and being at an A.A. meeting does not put anyone beyond the jurisdiction of law enforcement officers. As individuals, A.A. members are also “citizens of the world,” and as citizens we are not above the law. … </em></p>
<p><em>Safety, however, is important to the functioning of the group. By maintaining order and safety in meetings, the group as a whole will benefit and members will be able to focus on recovery from alcoholism and a life of sobriety… </em></p>
<p>If you’re looking for something new to talk about in your AA meeting, if you’d rather think about the future than canonize our founders and glorify our past, then grab a copy of this new document—SMF-209—and share it with your peeps at coffee after the meeting or bring it up during the business meeting. </p>
<p>Thanks for participating. We blather on a lot, it’s true. But we’re always listening. We’ve posted some of these ideas on Facebook and other social-media outlets. We’re stoked to hear your take. Call “Bullshit” or agree or share your own story. We’re all in this together. </p>
<p>As AA kicks off our 83rd year, one thing’s true that I remember from my local newspaper, 40-years ago. “If you want to drink and can—that’s your business. If you want to quit, but can’t—that’s our business…. Call AA.” </p>
<p>Peace out! </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/fe02535458db2e25b07639e943bb753cf500bfb8/large/paul-mccartney-bip-bop.jpg?1497146200" class="size_xl justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>[i] <a contents="http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/260319" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/260319" target="_blank">http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/260319</a> </p>
<p>[ii] http://www.silkworth.net/mitchellk/copyrighted/drb_lastdrink.html </p>
<p>[iii] Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, <em>Pass It On: The Story of Bill Wilson and How the A.A. Message Reached the World</em>, New York: AAWS, 1984, p 190 </p>
<p>[iv] Ibid, pp. 202-203 </p>
<p>[v] <a contents="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLrF0QjOhDU " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLrF0QjOhDU" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLrF0QjOhDU </a></p>
<p>[vi] <em>Pass It On</em>, pp 198 - 204 </p>
<p>[vii] <a contents="https://foundersdayregistration.akronaa.org/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://foundersdayregistration.akronaa.org/" target="_blank">https://foundersdayregistration.akronaa.org/</a> </p>
<p>[viii] <a contents="http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/smf-209_en.pdf" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/smf-209_en.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/smf-209_en.pdf</a></p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/4715622
2017-05-19T16:01:15-04:00
2021-07-31T19:27:08-04:00
Reviewing AA's 2017 Membership Tally + A look at "Love & Tolerance"
<p>JUNE Rebellion Dogs Blog: The 2017 AA Membership Survey and What the Numbers Tell Us <a contents="(download the PDF)" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-blog-june-2017-membership-survey-review.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/290192/rebellion-dogs-blog-june-2017-membership-survey-review.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#3498db;"><strong>(download the PDF)</strong></span></a></p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/92f45a9bdff8863c4bb781e68536e5369e0d4afc/original/june-2017-rebellion-dogs-blog.png?1495223128" class="size_orig justify_left border_none" alt="" />In the Summer Box 4-5-9: News and Notes from the General Service Office of A.A. our latest membership numbers will be posted. Comparing our January 1, 2017 numbers with a year prior, we can look at what the trend means for AA and how we might be responding to the trend. To let the cat out of the bag, worldwide AA membership is down 6% over last year. AA has largely had flat membership numbers since 1991 (2.1 Million members). Membership isn’t down everywhere but USA and Canadian membership is down about 10%. </p>
<p><span class="font_large"><strong>The Road to Detroit 2020 </strong></span></p>
<p>Reading the Spring Box 4-5-9, we see that the theme for the next World Convention (Detroit, July 2 – 5, 2020) was chosen from suggestions sent in from the membership. And the winner is: “Love and Tolerance is Our Code”. Into Action of Alcoholics Anonymous, says, “Love and tolerance of others is our code (p.84).” </p>
<p>Today, we can see evidence in AA—the oldest of 12-Step based mutual-aid groups—that there is a growing tolerance. This isn’t to say there isn’t fear of what might become of AA if this-or-that happens. There are bullies and bigots in AA. We are no better than any other microcosm of society. I have some ugly in me; maybe you will concede that you have your dark side, too. I can be dismissive or condescending. I can think my way is the best way. </p>
<p>James Truslow Adams (1878 – 1949) is credited for saying, “There is so much good in the worst of us and so much bad in the best of us that it behooves any of us to find fault with the rest of us.” </p>
<p> Out-going General Service Board Chair (2013 - 2017) Terry Bedient talks about diversity being an imperative to unity - not a threat. In the May 2017 A.A. Grapevine, Terry quotes co-founder Bob S as our co-founder reflected on what he’d learned over nine years of sobriety (1944): To be intolerant is to be smug and obnoxious, which is no help. Bob, simmered down AA’s 12-Step to be two ideas—love and service. Bob was rarely verbose, so let me share his entire June 1944 A.A. Grapevine article: </p>
<p><span class="font_large"><strong>On Cultivating Tolerance</strong></span> </p>
<p><em>During nine years in AA, I have observed that those who follow the Alcoholics Anonymous program with the greatest earnestness and zeal not only maintain sobriety but often acquire fine characteristics and attitudes as well. One of these is tolerance. Tolerance expresses itself in a variety of ways: in kindness and consideration toward the man or woman who is just beginning the march along the spiritual path; in the understanding of those who perhaps have been less fortunate in educational advantages; and in sympathy toward those whose religious ideas may seem to be at great variance with our own. </em></p>
<p><em>I am reminded in this connection of the picture of a hub with its radiating spokes. We all start at the outer circumference and approach our destination by one of many routes. To say that one spoke is much better than all the other spokes is true only in the sense of its being best suited to you as an individual. Human nature is such that without some degree of tolerance, each one of us might be inclined to believe that we have found the best or perhaps the shortest spoke. Without some tolerance, we might tend to become a bit smug or superior—which of course, is not helpful to the person we are trying to help and may be quite painful or obnoxious to others. No one of us wishes to do anything that might act as a deterrent to the advancement of another—and a patronizing attitude can readily slow up this process. </em></p>
<p><em>Tolerance furnishes, as a by-product, a greater freedom from the tendency to cling to preconceived ideas and stubbornly adhered-to opinions. In other words, it often promotes an open-mindedness that is vastly important—is, in fact, a prerequisite to the successful termination of any line of search, whether it be scientific or spiritual. </em></p>
<p><em>These, then, are a few of the reasons why an attempt to acquire tolerance should be made by each one of us.</em>[i] </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/2429f2d61c508c6c187eedd60c409330880405bc/medium/grapevine-may-2017.png?1495222897" class="size_m justify_left border_" />Yes, this is the same Dr. Bob who, early in his sobriety, said he pitied me and other atheists (Dr. Bob's Nightmare[ii]). If I feel hurt by his earlier words, I can consider his later words as amends. I could also see--empathizing instead of analyzing—that fundamental attribution error (not bigotry) explains Bob’s slight on atheists. It was really close-mindedness that Bob warned about; what sober alcoholic can’t identify with a time that our denial of alcoholism had us at a disadvantage? The idea that close-mindedness was caused by worldview was a miscalculation. Discovery is full of miscalculations. Atheists are not intellectually stubborn and those with a supernatural worldview are not inherently humble. Anyone could hold a bias; that’s human nature. Have I never attributed negative character traits to “others” that I didn’t identify myself as being part of? I have—I still do. </p>
<p>I agree with Dr. Bob’s position that someone in the throes of an addiction, who can’t be treated because of denial deserves my empathy and concern. So, 1939 Dr. Bob and I agree on that. I don’t think atheism causes confusion of the facts. In the goodness of time, I suspect that (1944) Bob outgrew that early-sobriety assumption. </p>
<p>Looking at Bob’s growth curve, I can certainly see Dr. Bob’s example. If he can bend to accommodate my worldview, can’t I bend to embrace those who hold seemingly contradictory views about how AA works? I like the fact that Bob S called it “cultivating” tolerance. I don’t participate in either the prayer or affirmation, “Grant me the serenity…” because I don’t see serenity, courage or wisdom as gifts from outside agency. I like Bob’s view: we cultivate and nurture these ideas and they grow within us. </p>
<p>In Bob’s journey, evidence suggests that he owed his continued sobriety to an anthropomorphic deity until his death; “praise Allah!” So, Bob’s view about how AA works didn’t change. What changed with time was his appreciation that I had a different view about addiction and recovery and that my view—alternative, not competing—was fine with him. </p>
<p>As Bob articulated with his hub-and-spoke metaphor, we are a fellowship of common suffering (the hub) and like a bicycle wheel has many spokes, there are many paths from the hub to wheel (sobriety and service). Sure, we might each think ours is more remarkable than another; but is it… really? </p>
<p>Atheists think they have a firmer grasp on reality. </p>
<p>Big-Book thumpers claim to have the only 75% successful AA-way. </p>
<p>Some say AA is a fellowship not a program, some say we are a fellowship of a program. </p>
<p>I’m not going to persuade anyone they’re right or that others aren’t wrong but what can be gleaned from co-founder Bob’s lessons in AA-life? If he can try a little tolerance momentum occurs and he can become more tolerant. That’s been my experience, too. </p>
<p>So why am I bringing this up? Wasn’t I talking about AA’s population survey? </p>
<p>I’m going to be talking about AA population and, according to the way we do statistics, we will see a decline in AA membership. Every year I look at these statistics. I’m going to do a little year-over-year and compare today’s members to 10 and 20 years ago, too. The number isn’t important to me; it’s the movement (the trend). So, the movement is down and that might be disconcerting. And I don’t know about you but I’m predisposed to: </p>
<p>think that a declining number is a negative and <br>assume it’s because of those members in those groups and I hope they’ll save time now and see it my way (before it’s too late). </p>
<p>Alas, some of the back-to-basics groups blame the atheist/agnostic groups for diluting the message. Freethinkers blame Big-Book thumpers for being too rigid. I’m going to try to see my way as one spoke, no better or worse, no less or more vital to the whole, than all the other spokes. </p>
<p>How real are these numbers? </p>
<p>They are false. The true number is either higher or lower. Numbers have been collected the same way over time so that’s why looking at trends is more reliable than placing our faith in a stated number. </p>
<p>How are the group and member numbers calculated? If you are a member of a group, your group has a General Service Rep. That rep, gives the district registrar an updated group form. That form includes meeting times, the group contact and the number of members. These numbers are given to the Area registrar and forwarded to the General Service Office. Likely, some GSRs round up and some round down. It’s not science. If I think of my own groups how many members do we have? Do I count the people at the last business meeting? Or do I count how many who showed up at Sally’s medallion? How many signed up to be members? Of those, how many are regulars or active in the group? By design, AA is not organized. But if we’re going to talk about this, it’s helpful to know where an organization that collects no personal information ascertains membership. </p>
<p>What this tally doesn’t always count is people who attend but don’t join a group. It doesn’t count, what I perceive to be, a growing number of mostly-online-members who might have gone to two or three face-to-face meetings every week before but now they get their “one alcoholic talking to another” fix on social media, chat-groups, YouTube, podcasts, etc. Some members, because of preferences or life-circumstances, once went to three meetings a week and now go to three face-to-face meetings a year. They still maintain contact with AA friends, they may or may not follow certain AA-like protocols like daily inventory, helping people in need, relying on others when help is called for, etc. It doesn’t say anywhere that attendance at AA is how we qualify “real” AA members. </p>
<p>As is our seasonal ritual let’s look at this year’s survey numbers[iii] and give some context, year over year and decade over decade. </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/9ec629be24d1d556e950e103b63f2371dda99b83/original/2017-aa-membership.png?1495223116" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>The bright light (if you think more members is correlated with AA’s wellness) is beyond the USA/Canada base. GSO is aware of AA in 181 countries and New York gets these numbers from 62 autonomous General Service Offices. As a Canadian, the double-digit decline decade over decade makes me wonder. At one time, Canadian AAs were over 110,000 and now we are 25% less. Conversely, non-US/Canada members increased 20% (1997-2017). </p>
<p>In a previous year-in-review, for context, we looked at how AA is doing exceedingly well compared to professional associations, community groups and bowling leagues.[iv] I looked at the finding in demographer Robert David Putnam’s <em>Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community </em>and how AA was doing compared to other declining groups over second ½ of the 20th century. You can read that essay at AAagnostica (link below).</p>
<p>I have also wondered out loud if AA attrition ought to be interpreted as AA success or failure. Not everyone who leaves AA gets drunk. Not everyone who leaves AA goes away angry. I know people who have been invested in AA deeply, got what they needed and moved on. Family, career or social anxiety are just a few reasons that people who don’t “need” meetings, stop going to meetings. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/6ed4aefc8c7831a10e19043fd43c191261e8fc92/medium/argument.jpg?1410459290" class="size_m justify_right border_" />In response to this membership decline, freethinkers might wonder if the tough-love rigidity of fundamentalist AAs are bullying alcoholics out the door. I’ve heard from “our more religious members” that the book Living Sober, agnostic 12-Step or anything other than a strict 164-page diet is killing alcoholics. The “make AA great again” crowd and the “AA must be reformed” crowd will both affirm their suspicions about the others bad influence on AA when they view membership trending. One camp thinks GSO is too religious and the other thinks it’s too liberal. </p>
<p>All of us have biases. Maybe that’s why I started this blog with a reminder of “Doctor (Bob)’s Opinion,” that “Without some tolerance, we might tend to become a bit smug or superior—which of course, is not helpful.” </p>
<p>Both secular AA and back-to-basics AA are on the rise and if each are helping alcoholics find sobriety, that’s great. Let’s hope we don’t crowd out the less vocal moderates in the meantime. How many freethinkers have been to a dozen back-to-basics meetings and how many back-to-basics members have been to several atheist/agnostic groups? It’s hard to cultivate tolerance when confined to an echo-chamber. </p>
<p>I’d like to know more about the steady growth outside AA’s American (and Canadian) base. If any readers have more detailed data, please let me know. I was talking this week with Carlos from Portugal (which inspired me to get this blog out today) and he shared some local intel. Both AA and NA attendance is down for the Portuguese. Portugal is trying Skype meetings which is new for them. </p>
<p>I wonder how the new leaflet “The ‘God’ Word: Agnostics & Atheists in AA” has impacted the UK since their GSO approved and printed it (2016). Is it well received by groups and members? Does it widen AA’s gateway? </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/b0a09732fa9bf333aaed64d57f20244931e8f34f/medium/u-of-k.jpg?1495223123" class="size_m justify_center border_" />There is a new report from Kentucky that hints that closet atheists are a bigger minority than generally believed in America. There is stigma associated with outing oneself as one who doesn’t hold a supernatural worldview. This Kentucky study found a different outcome if you couched how best to survey participants. Ask directly “Do you believe God is a myth” and you get the well documented outcomes: 3% of Americans identify as atheists. But if you’re less confrontational with the questions, University of Kentucky found that American atheists could be 26% of the population[v]. </p>
<p>Another 2016 US survey asked people to describe their concept of God. Just over ½ (53%) hold an anthropomorphic (God as we understand Him/Her) and in this survey, 10% answered “I do not believe in God”. Another 30% said “God is an impersonal force.”[vi] </p>
<p>Again, “Love and Tolerance” will be the 2020 theme in Detroit and it’s not too early to incorporate this into our AA homegroup and inter-group relations. By the way, as another measure of AA membership, after several quintennial conferences of diminishing numbers, the 2015 Atlanta AA Convention exceeded all previous attendance numbers: Over 57,000 attended the “Happy Joyous and Free” themed Atlanta Convention.[vii] </p>
<p>Think globally and act locally are applicable ideas. Our home-group is the highest office in the land in AA terms, so let’s begin making AA more loving and tolerant at our front door. That isn’t to ignore our collective efforts. If one of the growing characterizations about AA is that we are religious, <strong><a contents="“The ‘God’ Word”" data-link-label="3267-the-god-word.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/279601/3267-the-god-word.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#3498db;">“The ‘God’ Word”</span></a></strong> would help everyone. But “First thing’s First” and I wonder if there’s more I can do at my own home group and in my local AA community. </p>
<p>Peace. </p>
<p>[i] ©A.A. Grapevine, June 1944 </p>
<p>[ii] <a contents="“If you think you are an atheist, an agnostic, a skeptic, or have any other form of intellectual pride which keeps you from accepting what is in this book, I feel sorry for you.” From Alcoholics Anonymous, “Dr. Bob’s Nightmare”" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/en_bigbook_personalstories_partI.pdf" target="_blank">“If you think you are an atheist, an agnostic, a skeptic, or have any other form of intellectual pride which keeps you from accepting what is in this book, I feel sorry for you.” From Alcoholics Anonymous, “Dr. Bob’s Nightmare”</a> </p>
<p>[iii] h<a contents="ttp://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/smf-53_en.pdf" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/smf-53_en.pdf" target="_blank">ttp://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/smf-53_en.pdf</a> </p>
<p>[iv][iv] <a contents="http://aaagnostica.org/2015/09/06/aa-membership-growth-or-decline/&nbsp;" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://aaagnostica.org/2015/09/06/aa-membership-growth-or-decline/" target="_blank">http://aaagnostica.org/2015/09/06/aa-membership-growth-or-decline/ </a></p>
<p>[v] <a contents="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/edzda" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/edzda" target="_blank">https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/edzda</a> </p>
<p>[vi] <a contents="https://www.prri.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/PRRI-RNS-Unaffiliated-Survey-Topline.pdf" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.prri.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/PRRI-RNS-Unaffiliated-Survey-Topline.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.prri.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/PRRI-RNS-Unaffiliated-Survey-Topline.pdf</a> Question 8 </p>
<p>[vii] <a contents="http://www.aa.org/newsletters/en_US/en_box459_fall15.pdf" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.aa.org/newsletters/en_US/en_box459_fall15.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.aa.org/newsletters/en_US/en_box459_fall15.pdf</a></p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/4614979
2017-03-03T09:45:34-05:00
2022-03-08T16:17:20-05:00
The God Word and the April 2017 General Service Conference
<p> </p>
<p>Rebellion Dogs Blog <span style="color:#E6E6FA;"><strong><span class="font_large">The ‘God’ Word & this April’s General Service Conference</span></strong></span><span style="color:#0000FF;"><strong><span class="font_large"> </span></strong></span>March 2017 <br> <br>Read or download as a <strong><a contents="PDF HERE" data-link-label="rebelliondogs-blog-march-2017-the-god-word.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/279169/rebelliondogs-blog-march-2017-the-god-word.pdf" style="" target="_blank">PDF HERE</a></strong><br> </p>
<p>In 2009 an African American president was inaugurated in the USA and I mistakenly, naïvely felt America has forever-changed for the better. “It’s only going to improve from here,” I told myself.I don’t share this error to cast doubt on my ability to observe trends and make predictions. I learned something in 2017 from that previous mistake. Constant vigilance is a civic duty; it’s good AA stewardship, too. We aren’t entitled to better times ahead. </p>
<p>Vigilance will be a theme today along with a timely call-to-action. But just as we ought not get too complacent, we should think about balance, too. I was reminded of Rule-62 on Facebook, this week. The point was made that when any of us loose one of our senses, another or all other senses become enhanced and/or take over. For instance, when I lose my sense of humor, I develop a heightened sense of self-importance. Rule-62 is from a story in Tradition Four in <em>Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions</em>. The rule is, “Don’t take yourself too damn seriously.” <br> <br>I have a secret to share today. It’s a secret about my sobriety. But enough about me—more on my secrets later… </p>
<p>There’s been quite a bit of talk around the coffee pot about the UK’s new leaflet #3267, <strong>“The ‘God’ Word: Agnostic and Atheist Members in AA.”</strong> There happens to be a Catch-22 in the road of Canadians and Americans wanting to acquire this British pamphlet. I’ll explain how it works, if you haven’t come across it, yourself. My group asked me to snag 50 copies for a hospitality suite at an upcoming regional conference since I reported that the hold up over North Americans getting orders fulfilled from the UK is over, according to AA World Service in New York. <br> <br>Well… not quite. </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><a contents="HEAR THE PODCAST Rebellion Dogs Radio # 17" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/rebellious-radio/blog/rebellion-dogs-radio-29-the_god_word-and-aa-history" target="_blank"><span style="color:#f39c12;">HEAR THE PODCAST HERE click here for Rebellion Dogs Radio # 17</span></a><span style="color:#f39c12;"> </span></strong></p>
<p> </p><p><span class="font_large">Some history</span>… In anticipation of Austin’s Secular International AA conference I tried to get 100 “The ‘God’ Word” pamphlets. The UK took my order, then refunded my money. I called them and they explained that selling leaflets to Canadians <strong>was a violation</strong> of their licensing agreement with AA World Services. The UK referred me to GSO in New York (pictured), who told me, “Oh no, because we don’t print or hold a copyright for “The ‘God’ Word” here (GSO for USA/Canada), the UK order desk selling to you<strong> is not</strong> in contravention of the licensing agreement. “Go back to Great Britain,” I was told. <br> <br>Knowing this was never going to smooth out quickly, a UK member (thank you, Laurie)—whose last name will remain anonymous incase he’s guilty of trafficking contraband literature—ordered the 100 copies of the literature shipped to his home. He shipped it to me; I distributed them among the Toronto area agnostic meetings and brought the rest to Austin in November 2016. The cost of shipping was more than the literature. <br> <br> <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/7fa64fb17b3f31c01a891598044e6094f05faea8/medium/img-0012.jpg?1435178717" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" />There were numerous emails back and forth from August 2016 until February, 2017. Here’s a couple of short notes, just to give you a feel for the journey. This first one from AAWS was very promising: <br> <br><em>Thank you for your query. <br> <br>I have been in touch with G.S.O. U.K. regarding the U.K.-originated pamphlet “The God Word” and we have agreed that they may distribute this item to all who seek it from the U.S. and elsewhere. <br> <br>It is not an A.A.W.S., Inc.-copyrighted item nor A.A. General Service Conference-approved literature, so its distribution does not need to conform to our copyright, licensing, and distribution practice: distributing items via local structures for that nation’s fellowship. <br> <br>To uphold the principles of Unity and self-support, we encourage folks to purchase literature at the local level via local structures, whenever possible. <br> <br>As you may know, we license our A.A.W.S., Inc.-copyrighted material to A.A. General Service Boards around the world. <br>These copyright agreements necessitate set processes – that in this case do not apply to this pamphlet. <br> <br>With all best A.A. wishes, <br> <br>Director of Publishing, AA World Services Inc. </em></p>
<p> <br>I was assured it was all worked out but I ordered again and now the UK’s position was not exactly what I was anticipating<br><br> <br> <br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/830fe8fc298d3e2adda428e9e28e440200e50cc2/medium/uk-flag.jpg?1488039480" class="size_m justify_left border_" /><em>Hello Joe, <br> <br>Thank-you for your enquiry about ‘The God Word’. While we can sell to the US/ Canada, unfortunately we have found that the costs are prohibitive and require additional paperwork which becomes logistically unsustainable. <br> <br>We understand that GSO US/Canada is considering obtaining a licence to print, which would help resolve the problem. <br> <br>However, the leaflet is available from the AA GB website as a pdf file at this link:- </em><br> <br><a contents="http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/Members/Document-Library#" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/Members/Document-Library#" target="_blank">http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/Members/Document-Library#</a> <br> <br> </p>
<p>“I want the hand of AA always to be there, and for that I am responsible… unless it’s logistically unsustainable.” I do hope you understand, ol’ chap but the Yanks in New York are going to license, print and distribute the leaflet (pamphlet) for the demand in the USA and Canada. Cheerio, mate. <br> <br>The UK did respond promptly. The undertaking of the USA/Canada GSO to license and print “The ‘God’ Word sounds routine. If you think that having the UK pamphlet available in North America is like flicking a switch and enjoying the light, let’s talk… I have some concerns. <br> <br><strong>Some General Service Conference History for context </strong><br>Here’s a little AA history that, on one hand, sets a precedent for this kind of thing and, on the other hand, may create a hard time for ease of access to this new literature in our AA future… <br> <br>Flashback APRIL 1980, General Service Conference, New York, USA<strong>…</strong> <br> <br>1980: General Service Conference advisory action, “The pamphlet from Great Britain entitled, “A Newcomer Asks” be adopted and adapted.” <br> <br>What’s an advisory action? It has that conference-approved ring to it—a phrase that is as often misunderstood as understood. Well here’s Uncle Bill explaining “advisory action” on page S81 of The A.A. Service Manual: <br> <br><em>“While no one can speak for A.A. officially, the Conference [through its Advisory Actions] comes close to being A.A.’s voice. It cannot be an A.A. authority, but it can bring into free discussion problems and trends and dangers that seem to affect Fellowship harmony, purpose, and effectiveness.” </em><br><br>AA World Services and the General Service work for us (all year long). What do they do? Well, there is basic administration of AA. New initiatives happen through advisory actions. Groups in the USA and Canada—through our delegate—communicate to AA’s annual business meeting (The General Service Conference). Recommendations from the floor or from our committees (P.I., Cooperation with the professional community, treatment, corrections, accessibility, archives, literature, treasury, etc.) get brought to the conference members for a vote. Votes in the affirmative become actionable—they become advisory actions.<br> <br>There are other General Service Offices in different regions in the International AA world. Literature that comes from the United Kingdom, shares our universal AA tenets but also reflects domestic, cultural nuances. The USA is the most religious developed country on Earth. The UK is a secular society. In adopting “A Newcomer Asks”, the USA and Canada inherited some UK candor regarding membership diversity in our devotion to, or indifference to, a sobriety-granting higher power. If you’re a long-time follower of Rebellion Dogs, or you are familiar with AA literature, this will ring a bell. “A Newcomer Asks” states:<br> <br><em><strong>Is A.A. a religious organization?</strong></em> <br><em>No. Nor is it allied with any religious organization. </em></p>
<p><strong><em>There’s a lot of talk about God, though, isn’t there? </em></strong><br><em>The majority of A.A. members believe that we have found the solution to our drinking problem not through individual willpower, but through a power greater than ourselves. However, everyone defines this power as he or she wishes. Many people call it God, others think it is the A.A. group, still others don’t believe in it at all. There is room in A.A. for people of all shades of belief and nonbelief. </em><br> <br>This unabashed portrayal of AA is an AA divided between three camps: </p>
<ol> <li>those of us who do believe in supernatural intervention, </li> <li>those who believe in the power of example (a nonreligious power) and </li> <li>those who don’t buy into the higher power idea at all, is as we know, accurate. </li>
</ol>
<p>Assuming this represented AA fairly in 1980 on both sides of the Atlantic, this with-or-without-God portrayal of AA recovery is a natural evolution from our 78-year-old warning in the words of cofounder Bob S. who figuratively pointed a finger at the reader and said, if you don’t get the God thing, that’s intellectual pride, you won’t make it and I pity you. <br> <br>It sounds at first like two separate AA’s: <br>“A Newcomer Asks” states, “still others don’t believe in it (the higher power thing) at all. <br> <br>Our 1939 phonograph sings an older refrain such as in the tune, “How It Works”… <br><em>“Remember that we deal with alcohol, cunning, baffling, powerful! Without help it is too much for us. But there is One who has all power—that One is God. May you find Him now”?</em> <br> <br>Who wanted this progressive UK language for USA/Canada AA from “A Newcomer Asks” in 1980?<br> <br>I can speculate that it was AA’s 1980 public relations people who would have been confronting a skeptical professional world. This inclusive language softened charges that AA is religious or outdated. <br> <br>As an aside, imagine if the motivation for the new language was from our AA groups; this could have been a modernized “How It Works.” Instead of so many meetings starting with, “But there is One who has all power—that One is God. May you find Him now!” we would be saying, “Our suggested Steps talk of “God as you understand Him”; some members attribute the group as a higher power. Still others don’t believe in higher power at all. There is room in A.A. for belief and nonbelief. These Steps are suggestions, only. Step One…” </p>
<p>This variation to “How It Works” would sound alright to me; how about you? Just a thought… <br> <br>If some of us find the “god/no-god, whatever works for you,” language liberating, isn’t that fantastic? “A Newcomer Asks” makes AA just as secular-normative as we are faith-based-normative. Whatever the motivation back in 1980, in very subtle but affirming ways, Conference initiatives continued to modernize the atheist language in AA. <br> <br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/457fef68a9bc8b639d0c9399e5f00aa536c5855a/small/this-is-a-good-sign-official1.jpg?1488204161" class="size_s justify_left border_none" alt="" />In 1983, in our pamphlet “This Is A.A.” the first of two modernizations of our verbiage would declare: “There are a number of self-proclaimed atheist and agnostics among us.” I don’t recall exactly what was said originally in the 1955 pamphlet. It might have been along the lines of. “Some members even think that they are atheists or agnostics,” as if holding no supernatural worldview is a state of denial from the truth of a universe governed by Yahweh. <br> <br>This progressive trend continued through 2001. “This Is A.A.” improved again, changed the condescending “even a few self-proclaimed atheists and agnostics,” to “There are also atheists and agnostics among us.” Doesn’t that just sound like non-theists are rights bearing equals, according to our peers? <br> <br>In 2010 the General Service Conference affirmed, “The trustees’ Committee on Literature develop literature which focuses on spirituality that includes storied from atheists and agnostics who are successfully sober in Alcoholics Anonymous and bring a draft or progress report to the 2011 Conference Committee on Literature.” <br> <br>AA atheist successes; how affirming is that? <br> <br>Newton’s third law of motion is that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. In Eastern philosophy, someone’s dharma is in a relationship with someone else’s karma. Let’s look at the atheist-positive actions and some possibly related anti-atheist reactions. Because, not all of AA is an atheist-affirming, secular-normative non-dualism love-in.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/7f316b94b0971d2de365a95f985dfb457f592baa/medium/publication1.jpg?1488043532" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" />“Secularphobia” is a modern word. But, wherever there has been a dependence on supernatural forces, intolerance--either a little or a lot—has always been present. Widening our gateway in AA has always been well-intentioned but we keep one eye on possible threats, too. What would the four-horsemen of an AA apocalypse look like? Our founders warned that we ought not be complacent and that danger is more likely going to come from self-destructive forces as opposed to forces outside of AA.<br><br>Perceived “others” have always tested us as that potential threat: women, African Americans, dually-addicted, LGBTQ members and atheists have all faced ridicule and hostility from those who speak of gratitude for the gift of AA so freely given to them. “Widen our gateway yes, but AA was never intended to be all things to everyone; when does radical inclusivity turn into being watered-down AA?”<br> <br>The 2010 advisory action, celebrating secular AA, was too much “widening our gateway” for some. This action to affirm, “successful atheists” was repudiated in the White Paper on Non-believers, an anti-atheist warning from a 40-year-sober anonymous member. The author called for action from fellow god-fearing members to stop this atheist/agnostic pamphlet and reverse our tolerance of nonbelievers.</p>
<p>Just as Russians are being investigated as an outside force tampering with the 2016 US election, This White Paper had an influence peddling role at Toronto Intergroup in 2011. A non-intergroup AA member named Bryan W obtained access to the Toronto email list. This White Paper—or the Mein Kampf of AA fear-mongering as some have labeled it—was circulated to Toronto Intergroup reps. The paper warned email recipients that agnostic members reading agnostic interpretations of AA’s Twelve Steps in agnostic meetings could spell and end of AA as we know it. Better we sacrifice the still-suffering heathen and save our god-fearing children’s children. <br> <br>In this same era, of this White Paper, something else happened to the secular-normative “A Newcomer Asks” in the USA. In AA’s advisory actions, we find this curious amendment: </p>
<p>In 2009 It was recommended that: “A sentence encouraging newcomers to obtain and study the Big Book,<em> Alcoholics Anonymous</em>, be added to the pamphlet, ‘A Newcomer Asks’.” <br> <br>So, the UK leaflet “A Newcomer Asks” that USA and Canada acquired stated:<br> <br>What advice do you give to new members? </p>
<ol> <li>Stay away from the first drink </li> <li>Attend AA meetings regularly </li> <li>Seek out the people in AA who have successfully stayed sober for some time </li> <li>Try to put into practice the AA Programme of recovery </li>
</ol>
<p> <br>There’s four pretty good ideas. Any two or three of them could work. All four are worth trying. GSO pamphlet p24 “A Newcomer Asks” post-2009, now reads: <br> <br>What advice do you give to new members? </p>
<ol> <li>Stay away from the first drink; </li> <li>Attend A.A. meetings regularly; </li> <li>Seek out the people in A.A. who have successfully stayed sober for some time; </li> <li>Try to put into practice the A.A. program of recovery; </li> <li>Obtain and study the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous. </li>
</ol>
<p> Two questions come to mind and perhaps we can reflect on them. My first question would be, “Why mention the Big Book and refer to it as a study guide; don’t we mention The Big Book in AA enough already?” <br> <br>And the second question is, “If our 1980 advisory action was to adopt and amend the British pamphlet, why did we not add this crucial deficiency—if it is indeed a crucial deficiency—back in 1980? “Why was it so urgent in 2009 and not even considered in 1980?” What was different? <br> <br>Well, at the top of the blog, I tempted you to stay tuned for a secret about my own sobriety. I will share it with you now. <br> <br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/8fb2de48d3eb6d63959b515f913ba3d598358bc3/small/confession.jpg?1488044351" class="size_s justify_left border_none" alt="" />I came to AA in the 1970s and got clean and sober for good in 1976. No one advised me to "obtain and study the Big Book,<em> Alcoholics Anonymous</em>." So, my secret—which will seem strange to you if you’re introduction to AA was in the mid-1990s or later—is this: <br> <br>I never read the Big Book, <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em>. <br> <br>Well I did; but not until I was nine years sober or so. <br> <br>When I was new, I read pamphlets, <em>Living Sober</em> and <em>Came to Believe</em> and I tried a couple of daily reflection books. Back in the day, books like <em>Stools and Bottles</em> and <em>The Little Red Book</em> were popularly shared among AAs in my neck of the woods. These aren’t top choices for new-atheists but back in the day we didn’t find another’s religiosity to be contagious. They were just trying to help in their own natural language. Later, when I was sober for a while and curious about AA, I was reading,<em> Pass It On </em>and <em>AA Comes of Age</em> and these books got me interested in the Big Book from a historical reference. And, long after I applied the Twelve Steps to my life, I did find the first 164 pages + the stories + the appendices historically valuable. </p>
<p>In AA in the 1970s—certainly in Montreal where I got sober and Calgary where I moved in 1979—there were no Big Book meetings, that I recall. I was young and wrestles and I went to lots of meetings. I worked the Steps, but not with the text Alcoholics Anonymous as my step-by-step guide. I assume that some members warmed up more to the Big Book than I did. There were Hazelden study guides and sponsees asking sponsors and other AA friends, “What did you do with Step __ (insert 1 through 12)?” <br> <br>AA, in my formative-years, was an oral tradition and while there was plenty of books and booklets to read to help me work or skip or combine Steps, the program of AA was a very personal process. In 1980, GSO didn’t add the “study the Big Book” passage because, in 1980, that wasn’t the predominant AA culture. We were not a one-book, one-solution society; not in all corners of AA, not in 1980. So, when did Big Book fanaticism start?</p>
<p><br> <br><span class="font_large">The History of <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em> and Big Book fanaticism</span> <br>Today, the Big Book is ubiquitous. For a fellowship of two million, we are closing in on 40 million copies of Alcoholics Anonymous in print. It wasn’t a best-seller in the early days but it sells one million copies a year now—so what happened? <br> <br>The Big Book sold 20,000+ copies per year in the 50s and 60s—that’s not shabby. The millionth cumulative copy wasn’t sold until after Bill W’s death—1973. So, it took 34 years after the first printing to sell the first million. Back then, every year, AA membership was growing. Big Book sales were gradual. The Third Edition came out in 1976, in 1980, AA sold a record 370,00 of that Third Edition that year. By 1990, it was typical to sell one million Big Books every year. <br> <br>So, if you got sober post-1990, it would be easy to perceive that, “AA is the Big Book—the Big Book is AA”. You may not be able to imagine an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting without the text by the same name. By the 1990s, “Big Book Study” meetings and weekend were popular. This, in part, goes back to the legend of Joe and Charlie.</p>
<p> <br>From TheFix.com: <br><em>Charlie got sober in 1970 and started studying the Big Book seriously with Joe in 1973. For Charlie, it was all about the steps: “Remember, we recover by the steps we take, not the meetings we make!” …When Charlie died from a massive heart attack in 2011 at the age of 82, he’d been sober 41 years. Exactly half of his life. <br> <br>In 1962, at the age of 34, Joe McQ woke up in the psych ward at the Arkansas State Hospital. … Determined to stay sober, he sought out AA meetings when he was released, but racism was alive and well, and Little Rock, Arkansas, was no exception. The local AA group agreed to let him attend meetings as long as he didn’t a) get there early, b) stick around afterwards, or c) drink their coffee. “Little Rock was no place for a black man to be looking for help in 1962,” Joe said when talking about early sobriety. … The isolation from fellowship meant the Big Book was his primary source of recovery information, and it spurred him to organize new AA groups on his own. </em><br><br>Back in the 70s, meeting secretaries would read news and notes from GSO and we’d hear about loners—members who lived in isolated areas who got and stayed sober with literature and pen-pals. Joe M depended on literature the way an AA loner would. Going back to our beginnings, before we had a book or a name for our organization, there was an idea that the message of hope for alcoholics could be conveyed in a book. That’s true, I think. I see evidence todays that some of us get sober on literature. I would speculate that if Joe M of Little Rock was observing an AA group that read from The Little Red Book and he was given a copy, that book, along with his sincere desire to stop drinking, would have worked for him as well as the book, Alcoholics Anonymous did. For some of us, it’s meetings, the program, literature, all-of-the-above and none-of-the-above. Sobriety in AA is a pathless land. <br> <br>I don’t have a relationship with the Big Book the way some do because it played no role in my sobriety. I appreciate those who sincerely credit the Book or “being booked” to getting sober. My first trip through the Big Book for recovery purposes was in aid of someone else’s sobriety. I always make the sponsee take the lead. “So, you want to take the Step? How to you propose to do that?” <br> <br>In this case, my sponsee wanted to do an AA inventory and the rest of the Twelve Steps—just like they say in the book. So, he taught me. I have zero issues with someone who zealously attributes the Big Book for saving their life. What I have less appreciation for is rigid insistence the “The Big Book way” is AA’s official and only legitimate AA experience. <br> <br>Joe and Charlie, as the phenomena built, were moderating “The Big Book Comes Alive” weekends to 800 people at a time. Many came back and brought their friends. Joe and Charlie weren’t cult leader but the cult of Joe and Charlie emerged. It may have led the ground work for what we know today as muckers or the Back-to-Basics theme of AA.</p>
<p><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.thefix.com/five-aa-myths-critics-and-zealots-share" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/c837ed92f868e3db82c9ebaceb4bb6989aa24153/medium/5-myths.jpg?1488040133" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></a><a contents="“Five AA Myths that Critics and Zealots Share” @ The Fix" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.thefix.com/five-aa-myths-critics-and-zealots-share" target="_blank">“Five AA Myths that Critics and Zealots Share” @ The Fix</a>. is really one myth and five reality-checks that debunk the shared myth held by Big Book thumpers and bashers. The myth is that AA is a program.</p>
<p>Everything that defines AA, from the Traditions to the Preamble, describes <em>a fellowship</em>, not<em> a program</em>. When people criticize AA, it is par for the course to attack The Steps. When zealots gush about AA, what they mean by “AA” is often The Steps, as described in <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em>. This idea of AA and program as synonymous is widely held but erroneous, all the same.<br> </p>
<p>Many AAs with contented long-term sobriety have dismissed the Steps and stayed sober. They are AA’s story, too. No-Steppers are joined by some-Steppers who got started, lost their enthusiasm but not their sobriety. Still more have taken an inventory in some fashion, made amends in some fashion, self-reflect, admit a need for help with their alcoholism, help other alcoholics here and there, but the Steps were not and are not a formal or formulaic process. <br><br>So, I am not from a generation of AA members that credits my sobriety to the 1939 book. <br><br>Going back to “A Newcomer Asks” the pamphlet was complete and meaningful as it was in 1980. The General Service class of 2009 thought it was missing something crucial. Maybe that was their<br>experience— “How can newcomers get sober without the AA step-by-step plan of recovery?” they balked, “What an order!”</p>
<p>I don’t see the insertion of get the Big Book, study the Big Book, or else, as a conspiracy by Big Book militants reacting to how secular (aka diabolical) the pamphlet tone appears to be. Our more enthusiastic<em> inclusionists</em> might see the Big Book rhetoric as contaminating a perfectly peaceful chat with a potential AA member. Is there a growing uniformity over unity fundamentalist movement? Is anything secular or secular-normative seen as a threat. Was the inclusion of “you better read and re-read the Big Book and don’t balk about the 200 usages of the word, ‘God’.” </p>
<p>I don’t see the insertion of <em>get the Big Book, study the Big Book, or else</em>, as a conspiracy by Big Book militants reacting to how secular (AKA diabolical) the pamphlet, “A Newcomer Asks” appears. Our more enthusiastic <em>inclusionists</em> might see the inserted Big Book rhetoric as contaminating a perfectly peaceful chat with a potential AA member. Is there a growing uniformity-over-unity fundamentalist movement?<br><br>Is anything secular or secular-normative seen as a threat. Was the inclusion of “you better read and re-read the Big Book and don’t balk about the 200 usages of the word, ‘God’ in the book Alcoholics Anonymous” an attempt to reverse the secular-friendly literature which is “A Newcomer Asks”? <br><br>I don’t smell an anti-atheist conspiracy. I understand the class of 2009—mostly delegates who got sober between 1980 and 1995. They would have the widely-held view that AA is a book-based society and the Big Book is the instruction book for sobriety. Many of them were raised in a million Big Book per year world.<br> <br>To be clear, I don’t share the notion that the Twelve Steps, as outlined in the book Alcoholics Anonymous is a superior way of getting and staying sober than an à la carte approach or relying on the AA fellowship (not the program). Work or don’t work the Steps; add other self-reflection/self-improvement activity or therapy to your AA sobriety. AA, for me, isn’t a board game where the rules are that we all travel one square after the other, ending at Twelve and being recovered as a result of these Steps. <br><br>If fundamentalist AAs had a clearly better record than all other approaches to AA, I would want that improved outcome for myself and I would recommend it to others. There is no evidence that secular AA is superior to faith-based AA, either. There is no regimen, with or without the Steps that holds a clear advantage over all others. <br><br>While I don’t agree with, I respect the rights of, those who believe a book changed their lives. Sing the praises of Big Book study. All of us—starting with me—would do well to quell our zealotry and avoid depicting our narrative as the official AA, as it was intended by those who came before us. <br><br>The USA/Canada Conference saw fit to urge “A Newcomer Asks”readers to get and study a Big Book in 2009. Autonomous and having its own needs and culture, the UK General Service Conference did not follow suit and add the Big Book pitch in their version of “A Newcomer Asks.” For Brits, one day at a time, reach out for help, work an (undefined) programme is direction enough for any newcomer who is asking. <br><br>This brings me back to “The ‘God’ Word,”—remember, that’s what I started talking about in the first place—let’s cover how the new agnostic/atheist leaflet came to be for AAs in the United Kingdom, and a hurtle that my fellow North American members might want to prepare for, if we want easy access to leaflet #3267.</p>
<p><span class="font_large">UK—not the USA or Canada, eh!</span> <br>Printing “The ‘God’ Word” is an obvious choice for members in the United Kingdom. A collection of stories from members that depend on a personal and right-sized relationship with the natural world makes sense in the UK. Theirs is a is a more secular society that the religious USA where AA came from. To underscore this point, just in time for Christmas, a December 23, 2016 newspaper article started out:<br><br><em>Forget believing in Santa – the tumultuous events of 2016 appear to have left Britons unable to believe in God.<br>A YouGov poll for the Times has shown a four-point decline in the percentage of people who believe in a higher power, from 32 per cent in February last year to 28 per cent now.<br>The drop suggests a far sharper decrease than in previous years, the Times says. Britons' belief in God has long been in decline, but at a rate of about one per cent a year” </em><br><br>Less than three out of 10 Brits believe in a higher power. That’s about opposite to USA numbers. 74% of Americans are certain there is a higher power (Pew Research 2014) <br><br>And what about Canada? Well, why did the Canadian cross the road? To get to the middle.<br><br>And true to our form, we’re in the middle; two-thirds of Canadians believe in a higher power. The importance of religious practice is waning with us hockey-playin’ fur traders and true to our heritage and influences, we’re somewhere between our UK and US cousins in spiritual beliefs and practices. </p>
<p><a contents="" data-link-label="the-god-word-3267-aa-athiests-and-agnostics.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/279165/the-god-word-3267-aa-athiests-and-agnostics.pdf" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/0dc4eb7e898d54e3016d921ab28a5b5286f54139/medium/thegodword-front-cover-2.jpg?1488039635" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" /></a>While I don’t know the entire course of events in the UK, someone presented the idea, a group assembled to collect stories, create a draft, then approval was sought and granted by the delegates and other stakeholders at the UK General Service Conference. Good for them; good for all of us. And this is an obvious course of events in a population whereby less than 30% believe in an intervening deity. <br><br>While the adoption by the USA/Canada General Service Conference of “A Newcomer Asks” may have been routine, will it be as matter-of-fact approval of stories of godless AAs with our more religious American and Canadian General Service Conference? Or will this accommodation be too much for “our more religious members?<br><br>Future results can’t be assumed based on past record. But, the Conference in New York already said “No” to a made in the USA collection of stories by atheists and agnostics. As has been documented on aaAgnostica.org, Rebellion Dogs and other AA gathering-places over the last few years, AA member or Area attempts to produce AA in the words of our non-theistic members has been presented and rejected a dozen times from 1976 to 2014. The rejection of the 2010 initiative in 2011 and 2012 spawned the consolation prize: “Many Paths to Spirituality (2014)” </p>
<p>So, if you’re waiting at home until after the April General Service Conference, when your homegroup will stock up on the new “The ‘God’ Word: Atheists and Agnostics in AA” USA/Canada version—maybe you’re right. But just in case it’s not that simple, do you know who your delegate is?</p>
<p>If you have a home group, it’s in a district which is part of one of ninety-three Areas in Canada and the USA. My group, Beyond Belief Agnostics & Freethinkers Group is part of District 10 in Area 83. Our last chance to talk to our delegate—who votes at the Conference—will be the last weekend of March. In my case, I wrote her a letter. I told her my personal story of how much trouble the current Catch-22 causes in replenishing our stock of “The ‘God’ Word” pamphlets. I told her how much the pamphlet means to newcomers and long-timers alike. I told her, that if it comes up this April at the 67th meeting of the General Service Conference of AA, it would mean a great deal to members in her Area if she votes in the affirmative. <br><br>Here’s a copy of “The ‘God’ Word.” <strong><a contents="You can send your delegate a PDF-copy" data-link-label="the-god-word-3267-aa-athiests-and-agnostics.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/279165/the-god-word-3267-aa-athiests-and-agnostics.pdf" style="" target="_blank">You can send your delegate a PDF-copy (click)</a></strong> and maybe a personal, heartfelt story about how you think this literature is vital in carrying AA’s message. If you’re going to your Area Assembly, download it to your phone and show others, too. <br><br>The General Service Conference is April 23 – 29. In AA, we don’t always get our way; but we always get our say.</p>
<p>A friend of mine whose been sober longer than me, looks at all that’s going on in AA today, secular AA, AA’s reaching out on the internet and the recent peaceful settlement between Toronto Intergroup and secular AA. He said to me, “Despite the best efforts of extremists on both sides, AA may now be healthier than it has been for years.” <br><br>That made me smile. It’s true, the struggle is the journey; struggles and triumphs certainly are the adventures of life. <br> </p>
<table align="right" border="2" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1"><tbody> <tr> <td><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://thedashofficial.bandcamp.com/releases" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/365e4bc395dfc0d6d22e6e6fd75fe7888e8a6f31/medium/29-the-dash.jpg?1488548176" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td>Episode 29 includes music from the recording "A Better Place"<br> by Vancouver's The Dash. <a contents="Hear more or meet the band HERE" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://thedashofficial.bandcamp.com/releases" target="_blank">Hear more or meet the band HERE</a>
</td> </tr>
</tbody></table>
<p>But in 2009, when I was looking at the political and social progress of an African American family moving into the White House, I complacently thought, “It’s only getting better from here.” This is, I think a good time to be in recovery. I will learn from my earlier complacency and I will stay engaged. We all have a say; why wouldn’t we use it for good? <br><br>Thanks for letting me have my say. Peace.</p>
<p><a contents="PDF VERSION OF THIS BLOG (click)" data-link-label="rebelliondogs-blog-march-2017-the-god-word.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/279169/rebelliondogs-blog-march-2017-the-god-word.pdf" style="" target="_blank">PDF VERSION OF THIS BLOG (click)</a></p>
<p><a contents="http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/en_tradition4.pdf" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/en_tradition4.pdf">http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/en_tradition4.pdf</a> </p>
<p><a contents="http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/en_bm-31.pdf" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/en_bm-31.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/en_bm-31.pdf</a> </p>
<p>“If you think you are an atheist, an agnostic or a skeptic, or have any other form of intellectual pride that is keeping you from accepting what is in this book, I feel sorry for you.” Alcoholics Anonymous, “Dr. Bob’s Nightmare” pg. 181 </p>
<p>Ibid pg. 59 </p>
<p><a contents="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2023710.Stools_and_Bottles" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2023710.Stools_and_Bottles" target="_blank">http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2023710.Stools_and_Bottles</a> </p>
<p><a contents="http://www.hazelden.org/OA_HTML/ibeCCtpItmDspRte.jsp?item=3831&amp;sitex=10020:22372:US" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.hazelden.org/OA_HTML/ibeCCtpItmDspRte.jsp?item=3831&sitex=10020:22372:US" target="_blank">http://www.hazelden.org/OA_HTML/ibeCCtpItmDspRte.jsp?item=3831&sitex=10020:22372:US</a> </p>
<p><a contents="https://www.thefix.com/content/joe-charlie-other-two-old-drunks" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.thefix.com/content/joe-charlie-other-two-old-drunks" target="_blank">https://www.thefix.com/content/joe-charlie-other-two-old-drunks</a> </p>
<p><a contents="https://www.thefix.com/five-aa-myths-critics-and-zealots-share" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.thefix.com/five-aa-myths-critics-and-zealots-share" target="_blank">https://www.thefix.com/five-aa-myths-critics-and-zealots-share</a> </p>
<p><a contents="http://www.theweek.co.uk/80065/belief-in-god-plunges-after-torrid-year" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.theweek.co.uk/80065/belief-in-god-plunges-after-torrid-year" target="_blank">http://www.theweek.co.uk/80065/belief-in-god-plunges-after-torrid-year</a> </p>
<p><a contents="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/11/04/americans-faith-in-god-may-be-eroding/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/11/04/americans-faith-in-god-may-be-eroding/" target="_blank">http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/11/04/americans-faith-in-god-may-be-eroding/</a> </p>
<p><a contents="http://news.nationalpost.com/holy-post/religion-not-important-to-most-canadians-although-majority-believe-in-god-poll " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://news.nationalpost.com/holy-post/religion-not-important-to-most-canadians-although-majority-believe-in-god-poll" target="_blank">http://news.nationalpost.com/holy-post/religion-not-important-to-most-canadians-although-majority-believe-in-god-poll </a></p>
<p><a contents="http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-84_manypathstospirituality.pdf " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-84_manypathstospirituality.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-84_manypathstospirituality.pdf </a></p>
<p><a contents="http://www.aa.org/pages/en_US/list-of-general-service-conference-area-web-sites-uscanada" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.aa.org/pages/en_US/list-of-general-service-conference-area-web-sites-uscanada" target="_blank">http://www.aa.org/pages/en_US/list-of-general-service-conference-area-web-sites-uscanada</a> </p>
<p><a contents="http://www.aa.org/pages/en_US/aa-general-service-board-calendars" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.aa.org/pages/en_US/aa-general-service-board-calendars" target="_blank">http://www.aa.org/pages/en_US/aa-general-service-board-calendars</a></p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/4577720
2017-02-05T19:52:48-05:00
2019-09-11T02:26:33-04:00
Ode to Recovery Podcasts - Living Sober, Living Cyber
<p>LIVING CYBER: <br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/4f2418bc2c07ba6f5de887adb12ac68f38c37f33/medium/recovery-101.jpg?1486340827" class="size_m justify_left border_" />"Our first online podcast was probably sometime in April of 2008," recalls Shelly B of Shelly, Bruce and Mark from Recovery 101 Radio Show . "The show was originally a terrestrial radio, scripted program on a station out in San Bernardino. The station engineer told the guys that their numbers were way better with the online podcasts they put up every week, so they decided to skip the studio business and start a regular podcast online. That was around June of 2006." </p>
<p>While Shelly was answering my questions about their experience as recovery podcast pioneers, husband and co-host Bruce was calculating for me how many episodes they have posted. "He's on the calculator," Shelly says. </p>
<p>"Oh man," Bruce quips, "Hang on... he says 1,092, best guess; we currently have over 800 shows up." </p>
<p>Recovery 101: these are the people who really should be offering a commentary on online recovery - not me. But in a moment, I'll link you over to AA Beyond Belief where I am guest blogging on why online 12-Step recovery liberated me... Maybe "saved me," isn't overstating it. </p>
<p>Bruce and Shelly continue about my question about the beginings of Recovery 101 - The meeting after the meeting. "The idea for the show came from one night at Starbucks; a friend of ours found a recovery radio show on the air and all the guys went out to his car to listen to it. And it was boring as hell. Everyone agreed that if recovery had been presented to them in that way, they'd still be getting loaded. "'We should do our own show!' TA DA! </p>
<p>"'The meeting after the meeting' idea came from later that same night when they realized that if they put a mic out on the table at Starbucks after the meeting, it would be weird and possibly entertaining. We call going to coffee after a meeting, 'the meeting after the meeting.' Viola'. The show's tagline came to be." </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/f3a5329bbb1e500b281e6fa7f2a7d64b5ded170b/medium/livingcyber.jpg?1486340865" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" />Today "Why We Do This" is the episode name. Last show was, "A Design for Living." Two great meeting after the meeting topics. </p>
<p>"What would you alter or improve?" I ask. "Well, we'd love to get our new mixing board fixed!" Shelly laughs, "We had to go back to the old board temporarily when I managed to mess up some settings. Seriously, we'd love to start taking callers, and we want to host it on our own website eventually, instead of Pod-O-matic." </p>
<p>Almost every week Recovery 101 is ranked #1 on Self-help podcasts in Podomatic's ranking of podcasts. </p>
<p>That's me picking the brains of addiction/recovery pioneers. Of note, their latest show "Why We Do This" was somewhat inspired by the query about Recovery101 beginnings. In this show Shelly, Bruce and Mark reflect on their past and why they do what they do. Over 1,000 podcasts. I can only imagine how many times they thought about quitting. I'm glad they're only a few clicks away. I listen in often. Their dedication continues to inspire me. There are others of course. I love what Chris A says, from Since Right Now/Recovery Revolution. "If there's one person out there saying, 'I heard your show and it made a difference,' that's good enough for me." </p>
<p>Thank-you AA-BeyondBelief for inviting me to contribute. Your team is such a good example of team-building and quality: respect. <br><br>If you're a podcaster in recovery, I listen. I don't know if there's any I missed. If you think I haven't heard it all, please don't leave me in the dark. Send me a link, please. High-tech<em> is</em> high-touch in the way online recovery reaches out, bringing hope and building community. Online is great way to criticize, to celebrate, to seek and to share. If you're a podcast fan, well I'm not just another content creator. I'm a consumer. I'm grateful. So, here's my salute to all of you listeners and all of you who share. Check out AA-BeyondBelief here.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font_large">Read, listen or join the conversation. AA-BeyondBelief February 5th 2017: <br><a contents="http://www.aabeyondbelief.com/2017/02/05/living-cyber/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.aabeyondbelief.com/2017/02/05/living-cyber/" target="_blank">http://www.aabeyondbelief.com/2017/02/05/living-cyber/</a></span></p>
<p><br> </p>
<table align="center" border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width:500px;"><tbody> <tr> <td><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/1ff94a33483d67b1594f09717654703252db7f04/medium/since-right-now.jpg?1486340843" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></td> <td><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.aabeyondbelief.com/" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/9613b33ed50eb77c06b197c1fcb6b69f10dc16d7/medium/aa-beyond-belief.jpg?1482452049" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="text-align: center;">Recovery Revolution</td> <td style="text-align: center;"><a contents="AA Beyond Belief Podcast" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.aabeyondbelief.com/2017/02/05/living-cyber/" target="_blank">AA Beyond Belief Podcast</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.take12radio.com/" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/6bd251d7135cf9095c99786579b46d7a178d4e45/medium/take-12-recovery.jpg?1486340858" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></a></td> <td><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://rehabreviews.com/category/podcast/" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/c293f4d6f5954e02d9f4c8759ae9fedabf5ffca4/medium/after-party-pod.png?1486341532" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="text-align: center;"><a contents="Monty Man on Take 12 Radio" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.take12radio.com/" target="_blank">Monty Man on Take 12 Radio</a></td> <td style="text-align: center;"><a contents="Ann David, not one but two podcasts&nbsp;" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://rehabreviews.com/category/podcast/" target="_blank">Ann David, not one but two podcasts </a></td> </tr>
</tbody></table>
<p> </p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/4235631
2016-06-17T15:07:14-04:00
2020-09-22T09:53:18-04:00
Courage to Change, notes to accompany Rebellion Dogs Radio #24
<p>The following are notes, sometimes expanded and sometimes the same as the script for Rebellion Dogs Radio show # 24 Courage to Change.<br><br>Read away or if you want to just listen,click here:</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="85" id="ei8091679" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rebelliondogs12stepradio.podomatic.com/embed/frame/posting/2016-06-09T23_31_33-07_00?json_url=http%3A%2F%2Frebelliondogs12stepradio.podomatic.com%2Fentry%2Fembed_params%2F2016-06-09T23_31_33-07_00%3Fcolor%3D43bee7%26autoPlay%3Dfalse%26facebook%3Dtrue%26height%3D85%26minicast%3Dfalse%26objembed%3D0%26width%3D300&notb=1" width="300"></iframe></p>
<p><br>If you prefer to read from a PDF (online or print yourself) <a contents="CLICK HERE" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-radio-june-2016-transcript-courage-to-change.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/245562/rebellion-dogs-radio-june-2016-transcript-courage-to-change.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#AFEEEE;"><strong>CLICK HERE</strong></span></a><br><br>As is the season, let's visit AA’s annual membership survey as reported in the Summer Box 4-5-9. Let’s take inventory of current events and take AA’s pulse. While not all of us will be alive to see it, AA’s 100th anniversary is 19 years away. What are we doing right; what ought we alter or improve to ensure we have a centennial? <br><br>Here is AA’s own accounting of members at January 1, 2016:<br> </p>
<table align="center" border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width: 500px;"><tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 185px; text-align: center;"><strong>Location</strong></td> <td style="width: 185px; text-align: center;"><strong>Members</strong></td> <td style="width: 185px; text-align: center;"><strong>Year over Year</strong></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="width: 185px; text-align: center;">World-wide</td> <td style="width: 185px; text-align: center;">2,089,698</td> <td style="width: 185px; text-align: center;">+2.4%</td> </tr> <tr> <td style="width: 185px; text-align: center;">USA</td> <td style="width: 185px; text-align: center;">1,262,542</td> <td style="width: 185px; text-align: center;">-1.7%</td> </tr> <tr> <td style="width: 185px; text-align: center;">Canada</td> <td style="width: 185px; text-align: center;">85,530</td> <td style="width: 185px; text-align: center;">-5.0%</td> </tr> <tr> <td style="width: 185px; text-align: center;">Non-Can/USA</td> <td style="width: 185px; text-align: center;">705,850</td> <td style="width: 185px; text-align: center;">+11.7%</td> </tr> <tr> <td style="width: 185px; text-align: center;">Loners/others</td> <td style="width: 185px; text-align: center;">66</td> <td style="width: 185px; text-align: center;">-</td> </tr>
</tbody></table>
<p><br>From January 2014 to January 2015, we saw an overall drop in AA population of 5%. That year, USA membership limited the losses. This year, American membership is down 1.7%. This time last year we saw Canadians behaving about the same; this year’s 5% drop followed a 4% decline in Canuks in AA the previous year. Internationals have seen dramatic fluctuation; two years ago non-USA/Canada members were down 13% and this year Internationals are up almost 12%. </p>
<p>For perspective, by AA’s own accounting, our membership exceeded two million for the first time in the early 1990s. We’ve been up and down since, sometimes dropping below two million and peaking at 2.2 million in 2002. </p>
<p>Rebellion Dogs has sometimes compared AA membership to the larger recover community. From DrugFree.org we heard this in 2012: <br><br><em>“New York, NY, March, 6 2012 – Survey data released today by the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids and The New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) show that 10 percent of all American adults, ages 18 and older, consider themselves to be in recovery from drug or alcohol abuse problems. These nationally representative findings indicate that there are 23.5 million American adults who are overcoming an involvement with drugs or alcohol that they once considered to be problematic.” </em><br><br>This survey of Americans in long-term recovery rose 15% (from 20 million to 23.5 million from their previous survey). Last year, Rebellion Dogs looked at demographic data from the turn-of-the-century book, Bowling Alone: Collapse and Revival of American Community. We saw that AA’s treading water in population numbers is head-and-shoulders above other organizations ranging from religions losing adherents, professional associations not attracting their peers and even the American Bowling Congress members and bowling alley attendance. Information without context is easy to misjudge but it’s also hard to find exact apples to apples comparisons for AA. <br><br>If you buy the adage, “If you’re not growing your dying,” AA’s population dormancy is concerning. Maybe not today, but when we look at the road to AA’s 100th birthday in 2035 will we be a viable, relevant society in 19 years? There are many, too, who dismiss the data as unreliable or having negligible predictive qualities. <br>At the time of composing this blog/podcast, June 2016, some USA political surveys show the democratic favorite, Hillary Clinton and the expected Republican nominee, Donald Trump neck-in-neck with each other. Others say that because this data is from surveys of people who still use a landline phone—which may indicate an older, more conservative population that the general electoral population—poles aren’t reaching the younger mobile phone users. <br><br>The recent Canadian federal election outcome wasn’t predicted by pollsters. While a tight three-way race between incumbent Conservatives, Liberals and New Democrats was billed for the 2015 election, the Liberal majority left prognosticators in damage-control mode. The polestars were wrong by a large margin. <br><br><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.aabeyondbelief.com/2016/06/05/vic-l-and-secular-aa/" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/3b7e6a0d98fa13b73ea1fd8ba0f632053ecbc9c4/medium/aa-beyond-belief-page.jpg?1444571333" class="size_m justify_left border_" /></a>What does this have to do with AA? This idea of a shrinking AA, at least in traditional face-to-face meetings, does not fly in the face of our everyday observations. I was just listening to Vic L. from New York City and John S. from Kansas City comparing notes on <a contents="aaBeyondBelief the Podcast " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.aabeyondbelief.com/2016/06/05/vic-l-and-secular-aa/" target="_blank"><strong>aaBeyondBelief the Podcast </strong></a>and both NY and KC meetings aren’t as populous as they once were. Here in Toronto, there was a time in the 1980s and 1990s that there we dozens of meetings that drew hundreds, downtown and in the burrows. These same groups that attracted hundreds, today draw dozens—not hundreds. So, like the bowling alleys and churches of years ago, at least from a casual gaze, AA isn’t as big in the USA and Canada as it once was. <br><br>But like the polestars of elections maybe there are others who count themselves as part of AA but aren’t included in our meetings. I spend a lot a more time listening to podcasts and reading memoirs and reading blogs written by AA members about addiction, recovery and AA life than I spend in meetings. How many others are spending more time sharing recovery online instead of going to community centres or church basements to get their AA fill? It’s just something to think about. <br><br>So, it’s an interesting question as to how well AA’s annual poling systems captures the overall membership. The one thing that the annual survey affords us is a comparison between AA internal numbers one year with the same methodology of the next year. The actual numbers may not be 100% accurate but hopefully the up and/or down trending is an accurate depiction. <br><br>Here's another quasi means of measuring AA engagement. The Fall Box 4-5-9 reported over 57,000 AA’s and Alanons were in attendance in Atlanta in 2015 for AA’s 80th birthday. This marked an all-time high for AA convention attendance. <br><br>Back in ’85 I attended my first in Montreal and 45,000 AAs were there. Ten years later, the numbers increased to 56,000 in Seattle (1995). Convention attendance dropped in 2000 in Minneapolis to 47,000 and dropped more in Toronto with 44,000. Then we climbed to 53,000 in San Antonio (2010) and we were on the increase again in Atlanta, again hitting 57,000+, a record. So is convention attendance indicative of AA’s overall size? I am sure it’s a clue. We do see that every 20 years when the convention moves from USA to Canada, there’s a dip in attendance. Perhaps American members who don’t have a passport or suffer from criminal records can’t make it to Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver. (SEE TRANSCRIPT FOR GRAPHS and DETAILS).<br> <br>Going back to the annual numbers, what does the double digit increases and declines in the last two years mean for non-USA/Canada members? I am sure AA issues have a unique impact in India, which wouldn’t be felt in the UK or vice versa. Germany compared to Japan, Australia vs Ethiopia, regional AA comes with its own issues with attraction rather than promotion. <br><br>But at least this year we see that—if more is better—International AA is carrying the load while Canada and the USA are declining in membership. And while AA is never on a membership drive, we want to meet the need. We want to eliminate barriers and build bridges. </p>
<p><strong>AA: An Interpretation For the Nonbeliever (Hazelden)</strong> <br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/7a8709d08afac6aa62f8e5329688fe79c40443ac/medium/image.jpeg?1465538544" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" />Jackie B of Recovery Works Theater from San Francisco was one of last episode’s guests: Rebellion Dogs Radio #23. This just in: She asked for my mailing address and I gave it to her and what came of it? I got this out-of-print Hazelden pamphlet, AA: An Interpretation For the Nonbeliever by Dr. John R. Weinberg. How great can friends be? Thank you Jackie B. <br><br>So, I did some research on it because I wasn’t to recommend it to you all. I’ll keep looking but I think it’s been mothballed. I did find and buy The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous: Interpreted by the Hazelden Foundation and I hoped it would include psychologist, Jon Weinberg. Sadly, the 1993 publication passes on the earlier contributions of Weinberg’s secular view including his 1975 pamphlet about AA and directed to both the medical community and prospective 12-Step members. <br><br>Here’s something from the Hazelden interpretations that I could buy online. It’s by Karen Elliott, Former Director or Hazelden Educational Material who is best known to our community by the pen-name Karen Casey who wrote Every Day a New Beginning, Worthy of Love and coauthor of The Promise of a New Day. So here’s what she says in the 1993 introduction: <br><br><em>“Hazelden has intentionally selected several voices to share their interpretation for the Steps, because a guiding principle of the Fellowship is that we should ‘take what fits and leave the rest.’ In other words, no individual speaks for a group or the organization as a whole. Each of us, in our search for spiritual, emotional, and mental health, must decide for ourselves how to apply the principles of the program in our lives. The application of a Step for one may differ, significantly on occasion, from an application that is meaningful to someone else.” </em><br><br>That’s from the 1993 Hazelden collection of interpretations which includes Mel B, and other AAs + a PhD in Pastoral Theology and chemical dependency professionals. <br><br>There is one especially poignant statement in the booklet Jackie sent me that is a shout out to everyone—Intergroup, GSO, you, me—everyone who wants AA to thrive in unity, service and recovery. <br><br>Ernie Kurtz would reference Jon Weinberg’s work in <em>Not God: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous</em> so if you’ve read Ernie, you know or at least have been influenced by Weinberg. So, here’s some samples from by Jon R. Weinberg PhD, Hazelden Foundation Inc., 1975 AA: An Interpretation For the Nonbeliever<br> <br><em>"Contrary to what many professionals believe, the 12 Steps of AA are suggested, not mandatory. The only requirement is a desire to stop drinking. Individuals are free to interpret and practice the steps as they wish, if at all. However, since AA is basically a way of life rather than a social club, the 12 Steps serve as a framework upon which most successful members build their new existence. … many of the reservations about AA from both professionals and new or prospective members center on the content of the steps. Therefore, each step will be briefly analyzed from the authors viewpoint, which is secular and psychological, with the hope that other professions may utilize the approach comfortably with their clients if it is acceptable to themselves."</em> (p4) <br><br>Step 3 <br><br><em>In simplest terms, Step 3 means doing we should do rather than what we want to do. While this approach may be highly desirable for all people, it is often a life-or-death matter for the alcoholic. There will be innumerable times during recovery when he or she will want to drink, and only a strong commitment to what should be done, i.e. abstain regardless of circumstances, can prevent a relapse. … To summarize the first three steps, then, the alcoholic accepts his problem, i.e. falling victim to an incurable disease which is severely impairing his functioning; believers there is a partial remedy, i.e. a recovery program which fosters sane living; and decides to follow the program, i.e. commits himself to doing as he should. We how turn to the mental health aspects as found in the other nine steps of the program. <br><br>Under Typical Criticisms of AA: </em>1) AA is a substitute dependency, 2) AA is too religious, 3) AA is too rigid, 4)<br>AA members are fanatic, smug, outspoken or otherwise obnoxious and 5) AA is prejudiced against professionals, in all of these rebuttals to objections, Dr. Jon Weinberg makes sound counter arguments with a compassionate understanding as to how any professional or prospective AA member might draw these conclusions. Under “AA is prejudiced against professionals Weinberg articulates the plight of identity politics.<br><br>In the mid-70s, for sure and maybe it’s the same today, alcoholics often faced condescension, moralizing and righteous indignation from both loved ones and professionals. What got the most visceral reaction from me in what Wienburg wrote in 1975, was this short discussion as to why AA’s or practicing alcoholics might feel fed up with the medical profession. As you’re reading this passage below, maybe you will see similarities, as I did, with the non-theist in AA today and the attitudes of what the Spiritual Appendix describes as “our more religious members,” as well as those in the service structure to which we’ve been asking for accommodation by means of a larger voice in AA literature whereby atheist/agnostic speaks to atheist/agnostic. <br><br>Check this out from page 12 of <em>AA: An Interpretation For the Nonbeliever</em>: <br><br>"<em>Bigotry is almost invariably a two-way street. When some minority group is discriminated against, whether due to race, religion, ethnicity, age, or stigmatized illness, that group tends to become hostile in a biased fashion toward all those labelled, ‘oppressors’. Alcoholics have not been accorded dignity, respect, and competent treatment by society as a whole, but professions entrusted with their care bear a special burden of responsibility for the systematic maltreatment and non-treatment, overt and disguised rejection, that historically has been the rule rather than the exception. Even though the climate appears to be gradually changing as professionals become enlightened, it may be a long time before an alcoholic can be reasonably confident that any given professional understands the illness, accepts its victims, and is competent to participate in its treatment."</em><br><br>The booklet goes on to discuss why AA is effective with emphasis on the Fellowship, implications for professionals and Alanon are also discussed. <br><br>For all this and a complete transcript of Rebellion Dogs Radio #24, Courage to Change which, at the time of recording looked ahead to the Human Rights Tribunal case in the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal. We look at actions and the equally tragic flaw of inaction committed by Toronto Intergroup and AAWS. We draw from a fiction writer and biologist to look at how, from religion to science, dogma builds walls and walls are the sign of society that loves inaction.<br><br><a contents="FULL PDF TRANSCRIPT HERE" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-radio-june-2016-transcript-courage-to-change.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/245562/rebellion-dogs-radio-june-2016-transcript-courage-to-change.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#000000;"><strong>FULL PDF TRANSCRIPT </strong></span><span style="color:#FFFF00;"><strong>CLICK HERE</strong></span></a><br><br>Thoughts from Bill W:</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>“Let us never Fear needed change. Certainly we have to discriminate between changes for the worse and changes for the better. But once a need becomes clearly apparent in an individual, in a group, or in AA as a whole, it has long since been found out that we cannot stand still and look the other way. The essence of all growth is a willingness to change for the better and then an unremitting willingness to shoulder whatever Responsibility this entails.”</em> Bill W. A.A. Grapevine July 1965, As Bill Sees It p. 115</p>
<p><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/d39ff6893d6e9821819a780eff4c9172f073fa24/medium/28881.jpg?1466189270" class="size_m justify_left border_" />Fictional musings from Christopher Moore's <em>Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal</em>: <br><br>We were twelve days into our journey, following Balthasar’s meticulously drawn map, when we came to the wall. <br><br>“So,” I said, “what do you think of the wall?” <br><br>“It’s great,” said Joshua [According to "Biff" the real name for Jesus 2000 years ago was Joshua. That's what everyone called him, then]. <br><br>“It’s not that great,” I said. <br><br>There was a long line waiting to get through the giant gate, where scores of bureaucrats collected taxes from caravan masters as they passed through. The gatehouses alone were each as big as one of Herod’s places, and soldiers rode horses atop the wall, patrolling far into the distance. We were a good league back from the gate and the line didn’t seem to be moving. <br><br>“This is going to take all day, “I said. “Why would they build such a thing? If you can build a wall like this, then you ought to be able to raise an army large enough to defeat any invaders.” <br><br>“Lao-tzu built this wall,” Joshua said. <br><br>“The old master who wrote the Tao? I don’t think so.” <br><br>“What does the Tao value above all else? <br><br>“Compassion? Those other two jewel things?” <br><br>“No, inaction. Contemplation. Steadiness. Conservatism. A wall is the defense of a country that values inaction. But a wall imprisons the people of a country as much as it protects them. That’s why Balthasar had us go this way. He wanted me to see the error in the Tao. One can’t be free without action.” <br>“So he spent all that time teaching us the Tao so we could see that it was wrong.”<br> <br>“No, not wrong. Not all of it. The compassion, humility moderation of the Tao, these are the qualities of a righteous man, but not inaction. These people are slaves to inaction.” <br><br>“The magus wasn’t teaching us about action in work, it was action as in change. That’s why we learned Confucius first—everything is like the Torah, rules to follow. And Loa-tzu is even more conservative, saying that if you do nothing won’t break any rules. You have to let tradition fall sometimes, you have to take action, you to eat bacon. That’s what Balthasar was trying to teach me.” <br><br>I’ve said it before, Josh—and you know I love bacon—but I don’t think that it is enough for the Messiah to bring bacon.” <br><br>“Change,” Joshua said. “A Messiah has to bring change. Change comes through action. Balthasar once told me, ‘There has never been a conservative hero.’ He was wise, that old man.”<br><br>LISTEN TO THE WHOLE REBELLION DOGS RADIO SHOW<br>Steam on Pod-0-Matic CLICK HERE<br><a contents="Stream or download on Soundcloud CLICK HERE" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://soundcloud.com/rebellion-dogs" target="_blank">Stream or download on Soundcloud CLICK HERE</a><br><a contents="Go to Rebellion Dogs Radio Page CLICK HERE" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://rebelliondogspublishing.com/rebellious-radio/blog/episode-24-june-2016-aa-stats-and-a-1975-brochure-for-nonbelievers" target="_blank">Go to Rebellion Dogs Radio Page CLICK HERE</a></p>
<p><br><br>Notes:<br>May 31st, 2016 Toronto Intergroup released their filed defense against charges of discrimination and harassment, contrary to the Ontario Human Rights Code. To view Intergroup's defense <a contents="CLICK HERE for a PDF." data-link-label="intergroup-dislosure-ontario-human-rights-tribunal-defense-may-31-2016.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/245695/intergroup-dislosure-ontario-human-rights-tribunal-defense-may-31-2016.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#00FFFF;">CLICK HERE</span> for a PDF.</a><br><br>Elliott, Karen, The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous: Interpreted by the Hazelden Foundation, Center City: Hazelden Publishing, 1993 </p>
<p>Weinberg, Ph.D., Jon R, AA: An Interpretation For the Nonbeliever, Center City: Hazelden Foundation Inc., 1975</p>
<p>http://www.drugfree.org/newsroom/survey-ten-percent-of-american-adults-report-being-in-recovery-from-substance-abuse-or-addiction/ </p>
<p>http://www.aabeyondbelief.com/2016/06/05/vic-l-and-secular-aa/</p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/4036747
2016-02-11T14:36:12-05:00
2021-07-07T12:27:05-04:00
AA's General Service Conference takes it's own Inventory
<p>I though about calling this blog something more musical, like "With a Little Help from our Friends" as we take a look at the role of nonalcoholic trustees in helping guide AA policy and management.<br><br><a contents="DOWNLOAD or VIEW a PDF" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-blog-february-2016.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/226359/rebellion-dogs-blog-february-2016.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#ADD8E6;"><strong>DOWNLOAD or VIEW a PDF</strong></span></a> Building a more barrier-free AA has been part of a larger discussion about AA’s future. AAs practice what we preach; we admit when we are wrong, we see where we can’t progress without direction and we are willing to make changes. Case in point: The results of AA’s own inventory are published and we have a list of deficiencies that we are motivated to change. <br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/962162f0e3658efa3a7eb43f3ec5d1b2ab65eea1/original/aa-barrier-free.jpg?0" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>Our General Service structure depends on the time and energy of trustees and staff, both alcoholics and nonalcoholics. In this blog, let’s look at the role of our nonalcoholic friends of AA and ask what professional help we need most to see our way to AA’s 100th anniversary. <br>What if...? Join me in a little thought experiment. </p>
<ul> <li>Engagement: Imagine an AA where every member felt connected with, and well served by, the General Service Conference and our service structure in general. </li> <li>Diversity: Imagine an AA whereby there are no underrepresented populations. </li> <li>Change: Imagine encouraging change from the fellowship, not rolled out to the fellowship. Imagine a more accommodating, barrier free AA. </li>
</ul>
<p><br>Please stay with me a moment as we visualize an engaged, diverse and changing Alcoholics Anonymous. I’m not peddling some liberal mythology about AA being of the people for the people. Engagement, diversity and change are right out of <em>A.A. General Service Conference Inventory Compendium 2013 – 2015</em>. It is not a secret document. If you are a member or a regular at an AA meeting, tell your General Service Rep you’d like to read it. <br><br>The General Service Conference is asking, “What can we alter or improve? How could we better ready the hand of AA to reach out whenever and wherever the need presents itself?” The report includes ideas about how to involve marginalized members in the Inventory and how to involve rank and file members in the agenda. Wholesome words like transparency, accommodation, equality and trust are found through the 32 pages. <br><br>This blog focuses on one specific question and one specific idea regarding one specific AA deficiency, which the Inventory Compendium addresses on page 23. It’s about seeking outside help for the fellowship as a whole. It’s about recruiting nonalcoholic trustees. <br><br>AA provides help for those in need, but what help does AA need in order to be more efficient and effective? Nonalcoholic trustees offer our fellowship help with issues above and beyond the generous time and experience that our own membership can provide. <br><br>Class A (nonalcoholic) trustees bring professional and business expertise—finance, healthcare, legal, communications—that come with new eyeglasses to view and help with our challenges, objectives and management. So this month, Rebellion Dogs asks: what’s missing? What professions or skills are lacking and who ought we be looking to for help with our deficiencies? <br><br>First we admit that there’s a problem, then accept that help is needed, then we follow through with the guidance given. Sound familiar? So if we’re standing at a turning point who can be our guide?</p>
<p><br><span class="font_large">Class A Trustees - background of nonalcoholic friends of AA: </span></p>
<p>A.A.’s General Service Board is comprised of 14 alcoholics who represent our Class B trustees and seven nonalcoholic, Class A trustees. Our current chair is a healthcare executive. Terrance M. Bedient, non-alcoholic, has been a General Service Board trustee and/or treasurer since 2008. <br><br>Former chairs have included clergyman Reverend Ward Ewing. From the treatment profession, Leonard Blumenthal spent decades with the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission (AADAC) before receiving the General Service Board chair gavel from Elaine McDowell, Ph.D., who worked with the U.S. Federal Government as deputy director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and as director of the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP). [Dr. McDowell and Mr. Blumenthal are pictured]</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/6aa9ef6ea301ee23b06575f2934e864aac231715/medium/aa-leonard-and-elaine.jpg?0" class="size_m justify_left border_" />Other notable nonalcoholic friends of AA include Dr. George Vaillant, psychiatrist and Harvard teacher and Gordon Patrick, a specialist in occupational alcoholism from the Addiction Research Foundation in Ontario (Now the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health). Concerned about money and AA? In 2013, a new Class A trustee was chosen and AA’s media release announced, “David M. Morris, a prominent member of the New York financial community, has been elected a Class A (nonalcoholic) trustee and new treasurer of the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous.” <br><br>Friends of AA have been offering guidance and expertise since the lawyer and early right-hand to Bill W., Bern Smith, generously helped create what we know today as the General Service Board. He drafted bylaws and other important documents that AA could hardly have afforded to pay market prices for. <br><br>At Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Bill Wilson infamously said, “Newcomers are approaching A.A. at the rate of tens of thousands yearly. Let us not pressure anyone with our individual or collective views. Let us, instead, accord each other with respect and love.” But Bernard Smith also addressed what was the largest gathering of AA at the time—10,000 members—with these words:<br><br><em>“You have something great and awesome going for you. Treat it tenderly, respect what it has done for you and what it can do for others. … As long as one man dwells in the darkness you once knew, you cannot rest; you must try to find him and help him become one of you. …[M]ay Alcoholics Anonymous last for all time.”</em> <br><br>At the first ever International Conference for AA atheists/agnostics/freethinkers, held in Santa Monica in 2014, nonalcoholic trustee emeritus Rev. Ward Ewing held a prominent role. <br><br>These professionals share their expertise generously for the good of AA Some of them are from the helping-drunks business. Some Class As, while not struggling with booze themselves, have been hurt by alcoholism; shake any family tree and a few drunks fall out of it. Some professionals, through observing AA’s effectiveness on friends and family, were friends of AA long before we came asking for help. Having one foot in and one foot out, our nonalcoholic trustees bring objectivity to issues that we alcoholics have very strong feelings about but don’t always agree on. Another great value Class As bring is that unlike AA members, nonalcoholics can face cameras and reporters, and be fully identified in the media. <br><br>Our current chair, Terry Bedient has had a distinguished career in the field of medical administration, beginning in the mid-1970s as Chief of Social Services for the U.S. Army and later, Health Care Administration at George Washington University. He held administrative posts at hospitals in Virginia; New York City; Michigan; and Rochester, N.Y. Terry Bedient has served on a dozen nonprofit boards, most recently with the Federation of State Physician Health Programs with membership in the U.S., Canada and the Netherlands. He is a regular lecturer at ten medical schools and 60 New York hospitals. He was appointed by New York’s Chief Judge to the Commission on Alcoholism in the Legal Profession. Pretty busy, isn’t he?<br> <br>“I had always seen A.A. as a key component of a successful recovery program. My A.A. service has reinforced the value of A.A. not just to those in recovery but, to society as a whole. A.A. provides a crucial service to alcoholics in this country, in Canada, and in the world at large.”[i] <br><br>We’ve noted in previous Rebellion Dogs blog posts that Mr. Bedient will, with the other trustees on the board, focus on providing leadership and to grow and engage the AA membership.<br> <br><span class="font_large">What’s the next Steps for AA: Help with what and from what friends?</span> <br>The General Service Conference aims to employ corrective measures. At the 2013 General Service Conference, outgoing Class B trustee George M. quoted Bill W. (Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age p. 231) in saying: <br><br>“Just as each A.A. must continue to take his moral inventory and act upon it, so must our whole society if we are to survive and if we are to serve usefully and well.” <br>Self-assessment is a pervasive part of our A.A. program; fully half of our Steps are directly related to it. Inventory of the Conference and personal inventory in the Steps are not quite the same, however. At the Conference, the emphasis will be on effectiveness in carrying out the purpose of the Conference, not on ‘character defects.’ In his introduction of the Concepts, Bill was quite clear about the importance of making changes in order to maintain an effective service structure. He said, “Concern has been expressed lest the detailed portrayal of our internal structure might not later harden down into such a firm tradition or gospel that necessary changes would be impossible to make. Nothing could stray further from the intent of these Concepts.”[ii] <br><br>Page 23 of the Conference Inventory Compendium talks about getting more feedback from members when it comes to seeking out the best Class A trustees. Not that membership engagement, diversity and change are the only fish to fry, but who, out there in the professional world, knows about steering organizations through rapidly changing cultural environments? Our membership data shows underrepresented populations by age, race and gender. Barriers don’t fix themselves because we simply identify that we have a problem any more than acceptance is a cure for alcoholism.</p>
<p> <br><br><span class="font_large">Human Resources/Human Rights: our code of love and tolerance in action </span></p>
<p>Class A trustees come from Canada and the USA. I don’t know exactly where our next nonalcoholic steward will come from but he or she will bring with them a new language and a new way of looking at things. Taking our own inventory is noble. But counting the trees from inside the forest doesn’t give us an outsider’s perspective. The most successful companies hire consulting firms to relentlessly take stock of an operation’s strengths and weaknesses, compare them to the competition and prognosticate on possible shifts in their specific industry and the marketplace as a whole. <br><br>So, let’s just assume the next professional AA added to our arsenal was from the Human Resources discipline. What would that look like? Let’s Google “human rights” and “human resources,” and see how people are talking in the rest of the world. <br><br>Here’s what I see from my screen: My first hit, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) from the USA and they apply “three key principles to its work on human rights: </p>
<ul> <li>First, DRL strives to learn the truth and state the facts in all of its human rights investigations… </li> <li>Second, DRL takes consistent positions concerning past, present, and future abuses. </li> <li>Third, DRL forges and maintains partnerships with organizations, government, and multilateral institutions committed to human rights.[i]</li>
</ul> <br>There’s nothing there—taking inventory, being honest, making amends, changing for the better—that is un-AA. If we click on something on the North side of the USA/Canada border, we might land someone from one of the Provincial Human Rights Commissions. Like the USA counterparts, Canadians like the three bullet point system, too. From the Ontario Human Rights Commission, we find the following: <ol> <li>Numerical Data: Numerical data such as statistics may show that marginalized persons are not being equally treated by or within an organization. In some instances, numerical data will suggest that there may be systemic discrimination because too few racialized people are represented, for example in positions of leadership. … </li> <li>Policies, Practices and Decision-Making Processes: Formal and informal policies, practices and decision-making processes can result in barriers for and exclusion of racialized persons. The use of informal or highly discretionary approaches are particularly problematic as there is more room for subjective considerations, differing standards and biases to come into play. It is also important not to design policies, practices and decision-making processes in a way that does not account for individual differences or that uses the dominant culture as the norm. </li> <li>Organizational Culture: Organizations can have their own internal cultures which, if not inclusive, can marginalize or alienate … an organization that values a particular communication style based on how people from the dominant culture tend to communicate may undervalue a different, but equally effective, communication style … Organizations must ensure that they are not unconsciously engaging in systemic discrimination. This takes vigilance and a willingness to monitor and review numerical data, policies, practices and decision-making processes and organizational culture. [ii] </li>
</ol>
<p>Again, while this three-part assessment has some sobering language, I can see by our own report that our Conference is already looking for ways to do better. The Conference sees that there are voices in AA that aren’t heard. Ideas about how to engage [AC1] young people, members of the armed forces and persons with special needs are being discussed. Not only are we looking for ways in which marginalized populations can be part of the conversation, but we’re looking for ways to better involve them in leadership. <br><br>There’s also talk about being more flexible about how to engage Class A trustees. Currently the four to eight-year demand upon these trustees limits the pool of available candidates; it’s reasonable to think that the best people are the busiest people. <br><br>Nonalcoholics with special skills in human resources might help us reach out to the public—especially in our underrepresented communities. We have gotten good at broadcasting AA’s message. Perhaps we need be more skilled about asking how we can empathize and accommodate cultural characteristics that aren’t well served by our current rituals and language. <br><br>We might be able to get some pointers on knowing who we are, too. Our triennial survey has asked about a lot of quasi-outside issues such as mental health, marital status, age, race and relationships with our family doctors. Here is something I think would be great to find out about our ever-changing fellowship – what do we believe? <br><br>AA holds us out to the public as being a group of people that wouldn’t usually mix in “A Newcomer Asks..."[iii] <br><br><em>Q: “There is a lot of talk about God, though, isn't there?” </em></p>
<p><em>A: The majority of A.A. members believe that we have found the solution to our drinking problem not through individual willpower, but through a power greater than ourselves. However, everyone defines this power as he or she wishes. </em></p>
<ol> <li><em>Many people call it God, </em></li> <li><em>Others think it is the A.A. group, </em></li> <li><em>Still others don't believe in it at all. </em></li>
</ol>
<p><em>There is room in A.A. for people of all shades of belief and non-belief. </em><br><br>We know—because we ask—what percentage of us are female/male, under 21 and over 71-years-old, working, retired and how many of us are sober less than one year, one to five years, etc. To quantify what our “A Newcomer Asks..." pamphlet states so boldly, why don’t we find out? How many of us “don’t believe in (a power greater than ourselves) at all”? How many see other alcoholics (the group) as being this power? How many AAs have a personal deity (because many faithful North Americans don’t call it god)? Is there a forth option, “none of the above” maybe? I don’t know the answers to these questions but it is no more controversial to ask than any of the other questions we’ve been asking through the years. <br><br>Not only would a snapshot tell us about us, but taking the pulse of the AA memberships worldview every few years would tell us if there’s a shift in member identity. Because with an evolving identity, we have evolving needs, both individual and collective. </p> I encourage anyone reading this blog to review <em>A.A. General Service Conference Inventory</em> (F-205). Ask your General Service Rep about it; these topics have been workshop items for Area Assemblies and Regional Forums for the last few years.
<p> <br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/ef925d7070f3490b3a89f519d985bcf4146a8706/medium/bertrand-russell.jpg?0" class="size_m justify_left border_" />In the early 1940s, as our book Alcoholics Anonymous was becoming known, Bertrand Russell was writing his own book, The Value of Free Thought: How to Become a Truth-Seeker and Break the Chains of Mental Slavery. In many ways, this title describes the process of recovery from addiction. We had to admit the truth and break the chains of (emotional and mental) slavery from alcohol. In a way, the AA movement was a free thought movement that broke free from the constraints of the Oxford Group. <br><br>In his book, Russell describes the process of vigilance, seeking and open-mindedness which is the spirit of AA’s self-evaluation and willingness to do better. Russell talks about the discipline needed to be free. We don’t bow to popular opinion; we don’t cave to our impulses—neither of these reactions would be freedom. Rather, we obey the evidence. <br><br><em>“The freedom that the freethinker seeks is not the absolute freedom of anarchy; it is freedom within the intellectual law. He will not bow to the authority of others, and he will not bow to his own desires, but he will submit to evidence. Prove to him that he is mistaken and he will change…” </em><br><br>So I hope this is the start of discussion about a changing landscape, upcoming challenges for Alcoholics Anonymous and whom we might seek out to help us along the way. As we’ve discussed in previous Rebellion Dogs blogs and radio shows, the cultural landscape outside our doors is ever-widening and a trip from meeting to meeting will tell us what our data shows—our message isn’t resonating with everyone—racial minorities, non-theists & youth for example. The General Service Conference is looking to the fellowship for input and it’s not like any of us are short of opinions. Now’s the time for both talk and action. <br><br>Maybe you see a greater problem than our issues around diversity, engagement and change. Please speak up. We’re all in this together. Let’s keep the conversation going and look to small things we can all do to make a difference from the doors of our home group all the way down to the General Service Office.</p>
<p> <br>[i] Viewed February 12, 2016 <a contents="http://www.aa.org/press-releases/en_US/press-releases/class-a-trustee-terrance-m-bedient-named-new-chairperson-of-the-general-service-board" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.aa.org/press-releases/en_US/press-releases/class-a-trustee-terrance-m-bedient-named-new-chairperson-of-the-general-service-board" target="_blank">http://www.aa.org/press-releases/en_US/press-releases/class-a-trustee-terrance-m-bedient-named-new-chairperson-of-the-general-service-board</a><br><br>[ii] Alcoholics Anonymous, A.A. General Service Conference Inventory: Compendium 2013 – 2015, New York: AA World Services, Inc., 2015<br><br>[iii] U.S. State Department - Human Rights <a contents="http://www.state.gov/j/drl/hr/ " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.state.gov/j/drl/hr/" target="_blank">http://www.state.gov/j/drl/hr/ </a></p>
<p>[iv] Racism and Systemic Discrimination (Ontario Human Rights Commission) <a contents="http://www.ohrc.on.ca/es/node/2525" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.ohrc.on.ca/es/node/2525" target="_blank">http://www.ohrc.on.ca/es/node/2525</a><br><br>[v] <a contents="http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-24_anewcomerask.pdf" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-24_anewcomerask.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-24_anewcomerask.pdf</a></p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/3964506
2015-12-15T13:30:56-05:00
2018-06-15T12:15:40-04:00
Rebellion Dogs Blog December 2015 Stigma & Tribalism: What are we really fighting over?
A familiar 2015 mantra was “let’s end the stigma associated with addiction and mental health.” This political rally call suggests that ten thousand protesters can stop people from drawing stereotypes. That sounds naïve to me.<br><a contents="Download/View the PDF Transcript" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-blog-december-2015.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/214441/rebellion-dogs-blog-december-2015.pdf" target="_blank"><strong>Download/View the PDF Transcript</strong></a><br><br>Unite to Face Addiction<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title="">[i]</a> drew a crowd of thousands October 4<sup>th</sup> at the Washington Monument. People cheered Surgeon General Vivek Murthy as he declared, “We’re going to stop treating addiction as a moral failing, and start seeing it for what it is: a chronic disease that must be treated with urgency and compassion” He went on to share, “I’m proud to announce that next year, I will be releasing the first-ever Surgeon General’s Report on substance use, addiction, and health.”<br><br>Dr. Vivek Murthy (pictured) wasn’t the only one to declare the dawn of a new era for addicts and alcoholics. Republicans and Democrats, sports, music and TV celebrities—many of which are famous addicts—all said enough is enough or Abra Kadabra or something just as reassuring and thousands cheered. Musical contributors included Joe Walsh, Steven Tyler with his Nashville-based band, Loving Mary, Sheryl Crow, Jason Isbell, The Fray, Paul Williams and John Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/7ce590190edf343356209b318b08acd21e68e456/original/surgen-general-oct-4-2015.jpg?1450203520" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><br>Wouldn’t it be nice if we could end biases and stigma from writing to politicians or attending a rally? Bumper-sticker rhetoric abounds on a day like this. “Drug addiction is a preventable disease.” What the hell does that mean? Are we talking about legislating, medicating or singing “All You Need Is Love,” together?<br><br>Say something sweeping like “addiction can be prevented,” or talk about our collective silence or our collective voice or “today is the day,” and you lose a little credibility with me. Rallies, buttons and bumper-stickers do not change human nature—certainly not in a day. Don’t get me wrong. If this spectacle helps even slightly with the addicts being unfairly discriminated against and harassment—then let’s do it every year.<br><br>Rebellion Dogs took some pictures and video for those who couldn’t be there. I’m never against music and getting together with friends. At the end of this article, we’ll point you to some links if you want to see and hear Unite to Face Addiction or catch come of the conversation back-stage.<br><br><br><strong>Disgust and disgrace</strong><br>Stigma means a mark of disgrace. Insofar as addiction is stigmatized, it is held by public opinion that it is disgraceful to be addicted or to be an addict. Now, this is a double-edged sword because, as I will discuss from my own case shortly, how others feel about me is also a vital motivator that contributed to breaking my individual cycle of addiction. For instance, my addictive behavior disgusted the people that matter to me and the shock of their reaction poked a whole through the spell of my denial. So, there are many facets to addiction and there are many facets to stigma.<br><br>Is it about how I feel about myself or about how you feel about my addiction? To be clear—your stigma can’t make me feel bad because you think I am inferior to you; I’m not slowed down because you feel threatened by addiction or mental health issue. Labels have power over me only when they symbolize something to me that represents a handicap or inadequacy. You might think I am weak or a risk to you or society at large when you say, “Oh, you’re an addict, are you?” But I might not even pick up on your inference so is this really a national priority to control how you feel about me?<br><br>Of course the exception is that if you harbor negative stereotypes AND you have power over me. If you are the gatekeeper to employment, healthcare or social status, then your hang up with who or what I am will matter because how can you not be influenced by your prejudice? For many decades this campaign against stigmatizing addicts has been slowly improving the lives of addicts. Change happens slowly, usually. Let’s look at people or events that nudged public perception. Let’s think about the contributions of Marty Mann, Betty Ford, the action taken by the American Medical Association’s labeling of addiction as a disease. Compare the label of <em>disease</em> to the label of <em>moral reprobate</em>; one doesn’t have to embrace the disease model of addiction to see what a game changer one label vs another was for addicts/alcoholics.<br><br>Today, Michael Botticelli, a recovering addict is Obama’s Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. That’s a symbol of a changing public perspective. As far as stigma goes, while there is need for improvement, the war has been won. For comparison, while there remain a few pockets of Nazi sympathizers across the developed world, there’s no present threat of a Fourth Reich emerging as a serious political voice—In the same way, we might hear objections from the Montessori school who rents space from a community center about a new Sex Addiction Anonymous meeting being held in the same building. Yes, stigma is still alive and well in our community but on balance, the public feels compassion for addicts who suffer and those of us in recovery.<br><br>Now, I compared stigma to addiction to racist Fascism. There is no basis for racial superiority/inferiority. But is there some merit to the arguments that addicts are hard to love and hard to help? If there wasn’t some truth to the protests of our critics, we wouldn’t feel so guilty, would we? I don’t know about you but I did break promises, hearts and the contracts of social convention. There were innocent bystanders to my addiction and I have regrets. Is it stigma to call me on my bullshit when I am acting out in addiction? I think we have to find the line between health intervention and discriminating against and harassing people in active addiction or in recovery.<br><br><strong>I’m OK, You’re So-so: stigma in our own community</strong><br>Stigma against addicts won’t be irradiated by a rally; we can’t mandate people’s opinions or feelings. If the end of stigma could be willed, we wouldn’t have stigma inside our own community. Let’s look at the way we see and treat each other. By way of my own journey in addiction and recovery, I want to talk about the stigma—or more accurately, the tribalism—within our recovery community. "Imagine if you will, one alcoholic judging another."<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/b656bea1f88ca713196cf3cea64064b01e9b028b/medium/stigma.jpg?1450203515" class="size_m justify_left border_" />“Too young” was the first double stigma I faced. I was fourteen at my first 12-Step meeting and sixteen when I got clean and sober. “You are scarcely more that a potential-alcoholic,” was the first slight I faced both in and outside of the rooms. Judging someone because they meet your stereotype or because they do not amounts to the same discrimination. In a way, I have been fighting one double stigma or another for my whole recovery.<br> <br>What about considering abstinence over moderation management? To some in the recovery community, abstinence based recovery is the Yang extreme reaction to the Yin of addiction. Abstinence advocates agree than not every heavy substance abuser is an addict but we stiffen at the risks of dangling a harm reduction carrot in front of folks like us? Instead of celebrating choice, harm-reduction is pitted against abstinence. Each side views the other with suspicion and contempt. Each side accuses the other of exaggeration, finger pointing and evangelism. <br><br>Now once you chose (or get cornered into) abstinence, do you elect a 12-Step/12-Traditon fellowship? This choice comes with its own stigma—the cult of anti-science, meeting-dependent quackery.<br><br>We’re not even half-way home now in our struggle with stigma. The next mine field is which 12-Step fellowship? If, like me—you have many ways to <em>take a trip without leaving the farm</em> behaviors, substances, each with past wreckage—then your travels will take you to different fellowships to sample. You may feel a pull from each to dawn their home-team jersey.<br>I’ve been to AA, CA, SLAA, NA, ACA, Al-Anon, GA and I’ve read literature from maybe a dozen more organization where I identify with the problem. I wasn’t merely a guest at any of these meetings, or supporting a friend. I have my own issues that qualify me for membership in each one.<br><br>I remember at an Adult Children of Alcoholics meeting being told that recovery here is like dog-year compared to AA—a year in ACA had the spiritual cred of seven years on the AA path. Spiritual competitiveness—really? Really; people take their choices seriously and think anyone with an open mind will chose the same. I get these fundamentalist quips at AA, NA, Al-Anon and Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous, too. “Our brand of cereal is healthier that their brand of cereal.”<br><br>Within each tribe, there are conservative vs. the liberal variations to attach our wagon to. Are we going to sign up for the “preserve the integrity of the message” camp or the “radical inclusion” camp? In AA, the muckers accuse the atheists of being what’s wrong with AA today and the feeling is mutual. I am an AA who doesn’t believe in a personal, intervening higher power. I have a choice of mainstream meetings where someone is going to discount atheist AAs like me as intellectually hung-up. Antiquated literature makes it easy for others to paint me as a second-class citizen in the last house on the block and no one speaks up to defend AA’s secular minority. The alternative is going to atheist/agnostic groups. Most of the talk is about recovery, what we do and what we do believe, not what we don't do and don't believe. But eventually, someone will bemoan the deluded self-righteousness of faith-healing AA meetings.<br><br>The back-to-basics types will say to godless AAs, “Why don’t you go start your own fellowship?” Such an invitation is the politest form of bigotry. Freethinkers in AA blame fundamentalists for the cultish reputation that our fellowship suffers from. Big-book thumper’s sacralizing of the first 164 pages of a 75-year-old book is a favorite scapegoat for what has caused AA membership to stagnate.<br><br>Inside Atheist/Agnostic AA we have our own us and them camps, too. Some make the point, “You don’t join a <em>program</em>—you join a <em>fellowship</em> with a <em>suggested</em>, (ie: <em>optional</em>) 12-Steps.” They point to their own complete dismissal as the whole 12-Step process as superstitious and let their 30, or in some cases, 40 years of Step-free sobriety be their evidence that ignoring the 12-Steps is a perfectly legitimate example of AA sobriety. Other secular AAs sidestep the religious morality and language of the 1939 Steps but find principles—not wording—within the Step process that is practical and effective. The agnostic 12-Step interpreters points to Bills, "The wording was, of course quite optional, so long as we voiced the ideas without reservation (<em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em> pg. 63)” as an invitation for artistic liberty. “Unity but not uniformity” is their experience of AA.<br><br>So, if you’re anti-stigma, which stigma are you complaining about, exactly? I’m guessing it’s not your prejudices so much as those who conspire against you? Stigma is a negative stereotype. Stigma is a bias, a prejudice and guess what? I have them and so do you. Tribalism is human nature. Just as the Red Sox fan sees Yankee conspiracy with every close-call made against Boston, all of us create classes of “team us” vs. “team them”.<br><br>I will use my own idiosyncrasies as an example. The same AA that I accuse of being a religion in denial, I defend against the criticisms of Dr. Dodes who calls our modality ineffective. I appear to feel the same duty to criticize AA as I feel the need to defend it, depending on which way the wind is blowing.<br><br>Admitting my own biases helps me from being permanently blinded by my own knee-jerk reactions. I want the variety that nurturing open-mindedness offers. Intolerance comes easy but that shuts the door to new experiences. Uniformity is comforting but variety is the spice of life. It’s true that I see doubt as a higher plane than belief in a personal God. It is also true that I prefer cafeteria-style AA over obedient submission to a uniformed mantra. I like both spontaneity and order, but I’m less afraid of chaos than I am of rigidity.<br><br>But what does it matter what I think is good or bad, comfortable or repulsive? People who prefer, or rely on, the absolute certainty of a creator God and a by-the-“rarely have we seen a person fail who have thoroughly followed our path”-book method are sober today. Will I celebrate every recovery as virtuous or stand in judgment over what Freud is credited for coining as “the narcissism of small differences?”<br><br><em>Social constructionism</em> is a collective support of a particular theory that we call knowledge, reality or experience. Our group reinforces each other in a codependent understanding of our brand reality or worldview. We have tribes and tribes within tribes—cultures and subcultures. This is true in our recovery community and it’s true everywhere.<br><br>How do we get to nine? The six-plus-three-ists know the answer and they can prove that they are right. But so can the four-plus-five-ists.<br><br><strong>More Stigma Please, I’m Dying Here!</strong><br>Now there’s another way to look at stigma, which has to be considered in my case. I have to admit that stigma has a role in fostering the motivation for me. Let’s go back to when I was sixteen years old and facing the scrutiny of, “I spilled more than you ever drank, kid.” This discounting of my place in AA was a way of saying, “I don’t know if you’ve lived enough to be a real alcoholic, youngster. Getting drunk and puking doesn’t make you an alcoholic. Maybe you’re a wanna’ be alkie.” That’s the stereotyping and judgment that comes with being a young alcoholic.<br> <br>As it turns out, I was facing the same internal dialogue, “Am I really an alcoholic?”<br><br>“That’s it; I’m powerless over alcohol.”<br><br>“No, that’s silly, I can master drinking, I just have to learn to control myself and get everyone else has to back off and I’ll be fine.”<br><br>So, while I was on the verge walking away from sobriety and back into the world of learning to drink like a gentleman, what impact did it have on me when someone else scrutinized my legitimacy as an alcoholic?<br><br>Well, I dug my heels in and said to myself, “I’ll show you who’s a real alcoholic. You can’t tell me if I’m an alcoholic or if I belong here—work your own damn program, buddy!”<br><br>I was staying sober to spite my critics. The stigma against me became my motivation; I was staying sober to spite and break a stereotype.<br><br>Fast-forward 35 years into sobriety; in 2011 I was wondering if AA was too rigid for me and why should I waste my time here? Just then, my group, Beyond Belief Agnostics & Freethinkers Group was one of two, and later three, groups that was delisted from the Toronto Intergroup meeting list. Once again, at a time of my own inner conflict about my loyalty to AA, I dug my heels in and said, “I’m here to stay and who’s asking for your approval, anyway!”<br><br>Direct-sales techniques include mind-games whereby the saleswoman gains a psychological advantage over her prospect. The salesperson manipulates her buyer without the buyer realizing that the buying decision isn’t their own idea. The reverse-close is one such racket. Our salesperson is selling cars and a middle-aged fellow expresses an interest in an economical family car. Then she catches him eyeing a way more expensive sports car. Would she prefer to sell the man the higher priced, higher commission sports car? Sure she would.<br><br>Of course, if she starts with the features and benefits of this sexy muscle car, she’ll push the potential buyer out of his fantasy and he’ll return to his more pragmatic objective. But if she says, “Sir, don’t be paying attention to that trouble maker; she’s way to much machine for a family man. Let me show you a four cylinder fuel efficient minivan,” something happens in the buyers mind.<br><br>“Don’t tell me I can’t handle this bad boy,” he thinks. “Well how much would this car cost? I’m just curious; it looks like it can fit four passengers when you need to.”<br><br>The reverse sales pitch manipulates the buyer into something by emotionally nudging him towards what the sales person wants with the reverse of an idea, “Don’t be silly, you don’t want that.” Of course the sales person knows that the car represents a status symbol to the prospect and a higher commission to her. Fear of loss is always a stronger motivator than desire for gain. Take away the sports car option and fear of life slipping the buyer by will kick in. But to work, the prospect has to think it’s his idea.<br><br>In a similar fashion, I was sitting on the fence and an AA member gave me the out I was looking for, “You don’t belong here; go do some real drinking and come back when you’ve had enough.” I reacted to him with a sudden fear of loss of my membership status, saying, “No way; I’m staying.”<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/3facd69ef812202d6b1b5e1b296ff354294661af/medium/andrew-solomon.jpg?1450203507" class="size_m justify_right border_" />Andrew Solomon (pictured) is the author of five books and <em>New York Times</em> articles. In a Ted Talk, Solomon shared about his own identity crisis in a world of stigma:<br><br>“It took identity to rescue me from sadness. The gay rights movement posits a world in which my aberrances are a victory. Identity politics always works on two fronts: to give pride to people who have a given condition or characteristic, and to cause the outside world to treat such people more gently and more kindly. Those are two totally separate enterprises, but progress in each sphere reverberates in the other.<br><br>Identity politics can be narcissistic. People extol a difference only because it's theirs. People narrow the world and function in discrete groups without empathy for one another. But properly understood and wisely practiced, identity politics should expand our idea of what it is to be human. Identity itself should be not a smug label or a gold medal but a revolution.”<a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title="">[ii]</a><br><br>Twelve Step members, who indoctrinate themselves into the culture, might see their addiction as an unforeseen gift and their higher power of their own creation (understanding) as being at a level beyond conventional religious constructs. In identity politics this is how mutual-aid groups form an “us” tribe “to give pride to people who have a given condition or characteristic.” Now some outsiders will empathize with us and others will criticize. Critics will see dependence on meetings as just another crutch and faith in higher power as a misconstrued ego manifestation.<br><br>It’s a temptation as an NA or AA member to see oneself as one of the chosen people on a path laid out by God. A more humble approach is to see our label/condition as <em>addict</em> as no greater and no lesser than anyone else. Sure we can chose to call ourselves, “in long-term recovery” instead of “drug addict” but how we feel about these labels is more important than how we self-identify. It’s a temptation to view our own path of recovery as superior and another choice as inferior. For me, it’s better to not see addiction/recovery as a zero-sum game whereby if your way is <em>better</em>, then I lose, if my way is <em>better</em> then you lose. Recovery is a constellation of modalities. Each if affected by gravitational pulls, repulsions and inescapable orbits that find us inter-dependent on the other orbs and energy in our system.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/72123c629d87b1dde64d161e31c83db7a9e41680/medium/social-constructionism-reality.jpg?1450203511" class="size_m justify_left border_" />There was a time when I got drunk (or stoned or acted out) <em>at</em> someone. I was in an inter-dependent dance with my environment. There are times when I stay sober or I leave or I stay in reaction <em>to</em> someone. Again, inter-dependent relationship seems as inescapable as our solar system’s components dependence on each other. I may not be able to break free of the stigmas I harbor, nor those that you harbor against me. But I can understand stigma and bias as part of the complexity of the human experience. Understanding my own limits shouldn’t make me feel ashamed; it ought to make me more empathetic of those around me, be they supporters or critics.<br><br>Like aging, stigma is part of life. I can’t transcend it; I can make room for it. Aikido is a martial art that embraces non-dissention. Harmony is the philosophical base which offers advantages in life over discord in Aikido. Sensei Kochi Tohei (1920 – 2011) would have concurred with The Big Book’s, “Love and tolerance of others is our code. And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone.”<a href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3" title="">[iii]</a> Tohei wrote that according to Aikido, while the Universe is in balance, there is conflict in the relative world. So, it’s better to think about the big picture and see how seeming opposites complement each other.<br><br>“Do not say that this is a world where we must struggle to live each day. The true way to success is exactly one and the same as the principle of non-dissention, and that is the way to peace.”<br><br><a contents="Unite to Fight Addiction October 4th (YouTube)" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRqq9hVpZaQ" target="_blank">Unite to Fight Addiction October 4th (YouTube Klean Radio and more)</a><br> <div>Print or view or download <a contents="December 2015 Blog PDF" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-blog-december-2015.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/214441/rebellion-dogs-blog-december-2015.pdf" target="_blank"><strong>December 2015 Blog PDF</strong></a>
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<a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title="">[i]</a> <a data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.facingaddiction.org/" target="_blank">https://www.facingaddiction.org/</a>
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<a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title="">[ii]</a><a data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_solomon_how_the_worst_moments_in_our_lives_make_us_who_we_are?language=en" target="_blank">https://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_solomon_how_the_worst_moments_in_our_lives_make_us_who_we_are?language=en</a>
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<a href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3" title="">[iii]</a> Into Action, p. 84 <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em> (1939)</div>
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Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/3802194
2015-08-04T01:21:21-04:00
2020-09-22T09:56:04-04:00
Speaking recovery from the four corners of the world(views)
<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="font_large">Rebellion Dogs Blog for August 2015<br>Recovery for 12-Steppers from all worldviews: Learning the North, South, East & West of 12-Step language.</span></div>
<p>Twelve Step rooms were designed to invite every still-suffering member of society to be dignified as equals. The language of early AA recovery, that may have been cutting-edge in it's day, has not kept pace with transforming demographics that make up today's world. This blog is a little bit different. It’s an invitation into Rebellion Dog’s next book idea, looking at what we believe, how we express ourselves, privilege and prejudice that arise from exclusive language and how we can avoid triggering and offending each other.<br><br>I think out loud in today’s blog and ask for your feedback. The four quadrants of human worldviews is a model that looks at what we believe and the personal reasoning style we employ to ratify our beliefs.<br><br><br>I believe that every attempt was made for a wide gateway that invites all who seek the help that AA offers. We see today that, in an interest to preserve the message, time has unfavorably passed our "language of the heart" by. For example, here's how some of Chapter Four of <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em> reads:<br><br><strong><em>We found that God does not make too hard terms with those who seek Him. To us, the Realm of Spirit is broad, roomy, all inclusive; never exclusive or forbidding to those who earnestly seek. It is open, we believe, to all men.<br> <br>When, therefore, we speak to you of God, we mean your own conception of God. This applies, too, to other spiritual expressions which you find in this book. Do not let any prejudice you may have against spiritual terms deter you from honestly asking yourself what they mean to you. At the start, this was all we needed to commence spiritual growth, to effect our first conscious relation with God as we understood Him.</em></strong><br><br>Almost certainly there was no intention at the time to be dismissive of Buddhists, humanists, Hindus, Muslims, women, atheists or others. However, what was meant as a friendly "welcome one and all," in 1939 sounds more exclusive than inclusive today. Our hope today is not to fault-find but to work together. The hope is that we can all be more sensitive to the diverse tapestry that is today's newcomers whom for some, talk of spiritual matters in Judeo/Christian terms may restrict or offend. With the thought of a brighter tomorrow, Rebellion Dogs devotes the dog-days of August to ask, "How we can renovate our welcome mat so that today and in the future, we are as welcoming as our founders intended the 12-Steps to be?"<br><br><a contents="Read or download in PDF" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-blog-august-2015-four-quadrants-four-worldviews.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/197429/rebellion-dogs-blog-august-2015-four-quadrants-four-worldviews.pdf" target="_blank">Read or download in <strong><span style="color:#000000;">PDF</span></strong></a><br><br>Coming to <em><strong><a data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.sedonamagoretreat.org/beyond-belief/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#000000;">Sedona Mago Recovery Retreat September 18<sup>th</sup> to 20<sup>th</sup></span></a></strong></em> is a first of its kind gathering to discuss 12-Step language in the 21<sup>st</sup> century. One theme we aim to explore with attendees is how our narrative about 12-Step recovery can be more inclusive. A first step is to develop skills to understand each other better.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/4c4b9ed3612489ef679e4fc212ce6c5b9a55985e/original/sedonamago-poster-smaller.jpg?1438661955" class="size_orig justify_right border_" />Demographics have changed since the 1930s. Somewhere, it seems, there must be an encyclopedia of religions, creeds, worldviews. We want the hand to be there whenever, wherever a common sufferer reaches out but how do we speak our truth candidly without appearing dismissive or confrontational towards someone with another worldview?<br><br>More so than ever, 12-Step rooms are each a coat of many colors. But just as all the colors of the universe can be distilled down to variations of three primary colors—blue, yellow and red—worldviews we encounter in the rooms can be categorized into one of four basic belief structures.<br><br>The title of this September’s retreat at the Sedona Mago Retreat in Arizona:<br><strong><em> “Beyond Belief: An atheist and a religious man go on a 12-Step call together…” </em></strong><br><br>Now, that title suggests two worldviews to choose from. The atheist holds a natural worldview whereby all that is known and unknown has a natural (cause and effect) explanation. The religious man holds a supernatural worldview informed by the world of both material and spiritual forces. These two AA members would explain the transformation from addiction to clean and sober in different terms—same experience, two different narratives. Poles apart, one 12-Stepper speaks of a sobriety guided by a higher power as they understand Him, Her, It or Them to be. Conversely, in the narrative of the natural, there is no prayer-answering, sobriety-granting god(s). She or he is non-theistic but not a non-believer. Among a natural’s beliefs, powers that might aid sobriety could be the power of example (in the rooms), faith in the process or a higher purpose, derived in part from the 12-Step process. The supernatural vs. natural perspectives, I suggest, are only two parts—or half—of a four-part story of worldviews that 12-steppers use to describe the recovery process.<br> </p>
<table align="left" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 150px;" width="100%"><tbody> <tr> <td> <div style="text-align: center;"><span class="font_large">Supernatural Worldview</span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="font_large">Natural Worldview</span></div> </td> </tr>
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<p>Plotting these belief systems, imagine a belief structure that involves a personal God or gods called, “supernatural” at the top of a page—our North Pole. At the bottom of the page is our South Pole, the natural worldview whereby all that is known, all that is unknown and/or not-yet-known is believed to have a cause and effect that can all be explained by natural phenomena. So again, we have supernatural belief to the North and a natural belief to the South.<br><br>Let’s add another dimension (a West and East plane) that looks at our reasoning style or problem solving process that we employ to resolve these existential quandaries. Some of us employ a combination of inductive and deductive reasoning. Some of us are more intuitive. Some of us are more abstract in our thinking and others demand absolute true or false answers to the universe’s riddles. So the North/South poles of one belief vs. another doesn’t completely define us without the West/East line of reasoning style.<br><br>If you are inclined to a concrete or binary conclusion to the question, you are on the Western side of the ledger. The Eastern hemisphere is for abstract, intuitive or complex approaches to weighing the possibilities of two converse beliefs. <br><br>Bill W’s “We Agnostics” ultimatum is binary—true or false, yin or yang, a one or a zero.<br><br>“(<strong><em>W)e had to fearlessly face the proposition that either God is everything or else he is nothing. God either is, or He isn’t. What is our choice to be?” (Alcoholics Anonymous, p 53)</em></strong><br> <br>This question, posed this way is a Western hemisphere reductionist approach that we might expect from someone with a legal education such as Bill. We are asked to weigh evidence or physical properties to make a material choice that we see the world as, a) governed by a personal higher power, or b) the evidence for such a power is insufficient.. That’s a fair ultimatum if our personality type or approach to philosophical questions is one that yearns for concrete/binary absolutism. Being either in the North West (Supernatural) or South West (natural worldview), we may feel gnostic (having vital knowledge) and point to reasons for believing to which anyone who reviews the arguments would see that ours is the sound, correct position.<br><br>But this isn’t how all of us negotiate the big questions in life. If our style/personality is rooted in the East we tend towards an intuitive or abstract process. We might start with the premise that the answer to the question is unknown and unknowable. If we have the gall to speak up against our Western sisters and brothers we might warn them that no matter which worldview they stand by, the more certainty they espouse, the less credibility they will build with us. Being sure of oneself isn’t indicative of being right about something.<br><br>If we are inclined towards a supernatural view, that puts us in the North East quadrant; we are abstract supernaturals. We might say, “Well, if the world is made up of what I know, what I don’t know and what I don’t know I don’t know, there is more to life than meets the eye. The very possibility of a supreme being makes it worth exploring. My gut instinct is that I must have the humility to bow to the reality that I know but a little; I ought to reach out to whatever might be.” No human construct (religion, book or following) has provided a narrative that resonates with us but we won’t bet against infinite possibilities. “My gut says ‘I feel something, but I can’t define it.' I will satisfy myself with the possibility of spiritual forces at work in my life.”<br><br>Those of us in the South East are not as optimistic. Either god created man in his image or man created god in our image; the latter is more likely than the former. If there is a superior being, any attempts to connect to it would be egotistical and futile. “I don’t put my faith in supernatural forces because there isn’t enough evidence to support such a thing. Sure, I could be wrong. But I don’t know because I can’t know, so I don’t care. I will search for enlightenment from within. I will not pander to either personal nor collective wishful thinking for some entity that might get me out of a jackpot or offer the big ticket to eternity. Hey, if I’m wrong, the actions informed by my own internal compass ought to please Yahweh and I’ll be able to answer for myself. But in the meantime, I will just do the next right thing.”<br><br>Ambiguity is a fact of life in the Eastern hemisphere. Westerners see Easterners as wishy-washy, or in a provisional position of purgatory. Westerners might urge the Easterners to see that more searching will help them “save time and see it our way.” Easterners may view their Westerner counterpart’s reduction of complicated matters to simple ones or zeros as rash or arrogant. Easterners may sometimes wish that their outlook was more absolute, more definitive. But in time, Easterners might see doubt as a higher or more honest level of consciousness compared to the certainty that their Western neighbors seem to enjoy.<br><br>In t</p>
<table align="left" border="1.5" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width: 240px;" width="240"><tbody> <tr> <td style="text-align: center;"><span class="font_large">Four worldviews in<br> 12-Step Recovery</span></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/959bace4c1c300c7f2ac023c4e4093d711d2d327/medium/quadratic-graph-with-graphics2.png?1438663047" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></td> </tr>
</tbody></table>
<p>he North, the concrete supernatural Westerners and abstract supernatural Easterners might feel they have a 12-Step advantage over their southern brothers and sisters; so much of the literature is written in higher power-friendly language. Yet, both the concrete naturals and abstract naturals of the South may sarcastically retort, “Don’t worry about us; we stay sober without God the same way you do—because there isn’t one (as far as we’ve seen).” The “unsuspected inner resource” referred to in AA’s Appendix II is not a second-rate sobriety coach. It’s a perfectly viable route to happy, joyous freethinking.<br><br>Consider that each of these four ways of seeing the world could be natural and healthy. None of the four worldviews is superior or easier than the other.<br><br>Here’s one advantage that those in the concrete supernatural North West quadrant hold over the rest; most of the early 12-Step language was written in your theistic language. “We realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves”, “We asked God to remove all these defects of characters” and “For our group purpose there is but ultimate authority—a loving God as He may express Himself through our group conscience…” These are stark examples of the AA story being written in a concrete supernatural narrative, suggesting that a higher power is a given. <br><br>But all of AA is suggestive only. If it is suggested through a theistic narrative, AA’s truth, taken literally, isn’t true for everyone. One can either conclude that, “I don’t belong here because they haven’t spelled it out in a language that speaks to me.” Or, one could assume from the positive results reported in the early writings that there was something to be learned from the change in attitude and behavior. Can we translate the heavy theistic language to a more universal language? How would I describe the process in my own words? How could I help another member translate the process into their language?<br><br>Many members have stayed sober without having to accept anyone else’s worldview or having to deny their own. Some reject the Twelve Steps almost entirely, deeming them a flawed and ill-fated process based on an incorrect premise; fair enough. Many more have taken heart from this passage:<br><br><em><strong>“The wording was, of course quite optional, so long as we voiced the ideas without reservation.” Alcoholics Anonymous pg. 63</strong></em><br><br>That invitation or challenge has been taken by many addicts from AA to SLAA to Online Gamers Anonymous. We now have Humanist Steps, CBT Steps, aboriginal/Native American Steps, Buddhist, Atheist and Agnostic Steps, Internal and External Locus of Control Steps and a wide open invitation still stands for every member to write their own twelve, two, six or twenty steps.<br><br>In Sedona we’ll look through some of the varieties of 12-Step experience and discuss the possibilities for us and today’s newcomers. One member’s poison is another member’s cure. It’s a matter—not so much of fitting our square-ness into a round hole, but—of finding what fits. In Sedona we’ll look at tools already available and maybe we’ll craft some new ones.<br><br>Here are a few examples of Twelve Step interpretations already changing lives for the better:</p>
<ul> <li>Step Two: Came to believe that a power other than self could restore us to wholeness. <a data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0991717406/ref=as_sl_pc_tf_lc?tag=rebeldogspubl-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0991717406&adid=0MCJ9JFEJQDP19YP9Q66&&ref-refURL=http%3A%2F%2Frebelliondogspublishing.com%2Fbookstore" target="_blank">(<em>The Little Book: A Collection of Alternative 12-Steps</em>, p 19)</a>
</li> <li>Step Three: Become willing to do things differently and make healthy choices in my thoughts, behaviors and actions through various methods, be it CBT, suggestions from wise friends, my sponsor … meetings, meditation and the development of my own inner strength and wisdom. (Tracy Chabala, <a data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://rehabreviews.com/rewriting-12-steps-atheists-review/" target="_blank"><em>After Party Magazine</em></a><em>)</em>
</li> <li>Step Four: I will make a fearless and honest review of my life, my values, and my goals. (<a data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.teenaddictionanonymous.com/the12steps" target="_blank">Teen Addiction Anonymous</a>)</li> <li>Step Eleven: Find and study something that we find amazing. Realize that there are ways of living that can bring us a deeper degree of personal fulfillment. (Steps and Principles for Atheists and Agnostics, <a data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.olganon.org/forum/12-steps-principles-recovery-begins-here-olga-members-only/steps-and-principles-atheists-and" target="_blank">Online Gamers Anonymous</a>)</li>
</ul>
<p>Look at that Step Eleven. Who wouldn’t want to do that, regardless of what we believe? How fun; how refreshing. Look at Teen Addiction Anonymous’s 2008 variation of Step Four—not only does TAA remove the biblical word, “God,” but the religious morality is extracted from the inventory process, too. In this day and age, only our imagination limits us.<br><br>Back to these four quadrants. What are we going to do with this exploration of four quadrants? First we’ll look at which belief and reasoning style is the most authentic fit for us. They are made up of made up compound worlds. Why? Well first of all, overused words lose their meaning. Atheist for example defines someone by what they don’t believe. That’s no way to look at ourselves or others. Nonbeliever is just as bad. Supernatural worldview was my best attempt at including everyone who believers in one or more personal deities—God of our understanding, my higher power called Wonder Woman, Allah, Yahweh, the collective-consciousness—without excluding others. Most abstract thinkers would be what we call <em>agnostics </em>but “agnostic” comes with its own load of baggage now, so I avoided the triggers associated with the word, "agnostic." Make your own words which you feel communicate best. That’s the whole idea here. <br><br>Let's look at others we know, in and out of the rooms, too. Who are the people we love and what corner of the graph are they in? Why are we more tolerant of some who fall in one of the worldviews that is different from ours? Think about people in the rooms that really bug us; what quadrant are they in? Is there something about the language they use that triggers us? Can a second look at language help us see past the words they say and the negativity I feel under my skin? Can I better understand what they are saying? Maybe we are two people divided by a common language that have more in common than we realize. Oh, the narcissism of small differences.<br><br>We might look at popular personality categories and how, within each corner of the recovery quadrants, the room for variety is wide open. <a data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits" target="_blank">The Five Factor Model</a> (FFM)—openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism—how would our score in these scales impact how we’d represent our quadrant? Extroverts might think that everyone would be happier if they saw it their way; it may be hard to get an introvert talking about her or his worldview. Are we open to new experiences? That personality trait will likely inform how warm or intolerant each of us is to the worldview of others.<br><br>The program for Sedona Mago is still in the revision stages. If you have ideas, don’t be shy. We’re looking into the possibility of Continuing Education credits to those attendees whom are professionally accredited. In the theme of together, we’re better, we are looking to facilitate a weekend where we all go back to our home towns and home groups better able to hear and speak to today’s rapidly changing tapestry of newcomers. After all, it is our responsibility.<br><br><strong><em>Beyond Belief: An atheist and a religious man go on a 12-Step call together…</em></strong> is one of several great recovery retreats offered at Sedona Mago Retreat Center. If you can’t make it Beyond Belief, check out other offerings on Buddhism and the 12-Steps, AA History, Spirit-Stock, Loving Sober and more:<br><br>Sedona Website<br><a data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDcHPHj9dTk" target="_blank">Sedona Youtube</a><br><a contents="BEYOND BELIEF Sedona Workshop FLYER" data-link-label="sedona-retreat-beyond-belief-2015-flyer.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/197496/sedona-retreat-beyond-belief-2015-flyer.pdf" target="_blank">BEYOND BELIEF Sedona Workshop FLYER in PDF</a></p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/3753468
2015-06-24T17:11:09-04:00
2021-08-05T21:34:26-04:00
AA History didn't just happen 80 Years Ago - It's happening now.
<br><strong>In this blog: What did I learn during my trip to New York City to explore GSO Archives in search of the history of Agnostic/Atheist AA members? History is ongoing. This month we look at what AA’s latest statistics say, how AA members and GSO are shaping AA’s future. Also, let's talk about sober adventures in New York City.</strong><br><br>View or <a contents="download a PDF" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-blog-july-2015-ongoing-history-of-aa.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/193085/rebellion-dogs-blog-july-2015-ongoing-history-of-aa.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#000000;"><strong>download a PDF</strong></span></a> of July 2015 Blog: AA History didn't just happen 80 Years Ago.<br><br>Where are we now? One idea that solidified for me when I was surrounded by AA history in our archives office is that AA is not stagnant. Today we will discuss AA’s evolution and things that are changing right now. For some of us, AA isn’t changing fast enough, for others it isn’t focusing on the right kind of change and for others, change is risk and risk is foolhardy.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/e45b34c246b9f42e031de87a36f4ce713aff6f0d/original/aa-atlanta-2015.png?1435178472" class="size_l justify_center border_" />AA didn’t happen 80 years ago—our anniversary is just a symbol of the meeting of two alcoholics who needed each other, one to get sober, one to stay sober. Both may have perished without the other. The reason our 80<sup>th</sup> anniversary is symbolic is that it dates back to AA’s second success story. Forget which came first; you can’t have an AA without both a chicken and an egg. In this way, our fellowship borrows from a metaphor about the circle of life. Bob Smith’s sobriety date didn’t happen in a bubble; nor did Bill’s before him. “AA wasn’t invented,” as Bill W said.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/836ef75417bc900c53a4739e0d3ae381409fcfee/medium/key-players-in-aa-history.jpg?1435179291" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" />What became a movement eventually, was no movement at all, on June 10<sup>th</sup>, 1935. The name Alcoholics Anonymous hadn’t been invented yet. Bob didn’t get sober from talking to Bill just once. Sobriety was a process. And is Bill really patient-zero? Bill was helped by Ebby. Sure, Ebby was an Oxford Group member with no plan to form a new organization, but these two men were talking alcoholic to alcoholic in a very AA way. Even through cynical eyes, Bill saw in Ebby, an example of someone who knew alcoholic helplessness yet was now sober. Ebby stayed sober that day. Maybe reaching out to Bill helped Ebby in the way we know it does. From his 2015 book, <em>Key Players in AA History</em>, Bob K writes about Ebby’s reunion with a drunken Bill Wilson.<br><br>That “bleak November” was in 1934. The old school friend was Edwin Throckmorton Thacher, known better then and since, as Ebby. “Fresh-skinned and glowing,” sober a mere seven weeks, “he was inexplicably different.” Although he did not at the time realize it, Bill Wilson was only a few short (but well-lubricated) weeks away from his very last drink. More importantly, this simple reunion of old chums, though it did not, in fact, recapture the spirit of other days, would set in motion a series of events that would dramatically affect the lives of millions of alcoholics, and change the world of addiction treatment.<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title="">[i]</a><br><br>So the events leading up to June 10, 1935 have as much to do with Alcoholics Anonymous as the events that followed. Of course, what was still to come counts for a lot. There was no book, no Steps and no name for AA in 1935. There was never a thought of Atlanta: 2015. It was “one day at a time” back then; neither Bill’s nor Bob’s sobriety was assured. Nothing was, as of yet, sacred or forbidden. Our future as a fellowship was not limited by any event in 1935 and any symbolic significance of that date was an afterthought.<br><br>In the Spring, an article by Rebellion Dogs was published in the pages of <em>In Recovery Magazine. </em>“Unbelievers Unabashed” is about AA members whose worldview and sobriety does not include a supernatural explanation of mankind and/or sobriety. For some folks, there is no prayer-answering, sobriety granting higher power “holding us up to the light.” Specifically, the article was about the anticipation and reaction to a new pamphlet that rolled out in 2014—right about this time last year.<br><br><em><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/c02294975e45c614ef9d38f39aca55a976ad031f/medium/many-paths-cover.jpg?1435179105" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" />Many Paths to Spirituality,</em> was an effort to represent AA in the 21<sup>st</sup> century. The pamphlet demonstrates that AA can work for a Jew who likes the Lord’s Prayer, an atheist who prays but to no god, a Catholic who is happy she can worship the God she learned about in school and a Native America who’s glad that she doesn’t have to.<br><br>However, if you were following the talk around the coffee urns at Regional Forums and notes from AA’s General Service Office for the years leading up to this, you might have been expecting this pamphlet to be by-and-for atheists/agnostics in AA. For the majority of <em>not-God</em> AA members, the pamphlet was a disappointment.<br><br>In the article, I explained to readers that I was looking forward to a trip to AA archives in New York City to do some research on events leading up to this pamphlet. As I mentioned at the top, I have been there, now. I have looked through notes and minutes from Literature Committees, advisory actions and <em>Final Reports of the General Service Conference</em>, and I am still in the process of putting it in perspective.<br><br>What is clearly recorded (and I saw with my own eyes) in AA history is that the trustees’ Literature Committee was asked by the fellowship to consider a pamphlet for members who don’t believe in God. In 2008, a Literature Committee subcommittee found that previous committees had started down that road in 1975, 1981, 1988, 1995, 1997, 2000, 2002, 2008 and 2012. That is nine times that members asked that the hand of AA would be there regardless of what one does or does not believe.<br><br>While no such atheist/agnostic pamphlet has ever been approved by the Conference, one atheist story was included in the original 1976 <em>Do You Think You’re Different?</em> pamphlet. Later, a Hispanic story was removed and an agnostic story was added. Our <em>A Newcomer Asks</em> and some of our pamphlets for medical and religious professionals now make statements that AA’s membership requirements don’t include a belief in God and our history of success stories in the rooms bears that out.<br><br>With more to say on the history of atheists and agnostics in AA later, let’s stop for a moment to look at a snapshot of AA today. Our annual count of members and groups is out. We have also just finished General Service Conference season. Let’s look at what’s going on right now, shall we?<br><br><strong>New or revised LGBT, Women’s, Agnostic/Atheist and Mental Health pamphlets coming soon from General Service.</strong><br>GSO is all about presenting AA stories in a hip lingo that reaches today’s newcomers. Right now, the General Service Office in New York seeks stories to update the Women’s and LGBT pamphlets (currently called “Gay & Lesbian). A new pamphlet about mental health issues seeks stories by AA members with co-morbidity or sponsors who work with these <em>double-winners</em>. So, GSO does—in some important ways—want AA’s voice to be current and portray our stories in print in a way that is as diverse as our meetings.<br><br>Luckily for those who think of recovery and addiction from the perspective of natural, not supernatural laws, 475 Riverside Drive in New York City isn’t our only General Service Office. In the UK, the General Service Conference voted 80% in favor of an atheist/agnostic pamphlet and they are collecting stories from members as we speak.<br><br>Why the initiative for a 21<sup>st</sup> century AA narrative? Well here are 97,792 possible reasons—that’s the number of how many fewer members of Alcoholics Anonymous there is this year compared to our survey last year. AA's population is down about 5% over last year. The significant loss is the International (non-Canada/USA) population of members, down 13%.<br> <table align="center" border="1" cellpadding="1.5" cellspacing="0"><tbody> <tr> <td style="width:213px;"><strong><em>What we’re looking at</em></strong></td> <td style="width:213px;"><strong><em>Just the facts</em></strong></td> <td style="width:213px;"><strong><em>What’s the significance?</em></strong></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="width:213px;">AA’s population (pop)</td> <td style="width:213px;">2,040,629 members<a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title="">[ii]</a>
</td> <td style="width:213px;">Down 98 K from last year.</td> </tr> <tr> <td style="width:213px;">AA pop compared to USA since we peaked in 1992</td> <td style="width:213px;">USA is up 28% and AA has dropped 10%</td> <td style="width:213px;">AA as a percentage of world pop is in decline.</td> </tr> <tr> <td style="width:213px;">USA adults in recovery from alcohol & drugs <a href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3" title="">[iii]</a>
</td> <td style="width:213px;">23.5 Mil, 10% of adults, up from 20 Mil in last survey</td> <td style="width:213px;">AA members are a shrinking % of people in recovery.</td> </tr>
</tbody></table><br>Keeping tabs on AA members is a dodgy business at best but compared to how AA counts our tally, it gives us a year over year overview. Today's AA is about the same size as the early 1990s. We had doubled in size twice (from 500,000 to 1 Mil to 2 Mil) in the 20 year period between 1974 and 1993.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/7fa64fb17b3f31c01a891598044e6094f05faea8/medium/img-0012.jpg?1435178717" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" />BTW, do you know how new AA (conference-approved) literature comes to be? There are several ways to get your idea heard at the General Service Conference. You can write a letter as a concerned or interested member of AA, directly. You can bring it up with your group, get the group behind it and have the group instruct your General Service Rep to ask the District to support it. There are over 90 Areas in Canada and the USA and each Area has dozens of Districts. So, if you’re District is in favor of your new literature idea, the District Committee Member will bring the idea to the Area and ask for Area support. The idea will be debated and if it gets substantial unanimity, the delegate to your Area will bring the idea to the annual General Service Conference for discussion or send your request to the Literature Committee.<br><br>Four or more times a year a trustees’ Literature Committee meets to discuss the matters before the Conference. There are a dozen trustees’ committees; Public Information, Treatment, Archives etc., all have their own committee, too. Sometimes trustees’ committees appoint a subcommittee to discuss, research and make recommendations on a certain issue on the docket. Pamphlets, books, booklets, videos and a few other info/outreach pieces are all things that might be included in Literature Committee business. Not only does every new pamphlet have to go through a process, but every update and change needs approval, too. So there are about 100 items, all of which will eventually be up for renewal, removal or replacement.<br><br>Some of the items are foist upon the committee by an advisory action at the annual General Service Conference. Other items are directives/ requests/ inquiries that may have come by direct contact to GSO.<br><br>The trustees’ Literature Committee will pass on certain items to the Conference Literature Committee. The CLC tables the recommendations before posing them to the delegates, trustees, board members and staff who decides on what is, and what is not, “conference-approved” that year. But not everything that the trustees’ Committee discusses is passed on to the Conference Committee. The Conference Committee will either: a) reject the trustee’s recommendation, b) send it back for clarification or c) bring it forward to the Conference to seek approval.<br><br>Now that the respective Conferences have approved these two pamphlets to be updated (Women in AA & LGBT AA) and two new pamphlets (mental health & atheist/agnostic), here’s the info if you live in the jurisdiction and you’d like to contribute a story for consideration.<br><br>GSO is on the 11<sup>th</sup> floor of 475 Riverside Drive in Manhattan (pictured). For the purposes of mail for members in Canada & USA who want to contribute to the mental health, women’s or LGBT pamphlets:<br><br>Literature Coordinator<br>General Service Office<br>Box 459<br>Grand Central Station<br>New York NY, 10163<br><br>In the UK, contribute to a pamphlet for atheist/humanist/agnostic members and newcomers. If you live in the United Kingdom, send your story to:<br><br>General Service Office of AA<br>PO Box 1<br>10 Toft Green<br>York YO1 7NJ<br><br>Tell your story. Contact your GSR or delegate and ask them to include your story for consideration. Help make our literature as diverse as alcoholics and recovery stories are.<br><br>As for previous attempts from USA/Canada’s General Service Office to produce secular recovery literature for and by members, each request has met with varied levels of enthusiasm from the trustees’ committee. Sometimes motivated trustees’ committees changed personnel and the drive was lost. In some cases the proposal was passed on to the Conference committee and that group axed the proposal. It wasn’t until earlier this decade that stories were finally collected, assembled and presented to the Conference with the recommendation of approving a collection of atheist/agnostic AA success stories (USA/Canada). This one time that the Conference was presented with AA success stories from members without a belief in God(s) there was both enthusiasm and hostility about the idea. The recommendation, needing two-thirds approval, as is the AA way, was not carried forward. What we got instead, a year or two later, was <a contents="Many Paths to Spirituality " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-84_manypathstospirituality.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#000000;"><em>Many Paths to Spirituality</em> </span></a>which if you haven’t read the <em>In Recovery Magazine</em> story, you will find from the hyperlink below. The article outlines AA’s agnostic, humanist, atheist, secular community feedback to <em>Many Paths</em>.<br> <br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/8ec2242fddf61c6165244e78fb034c3907d79745/medium/inrecoverymagazine2015.jpg?1429597291" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" />Read Now:<br><a contents="UNBELIEVERS UNABASHED by Joe C. © Spring 2015 In Recovery Magazine " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.inrecoverymagazine.net/go/archives/4305" target="_blank"><span style="color:#00FFFF;">UNBELIEVERS UNABASHED</span> by Joe C. © Spring 2015 <em>In Recovery Magazine</em></a><a contents="http://issuu.com/inrecoverymagazine/docs/2015_spring http://www.inrecoverymagazine.net/go/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.inrecoverymagazine.net/go/archives/4305" target="_blank"> </a><br><br>So that article set the stage for my trip to AA’s archives to either refute or corroborate the claims made in <a href="http://rebelliondogspublishing.com/files/73307/history_proposals_pamphlet_agnostic-atheist-nonbeliever_compiled_2-2008.pdf" target="_blank"><em>History – Proposals to Create a Pamphlet for the Non-Believer/Agnostic/Atheist Alcoholic</em></a> The <em>un-authored</em> ten-page report still has some mystery surrounding it. But it seems that is was put together in February of 2008 by the Literature Committee while considering the proposal that came from Area 17 (Hawaii) for a nonbeliever's pamphlet.<br><br>From 1976 to today, AA’s Literature Committees entertains a proposal to produce a pamphlet of atheist/humanist/secular AA members nine times. If it is true that every time the request has been made, the request was denied, then the question has to be asked, “Is AA guilty of <strong>willful blindness</strong>?”<br> <br>The concept of <em>willful blindness</em> is addressed in a Ted talk and a book by Margaret Heffernan called <em>Willful Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at Our Peril</em>. Heffernan explains the legal consequences:<br><br>“if there is information that you could know and you should know but you somehow manage to not-know, the law deems that you are willfully blind—you have chosen not to know.”<a href="#_edn4" name="_ednref4" title="">[iv]</a><br> <br>I am not a lawyer or a judge; I’m a reporter. AA isn’t under the microscope of legal opinion so such terms ought to be cautiously wielded. As members of a larger whole we may want to look ourselves in the mirror and ask, “What is my duty, as an AA member, in terms of my own fiduciary responsibility to accommodate the needs of a each and every alcoholic that reaches out for help?”<br> <table align="center" border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width: 500px;"><tbody> <tr> <td> <div style="text-align: center;">
<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/0e56ffe89335ca8bf3189fbdc8c05bc1f3ba5316/medium/willful-blindness.jpg?1435180986" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /><br> From Wikipedia.org:<br> <br> <strong>Willful blindness</strong> is a term used in law to describe a situation in which a Person seeks to avoid civil or criminal liability for a wrongful act by intentionally putting him or herself in a position where he or she will be unaware of facts that would render him or her liable.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">For example, in a number of cases, persons transporting packages containing illegal drugs have asserted that they never asked what the contents of the packages were and so lacked the requisite intent to break the law.<br> Such defenses have not succeeded, as courts have been quick to determine that the defendant <em>should</em> have known what was in the package and exercised criminal recklessness by failing to find out.</div> </td> </tr>
</tbody></table><br> <br>Using myself as an example, I have (I guess you could call it) campaigned for pamphlet called something like, <em>With or without God: AA for humanists, atheists, agnostics and secularists</em>. If you’ve been following along this region of the blogosphere, you know I have echoed the arguments that have come before that such a pamphlet would both help the newcomer who doesn’t hold a supernatural worldview and it would help sensitize all members to how best to help nonbelievers without fear or discrimination.<br> <table align="left" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody> <tr> <td style="width:456px;">
<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/0b3db3f733857b24e1321730152c9f455ccf5b78/large/aa-meeting-at-alanon-house-42nd-street-smaller.jpg?1435178204" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="" /><br> Since the 1940s, ALANON HOUSE (now on 42<sup>nd</sup> Street) hosts AA meetings. In the back, we see “Twelve Suggested Steps” which have hung above the speaker for over 70 years. In the foreground hangs a baseball bat, donated by Bill W. It’s called The Peace Maker, jokingly given to aid in achieving group conscience during business meetings.</td> </tr>
</tbody></table>Maybe you’re nodding, thinking, “Yeah, such a pamphlet would make all of AA a more sensitive, tolerant place for newcomers.” So, you’re with me so far. Now the next question I ask myself and invite you to ask yourself: “Have I read every story in <em>Too Young?, AA for the Gay/Lesbian Alcoholic, AA for Women, AA for the Black or African American, AA for the Native American</em>, etc?” <br><br>If I can answer, “Yes,” then I am indeed an example of the inclusive AA I ask GSO to be. If I have to admit, “No; I haven’t read every story,” then maybe I want to be heard and validated, more than I want to be an example of a responsible AA that “when anyone, anywhere, reaches out for help, I want the hand of AA always to be there,” and with a modicum of understanding. Do I understand the local building code enough to know if my own home group is wheelchair accessible—according to the code? Do I know some of the other languages AA literature is available in if a newcomer arrives with English as a second language?<br><br>I am not pointing the finger; I am confessing my own willful blindness. I try to be more sensitive but sometimes I hear myself saying things like, “walk the AA walk,” without thinking about how hearing that would make me feel if I was confined to a wheelchair.<br> <br><strong>AA history then and now in New York City</strong><br> <br>May 2015, in the city so nice they named it twice, I had a chance to catch some AA meetings, along the way. The trip included a group on 42nd Street that's been meeting at ALANON HOUSE since the 1940s.<br> <br>This was a bit of AA history that I came across by chance. The building, 303 42<sup>nd</sup> Street just off the theater district of New York City might not be long for this world and this capsule of AA history will soon be gone.<br> <br>I was told that the speaker chair is the same chair they have always had and it sits just below the Twelve Suggested Steps (see photo). Imagine—Bill W, Hank P., Jim B., Marty Mann, who knows who sat in that chair and shared <em>what it was like, what happened and what it is like now</em>. Among the memorabilia is an old can-opener that opened coffee cans for 50 years before being retired.<br> <br>I took in six of New York City's fourteen AA groups for humanists, atheists and agnostics; stops included:<ul> <li>Tuesday Sober Agnostics on 29th Street,</li> <li>We Agnostics of The Bronx at North Central Bronx Hospital,</li> <li>Agnostics at Noon at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in The Village,</li> <li>We Agnostics of New York City in the Upper West Side at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue,</li> <li>East Village Sober Agnostics at the YMCA on Bowery and Houston and finally,</li> <li>The 11 pm Friday in Brooklyn, my vote for the wittiest secular AA group name ever, The Ungodly Hour group.</li>
</ul><br><strong>DID YOU KNOW? </strong>For people who prefer AA without prayer, there are 267 meetings times now, around the world (according to <a href="http://www.agnosticaanyc.org">www.agnosticaanyc.org</a>). Some groups meet one hour a week, some meet five or more times a week. There are morning, afternoon, evening and midnight groups. There are online meetings and chat groups, Facebook, Yahoo and Google groups. I think this is an interesting example of Alcoholics Anonymous adaptability; the world is getting more secular, more freethinking and AA seems to be adapting to this, being one of many legit ways to look at <em>AA-ness</em>—one requirement for membership, each groups sets its own boundaries and purpose (focused on sobriety for alcoholics), every group part of the larger whole but autonomous from others. <br> <br><strong>Book Expo America 2015</strong><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/2cf38f8f76498d3b1f074ebb683fc48fa58471df/medium/bea-2015.jpg?1435178557" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" />Book Expo America was one of our stops to learn more about publishing with a look to its role in peer-to-peer recovery. Here are some of the highlights from BEA:<br><br>Jane McGonigal, PhD wrote a book, <em>Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World</em>. Over a billion people are gamers now and we heard, "the opposite of fun isn't work; it is depression." Look, there are benefits, emotionally, from gaming. Do our Face-to-face (f2f) communities meet these needs? Is online engagement as useful in recovery as going to meetings? Why or why not?<br>I heard a new term for the discomfort people feel when they are separated from their mobile devices: No-Mo-phobia. I love it.<br><br>BEA was a combination of old-guard publishing industry and the Young Turks. I heard one publisher say from the podium, “The problem is that there are too many titles today.”<br><br>I had to think about this—is it true or is it false? Everything I know about the book business I learned from the music biz. Here’s what I know about the music biz. There is more music being consumed by more people today than at any time in history. That said, the top-10 list of songs is bordering on irrelevant. In the 1970s or the 1980s how many of us wouldn’t know the artists on the top-10 list? We might not like them all, but we sure knew who they were and what they were singing about. Today, how many people do you know that could name the top-10 songs on the radio right now? Hey, I’m in the music business and I don’t know. The top of the pops is not being followed by most young people any more. More people are finding their music in more ways.<br><br>The rules about gatekeepers have changed. Record labels and radio stations controlled access to music. They were our taste makers. If you were a musical artist and you weren’t on the radio in 1980, you didn’t exist. If you didn’t have a record label, you couldn’t record a song. Now anyone with an iPhone has a Garage Band app and they can record a song. Anyone with a Facebook page can sell a song or help promote a friend’s song. We don’t look to the labels or pop-radio stations to tell us what’s worth our time to the same degree we did a few decades ago. There are podcasts, internet and satellite radio stations to choose from and we aren’t controlled by the limits and range of our AM/FM antenna any more.<br><br>So when a publish company executive says, “There are too many books,” that means something different than if a book reader said, “There are too many books.”<br>Today’s reader finds out about worthwhile titles from their friends on GoodReads.com or from any number of online taste-makers that each reader chooses to trust. <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17384838-beyond-belief">GoodReads</a> readers read three titles a month, each (on average). Readers aren’t complaining about too many books. They don’t care about how many books are available; what they care about is how many books that they care about are available. Bricks-and-mortar companies care about how many books there are because they have limited shelf-space. But not many eReaders and iClouds are too full to fit another few titles. <br><br>So when I hear “too many books” I hear fear that the old guard is losing control of supply and demand and I hear a company that isn’t on the same page as the person who matters most—the reader.<br><br>So that's what we have for you this month on literature, history and AA membership trends. As always, we'd love to hear what you have to say on these topics. Drop a line here, on Twitter or Facebook and please feel free to re-post and invite your friends to do the same.<br><br>A recent <a data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://rebelliondogspublishing.com/rebellious-radio" target="_blank">Rebellion Dogs Radio</a> includes an interview with addiction/treatment counselor and author, Erica Spiegelman about her new book <em>Rewired: A Bold New Approach to Addiction and Recovery.</em> She really has a refreshing way of looking at the problem and the many paths to our solution.<br><br>Download a <a contents="PDF of July 2015 Blog - the Ongoing History of AA" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-blog-july-2015-ongoing-history-of-aa.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/193085/rebellion-dogs-blog-july-2015-ongoing-history-of-aa.pdf" target="_blank"><strong>PDF of July 2015 Blog</strong> - the Ongoing History of AA</a><br><a name="_GoBack"></a>
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<a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title="">[i]</a> K., Bob, <em>Key Players in AA History</em>, Toronto: AA Agnostica, 2015</div>
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<a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title="">[ii]</a> <a href="http://www.aa.org/newsletters/en_US/en_box459_summer15.pdf">http://www.aa.org/newsletters/en_US/en_box459_summer15.pdf</a>
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<div id="edn3">
<a href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3" title="">[iii]</a> <a href="http://www.drugfree.org/newsroom/survey-ten-percent-of-american-adults-report-being-in-recovery-from-substance-abuse-or-addiction/">http://www.drugfree.org/newsroom/survey-ten-percent-of-american-adults-report-being-in-recovery-from-substance-abuse-or-addiction/</a>
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<div id="edn4">
<a href="#_ednref4" name="_edn4" title="">[iv]</a> <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/margaret_heffernan_the_dangers_of_willful_blindness?language=en#t-374691">http://www.ted.com/talks/margaret_heffernan_the_dangers_of_willful_blindness?language=en#t-374691</a>
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Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/3617509
2015-03-23T00:25:06-04:00
2018-08-30T10:38:07-04:00
Science behind the 12 Steps? Joe Nowinski PhD's new book
<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/0998654165b56b87e8625efcb8a868d249450137/original/if-it-works-book-cover.jpg?1427083274" class="size_orig justify_left border_" />This year, a new book looks at 12 Step outcomes. It’s called, <em>If You Work It It Works! The Science Behind 12 Step Recovery</em> by psychologist and award winning author, Joe Nowinski PhD. It is a jargon-free look at how, 12 Step modality help alcoholics/addicts. I read it, I interviewed Dr. Nowinski and I will share our conversation with you in this show.
<p>There is lots of debate on both sides of the 12 Step campfire. Gabrielle Glaser wrote a 2015 feature for the Atlantic called <strong>"<a contents="The Irrationality of Alcoholics Anonymous" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/03/the-irrationality-of-alcoholics-anonymous/386255/" target="_blank">The Irrationality of Alcoholics Anonymous</a>."</strong><br><br>Her urgency has to do with how Obama Care dollars are going to be spent. Glaser says, "The debate over the efficacy of 12-step programs has been quietly bubbling for decades among addiction specialists. But it has taken on new urgency with the passage of the Affordable Care Act, which requires all insurers and state Medicaid programs to pay for alcohol- and substance-abuse treatment, extending coverage to 32 million Americans who did not previously have it and providing a higher level of coverage for an additional 30 million.The United States already spends about $35 billion a year on alcohol- and substance-abuse treatment, yet heavy drinking causes 88,000 deaths a year—including deaths from car accidents and diseases linked to alcohol. It also costs the country hundreds of billions of dollars in expenses related to health care, criminal justice, motor-vehicle crashes, and lost workplace productivity, according to the CDC. With the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of coverage, it’s time to ask some important questions: Which treatments should we be willing to pay for? Have they been proved effective?"<br><br>We'll talk about this. We will explore who or what is irrational, because Dr. Nowinski delivers the goods in terms of statistical facts on how meetings, sponsorship and engagement with the 12 Step fellowship improve results? Nowinski has the numbers; he knows how significantly these factors predict outcomes in people with low, medium and high engagement in 12 Step recovery models.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/9fa2a34769b5639a4f2602163201263acaf40708/medium/if-it-works-the-fix.jpg?1427083289" class="size_m justify_right border_" />The Fix pitted advocate Joe Nowinski against the critical Lance Dodes earlier this year. <a contents="READ IT HERE" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.thefix.com/content/aa-advocate-and-aa-critic-debate-pros-and-cons-12-step-model" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;">READ IT HERE</span></a>. We talked about the Lance Dodes book, <em>The Sober Truth: Debunking the Bad Science of the 12-Step and the Rehab Industry</em> in Episode 04 of Rebellion Dogs Radio where we looked at 50 years of critics that have taken a hatchet to the AA tree. </p>
<p>For a transcript of this show <a contents="CLICK HERE" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-radio-march-2015-joe-nowinski-if-you-work-it-it-works.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/183315/rebellion-dogs-radio-march-2015-joe-nowinski-if-you-work-it-it-works.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;">CLICK HERE</span></a> :-)</p>
<p>Our show features a great new song by Halifax songwriter, <a contents="Joel Plaskett" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://joelplaskett.com/" target="_blank"><strong>Joel Plaskett</strong></a>, called, "The Park Avenue Sobriety Test."</p>
<p>As always, re-post this, like, link, or download to your heart's content.<br><br><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="85" id="ei7510833" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rebelliondogs12stepradio.podomatic.com/embed/frame/posting/2015-03-22T20_53_37-07_00?json_url=http%3A%2F%2Frebelliondogs12stepradio.podomatic.com%2Fentry%2Fembed_params%2F2015-03-22T20_53_37-07_00%3Fcolor%3D43bee7%26autoPlay%3Dfalse%26facebook%3Dtrue%26height%3D85%26minicast%3Dfalse%26objembed%3D0%26width%3D440&notb=1" width="440"></iframe><br><br> </p>
52:02
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/3555009
2015-02-24T17:52:28-05:00
2021-10-18T16:36:36-04:00
Rights and the Duty to Accomodate in AA: getting ready for the 2015 conference
<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/9089f7e299180afa0dd70f6ef5d30a8d552796c2/medium/rebellion-dogs-radio-rights.jpg?1424817438" class="size_m justify_left border_" /> As A.A. readies for its annual business meeting (for Canada & USA) in April, I just came back from C.E.R.A.A.S.A., the Canadian Eastern Regional A.A. Service Assembly which was held outside of Toronto – Mississauga February 20th to 22<sup>nd</sup>. There are ten districts from the Ontario/Manitoba border east to the Atlantic Ocean. GSRs, delegates and any member who wants to buy a ticket can come have their say as the ten delegates get a feel for the room, or hear from members as we discuss the agenda items for the General Service Conference in April 2015.<br><br>I had the most bizarre experience at a panel called, "Diversity in A.A. - Our Heritage of Inclusion." You'll hear all about it on the latest Rebellion Dogs Radio. Some AA stewards suffer from the misapprehension that group and member rights are granted by the authority of GSO (or Intergroup) and are therefor, conditional. On the contrary; rights are inalienable - they can't be surrendered nor can they be revoked. Rights are inherent, or as the superstitious expression goes, 'granted under god.'<br><br>Love and tolerance for others is our code but I just heard from an AA delegate (talking about diversity) who thought that stewardship is rule-enforcement. Why does our Service Manual describe our duty in the terms of servitude? I guess any of us can get drunk on dogma or trip out on authority; we're only human. The question is this: Are we praising our own inclusiveness on one hand and systemically discriminating against minorities on the other hand. Repeat after me, GSO, "Denial isn't a river in Egypt."<br><br>Admitting there's a problem is the first step. This isn't going to be an all critical rant. We hear from Barry L who talked at the 1985 AA World Convention in Montreal about AA's overcoming their personal value system to do what's best for AA as a whole and agree to list gay and lesbian affirmative groups. We look at the Big Book's second edition affirmative action and how it advanced the interests of women in AA, acting as an early adapter to the women's liberation movement. So we look at race, creed, age, gender and physical/mental accessibility needs as we say, "Never mind what kind of a job we think we're doing with minorities in AA, what do our cold, hard statistics tell us about how well we're doing?"<br><br> <div style="text-align: center;"> I want to read it - not hear it. View or download the transcript <a contents="HERE" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-blog-feb-2015-rights-and-duty-to-accomodate-in-aa.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/178081/rebellion-dogs-blog-feb-2015-rights-and-duty-to-accomodate-in-aa.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFD700;">HERE</span></a>. Visit us on <a contents="POD-0-MATIC" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://rebelliondogs12stepradio.podomatic.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;">POD-0-MATIC</span></a><br><br><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="85" id="ei7471160" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rebelliondogs12stepradio.podomatic.com/embed/frame/posting/2015-02-24T14_06_01-08_00?json_url=http%3A%2F%2Frebelliondogs12stepradio.podomatic.com%2Fentry%2Fembed_params%2F2015-02-24T14_06_01-08_00%3Fcolor%3D43bee7%26autoPlay%3Dfalse%26facebook%3Dtrue%26height%3D85%26minicast%3Dfalse%26objembed%3D0%26width%3D440&notb=1" width="440"></iframe><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/c32c2ef0125181a05f3367059dee51ad352fa5d4/original/pew-race-chart.jpg?1424838327" class="size_l justify_center border_" />
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<div>If AA is so inclusive, why do our demographics not reflect in the rooms, the same demographics of the towns and cities just outside our rooms. We look at NEXT AMERICA, a report by Pew Research and compare that report to the AA triennial survey and we contemplate why AA looks like 1960 American - not Century 21 America.<br>Did I mention the Human Rights Code? In Ontario, where discrimination in AA is currently being tolerated, the Human Rights Commission has something to say about A.A.’s responsibility to advocate for minorities.<br><br>On their website you and I can read:<strong><em>“Organizations must ensure that they are not unconsciously engaging in systemic discrimination. This takes vigilance and a willingness to monitor and review numerical data, policies, practices and decision-making processes and organizational culture. It is not acceptable from a human rights perspective for an organization to choose to remain unaware of systemic discrimination or to fail to act when a problem comes to its attention.”</em></strong><br><br>A transcript of the whole radio show is available <a contents="HERE" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-blog-feb-2015-rights-and-duty-to-accomodate-in-aa.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/178081/rebellion-dogs-blog-feb-2015-rights-and-duty-to-accomodate-in-aa.pdf" target="_blank">HERE</a>
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1:01:00
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/3472663
2015-01-18T02:20:25-05:00
2017-01-14T11:32:15-05:00
January 2015 - Pluralism: The language barrier to getting along
<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="font_large">January 2015 - Pluralism: The language barrier to getting along<br><em>Worldviews that divide us in politics, religion and recover & the hope for reconciliation.</em></span></div><br>#JeSuisCharlie is the hash tag that tells the world that you condemn violence in the name of creed; Vive la freedom of the press! An antagonistic French atheist newspaper was terrorized by angry Muslims in retaliation for insensitive depictions of Islamic religious symbols. Let’s not forget that most Muslims condemn violence, too, but they’re hardly pro-blasphemy either. How does one avoid knee-jerk reactions to news stories like these? We can see people take sides, sometimes before all the facts are in. <table align="left" border="1" cellpadding="1.5" cellspacing="0"><tbody> <tr> <td style="width:234px;">
<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/fc71b8194741b199fb96b7051300cc748bbb3e9a/original/an-athiest-is-a-man-with.jpg?1421563878" class="size_orig justify_center border_" />Credited to John Buchan (1875 – 1940), novelist, politician.</td> </tr>
</tbody></table><br>I am pro-pluralism and at times like this I wonder if <em>everyone getting along respectfully</em> isn’t the delusion of liberal idealism. Still, it’s my default position; we can respect each other and not berate our differences. But it’s a challenge. I can sound all rational and inclusive… until I get triggered and then I get passive-aggressive or worse.<br> <br>On January 9<sup>th</sup>, <em>The New Yorker</em> printed “Unmournable Bodes” by Teju Cole. The editorial confronts the question that has to be asked about this news of the world. What if you don’t want to promote either terrorism or racism? On one hand you have insensitive journalism that preys on racial/creedal stereotypes and on the other hand, jihad. Both are dehumanizing.<br> <div style="text-align: center;"><em>“But it is possible to defend the right to obscene and racist speech without promoting or sponsoring the content of that speech. It is possible to approve of sacrilege without endorsing racism. And it is possible to consider Islamophobia immoral without wishing it illegal. Moments of grief neither rob us of our complexity nor absolve us of the responsibility of making distinctions.”</em></div> <br>Check out the whole article here:<br><a data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/unmournable-bodies" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;">http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/unmournable-bodies</span></a><br> <br>In Twelve Step/Twelve Tradition culture, creed becomes an issue of the relevance/reality of divine intervention in the process of getting and staying clean and sober. It’s not our religious or a-religious convictions per se. One can believe in their favorite Holy Book and still believe that addiction recovery is a self-help process—not a matter of divine inspiration. It comes down to not just outside agency; but we each see the role of outside forces in our recovery outcomes differently. Regardless of having our faith in Yahweh or the power of example of the group, where does our responsibility take over?<br> <br>The “as we understand God” is a buffet of spiritual folklore. Don’t like a punishing judging god but want to believe there’s a divine plan for you? There’s your god. Want to plug into power but not the word god because of the religious baggage that comes with calling Yahweh by name? Have at it with your higher power. Or do you want the internal locus-of-control model? Tap away at your unsuspecting inner resource. Mix and match as you see fit. Accessorize with a heaven but no hell, reincarnation instead of finitude, your only limit is your imagination. Still, being above it all with an ashes to ashes, rotting flesh back to star-dust atheism has the rush of trading eternity tomorrow for being so intellectually superior to our myth-dependent fellows, today.<br> <br>From <em>A.A. Grapevine</em> May 2010 we have a lesson in taking what we like without bad-mouthing the rest. Actually, this is a “one of these things is not like the other” scenario. Previously, in January 2010 an article “Without a Higher Power” gave an atheist take on recovery in AA. Here are three responses from readers. See if you can pick the one that’s different from the others:<br> <br><strong><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/89c2f9439a0d1dbc407ecb6623d43a5316439d2e/medium/abraham-lincoln.jpg?1421564075" class="size_m justify_right border_" />Response to Greg H.’s Without a Higher Power published in Grapevine January 2010.</strong><br><br><strong>Ludicrous:</strong> I was not pleased with the story “Without a Higher Power: (January 2010). As the Big Book states, we have no defense against that first drink, but we do have “a daily reprieve contingent upon the maintenance of our spiritual condition.” Why would I need a spiritual condition, or maintain it, if it weren’t associated with a power greater than myself? The part about the sponsor saying that what the author was doing was obviously working, so let’s not try to fix it, is absolutely ludicrous. If there is one who is walking in my midst with this limited idea of AA, I will be on the lookout to work with him and hopefully get him back on this road we are trudging of happy destiny. Dale M., Lake Charles, La<br> <br><strong>Primary Purpose:</strong> Although the author’s experience did not match my own, I applaud <em>Grapevine</em> for publishing “Without a Higher Power.” In my 22 years in AA, the most common complaint I’ve heard from newcomers who’ve “tried it; didn’t work” was intolerance of AAs towards atheists and agnostics. Hopefully this article will help us remember our primary purpose isn’t evangelical, but to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety. Kevin K. Centerpoint, N.Y.<br> <br><strong>All-encompassing:</strong> Thank you for publishing “Without a Higher Power.” In recent years I’ve noticed a kind of thinking among some AAs that I would consider bordering on the “fanatical.”<br><br>There is no one way to be a member of AA. The author made a beautiful statement about the all-encompassing arms of our life-saving Fellowship. George P. Hingham, Wis.<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title="">[i]</a><br> <br>None of the respondents claim to be atheists. They are all believers and none had a conversion experience from the” Without a Higher Power” article. Two believers thanked <em>A.A. Grapevine</em> for publishing the story and took away something themselves or saw how the story could benefit others. The other—Ludicrous—was offended that <em>A.A. Grapevine</em> poisoned the magazine with such blasphemy, siting the suggestion of recovery without god as plausible as a dangerous (maybe life-threatening) act of irresponsible journalism.<br>I hope I can be more like Kevin and George and less like one-way-or-the-highway Dale.<br> <br>I think it’s pretty good that two-thirds of the reactions from people with opposing worldviews are respectful of the unbeliever writer and appreciative of his input. That’s very hopeful.<br> <br>Some of you may know that a few months prior, I had an article published called, “Overhaul?” asking if our early 20<sup>th</sup> century program was fit for the 21<sup>st</sup> century newcomer. Sure, some reactions were hostile towards the blasphemous idea of tinkering with our sacred text. But most agreed or disagreed with one or more ideas without being disagreeable about me, the quality of my recovery or <em>A.A. Grapevine</em>.<br> <br>It’s easy to stop at something like this response and get angry:<br> <br><strong>Overhaul?</strong><strong> (by MARK W.)</strong><br>In suggesting that atheism or agnosticism are satisfactory in the longer-term, provided one keeps an open mind, the author misses a key purpose of the <em>Big Book</em>. As "We Agnostics" clearly states, the book's "main object is to enable you to find a Power greater than yourself," while in "How it Works," we are reminded "there is One who has all power—the One is God," For this alcoholic, only God can effect enough change within me to stay away from the bottle.<br> <br>Binary thinking is reserved for the religious. Atheism comes with its own dogma as does agnosticism. Dogmatic atheists will pronounce that religion is destructive, waning and breathing its last gasp. We’d all be better without religious mythology and they’ll rant about the crusades or pedophiles of the cloth as an example of how religion is bad and we’d all be better without it. Dogmatic agnostics won’t even let atheists or theists finish their sentence, interrupting with “It’s unknown and unknowable, why are you still talking about this; what’s the point?” Debate will frustrate a dogmatic agnostic because unsolvable riddles are an unproductive use of time. “Every rational person would agree with us,” would be the rational for any dogmatic theist, atheist or agnostic.<br> <br>Last week on AAagnostica I suggested that both <em>Big Book</em> thumpers and <em>Big Book</em> bashers were dogmatic and a member took exception to “bashers” being called dogmatic just because they have the same “it’s time for change” ring to their sharing. <br> <br>I will say this: both a member of a minority or a majority can hold prejudice over the other, but only the majority member can discriminate over the other. A system needs to be in place whereby literature and/or rules frustrate equality. Just as one could have an anti-visible minority prejudice or an anti-Caucasian prejudice, only one is racism in North America. If you think African Americans are superior to whites, that’s prejudice but anti-black sentiment has a system of prejudice in place to back it up—making it racism. Stats show that being born black in the USA has a different probability for wealth and education than being born white. This is systemic discrimination at play. This is borne out in gender in the workplace, sexual orientation in high school and yes—being an atheist in AA. Either an atheist or theist can be a bigot but only the theist in AA has the systemic backing to harass and discriminate against the atheist.<br> <br>So, going back to being called out for calling <em>Big Book</em> bashers as being just as dogmatic as <em>Big Book</em> thumpers, I stand by what I say—each may feel superior to the other. But. to my critic’s point, the basher doesn’t have the systemic infrastructure of literature and strength in numbers to harass or discriminate against thumpers (except maybe around the table at a We Agnostics group). In this regard, the basher—the one who wants wholesale changes to the <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em> text—has to be insistent, disobedient and repetitive to disturb the status quo enough to initiate change. While that may or may not be dogmatic, it is an unavoidable position. Mary Sophia Allen (British Suffergette), Malcolm X (Reformist of Islam, Capitalism and Civil Rights) or Madalyn Murray O’Hair (American Atheist)may be people, who if they laid down on a psychiatrist’s couch today, might label their negativity, temper, disobedience and hostility as Oppositional Defiance Disorder. Einstein might be in this category too.<br> <br>It’s no surprise that many theists see atheists as angry. In the USA today—in or outside of the rooms—a member with a theistic worldview enjoys a status quo that embraces them while an AA atheist does not. It may be anger that the atheists are displaying. On the other hand it may be lobbying for change.<br> <br>I will use myself as an example. I just wrote a letter to GSO and our latest Area delegate. It was about the current dysfunction of our two Canadian big-city Intergroups that have de-listed agnostic groups. There isn’t much that our groups can do ourselves; we have no voice on the Intergroup floors. The point of the letter was simply to ensure that no one is too comfortable with the new reality of an <em>AA of uniformity</em> replacing our <em>AA of unity</em>. While the atheist/agnostic groups are on the wrong side of “going with the flow,” Intergroup is on the wrong side the Human Rights Code in Canada. It’s just a matter of time before some frustrated AA nonbeliever files a complaint with the Provincial Human Rights Tribunal and AAs would be trading in their spiritual awakening buzz for a rude awakening zap.<br> <br>The Tribunal would look at A.A. as a service provider through the Human Rights Code’s “duty to accommodate” and the Tribunal would not look at this as a local squabble the way GSO might want to. This isn’t complicated legalese. No matter what “a loving God as He expresses Himself through our group conscience” says about atheist meetings or atheist Steps, the Code ensures that minorities, based on race, sexual orientation, creed, etc. are accommodated. Rules that discriminate are rules that will be struck down by the Commission. You can find this right on the OHRC (Human Rights Commission) website:<br> <div style="text-align: center;">
<em>“Organizations must ensure that they are not unconsciously engaging in systemic discrimination. This takes vigilance and a willingness to monitor and review numerical data, policies, practices and decision-making processes and organizational culture. It is not acceptable from a human rights perspective for an organization to choose to remain unaware of systemic discrimination or to fail to act when a problem comes to its attention”</em><a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title=""><em><sup><strong><sup>[ii]</sup></strong></sup></em></a>
</div> <br>Readers might see my letter as discontent, argumentative or that I am complaining. I don’t think that’s fair. I am pointing out an inequity, yes, but I am also trying to alert AA to an always present danger of AA being paraded across the front pages on the newspaper, again, framed as promoting a culture of bigotry. This is 2015; The World Convention is in Atlanta. I am sure that while all eyes of the world are on AA in Atlanta, GSO doesn’t want the press asking about members who are currently being discriminated against in the host city of the 2025 Conference, Vancouver.<br> <br>So, a minority member can feel just as superior as the majority member that oppresses them. But without systems of support, only one of them can be called “discriminatory.” Let’s get back to pluralism <em>the reality</em> vs. pluralism <em>the myth</em>.<br> <br>It is easy to get bent out of shape over passive-aggressive suggestions that our atheism is just anger at god or a temporary intellectual holdout, why not look at the warm reception we get from most members, instead of the bigotry of some? There is plenty of both if we look for it.<br> <br>So, if one focuses on the bad, it’s easy to be negative. Phil Zuckerman’s <em>Living the Secular Life</em> combines personal anecdotes and sociological insights to craft a guide for living without religion. The book seems aimed primarily at the USA, the developed country with the largest per-capita belief in a personal god.<br> <br>He uses stats that we’ve reviewed before from the Pew Research Center. Expanding on a <em>Washington Post</em> article he wrote called, “Why Do Americans still dislike Atheists?” he looked at people’s opinion of atheists compared to Muslims, homosexuals and people of other faith.<br> <div style="text-align: center;"><em>“A lot of religious Americans don’t like or trust people who don’t believe in God because they assume that atheism is the same thing as being without morals. This assumption is so widely spread that In many surveys atheists come in at the last place when Americans are asked to rank members of certain racial, ethnic, or religious groups as potential spouses for their kids. … 43% of Americans said that they would not vote for an atheist for president, putting atheist in last/worst place, behind Muslims for president. Homosexuals (30 percent wouldn’t), Mormons (18 percent wouldn’t) Latinos (7 percent wouldn’t), Jews (6 percent wouldn’t), Catholic (5 percent wouldn’t), Women (5 percent wouldn’t) and African Americans (4 percent).”<a href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3" title="">[iii]</a></em></div> <br>“See,” you say. “Over 10 times the number of people in America won’t vote for atheists compared to African Americans or Jews.” True; but almost 60% of American’s would consider voting for an atheist. I don’t deny this is a great handicap in any political race. Nevertheless, having 57% of votes at least considering you ought not to be discounted. Put in a more positive light, over ½ of American’s don’t liken atheist to devil-worshippers. Yes, 100% of Americans ought to treat atheists equally, but over half—that is at least a big improvement over how it was 20 years ago and it seems to be continuing to move in the right direction.<br> <br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/915421b9fb957ff6c8732a708010b0e688259a1c/small/with-or-without-god.jpg?1421564653" class="size_s justify_right border_" />If you think being an atheist in AA is an uphill battle in the popularity contest department, try being an atheist minister. Gretta Vosper has two books published since she came out to her congregation and the elders at the United Church of Canada. Gretta is an atheist. She doesn’t see throwing out the good deeds with the dogmatic myths as productive. She founded the Canadian Centre for Progressive Christianity and she continues to lead the West Hill United Church in Toronto’s east end.<br> <div><em>“I do find it hard to imagine that preserving an institution for preservation’s sake itself is anything more than an enormous waste of time and energy. But I do think that the church is well placed to bring about some significant change in the world. And change in the world is desperately needed.”<a href="#_edn4" name="_ednref4" title="">[iv]</a></em></div> <br>She sees the infrastructure of the Church as flawed and imperfect but still virtuous. From the statement above, she goes on to talk about how many sects and denominations got behind the 2003 United Nations, “International Year of Freshwater. “ She gives other examples. We hear the Catholic Pope today campaigning for positive climate change initiatives and more economic and social equity.<br> <br>If a church can be a church with or without God, I am sure Twelve Step fellowships can embrace a “with or without God” worldview. Our primary purpose isn’t directly connected to any theology. Our preamble and our Traditions don’t defend any particular program of recovery. Instead, they remind us how to get along with each other and in the world around us.<br> <br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/38b57fd97ede4e0d4e77f668fe49b7fadc6af51d/medium/royal-york-hotel.jpg?1421564188" class="size_m justify_left border_" />While in the habit of reading <em>Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life</em>, Jay in Sedona invited me to host a weekend recovery retreat on the theme of “Beyond Belief.” He asked me if I would and I said, “Yes.” He asked me who I’d like to work with and without hesitation I said, “John McAndrew.” A parish priest for 18 years, John has also worked as both a bereavement and an addictions counselor. I don’t want to frame the Twelve Steps as better secular. I want to talk about the bilingualism, biculturalism of the Twelve Steps. How better to do that than to co-host an event with a theologian?<br> <br>I still have a warm feeling when I think about being invited by the Ontario Regional Conference of A.A. (2012) to speak on the Spiritual Panel (in the Concert Hall, Fairmont Royal York Hotel, pictured); it was the two Joes—Joe R, priest and Joe C, atheist. We both have decades of sobriety; we both stay sober in A.A. If anything, I got out-outrageous-ed by Joe the Catholic priest.<br> <br>He was awesome; Joe spoke—I was in awe. It was a celebration of pluralism and people continue to share with me their fond memories of how that meeting helped them overcome their own narcissism of small differences. We share the experience of addiction and we share the experience of recovery. The narrative changes from one worldview to another but believing and belonging are not synonymous.<br> <br>Links:<br>An Atheist & Theologian go on a 12-Step Call together... <a contents="More about Recovery Workshop weekend @ SedonaMago Retreat." data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.sedonamagoretreat.org/beyond-belief" target="_blank"><span style="color:#AFEEEE;">More about Recovery Workshop weekend @ SedonaMago Retreat.</span></a><br>Joe C & Joe R: <a contents="Spiritual Panel Ontario Regional Conference 2012" data-link-label="GrowingAlongSpiritualLinesTheAtheistAndThePriestOntarioRegionalConferenceOfAA2013.mp3" data-link-type="file" href="/files/91399/GrowingAlongSpiritualLinesTheAtheistAndThePriestOntarioRegionalConferenceOfAA2013.mp3" target="_blank"><span style="color:#AFEEEE;">Spiritual Panel Ontario Regional Conference 2012</span></a><br>Overhaul? <a contents="The audio article" data-link-label="aagv-dec09-overhaul.mp3" data-link-type="file" href="/files/151404/aagv-dec09-overhaul.mp3" target="_blank"><span style="color:#AFEEEE;">The audio article</span></a><br>Overhaul? <a contents="The reader responses" data-link-label="aagv-mar10-overhaul.mp3" data-link-type="file" href="/files/151220/aagv-mar10-overhaul.mp3" target="_blank"><span style="color:#AFEEEE;">The reader responses</span></a>.<br>PDF of this <a contents="BLOG." data-link-label="rebellion-dog-blog-january-2015-puralism-in-politics-religion-and-recovery.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/172563/rebellion-dog-blog-january-2015-puralism-in-politics-religion-and-recovery.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#AFEEEE;">BLOG.</span></a>
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<a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title="">[i]</a> <em>A.A. Grapevine Inc</em>., May 2010</div>
<div id="edn2">ii <a href="http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/policy-creed-and-accommodation-religious-observances/creed">http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/policy-creed-and-accommodation-religious-observances/creed</a>
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<a href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3" title="">[iii]</a> Zuckerman, Phil, Living the Secular Life: New Answers to Old Questions, New York: Penguin Press, 2014 p. 9</div>
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<a href="#_ednref4" name="_edn4" title="">[iv]</a> Vosper, Gretta, <em>With or Without God</em>, Toronto: Harper Collins, 2008, p. 284</div>
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Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/3454439
2015-01-06T15:58:25-05:00
2023-12-10T11:53:27-05:00
Food Junkies: Food and other process addictions
<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/77041ff9975bdbe2e8a4c8892f38b269d4f722d2/medium/food-junkies.jpg?1420577071" class="size_m justify_right border_" /><br>Listen now to Episode 10 of <a contents="Rebellion Dogs Radio on Pod-0-matic HERE" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://rebelliondogs12stepradio.podomatic.com/" target="_blank">Rebellion Dogs Radio on Pod-0-matic <span style="color:#FFFF00;">HERE</span></a><br><br>What do Maxwell House Coffee, Grape-Nuts cereal, Kool-Ade, Jello and Marlborough cigarettes all have in common? Well their formulas are engineered by chemists that all work for the same companies. Companies that continue to get sued over misleading us about the health issues of their cigarettes are now processing many of the foods we eat each day.<br><br>How about that; “Don’t smoke, Suzzie, it’s addictive and it will make you unhealthy,” we say to our daughter as as we pour her a bowl of yogurt that may has more sugar than Honey-Nut Cheerios. Have you ever heard of bliss-point? That’s the term chemists that make processed foods call the perfect amount of salt, sugar and fat that will create craving in you for more, will play with your brain chemistry and be whispering to your addictive tendencies while you hold hands and recite the Serenity Prayer.<br> <br>Episode Ten of Rebellion Dogs Radio is please to invite Dr. Very Tarman to our show. Vera is Medical Director of Renascent Treatment Centres and she just authored a new book,<strong><em> Food Junkies: The Truth About Food Addiction</em></strong>. We talk about process addiction in general – sex, food, gambling etc. We talk about the food industries role in consumer eating habits and we talk about the latest in addiction and recovery.<br><br>Not long ago, buying yogurt or granola meant you were buying health-food. It’s not so simple today. Food is designed to fight for stomach space against all the other consumer-goods companies. This episode of Rebellion Dogs Radio will help you get to know Dr. Vera better and her experience with addiction might surprise you. If it’s true that we are what we eat then we owe it to ourselves to better understand how the food industry is making Food Junkies out of us all.<br><br>We look at the DSM-5 which is the latest manual that helps doctors diagnose mental health and addiction problems. We'll also look at what Dr. Gabor Maté (<em>In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts</em>), Marc Lewis (<em>Memoirs of an Addicted Brian</em>), Patrick Carnes (<em>A Gentle Path through the Twelve Steps</em>) and Michael Moss (<em>Salt Sugar Fat)</em> have to say and more.<br><br><a contents="Food Junkies" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.amazon.com/Food-Junkies-Truth-About-Addiction/dp/1459728599/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=rebeldogspubl-20&linkCode=w01&linkId=VMKGN4QI43BSYUYW&creativeASIN=1459728599#reader_1459728599" target="_blank"><span style="color:#00FFFF;"><strong>Food Junkies</strong></span></a> has been on the market for just over a month. It offers readers both the science and the craft of addiction and recovery. Expertise and real-life experience are combined in a book that I can't wait to tell you more about. Enjoy Episode Ten of Rebellion Dogs Radio.<br><br>Please feel free to download a free PDF transcript of this show <a contents="HERE" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-radio-january-2015-episode-10-food-junkies.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/171313/rebellion-dogs-radio-january-2015-episode-10-food-junkies.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;"><strong>HERE</strong></span></a> if you want to follow along or refer back to anything that was said on the show. As always, join the conversation on Twitter or Facebook.<br><br>More Dr. Vera on <a contents="Addiction Unplugged" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://addictionsunplugged.com/" target="_blank"><strong>Addiction Unplugged</strong></a>.<br> <br>Show notes for further exploration:<br>[1] <a data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.renascent.ca/" target="_blank">http://www.renascent.ca/</a><br>[2] Tarman, Dr. Vera, <a contents="Food Junkies: The Truth About Food Addiction" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.amazon.com/Food-Junkies-Truth-About-Addiction/dp/1459728599/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=rebeldogspubl-20&linkCode=w01&linkId=VMKGN4QI43BSYUYW&creativeASIN=1459728599#reader_1459728599" target="_blank"><em>Food Junkies: The Truth About Food Addiction</em></a>, Toronto: Dundurn, 2014<br>[3] Thompson, Damian, The Fix: How Addiction is Taking Over Your World, London: Harper Collins Publishers, 2012<br>[4] Moss, Michael, <em>Salt Sugar Fat</em>, New York: Penguin Random House, 2014<br>[5] Maté, Gabor, Ted Talk, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66cYcSak6nE<br>[6] Kessler, David A., <em>The End of Overeating: Talking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite</em>, New York: Rodale Books, 2009<br>[7] Lewis, Marc, <em>Memoirs of an Addicted Brain. </em>Toronto: Double Day Canada, 2011 pp. 158 – 159<br>[8] From the <em>Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition</em> (section 312.31)<br>[9] http://www.asam.org/publications/president%27s-blog/asam-president%27s-blog/2013/01/27/when-will-there-be-definitions-and-terminology-in-addiction-medicine<br>[10] Carnes, Patrick, <a contents="A Gentle Path Through the Twelve Step" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1592858430/ref=as_sl_pc_tf_lc?tag=rebeldogspubl-20&camp=213381&creative=390973&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=1592858430&adid=0RF79ANQ4WEECYJ9VF7N&&ref-refURL=http%3A%2F%2Frebelliondogspublishing.com%2F" target="_blank"><em>A Gentle Path Through the Twelve Step</em></a>, Center City: Hazelden Foundation, 1993,.<br>
1:04:23
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/3376888
2014-12-09T04:40:40-05:00
2020-09-22T10:08:59-04:00
Rebellion Dogs Radio Episode 9 - We Agnostics & Freethinkers International AA Conference in Santa Monica
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<p><br>Welcome to Rebellion Dogs Radio Episode IX where we bring you highlights of the first ever We Agnostics & Freethinkers International A.A. Conference from Santa Monica California, November 2014. So much content is available on this and we include many links included in this blog. Rebellion Dogs Radio # 9 will include segments from the keynotes given. Click on the link above or bellow to start listening. We have a teaser for Phyllis H., A.A. General Service Office GM, Marya H, author of <em>Waiting: A Nonbeliever's Higher Power</em> and Class A Trustee, Reverend Ward Ewing.<br><br>Workshops, Keynote Speakers , panels AA meetings from atheist/agnostic groups from around the world meant there was a rich program at WAFT IAAC and we can't get everything worth saying into one show. We'll continue to talk about this historical event in upcoming shows. The punchline, if you haven't heard is we're doing it again in 2016, We Agnostics, Atheists & Freethinkers International A.A. Conference will be in Austin Texas and we'll do it again, somewhere, every two years.<br><br>This wasn’t AA’s rogue nonbelievers off on their own; It was General Service Office (GSO), Conference delegates past and present from all over America, supporters who don’t doubt a loving God in their own life but believe in an AA that speaks the language of everyone with a desire to stop drinking. There were about 300 of us in Santa Monica November 6<sup>th</sup> to 8<sup>th</sup>. You'll hear segments form four of the talks recorded at the conference by Dave S. at Encore Audio Archives. You can buy your own mp3s or CDs at: <a data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.12steptapes.com/waft.html" target="_blank">http://www.12steptapes.com/waft.html</a> <br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/aee11df0f04c59295174d13e47c0f32c13acea9f/medium/ward-ewing-websize.jpg?1418114979" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" />I wondered what customs and rituals would be included and what AA customs and rituals would be excluded. While there isn’t any praying at most agnostic/atheist meetings, some read the Twelve Steps, some do not, some read a secular interpretation agreed upon by the ultimate authority in AA, their own group conscience. So it the interest of less is more, there were no readings, no chanting at any of the main-room meetings. Can you have an AA meeting without reading How It Works or praying for serenity? You sure can. And we did. No one in attendance wondered where they were. It was as AA as any meeting you’ve ever been to.<br><br>There were AA meetings hosted by secular AA meetings all around the world and they ran those meetings exactly how they run them in their own town. To A.A. fundamentalists who want to, or have, high-jacked their local Intergroups or AA local offices this chaos seems unusual. In places like Toronto where Intergroup still discriminates against agnostic groups and have replaced regional <em>AA unity</em> with <em>AA uniformity,</em> GSO is saddened by your bigotry. No one will tell you to get in line, be more loving and tolerant, practice the Traditions instead of your rigid view of what AA ought to be for all members or all groups. It will be left to your conscience, but listen along and ask yourself if our founders were alive today would they be more likely to be thanking you for discriminating against nonbeliever's AA groups; or would they be celebrating recovery, unity and service with us in Santa Monica?<br><br>Andrew Solomon is a New York Times writer and author of <em>Far from the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity</em>. Solomon says something in a Ted Talk that is so right-on for this historic weekend in Santa Monica:<br><br><strong>“There is always someone there to take our humanity away and always someone to restore it. Oppression breeds the power to oppose it. Identity politics always works on two fronts. First it gives pride to someone who has given characteristics and secondly, it causes the outside world to treat such people more gently, more kindly.”</strong><br><br>It is strangely that it is the tyranny of these rogue Intergroups and AA club houses that harass atheist AA members that we have to thank for this conference. As Solomon points out, while they try to take another's dignity or humanity away, they instead, help set in motion a fellowship wide reaction that celebrates We Agnostics & Freethinkers AA Conference. We enjoy the supported by the larger AA community while they look at discrimination in AA with concern. Oh the law of unintended consequences.<br><br>General Service Conference Chair Emeritus Reverend Ward Ewing (Pictured courtesy of Ken Sherry) talks about the traps of feeling like a phoney and the dangers of specific theology creeping into AA meetings under the guise of "spirituality." GSO General Manager, Phyllis H. shares a few prime Bill W. writings and shares what other founders and trusted servants have said about both celebrating AA diversity and the dangers of dogmatic or rigid interpretations of AA's message. The author of <a contents="Waiting: A Nonbelievers Higher Power" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1592858252/ref=as_sl_pc_tf_lc?tag=rebeldogspubl-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=1592858252&adid=1ATZQC2PC3XAXMDM1J4G&&ref-refURL=http%3A%2F%2Frebelliondogspublishing.com%2F" target="_blank"><em>Waiting: A Nonbelievers Higher Power</em></a>, Marya H. is no stranger to Rebellion Dogs. We have a snippet of her talk included, too.<br><br>To those who know her, Marya was as poetic, prepared and thoughtful as we’ve come to enjoy. She was sincerely delighted to be part of this humble bit of AA history. Marya’s story of one is one of being entirely ready when she ran thin on alcoholic bottoms, she was sincere and willing to do what might work—regardless of the suggestions compatibility with her worldview. She acknowledged that the language of the Steps (ie: the God stuff) doesn’t talk to all of us and certainly falls short of giving answers. While she sees that people stay sober praying and turning it over, what was a nonbeliever to do to work the Steps?<br><br>In his whole talk Ward Ewing will describe the Hope, Honest, Belonging and Gratitude that he sees in the AA way of life. He tells some moving and humorous stories that this show doesn’t have the time to tell. A theme that Ward Started and delegates and members picked up on was that everyone in AA shares a common experience. He nailed it by describing our common AA experience as “when the impossible becomes possible.” Almost everyone in AA around the world would agree with that. When we add the adjective “spiritual” experience, now I don’t agree with your definition of spiritual or you’re offended with what I mean by it and now the experience that agreed upon just a moment ago, we don’t agree with anymore.Curious isn’t it, how the narcissism of small differences can be triggered by such an innocent word.<br><br>As the sun came down over Santa Monica Boulevard on the Friday night, Phyllis H. would close out with a lot of quotes from our founders and former Trustees. She was touched to be invited and We Agnostics and Atheists were moved that General Service Office was so supportive of us. It was truly healing. We started with Reverend Ward Ewing, the best friend an atheist or agnostic could have in AA. We conclude with Phyllis H. who personified the idea that together AA is better and everyone is welcome in AA and sobriety in AA possible without having to accept someone else’s beliefs or having to deny your own.<br><br>There was a Conference Delegate’s panel and one of AA’s trusted servants made it clear that we can read anything we want in an AA meeting. Nothing is sacred and nothing is forbidden. Write our own literature, use conference approved literature or anything our group conscience dictates. There was a workshop on how to start your own meeting with a secular, humanist or or agnostic style, free of religion, God-talk and prayer. Over half of all atheist/agnostic groups today have started since 2010. We know of no faster growing segment of AA growth. The only limits are our own imagination.<br><br>Don't be surprised if AA's Literature Committee or Grapevine re-think literature for nonbelievers. In the meantime, WAAFTIAAC will be creating our own community, outreach and literature to ensure that whenever someone reaches out for help, the hand of AA will always be there.<br><br>Some links of interest.<br><br><a contents="Order form" data-link-label="waft-2014-convention-cd-list-final.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/166706/waft-2014-convention-cd-list-final.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;">Order form</span></a> for CDs or MP3s from <a contents="Encore Audio Archives" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.12steptapes.com/waft.html" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;">Encore Audio Archives</span></a><br><br>District 11, Area 34 newsletter, Camel Courier: <a contents="Atheists and Agnostics will not give up on A.A. " data-link-label="mi-dist-11-aa-newsletter-on-waft-iaac.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/166707/mi-dist-11-aa-newsletter-on-waft-iaac.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;">Atheists and Agnostics will not give up on A.A. </span></a><br><br>Click for AA Agnostica <a contents="Day One" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://aaagnostica.org/2014/11/07/we-agnostics-and-atheists-aa-convention-day-1/" target="_blank">Day One</a> - <a contents="Day Two" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://aaagnostica.org/2014/11/08/we-agnostics-and-atheists-aa-convention-day-2/" target="_blank">Day Two</a> - <a contents="Day Three" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://aaagnostica.org/2014/11/09/we-agnostics-and-atheists-aa-convention-day-3/" target="_blank">Day Three</a> - <a contents="Workshop Review" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://aaagnostica.org/2014/11/19/workshops-at-the-waft-convention/" target="_blank">Workshop Review</a> (<br><br>Hear some more WAFT IAAC talks from <a contents="Kansas We Agnostics " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxj8jsiOyOS-JQ9vQsarO1w" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;">Kansas We Agnostics </span></a>YouTube page.<br><br>Joe C, as guest on <a contents="KLĒN + SŌBR Podcast" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://rebelliondogspublishing.com/rebellious-radio/blog/joe-c-guest-spot-on-since-right-now-podcast-talking-about-we-agnostics-freehthinkers-aa-conference" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;">KLĒN + SŌBR Podcast</span></a>, talking to Chris and Jeff from Since Right Now (Episode 17, just before WAFT IAAC).<br><br><br><br> </p>
1:00:19
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/3258576
2014-10-30T15:10:21-04:00
2018-08-11T11:27:49-04:00
Rebellion Dogs Radio Episode 8 - Coping with ADHD or OCD
<p><br><span class="font_large">Dual-diagnoses: Addiction + OCD or ADHD and how to deal with it.</span><br><strong><em>Rebellion Dogs Radio #8 features Dr. Tim Bilkey and professional rocker, Paul Nelson</em></strong><br><br><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="85" id="ei7303498" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rebelliondogs12stepradio.podomatic.com/embed/frame/posting/2014-10-29T04_02_16-07_00?json_url=http%3A%2F%2Frebelliondogs12stepradio.podomatic.com%2Fentry%2Fembed_params%2F2014-10-29T04_02_16-07_00%3Fcolor%3D43bee7%26autoPlay%3Dfalse%26facebook%3Dtrue%26height%3D85%26minicast%3Dfalse%26objembed%3D0%26width%3D440&notb=1" width="440"></iframe><br> <br>Just listen by scrolling down and playing our embedded Radio player or click on the track above.<br><br><a contents="Download a PDF of Episode 8" data-link-label="rebellion-dog-blog-november-2014-adhd-ocd.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/161616/rebellion-dog-blog-november-2014-adhd-ocd.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;"><strong>Download a PDF of Episode 8</strong></span></a>. This download complements the Radio Show. It doesn't follow it as a transcript exactly.<br> <br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/82684292ae5c0653f027a91f11e6767488900e2a/medium/dual-diagnosis-i.jpg?1414694838" class="size_m justify_left border_" />Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder – what if you have these traits as well as addiction? Dr. Tim Bilkey and guitarist <strong>Paul Nelson</strong> are both guests on Rebellion Dogs Radio Episode 8 to help us tell the story of addiction comorbidity or dual diagnosis or double-winners if you prefer. Not to minimize or oversimplify but consider that being left-handed is not a disorder. We live in a world that is largely designed with right-handed advantages but left-handed people don’t need to fix their predisposition. We lefties might have to be a bit more proactive than righties. Though a minority in a right-handed world, not many of see ourselves as handicapped.<br><br> <br>Though not by degree, the same holds true for those of us with OCD, ADHD or addiction for that matter; we don’t need an alcohol free world in which to thrive—we only need to make conscious adjustments to a world that sees no need to baby us. In these notes, we’ll look at how not to be a slave to these conditions. We’re not helpless. Some lefties will buy left-handed scissors, some will adjust to right handed scissors and others will train themselves to do certain tasks right-handed. There is help available for those of us who present with ADHD or OCD from self-help to cognitive behavioral therapy to medicine. <br><br>Maybe as you’re reading you’re already doing a check list to evaluate yourself. Do you think you have any obsessive or compulsive symptoms beyond your obvious relationship with your drug(s) of choice? Are you chronically late, forgetful or do you have a hard time focusing on even the chores that are very important to you? What about others in your life? Who would you label with ADHD or OCD? Let’s look at smoking; you either smoke or you know what it’s like to walk through the blue cloud as you enter the school, church or community center that is home to your 12-Step meeting. There’s a reason why there’s more smokers outside the AA or NA meeting than there is outside the book club, city council meeting or any other gathering that isn’t all-addicts. We’ll look at some definitions of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Order first: <br><br>Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder:<br><br> <br><strong><em>“ADHD is five to 10 times more common among adult alcoholics than it is in people without the condition. Among adults being treated for alcohol and substance abuse, the rate of ADHD is about 25%...<br> <br>People with ADHD tend to be more impulsive and likely to have behavior problems, both of which can contribute to drug and alcohol abuse, researchers say. Also, both ADHD and alcoholism tend to run in families. A child with ADHD who has a parent with alcoholism is more likely to also develop an alcohol abuse problem. Researchers have pointed to common genes shared between ADHD and alcoholism.”</em></strong><a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title="">[i]</a><br> <br>Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and addiction:<br> <br><strong><em>“OCD, is an <a href="http://www.dualdiagnosis.org/panic-anxiety-disorder-and-addiction/">anxiety disorder</a> in which an individual experiences recurring thoughts that cause irrational fears and anxiety. Individuals with OCD engage in repeated, compulsive rituals, such as counting items, hand washing and organizing. Executing these rituals provides temporary relief while they are being performed, but the anxiety returns soon after they stop. OCD is a highly destructive disorder that can overtake the life of an individual and keep him from enjoying many life’s most rewarding activities.<br> <br>The <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2705178/" target="_blank">Journal of Anxiety Disorders</a> estimates that over 25 percent of those who seek treatment for OCD also meet the criteria for a substance use disorder. Individuals who experience OCD symptoms for the first time in childhood or adolescence are more likely to develop a drug or alcohol problem, often as a way to cope with overwhelming anxiety and fear. Treating an addictive disorder without addressing the emotional symptoms of OCD is unlikely to be effective.”</em></strong><a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title="">[ii]</a><br> <br>Chapter Five of Alcoholics Anonymous describers those will struggle with the AA modality. In the 1939 language AA writers, “There are those, too, who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of them do recovery if they have the capacity to be honest.”<br> <br>There is more to grave emotional and mental disorders that simply Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. But this is what we’re focusing on for this blog/radio show. To help tell this story, we invite to our show a psychiatrist who will relate to us his clinical experience, plus a professional guitar player who had a layperson’s firsthand experience managing his friend, guitar legend, Johnny Winter which included dealing with addiction and OCD.<br><br> <br> <br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/1d3870aab0bfb04686172ccf9a8597d6737c6e57/medium/fast-minds-tim-bilkey.jpg?1414694908" class="size_m justify_left border_" />Dr. Tim Bilkey (pictured) specialized is adult ADHD. He has two videos, ADHA Across The Lifespan and <em>Her Fast Mind: An In Depth Look at ADHD</em> <em>as it affects Women</em>. F.A.S.T. M.I.N.D.S. is an acronym that Tim Bilkey has developed to help test for ADHD. This 2013 co-authored book: <em>Fast Minds: How to Thrive If You Have ADHD (Or think you do)</em> is published by Harvard Health Publications.<br><br> <br>Our second guest, guitarist Paul Nelson (pictured right of Johnny Winter), had a dream come true when he got to play with his childhood idol, Johnny Winter. Paul was asked to take over managing Johnnny and the band. In 2014, just after Johnny Winter’s 70th birthday Winter died while on a European tour as his career was experiencing a resurgence. Before Johnny died director Greg Oliver completed, <em>Johnny Winter: Down & Dirty</em>, a documentary that Paul Nelson was executive producer for. The movie debuted at SXSW in March of 2014 and it includes appearances form brother Edgar Winter, Aerosmith’s Joe Perry, ZZ Top’s Bill Gibson, footage with BB King, Janis Joplin and plenty of fans in North America, Asia and Europe. We talk to Paul Nelson in the limo from Toronto International Airport to the Canadian debut of <em>Johnny Winter: Down & Dirty</em> as part of Toronto’s Reel Independent Film Festival in October, 2014.<br> <br>Meanwhile, Dr. Tim Bilkey was addressing the Bellwood Health Services <em>Many Faces of Addiction</em>, at their 6<sup>th</sup> annual addiction symposium. Dr. Tim Bilkey was good enough to make time for us just as guests were arriving to a private party he was hosting. In typical Rebellion Dogs guerrilla-radio style, our interview was in the basement kitchen of Boland's Open Kitchen on Mt. Pleasant Road in Toronto.<br> <br>Here is what the acronym FAST MINDS stands for. See if you identify:<br><br> <br>F – Forgetful<br>A – Achieving below potential<br>S – Stuck in a rut<br>T – Time challenged<br>M – Motivationally challenged<br>I – Impulsive<br>N – Novelty seeking<br>D – Distractible<br>S – Scattered<br> <br><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.amazon.com/Fast-Minds-Thrive-Think-Might/dp/0425274063/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=rebeldogspubl-20&linkCode=w01&linkId=EE6WDELD7RMU2VPC&creativeASIN=0425274063" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/5ba1b363ac6ec52d0728a44d97c0c76e73e313ea/medium/fast-minds-book.jpg?1414694898" class="size_m justify_right border_" /></a>In the book Fast Minds, Dr. Bilkey describes those of us with ADHD as having learning <em>differences</em> – not learning <em>disabilities</em>. Dealing with ADHD is a three-fold approach; Accommodation / Medication / Mindfulness. In Bilkey’s presentation to the <em>Many Faces of Addiction</em> delegates, the doctor disclosed his closeness to <em>Big-Pharma</em>; among his speaking commitments Dr. Bilkey is a spokesperson and consultant to some of the manufacturers of ADHD drugs. We talk in the radio interview about special considerations with medications when it comes to addicts.<br> <br>For anyone with a 12-Step background, Bilkey unintentionally talks our language. He describes his book as self-help and I would describe it as easy reading. Like addiction recovery, a blend of talking personal responsibility and seeking outside help is required to thrive with ADHD. The Fast Minds approach draws on the three prerequisites that 12-Step modality draw on—honesty, open-mindedness and willingness. There is list making, not unlike personal inventories and our lists of people we have affected with our addiction. There are action steps like sharing our shortcomings with another and making amends. Fast Minds self-help treatment isn’t 12-Steps but the core principles we are familiar with do manifest themselves in Dr. Bilkey’s book.<br> <br>The first three steps for success with ADHD are: awareness, decision, getting and accepting help. Doesn’t that have a Step One, Two, Three sound to it? Step one is to admit and accept (be aware of) our habits, choices and emotions. Acceptance is the key. Then in Step Two, we have to make a decision; we chose our priorities and identify the steps to get there. Step Three is to help ourselves. Beyond our immediate resources we seek out and engage the help we need. That could be professional help, medicine, electronic devices that help focus and organize us, and/or engaging friends and loved ones to give us feedback. We create an environment that accommodates our style. <br><br>This step-by-step process isn’t so far off from admitting we have a problem that is making our lives unmanageable, come to believe that there is a better way and making a decision to seek and accept help. The fourth level (step) in what Bilkey calls the Pyramid for Success with Adult ADHD is to design your life with structure and accountability. We accept what we can’t change and have the personal responsibility to change the things we can. <br><br>Every addict ought to identify with some aspects of obsessive-compulsive disorders. To be addicted is to be preoccupied and obsessed with our drug-of-choice. Process or substance addictions such as drinking, gambling or sexual compulsion, all have rituals and repetitive processes enslaving the addict insofar as we are more driven by our habits than by our free will. OCDs are activities that relieve anxiety. Duh—so does drinking. But like drinking the relief is short lived and the costs to the consequences or side-effects may get progressively worse. <br><br>Does it seem hypocritical to you that people—be they bragging or exuding gratitude—talk of how they were spared from the ravages of addiction through a spiritual awakening while puffing on cigarettes that will likely cause premature death from a preventable habit? Let me back off a bit if I sound rigid or self-righteous. I want to be clear that there is a difference between a bad habit and chronic, unmanageable addiction. Some of us smoke and some of us eat more chips and ice cream than we’d like; but smoking and overeating doesn’t have us lying to our kids, parents and employers or going to jail for driving over the limit, committing sex crimes or selling narcotics. <br> <br>While some of us smoke and overeat and call it “living a little,” some of us wish we could control ourselves but can’t. We aren’t blind to the consequences of unhealthy choices. Yes, we already endured the temptations and risks that face any addict/alcoholic who transitions from addiction to recovery; we made it through to the other side. It seems like a cruel joke that knowing what we know, achieving what we’ve achieved, we still can’t apply our knowledge and experience to stopping these other habits.<br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/bb3f391f25d8bc6dcab1ca287480bc1511db698b/medium/johnny-winter-band.jpg?1414694856" class="size_m justify_left border_" />Just saying no to smoking is a simple act of willpower for some and a bafflingly ineffective to others. If we were the same, Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit or the best seller of the last generation, Stephen Covey’s <em>The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People</em>, or the Twelve Steps themselves, would convert everyone. The compromised life of bad habits would be swiftly traded for the fulfilling life of good habits—if it was just about desire and commitment. But books and Step don’t work for everyone and everything. OCD (and ADHD) can explain some of this. Paul Nelson talks of how a methadone-free Johnny Winter was a more obsessive/compulsive Johnny Winter. Freedom from addiction didn’t solve his problems, it exposed them. Johnny Winter had to go to therapy for OCD and so did the whole family and band. In the end, Nelson was frustrated that while Johnny Winter’s story had a happy ending in one sense, his life, career and the joy he brought to others was cut short because Paul could never help Winter quit smoking.<br> <br>From DualDiagnosis.org above, we read a definition of obsessive-compulsive disorder and how it frequently makes fast friends with addiction. Some of who have had success in 12-Step recovery think we should be able to do it ourselves when it comes to emotional or mental health. We are reluctant to admit to ourselves that we are suffering if we see the 12-Steps as a cure-all. We may be reluctant to share this new setback with others. Shame doesn’t make it easier. We live in a society that loves to judge, celebrating our successes and also condemning us for falling short or not conforming to the norm.<br><br>In the UK, a community/charity helps lend support to OCD suffers. Here’ how OCD UK frames the challenges to, and benefits of, seeking help:<br> <br><strong><em>“When you first see a health care professional about your symptoms, it is very important that you are honest and open about your thoughts and behaviours, no matter how embarrassing they may seem. Almost certainly, they have heard it all before – and by being honest, you will help them to identify the most suitable treatment for you.<br> <br>Many OCD sufferers have depression and thoughts about harming themselves or others, and for some suicidal thoughts are also a feature – it is important to discuss these feelings openly and honestly.<br> <br>Also, many people with OCD, especially those with thoughts of a physical, sexual or harmful nature, are fearful of the consequences if they tell anyone about what goes on their heads. Whilst we generally encourage people with OCD to be honest and open about their thoughts and symptoms, you may wish to talk with your GP or therapist in general terms first of all until you feel comfortable that they actually understand OCD. Generally, most therapists that do understand OCD will have heard your story many times before, and will probably read between the lines and will help you by asking direct questions which will make it easier for you to open up.”</em></strong><a href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3" title="">[iii]</a> <br> <br> <br>It is not surprising that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a natural choice for sufferers of OCD. While some medicines can help some suffers relieve their anxiety, for those of us who are pill-adverse, there can be lasting benefit from CBT. The automatic thoughts and feelings and especially the extreme of anxiety and depression can be mitigated by the thought (and feeling) records that are part of the thinking/feeling/behaving inventory of the CBT process. OCD patients might just apply their OCD to the CBT, replacing an unproductive habit with the positive activity of understanding and monitoring the cycle of thoughts, feelings and actions that we are trying to be more conscious of. In Paul’s story of how he helped transition Johnny Winter (pictured above with Jimi Hendrix) from negative to positive habits, he joked that Johnny could get as committed to a healthy vanilla milkshake as he could to his methadone or nicotine dependency. <br><br>While Dr. Bilkey’s tool kit will surely be a permanent part of my own self-help it will also have a long shelf-life on my <em>recommended readings</em> for fellow travellers I talk to or work with. Another book that I recommend whenever it’s appropriate is Gabor Maté’s <em>Scattered Minds</em>. While Tim Bilkey’s <em>Fast Minds</em> is more current, one feature of Gabor Maté’s writing style is his sharing of his personal journey.<br><br> <br>Gabor Maté was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder by the medical health practitioner that was working with his affected children. Like addiction, AD(H)D is often hereditary. The Maté book blends the clinical explanation with his first-hand personal accounts of his struggle. Like the 12-Step fellowship approach, Maté shares his troubles in this 1999 book.<br> <br>He writes:<br><strong><em>"Where they know it or not, a large number of people addicted to behaviors and substances of various sorts have attention deficit disorder, no matter what their proclivity may be: for gambling, compulsive sexual roving, chronic impulsive buying, workaholism, excessive physical training, danger-seeking pursuits, like drag racing or for nicotine or cocaine, alcohol or marijuana. As an example, according to some surveys, the rate of smoking among the ADD population is three times that among the non-ADD population.<br> <br>It is easy to understand the appeal addictive substances would have for the ADD brain. Nicotine, for one, makes people more alert and improves mental efficiency. It also elevates mood, by stimulating, the release in the brain of neurochemicals dopamine, important in feeling of reward and motivation, and endorphins, the brain’s natural opioids, which induce feelings of pleasure. The endorphins, being related in chemical structure to morphine, also serve as analgesics, soothing both physical and emotional pain."</em></strong><a href="#_edn4" name="_ednref4" title="">[iv]</a><br> <br>In <em>Scattered Minds</em>, Maté gets very personal with us:<br> <br><em><strong>"Terrified of my mind, I had always dreaded spending a moment alone with it. There always had to be a book in my pocket as an emergency kit in case I was every trapped waiting anywhere, even for one minute, be it a bank lineup or supermarket checkout counter. I was forever throwing my mind scraps to feed on, as if to a ferocious and malevolent beat that would devour me the moment it was not chewing on something else. All my life I had known no other way to be.<br> <br>The shock of self-recognition many adults experience on learning about ADD is both exhilarating and painful. It gives coherence, for the first time, to humiliations and failures, to plans unfulfilled and promises unkept, to gusts of manic enthusiasm that consume themselves in their own mad dance, leaving emotional debris in their wake, to the seemingly limitless disorganization of activities, of brain, car, desk, room.<br> <br>ADD seems to explain many of my behaviour patterns, thought processes, childish emotional reactions, my workaholism and other addictive tendencies, the sudden eruption of bad temper and complete irrationality, the conflicts in my marriage and my Jekyll and Hyde way of relating to my children.</strong></em><a href="#_edn5" name="_ednref5" title="">[v]</a><br> <br><em><strong>The driven and hyperfunctioning workaholic tries to delude himself that he must be very important, since so many people want him. His frenetic activity numbs him to emotional pain and keeps his sense of inadequacy out of sight, out of mind. During a group psychotherapy session a few years ago, I heard one of the leaders say that a truly important person is one who considers himself worthy enough to grant himself at least one hour each day that he can call his own. I had to laugh. I realized I had worked so hard and make myself so ‘important’ that I couldn’t beg, borrow or steal a minute for myself.<br> <br>There is one major respect in which the specific neurophysiological impairments of ADD do hinder the development of a cores sense of self and the attainment of self-esteem. … The fluctuations are greater and more rapid than most people’s experiences. It seems there is less to hold on to. Self-esteem does require a degree of self-regulation, which the neurophysiology of ADD sabotages. The child or adult easily flung into extremes of emotion and behavior does not acquire the mastery over impulses that self-esteem demands.”</strong></em><br> <br>If you’re in the 12-Step community you may or may not suffer from ADHD; but you’re going to encounter your fair share of those of us who are OCD or ADHD in the rooms. Fast Minds is written in plain language, it uses anecdotal case histories. It has practical ideas that I found helps me deal more consciously and less reactively to the <em>FAST MINDS</em> symptoms I live with. Again, the videos are <em>ADHD Across the Lifespan</em> and <em>Her Fast Mind: An In Depth Look At ADHD As It Affects Women</em>.<br> <br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/fc03cbc1bb80aae72663276af0ccff1b8e5cb31f/medium/johnny-winter-down-dirty.jpg?1414694883" class="size_m justify_right border_" />The movie Johnny Winter: Down & Dirty or the new record <em>Step Back</em> which was posthumously released September 2<sup>nd</sup> 2014 are part of the legacy of Johnny Winter (February 23, 1944 – July 16, 2014). Watch this doc, listen to this record. The Johnny Winter story is a <em>good-news </em>story. It portrays addiction and mental health as a process—not an event—in the lives of people like us. The legacy of music, which is dozens of studio, live and compilation records from 1968 to 2014, is a reminder to me that we need not see mental health conditions (OCD in Winter’s case) as a handicap; look how productive and successful Johnny Winter was. Again, it’s like being left-handed. I’m left handed. I play guitar; it’s no handicap; it requires slight adjustments.<br> <br>Most left-handed guitarists adjust by using guitars that are strung left handed. Like the righty guitars, lefty guitars have the thickest wound string is at the top of the guitar neck and the thinnest unwound string at the bottom. That’s what Paul McCartney does and that’s what Jimi Hendrix did.<br> <br>I play a right-handed guitar upside down. The thin string is at the top and the thickest string at the bottom. I didn’t know anyone famous who did this but later I found several – some indie musicians, some casual players and some stars. Is it a handicap? Well most chords are designed for playing the other way around. All music books that teach music have to be transcribed (interpreted) and some songs just can’t be duplicated to sound the way a right-handed person would play a right-handed guitar.<br> <br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/3ed2ddb14fa98a31ae914169a3711b592da3c77d/medium/upside-down-lefty.jpg?1414694926" class="size_m justify_left border_" />Limits also bring opportunities. Surf-rock legend Dick Dale made his idiosyncrasy an advantage creating unforgettable sounds that favor an upside-down lefty. Blues man Albert King was an upside-down lefty. He preferred the Gibson Flying-V design guitar (over the more popular Gibson Les Paul or Fender Stratocaster) because it presents no handicap playing the high notes when you turn it upside down. Canadian, Mark Gane of Martha and The Muffins wasn’t handicapped when he wrote hit songs “Echo Beach,” “White Station/Black Station” or “Women Around the World at Work.” <br> <br>I didn’t know it when I started but I wasn’t alone as an upside-down lefty. Lots of guitars that went before me found ways to accommodate. I am sure many more lefties learned to play right-handed, too. I did it so that I could play anyone else’s guitar and they could play mine. I don’t need a handicap sticker on my guitar case.<br> <br>Being an alcoholic doesn’t exclude us from society. Some will choose dry gatherings over bars or other licensed surroundings. Some sober alcoholics are bar-tenders and do their job their own way but just as well as any of their colleagues. For many more, it’s not black and white. Before going to a wedding or to watch the big game at a sports bar we check our motives and see if we’re emotionally and mentally fit. The world will go on if we feel that we need to cancel.<br> <br>The same is true with mental health issues. Like other <em>disorders</em>, ADHD and OCD come in light, medium and extreme versions. Some of us will have more limits forced upon us than others. All of us can benefit from learning more, being willing and seeking help when necessary.<br> <br>Links:<br><a contents="Johnny Winter trailer DOWN &amp; DIRTY" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--Asd6Pq5gk" target="_blank">Johnny Winter trailer DOWN & DIRTY</a><br><a contents="Johnny Winter music" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.johnnywinter.net/" target="_blank">Johnny Winter music</a><br><a contents="Tim Bilkey" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.timbilkeymd.com/" target="_blank">Tim Bilkey</a><br><a contents="Fast Minds: How to Thrive if You have ADHD (Or think you might)" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.amazon.com/Fast-Minds-Thrive-Think-Might/dp/0425274063/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=rebeldogspubl-20&linkCode=w01&linkId=EE6WDELD7RMU2VPC&creativeASIN=0425274063" target="_blank">Fast Minds: How to Thrive if You have ADHD (Or think you might)</a><br><a contents="Scattered Minds" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0676972594/ref=as_sl_pc_tf_lc?tag=rebeldogspubl-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0676972594&adid=0KH68AY02V63D81GD7ES&&ref-refURL=http%3A%2F%2Frebelliondogspublishing.com%2F" target="_blank">Scattered Minds</a><br><a contents="Bellwood Health Services" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.bellwood.ca/addiction-symposium/" target="_blank">Bellwood Health Services</a><br><a contents="OCD &amp; Addiction" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.dualdiagnosis.org/ocd-addiction/" target="_blank">OCD & Addiction</a><br>Just for fun (upside-down lefties)<br><a contents="Albert King jamming with Stevie Ray Vaughan" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZB57b3lPQE" target="_blank">Albert King jamming with Stevie Ray Vaughan</a> Albert was an upside-down lefty and Stevie was a Texas blues-man like Johnny. Stevie Ray Vaughan got clean and sober and died tragically in a helicopter accident at the age of 35 (1993) while on tour with Eric Clapton.<br><a contents='Martha &amp; The Muffins (with Mark Gane) "Echo Beach"' data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEQkIEkxm7k" target="_blank">Martha & The Muffins (with Mark Gane) "Echo Beach"</a><br> <br> <br> <br> </p>
<div> <hr align="left" size="1" width="33%">
<div id="edn1">
<a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title="">[i]</a> http://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/guide/adhd-and-substance-abuse-is-there-a-link</div>
<div id="edn2">
<a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title="">[ii]</a> http://www.dualdiagnosis.org/ocd-addiction/</div>
<div id="edn3">
<a href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3" title="">[iii]</a> http://www.ocduk.org/ocd-treatments</div>
<div id="edn4">
<a href="#_ednref4" name="_edn4" title="">[iv]</a> Mate, Gabor M.D., <em>Scattered Minds: The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder</em>. Toronto: Vintage Canada (Edition), 2012 p. 298</div>
<div id="edn5">
<a href="#_ednref5" name="_edn5" title="">[v]</a> IBID p. 4</div>
</div>
56:32
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/3182480
2014-09-11T14:12:07-04:00
2021-10-13T15:52:36-04:00
The Big Book: Sacred or outdated? What AA Stewards, past and present say about progress vs protection
<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/6ed4aefc8c7831a10e19043fd43c191261e8fc92/medium/argument.jpg?1410459290" class="size_m justify_left border_" />The Big Book of <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em> - On one side are the thumpers, muckers and literalists who claim than no modality has touched the healing force of the Twelve Steps as outlined in <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em>. On the other side, reformers say it's misogynistic, religious, archaic, while it was a good start to the mutual-aid discussion, as the center-piece of any AA meeting today, it makes us look Amish-like, declining modern customs for the ways of our ancestors.
<p>I have been in the middle of these debates. But today I ask, what does it matter? If you like the book, read it from Foreword to 164, over and over. If you don't, leave it be. Recommend that your group read something else, or nothing at all. Or maybe we should talk about a new book instead of a revised book - either/or instead of one or the other.</p>
<p>If you don't like back-to-basics style of AA, get REALLY back-to-basics with AA as an oral tradition, no book, a one-day-at-a-time program of showing up, opening up, helping others. There is no need to feel persecuted by a book that has no opinion on your impression of it and no wish to control you. The authors didn't canonize the founders or make the text sacred; my generation did that. Sorry - our bad.</p>
<p>Stewardship is about two roles - preparing and protecting. Ask any parent how hard it is to be good at both. On Episode Seven, we look at the opinions of trusted servants who have served at AA's General Service Conference in the 1980s, the turn of the century and current (Panel 63 General Service Conference). We will hear a plea for AA to always be progressive, to never rest on our laurels. We will hear the protective argument about how imaginative personalization of an age-old-process is sacrilege. One side says rigidity will cause the death of AA. The other side says experimentation isn't worth the risk. Bill Wilson said that both progress and protection were what he had in mind with the Twelve Traditions. "You can't have one without the other."<br><br>Sources used in today's radio show:<br>Better Times (Toronto September 2014) "Don't mess with the message" <a contents="http://aatoronto.org/btarchive/BT_2014_09.pdf" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://aatoronto.org/btarchive/BT_2014_09.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;">http://aatoronto.org/btarchive/BT_2014_09.pdf</span></a><br>Bob P's (1961 to 1986) "If you were to ask me what is the greatest danger facing A.A. today, I would have to answer: the growing rigidity -- the increasing demand for absolute answers to nit-picking questions; pressure for G.S.O. to "enforce" our Traditions; screening alcoholics at closed meetings; prohibiting non-Conference-approved literature, i.e., "banning books"; laying more and more rules on groups and members." <a contents="http://www.hindsfoot.org/pearson.html" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.hindsfoot.org/pearson.html" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;">http://www.hindsfoot.org/pearson.html</span></a><br>John K, 2003: "Our co-founders were pragmatists - try something,test it, change it, review it, test it, then change, review,test it again." <a contents="http://www.aa.org/newsletters/en_US/en_box459_april-may04.pdf" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.aa.org/newsletters/en_US/en_box459_april-may04.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;">http://www.aa.org/newsletters/en_US/en_box459_april-may04.pdf</span></a><br><br>You will hear about our need for protection, of progress too, and how challenging it is to gain balance and consensus on both.</p>
<p>At the time of recording we have Southern Californian on our mind as the <a contents="We Agnostics and Freethinkers International Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://waftiaac.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;">We Agnostics and Freethinkers International Conference of Alcoholics Anonymou</span>s</a> is coming to Santa Monica November 6 to 8. So we invite LA newcomer <a contents="Mia Dyson" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://miadyson.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;">Mia Dyson</span></a> to perform her song, "Idyllwild," her little patch of Southern California.<br><br>Visit Pod-0-matic to hear or download the show: <a contents="http://rebelliondogs12stepradio.podomatic.com/entry/2014-09-11T10_03_05-07_00" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://rebelliondogs12stepradio.podomatic.com/entry/2014-09-11T10_03_05-07_00" target="_blank"><span style="color:#00FFFF;">http://rebelliondogs12stepradio.podomatic.com/entry/2014-09-11T10_03_05-07_00</span></a></p>For a transcript of Episode VII, <span class="font_large"><a contents="click HERE" data-link-label="rebellion-dog-blog-september-2014-big-book-lore.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/155536/rebellion-dog-blog-september-2014-big-book-lore.pdf" target="_blank">click HERE</a></span>
46:17
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/3119016
2014-08-01T15:07:59-04:00
2020-09-22T10:33:35-04:00
Rebellion Dogs Book Club: Podcast 6 talks about good reads
<p>Get your reading spectacles on – It’s Book Club time!Podcast #6 looks at great recovery books that widen our gateway.<br><br>On www.RebellionDogsPublishing.com you will find a bookstore. We’re talking about reading on this blog-post (and podcast). Not only is planet Earth’s first secular daily reflection book, <em>Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life</em> available in our book store but many eBooks and hard-copy books by and for addicts/alcoholics/codependents are available.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/768bd6bdf24b8d71f8a4860e7213e266a51f6933/original/orderboth.jpg?1406918065" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><br>As 12-Steppers, we are all readers/listeners and we are all storytellers or writers. It was flattering and fascinating for us to read <em>Not God: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous</em> because Ernie Kurtz isn’t one of us. He is observing us and telling us and the whole world what he sees.<br><br>Chuck Palahniuk is an author we associate with fiction. He wrote <em>Fight Club</em>. He has a 2004 book called Stranger than Fiction: True Stories. In his introduction he talks about the similarities of crafting a true story and a fictional story. He studied us, too. Palahniuk attended self-help groups for those who suffered from various sicknesses and addictions. When we think about the relevance of reading about our stories or about telling our stories, there is value in hearing what outsiders say about our oral tradition of carrying the message. Chuck Palhniuk describes twelve-step groups (or other support groups) in this way:<br><br><em>“…they’ve come to serve the role that organized religion used to. We used to go to church to reveal the worst aspects of ourselves, our sins. To tell our stories. To be recognized. To be forgiven. And to be redeemed, accepted back in to our community. This ritual was our way to stay connected to people, and to resolve our anxiety before it could take us so far from humanity that we would be lost.<br>“In these places I found the truest stories. In support groups. In hospitals. Anywhere people had nothing left to lose, that’s where they told the most truth…<br>“While researching my fourth book, Choke, I sat in on sex-addicts talk therapy sessions, twice each week for six months. Wednesday and Friday nights.<br>“In so many ways, these rap sessions weren’t much different that the Thursday-night writers’ workshop I attended. Both groups were just people telling their stories. The sexaholics might’ve been a little less concerned about “craft,” but they still told their stories of anonymous bathroom sex and prostitutes with enough skill to get a good reaction from their audience. Many of these people had talked in meetings for so many years that hearing them, you heard a great soliloquy. A brilliant actor paying him- or herself. A one-person monologue that showed an instinct for slowly revealing key information, creating dramatic tension, setting up payoffs and completely enrolling the listener. …<br>“Telephone sex lines, illness support groups, twelve-step groups, all these places are schools for learning how to tell a story effectively. Out loud. To people. Not just to look for ideas, but how to perform.<br>“We live our lives according to stories. About being Irish or being balck. About working hard or shooting heroin. Being male or female. And we spend our lives looking for evidence—facts and proof—that support our story. As a writer, you just recognize that part of human nature.”</em><br><br>One of the things we notice when we look at AA’s new pamphlet, “Many Path’s to Spirituality,” the publication doesn’t try to define spirituality. It draws from the experience of spirituality expressed from a few very varied storytellers of different creedal and cultural backgrounds and it expresses that not only is there no wrong way to do AA, but that there isn’t even a preferred way to get and stay sober a’la Alcoholics Anonymous. It talks about <em>many paths</em> to experiencing spirituality without feeling obligated to defining it. Ours is an oral (or written) tradition of sharing our experiences. AA has been either lucky or wise in never hand-cuffing ourselves to a definition of addiction nor a definition of recovery. We describe how it looks and feels to each other. And that, is good enough. Certainly, it’s as good as it gets in the rooms of 12-Step recovery.<br><br>Listen to the podcast for a review of these books, available as eBooks or hard-copies.<br> </p>
<table align="center" border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width: 550px;"><tbody> <tr> <td><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/bee994ecb8320621454dba7143859113446e1862/original/my-name-is-lillian.jpg?1406918500" class="size_orig justify_none border_none" alt="" /><br> <span style="color:#FFFF00;">My Name is Lillian and I’m an Alcoholic (and an Atheist):</span>
</td> <td><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/fa48e9cf37c78ca65b352fcd0ca4840456ca00cd/original/a-skeptics-guide-to-the-12-steps.jpg?1406918488" class="size_orig justify_none border_none" alt="" /><a data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0894867229/ref=as_sl_pc_tf_lc?tag=rebeldogspubl-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0894867229&adid=04XHDAEZKXQ6W2C34WY8&&ref-refURL=http%3A%2F%2Frebelliondogspublishing.com%2Fbookstore" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;"><em>A Skeptics Guide to the 12 Steps</em> (1990) by Philip Z</span></a>
</td> <td><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/3d468a696016b2fdcd2e2d12289ff06d77d14768/original/an-atheists-unofficial-guide.jpg?1406918497" class="size_orig justify_none border_none" alt="" /><a data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1466209305/ref=as_sl_pc_tf_lc?tag=rebeldogspubl-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=1466209305&adid=0WPRGDTY5SC4GZXG3DE6&&ref-refURL=http%3A%2F%2Frebelliondogspublishing.com%2Fbookstore" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;">Vince Hawkings books include <em>An Atheist’s Unofficial Guide to AA</em></span></a>
</td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/4df1aec69ce81718e036c5e3e4167411694e3a15/original/waiting.jpg?1406918512" class="size_orig justify_center border_none" alt="" /><br> <a data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1592858252/ref=as_sl_pc_tf_lc?tag=rebeldogspubl-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=1592858252&adid=0CKZFNNJJSD4ABP41MQB&&ref-refURL=http%3A%2F%2Frebelliondogspublishing.com%2Fbookstore" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;"><em>Waiting: A Nonbeliever’s Higher Power</em> by Marya Hornbacher. </span></a>
</td> <td><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/73bcc3b36103ebab67d1d7a3c0a94022dabbee64/original/john-lauritsen-book.jpg?1406919426" class="size_orig justify_center border_none" alt="" /><br> <em><a data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.amazon.com/Freethinker-Alcoholics-Anonymous-John-Lauritsen/dp/0943742234/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=rebeldogspubl-20&linkCode=w01&linkId=XAQNI7QAP45J2CBA&creativeASIN=0943742234" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;">A Freethinker in Alcoholics Anonymous</span></a></em><a data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.amazon.com/Freethinker-Alcoholics-Anonymous-John-Lauritsen/dp/0943742234/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=rebeldogspubl-20&linkCode=w01&linkId=XAQNI7QAP45J2CBA&creativeASIN=0943742234" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;"> is by author, John Lauritsen</span></a>
</td> <td><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/e960e2ac28fe1fde4a367470b9daa46220be418d/original/bb-and-lb.jpeg?1407212640" class="size_orig justify_center border_none" alt="" /><br> <br> <br> <a contents="Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life &amp; The Little Book: A Collection of Alternative 12 Steps are available at a discount when ordering six or more copies." data-link-label="Bookstore" data-link-type="page" href="/bookstore"><em>Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life</em> & <em>The Little Book: A Collection of Alternative 12 Steps</em> are available at a discount when ordering six or more copies.</a>
</td> </tr>
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<p> </p>
<p><br>So there’s a glimpse into what’s on my bookshelf. Feel free to stockpile or order one-a-moth from <a data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://rebelliondogspublishing.com/bookstore">http://rebelliondogspublishing.com/bookstore</a> or, if you have a favorite bookstore, they can order any of these. Let us know what we’re missing and/or should be talking up.<br> <br>There have been some books that I have read and wouldn’t recommend. I stick to the, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all” motto. That’s a rule I will break, but you really have to inspire me with stubbornness or stupidity for me to rant away with a counter-point. The book The Sober Truth (Episode Four) was one of these examples.</p>
<p> </p>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<br>A <strong>PDF transcript</strong> of this show is <a contents="available HERE" data-link-label="rebellion-dog-blog-august-2014-book-club-podcast.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/150152/rebellion-dog-blog-august-2014-book-club-podcast.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#00FFFF;">available HERE</span></a>. Come back and visit any time after August 8th. Enjoy the (Rebellion) Dog Days of summer.<br> <br><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="85" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="#" width="440"></iframe>
</div>
37:23
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/3088066
2014-07-21T12:22:45-04:00
2022-01-07T06:43:04-05:00
Boyhood: Cinematic clues to life, maturity, family & values
<p>A boy says, “Mommy, when I grow up, I want to be a songwriter.” The Mother smiles and replies, “Now darling, you know you can’t do both.”<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/68d99ad64d8b115601f7eaa74ee5fa303aa07d85/medium/boyhoodii.jpg?1405901707" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" /><a contents="READ, PRINT or DOWNLOAD as a PDF" data-link-label="rebellion-dog-blog-july-2014-boyhood.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/148039/rebellion-dog-blog-july-2014-boyhood.pdf" target="_blank">READ, PRINT or DOWNLOAD as a PDF</a>:<br>“Rebellion dogs our every step” in our constant quest of self-improvement. Sometimes it’s time to put the pop-psychology books aside and look for answers elsewhere. In this blog-post we visit the film, music, comedy and art festival, North By North East to see what we might see. NXNE was stoked to host Richard Linklater’s 12-years-in-the-making, <strong><em>Boyhood</em> </strong>with Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette (June 14<sup>th</sup>, 2014). It was set for theatrical release in July. We are introduced to Lorelei Linklatter who plays sister/daughter, “Samantha,” and Ellar Coltrane (pictured) as son/brother “Mason.” The story follows two kids from a broken home. The movie is filmed with the same actors over a series of shoots spanning twelve years—the b<em>oyhood </em>of Mason who grows from age six to eighteen before our movie-viewing eyes. Rotten Tomatoes fans treat this three-hour epic a better than nine out of ten rating.<br><br>Honestly, my first impression (reaction) was that while Boyhood is a movie of heart-warming moments, I felt <em>that</em> guilt. <em>That</em> guilt is the white, male developed world privilege guilt that comes from passively nodding along with another Hollywood movie whereby female roles are props that support a well crafted male character’s tale. Why wasn’t the movie called, <em>Childhood</em>? Wasn’t the experience happening to the boy the same for the girl over twelve years?<br><br>Director Maximón Monihan, was in Toronto for NXNE to screen La Voz de los Silenciados (<em>The Voice of the Voiceless</em>). Having seen <em>Boyhood</em> for the second time, he offered me these clues. “Linklater is a bit of a jock so maybe he is isn’t as comfortable writing female parts. Maybe he just writes what we knows best. And the girl was played by his daughter so maybe he thought it would be gauche to portray her character in a more dramatic way.” Still, I thought, making a movie over 12 years, you get all the second chances you could ever dream of. What was I missing? I followed the markers in the story and it took me until the next morning to add them all together.<br> </p>
<table align="left" border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width: 300px;"><tbody> <tr> <td><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/ae57e7b49c82a788fa936f48bad9a033cc56fdea/medium/voice-voiceless.jpg?1405902153" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /> <div style="text-align: center;">
<em>La Voz de los Silenciados</em> (<em>The Voice of the Voiceless</em>) <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrJ1NLNFrgE">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrJ1NLNFrgE</a>
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<p>Setting aside my guilty conscience, I came to see that this is a movie about <em>male-hood</em>. Manhood is a hard role to pull off with unanimous approval. Ethan Hawke’s character was a boy-father, under-developed and finding himself on the wrong side of the Patricia Arquette character’s underwhelmed report card. He became the classic absentee father. He returns to his kids’ lives but is unwelcome in the role of second-chance husband. He becomes Disneyland-dad, doing what he can to enrich his kids’ lives with encouragement, camping, roughhousing, bowling and <em>important</em> talks. Hawke’s character is still chasing the dream of a singer/songwriter, resisting the sell-out of a paper-pushing day job. Still, he takes some courses, gets his actuarial license and settles into a job with an insurance company because, “life is expensive.”<br><br>Arquette’s character introduces the audience to a small parade of second and third choice father-figure partners that go from Prince Charming to over-controlling drunkard over a series of scenes. As with the lead male characters, none of the males in the movie ever ace the role of manhood in the eyes of those whose judgment matters. The male characters are more akin to aging boyhood. It’s a movie of tragic flaws. Like the <em>Goldilocks</em> story, everyone’s too rigid or too chaotic—no one’s just right. It’s a movie of donkeys chasing carrots they never get to taste. It’s a taste of real-life.<br><br><em>Boyhood </em>is a movie about the days in the life of a boy, looking for clues from what promises remain from the American dream. As a sociology project it is all this and more. We explore the incompleteness and imperfection of our own humanity. The audience is complicit, watching with the same lofty expectations of manhood. In an era of super-hero movies this ain’t one of them. The movie poster is so obvious—once the penny drops. We see a boy looking at his father through a magnifying glass—how cute; how telling.<br><br>As a first run movie it will do what it does; I wish it all the success. As a lesson in sociology, this film will have the shelf life of a <em>Catcher in the Rye</em> or <em>Gulliver’s<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/e752de3c9b5d3ce6b05679374863301c3b0c4232/medium/boyhood.jpg?1405901723" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" /> Travels</em>. The kids grow into adults in this movie, learning their lessons from both mom and dad. Hawke’s character grows into the man—the father—that Arquette wanted him to be. Ethan Hawke played a guitar pickin’ songwriter who must have had some appeal to Arquette’s character for the purposes of breeding, didn’t meet the standard from her expectation as a provider. How could he grow up and be a songwriter at the same time?<br><br>The movie is called <em>Boyhood</em> because it is as much about Hawke’s character’s perpetual boyhood, as it is about Mason’s evolution. Parenthood is something we catch up to; we don’t prepare for it. Manhood comes as boyhood wanes but without the clarity of values and purpose that we expect. Hawke’s great fatherly<br> <br>advice comes with love and humor throughout the move. Later in the flick, as Mason is learning to drive, we are treated to this pithy philosophy for life. “Be aware of three cars ahead and two behind you. Remember, it takes two bad drivers to cause an accident.”<br><br><em>Boyhood</em>: See it with someone who matters <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiDztHS3Wos">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiDztHS3Wos</a><br><br>Other notable considerations from NXNE courtesy of <a contents="www.IndieCan.com" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.indiecan.com" target="_blank">www.IndieCan.com</a><br> </p>
<table align="center" border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width: 600px;"><tbody> <tr> <td><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/605c0ec8f16cc748a025f797e4791126b64e0b0b/original/14nxne-van-walls.jpg?1405955733" class="size_orig justify_center border_none" alt="" /></td> <td>Vann “Piano Man” Walls was a composer/piano player working for Atlantic Records. Walls song credits are legendary even if he never became a household name. The documentary follows Walls’ history, the story of African American (Race music) musicians and includes cameos by Ry Cooder, Johnny Winter and Leon Russell. <a contents='Vann "Piano Man" Walls - The Spirit of R&amp;B' data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://Vann%20%E2%80%9CPiano%20Man%E2%80%9D%20Walls%20was%20a%20composer/piano%20player%20working%20for%20Atlantic%20Records.%20Walls%20song%20credits%20are%20legendary%20even%20if%20he%20never%20became%20a%20household%20name.%20The%20documentary%20follows%20Walls%E2%80%99%20history,%20the%20story%20of%20African%20American%20(Race%20music)%20musicians%20and%20includes%20cameos%20by%20Ry%20Cooder,%20Johnny%20Winter%20and%20Leon%20Russell.%20Vann%20%22Piano%20Man%22%20Walls%20-%20The%20Spirit%20of%20R&B" target="_blank"><span style="color:#40E0D0;">Vann "Piano Man" Walls - The Spirit of R&B</span></a><br> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/bc434df43f825b2ad08f340312ed0358107af19d/original/14nxne-whoops.jpg?1405955730" class="size_orig justify_center border_none" alt="" /></td> <td>This gothic comedy out of the UK is a tale of an accidental serial killer born of black-comedic clumsiness. It’s quirky; it’s worth; it's called <a contents="Whoops! " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="ithttp://www.whoopsthemovie.co.uk/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#00FFFF;">Whoops! </span></a>
</td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/f0ada3e497fe5c2b4a7a839c65b332602f9326b8/original/14nxne-lets-ruin-it.jpg?1405955731" class="size_orig justify_center border_none" alt="" /></td> <td>
<em>Let’s Ruin It</em> is the tale of the RVIP Lounge, a mobile karaoke bar and the people who keep the party going. NXNE was the international debut for the movie. Kestrin Pantera, the writer, director and star is no stranger to Toronto as she has been a cellist for Beck, Weezer and emerging indie rock bands. See a trailer to<a contents=" Lets Ruin It With Babies" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://letsruinit.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#00FFFF;"><em> Lets Ruin It With Babies</em></span></a><br> <br> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/c5a03cf2920a317913e59dfbdfce660eb102d2b0/original/14nxne-riotonthedancefloor.jpg?1405955728" class="size_orig justify_center border_none" alt="" /></td> <td>
<em>Riot on the Dance Floor</em> is a must see as part of any music enthusiasts rock 'n' roll education about Do-It-Yourself work ethic. This story of Randy Now and City Garden (Trenton NJ) is a seminal expose of how punks and metal heads pioneered the music scene of the 21st century. <br> Nirvana, Dead Kennedys, D.O.A., But Hole Surfers, Ween, R.E.M. The Ramones and Black Flag all played there.<br> <br> See a trailer to <span style="color:#00FFFF;"><em>Riot on the Dance Floor</em></span><br> <br> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/71fafc33ae36ad6dcbf4aa7c24edea56929210d5/original/14nxne-quiet-riot.jpg?1405955730" class="size_orig justify_center border_none" alt="" /></td> <td>Quiet Riot drummer Frankie Banali and director Regina Russell were onsite at Hot Docs Theatre in Toronto for the debut of <a contents="Well Now You're Here, There's No Way Back - The Quiet Riot Movie" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.quietriotmovie.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#00FFFF;"><em>Well Now You're Here, There's No Way Back - The Quiet Riot Movie</em></span></a>.<br> <br> You don't have to into the band or the scene to appreciate this story of sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll, the consequences and the compulsion that drives both addiction and creativity.</td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/37a3dbcc2ecfdae77cb8d14b81d2849d84024ff5/original/14nxne-organs.jpg?1405955728" class="size_orig justify_center border_none" alt="" /></td> <td>The Uncluded is an American alternative hip hop group, formed by rapper Aesop Rock and singer-songwriter Kimya Dawson. Their animated video Organs considers the painful process of grief and grace surrounding organ donation. <a contents="See Organs HERE" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxOd1MUOxQU" target="_blank"><span style="color:#00FFFF;">See <em>Organs</em> HERE</span></a>
</td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/09e6aeddd40d2a9f89e93b9e5b72a2d970089b10/original/14-nxne-panama-2.png?1405955682" class="size_orig justify_center border_none" alt="" /></td> <td>Director and musician (Hot Panda) Chris Connelly had two quirky animated shorts at NXNE. Two back up dancers from the Van Halen video for “Panama” reunite 30 years later, only to find out that their lives have gone in two very different directions. <a contents="See Panama trailer." data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://vimeo.com/93787035" target="_blank"><span style="color:#00FFFF;">See <em>Panama</em> trailer.</span></a><br> <br> Actor Ryan Beil attempts to get into the Guinness Book of World Records by listing all twenty two Canadian Prime Ministers in three seconds. See the entire <a contents="The Prime Minister Challenge" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://vimeo.com/84623284" target="_blank"><span style="color:#00FFFF;"><em>The Prime Minister Challenge</em></span></a>.<br> </td> </tr>
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<p><br> </p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/3055205
2014-07-03T11:09:38-04:00
2021-07-01T21:51:11-04:00
Get your Pride On, AA: What AA can learn from World Pride
<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/1ca13ef35c26bb916514923c042dee037bb9c760/original/toronto-pride-parade.jpg?1404399247" class="size_orig justify_left border_" />Read, view or print as a <a contents="PDF" data-link-label="rebellion-dog-blog-july-2014-word-pride-and-aa.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/144908/rebellion-dog-blog-july-2014-word-pride-and-aa.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;">PDF</span></a><br>For 30 years, Toronto has celebrated lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual & queer (LGBTQ) Pride. This year, Toronto was host to Word Pride. According to the World Pride Toronto website the full diversity of celebrants June 22 to 29<sup>th</sup>, 2014 is an estimated attendance of over 1.2 million people honoring the history, courage, diversity and future of Toronto’s (and the world’s) LGBTTIQQ2SA communities. The full acronym includes: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer/Questioning, 2 Spirited, Allies.<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title="">[i]</a><br><br>What can 12-Step based societies learn from World Pride? Are we ahead of or behind the curve in terms of inclusivity and anti-discrimination? Let’s have a look.<br>Over 100 same-sex couples, who came to Toronto for World Pride, got legally hitched while they were here because same-sex marriages aren’t recognized where they live. Lesbian Premier of Ontario (Y’all have Governors of States; we have Premiers of Provinces), Kathleen Wynne, was <em>out</em> for the parade. What’s so civilized about Canadian politics is an extension of what is healthy about Canadian society. Our heads of state are not subject to narrow questions like, “What’s going to be different for Ontario with a queer Premier?” or “How does being a lesbian affect your policy making?” Premier Wynne was grilled about her policies and service record in the recent election but I don’t remember any member of the media asking her about her sexuality. After all, they don’t ask other politicians what they do in the bedrooms or back alleys of our nation.
<table align="right" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 310px;"><tbody> <tr> <td style="width:332px;"> <div style="text-align: center;">The Pride Parade finished just before a summer storm hit Toronto and Pride concluded in the streets of Toronto, graced by a rainbow that stretched across the sky.</div> <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/1e9cbaa5cf8a0b0f812d8c700fa42e44d76cd4f8/medium/toronto-pride-rainbow.jpg?1404399234" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" />
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</tbody></table><br>That’s what a harassment-free, discrimination-free society can look like; within the society, people are sexually diverse but neither right nor wrong. We are straight but not narrow,LGBTQ—out, closeted or discreet if you prefer. Be proud or conflicted. Neither is abnormal and neither is reserved for any gender identification or sexual orientation bias. Toronto Ontario Canada isn’t in a state of happy-ever-after. There is still discrimination, harassment and issues that deserve attention and compassion. To many who visited here last week, Toronto is a breath of fresh air. “To come from such a conservative city where we live in Erie, to here where it is such an amazing, amazing display of people and humanity,” Kathy Czarnecki-Smith told CBC News.<a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title="">[ii]</a><br><br>World Pride week got me thinking about what diversity and inclusion can look like. It’s all fine and good to have someone from AA say, “This is Joe from the Beyond Belief group—you know—that group for atheists and agnostics.” Why not just say, “This is Joe from the Beyond Belief group”? Every designated <em>other </em>through AA history has gone through it: she’s an alcoholic—how shameful; We’d like to help the negro alcoholic but we have our reputation to think of; He’s an alcoholic but he’s so young; Pete’s an addict; who can blame him, being gay and all. That is a slice of real life in our 75 year history. So why should AA members with a natural, not a supernatural, worldview be any different? In tribes, like AA or any other subcultures, the majority marginalize the minority, be it intentional or systemic? Today, typical statements towards members who reject the sobriety-granting God idea, include, “How do you stay sober without God? That sounds like a dry-drunk. Keep coming honey, you’ll get it eventually.”<br><br>A highlight at the 1985 World Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous in Montreal, was a talk given by Barry L about our Traditions and great strides made between AA and our relationship with the LGBTQ community. At a gay and lesbian meeting, attended by about one thousand members, Barry recalls, “We weren’t in closets; we were sealed in vaults.” Barry L was making light of when he got sober 40 years earlier, when AA was in our early years and homosexuals were considered to be sexual deviants. In 1945 there was no Gay Pride. There was secrecy. Our Third Tradition suggests to members and groups who can join Alcoholics Anonymous. Membership is not granted; it is an inherent right to anyone with a desire to stop drinking.<br><em>Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions</em> (The 12 & 12) presents 24 essays by Bill W about our Steps and Traditions. In the essay on Tradition Three, “The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking,” there are three examples that tested our seemingly reckless inclusivity in the early years.<br>There is the story of a man whom Bill called “Ed.” We know this to be loosely Jim B’s story—the defiant atheist who thought AA would be better without all this God malarkey. He offended many members who wanted him out. And they were about to cast out the one for the betterment of the many. The story goes as follows:<br><br><strong>The elders led Ed aside. They said firmly, “You can’t talk like this around here. You’ll have to quit it or get out.” With great sarcasm Ed came back at them. “Now do tell: Is that so?” He reached over to a bookshelf and took up a sheaf of papers. On top of them lay the Foreword to the book <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em>, then under preparation. He read aloud, “The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.” Relentlessly, Ed went on, “When you guys wrote that sentence, did you mean it, or didn’t you?”<br><br>Dismayed, the elders looked at one another, for they knew he had them cold. So, Ed stayed.<a href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3" title="">[iii]</a></strong><br><br>Ed, or Jim B., not only stayed but he helped establish AA in both Baltimore and Philadelphia. He lived sober, outliving both official cofounders. In the 12 & 12, there is a second story of a sexual deviant who sought refuge in Akron AA. In a talk Bill gave at his 35<sup>th</sup> year of continuous sobriety, he expands on this Third Tradition story:<br><br><strong>For example, a fellow came to Dr. Bob and said, “I’m an alcoholic; here is my history. But I also have this other ‘complication.’ Can I join A.A.?” Bob threw it out to all the other deacons, while the poor guy waited.<br><br>Finally, there was some kind of hearing on it among the self-appointed elders. I remember how perfectly Bob put it to them. He reminded us that most of us were practicing Christians. Then he asked, “What would the Master have thought? Would He have kept this man away?” . . . The man came in, was prodigious worker, and was one of our most respected people.<br>So, out of antecedents like this one, our Third Tradition was born: that any person having a drinking problem—if he says so—is entitled to join A.A., and nobody can deny him this right. This, indeed, is a great irony—enormous freedom welling up out of grief and slavery to the bottle.”</strong><a href="#_edn4" name="_ednref4" title="">[iv]</a><br><br>Imagine asking the question, “What members or groups would Jesus have us exclude from AA?” That’s the standard Dr. Bob asked the God-fearing deacons to measure their actions by.<br><br>Another story is told from Barry L’s firsthand account as he was answering the phone and minding the door to the 41<sup>st</sup> Street (AA) clubhouse. In Barry’s 1985 talk<a href="#_edn5" name="_ednref5" title="">[v]</a>, he recalls:<br><br><strong>One of the chores you could do is answering the phone, sitting at the desk and greeting visitors. One day a policeman on the corner sent in to see us, a black man. That in itself was unusual in Manhattan in 1945. We had no black AA members then; we did not really start seeing black members in AA until 1946. But the black man came in and he had long blonde hair, a-la Veronica Lake. He was also a master cosmetician. He was a wonder with a brush on his face. He was absolutely beautiful. Strapped to his back were all his worldly belongings. He said he was just released from prison and he needed help. He began to tell us his problems. Among other things, he was homosexual and he was a dope-fiend. . . I asked a number of the older members who had been around for some time “what should I do?” and they all left. No all, I shouldn’t say that. One dear old soul—a gal named Fanny—stayed and really tried to help the man.<br><br>But she didn’t get too far; she didn’t really know the answer to this so I thought I would call the man who had been sober the longest. So I put some coffee down for the man and I called Bill. I told him the story, “We don’t really know what to do, he needs all kinds of help. Bill listened and then he was quiet for a few moments and then Bill said, “Did you say this man is a drunk?” Oh yes, we could all tell that, instantly. “Well,” said Bill, “then I think that’s the only question we have any right to ask.”</strong> (Thunderous applause from the Montreal audience).
<table align="left" border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width: 480px;" width="61%"><tbody> <tr> <td style="width:393px;"> <div style="text-align: center;">Montreal Canada hosted the 1985 World Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous</div> <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/114bafe999547f5c515786fa723d5af638c4a6ab/original/montreal.jpg?1404399256" class="size_orig justify_center border_none" alt="" />
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</tbody></table> <br><br>Also, when Barry was almost a year sober, he tells the story of how three AA women took him to lunch to talk with Bill about the ideas of special groups for gays and for lesbians. Barry recalls that Bill said that this could be the best thing to come down the pipe, but he wasn’t sure. Could Barry come and see him again when he was 18 months sober? At that time Bill thought both Barry and he could think about the matter more. Barry never did return to have that talk because by the time he was 18 months sober, there were so many gays and lesbians it hardly seemed necessary.<br><br>Under the employ of Alcoholics Anonymous, Barry was a staff writer. He wrote <em>Living Sober</em> and the pamphlet <em>Do You Think You’re Different?</em> He also recorded the General Service Conference and wrote the General Service Conference Report. By the early 1970s there were many groups/meetings for gays and lesbians. Barry tells the story of this significant crossroad:<br><br><strong>It was my job in 1973 and 1974 to write the Conference Report and those were the two years that the question of listing lesbian and gay groups arose.<br><br>That came about from some pressure from some wonderful people in Southern California. All kinds of wonderful things <em>come</em> out of Southern California. They wanted to list themselves as gay groups or lesbian groups and the General Service Office, of course, has a very ticklish job. They really shouldn’t do anything that hasn’t been done before, without direction from the General Service Conference. So, they brought it to the Conference to decide and it was debated in 1973 to some hot length and finally the chair, getting very smart, said, “I think we’ll table the question to next year.” But that put it on the agenda for next year so everyone knew about it and it would have to be settled the next year.<br><br>If you don’t know what the General Service Conference is, ask your sponsor. The Conference has absolutely no power over any of us—not one bit. It has the power of example, it has some moral authority, but that’s all. The Conference does not like to do anything by halves or even by bare majority. The Conference proceeds generally on almost complete unanimity.<br><br>So in 1974, in the Conference, the question went back and forth, back and forth for two days and two nights. Much of the agenda was wiped out. I remember one man said, “If you are going to list the sex deviants this year, next year you’ll list the rapist [groups].” Someone else said something like if you’re going to list this kind of deviant, what other type of deviant are you going to list?<br><br>The delegate from one of the Northern States—or maybe it was a Canadian Province, I am not sure—was a delightful woman about three feet tall and she went to one of the middle microphones. She pulled the microphone down to her mouth and said, “Where I come from, alcoholics are considered deviants. (Laughter and cheering from the audience)<br><br>The debate went on but when the vote came that night, only two voted against it. It was almost unanimous; I think it was 129 to two.</strong><br><br>January 20, 1961, in the presidential inauguration, John F. Kennedy referred to the American Constitution of a century and three quarters prior, stating that human rights were not granted by the generosity of the state but from all mighty God. I imagine Bill W, like many US citizens, listened to, or may have even seen—JFK being the first every TV presidency—this speech. One could imagine AA’s founders reflected on the structure of our fellowship as a society. Ours is a society whereby rights and freedoms are expected. AA protects the rights of members and groups through servitude—not leadership or governance.<br><br>It isn’t lost on me that, constitutionally, my rights as an unbeliever are granted by God. What is meant by this? To suggest that if one denies God, one would forgo their human rights bestowed by Him is narrow, if not flawed reasoning. Human rights must be respected by one another. Basic human rights to dignity and freedom are beyond the scrutiny of others. So while atheists ought to respect a believer’s right to worship, the believers ought to respect the freethinker’s right to govern themselves in accordance to their own conscience.<br><br>In Canada, as in the USA, everyone has the rights and freedoms of conscience, religion, thought, belief, expression, peaceful assembly and association. Bringing it back to our AA fellowship, these rights that are beyond challenge of critical finger pointers are bestowed upon members and our groups.<br><br>We have discussed the individual and how our history shows that, when faced with others that are unfamiliar to us, while our instinct is to marginalize, our Traditions has taught us to embrace our differences. This is especially reinforced by Tradition Three.<br><br>What about our groups? Consider the subtle message within Tradition Five, “Our primary purpose of every A.A. group is to carry <em>its</em> message to the alcoholic who still suffers." The key is in the word “its message—not “the message” or “our message” but each group’s message. And how does each group determine its message? Tradition Two and Four celebrates the autonomy and authority of group conscience. Each group can outline their own message.<br><br>A muckers or back-to-basics group’s message is that hope and recovery comes through the working of the Twelve Steps, done in a certain way, over a certain time-frame. Other groups don’t even read the (suggested) Twelve Steps at their meeting. That may give the message that fellowship—the sharing and caring of fellow members—is the secret sauce of contented recovery. So young people’s groups, women’s groups, nonbelievers meetings or LGBTQ groups don’t all talk a uniformed talk or offer exactly the same brand of AA hope. Some AA groups don’t bat an eye at<a name="_GoBack"></a> talk of drugs (as well as drinking) while others kick up an “outside issue” fuss if you discuss smoking pot or prescription drug misuse. Some meetings include prayer in the formalities. Atheist and Agnostic groups tend to see its AA message as a more secular solution.<br><br>AA accommodates and includes new groups, be they special interest or general purpose. Regardless of how or why a new group starts, a collective voice is found and a message of hope is expressed.<br><br>What we find at Pride is the celebration of, instead of the narcissism of, small differences. Everyone comes together to celebrate our diverse culture and not to scapegoat or ridicule others for their uniqueness. Sure, Monday comes and many of us will fall back in with our tribe. It’s no crime to seek the company of like-minded people. But the point is we came together and we will again. Without shouting out our tenets of honesty, open-mindedness and willingness, the variety of celebrants that come and sing and dance to “We are Family” at Pride celebrations all around the world should inspire us in AA.<br><br>We have a living program, and an evolving fellowship that, through a spirited language says we are AA members and groups—not all the same, but all equal and all united.<br> <div> <hr align="left" size="1" width="33%">
<div id="edn1">
<a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title="">[i]</a> <a contents="http://worldpridetoronto.com/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://worldpridetoronto.com/" target="_blank">http://worldpridetoronto.com/</a>
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<div id="edn2">
<a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title="">[ii]</a> <a contents="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/worldpride-parade-party-rolls-through-downtown-streets-1.2691238" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/worldpride-parade-party-rolls-through-downtown-streets-1.2691238" target="_blank">http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/worldpride-parade-party-rolls-through-downtown-streets-1.2691238</a>
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<div id="edn3">
<a href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3" title="">[iii]</a> <a contents="Alcoholics Anonymous, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 143, 144" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.aa.org/pages/en_US/twelve-steps-and-twelve-traditions" target="_blank"><em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em>, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 143, 144</a>
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<div id="edn4">
<a href="#_ednref4" name="_edn4" title="">[iv]</a> <a contents="Alcoholics Anonymous, The Co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous P-53" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-53_theCo-FoundersofAA.pdf" target="_blank">Alcoholics Anonymous, <em>The Co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous</em> P-5</a>3</div>
<div id="edn5">
<a href="#_ednref5" name="_edn5" title="">[v]</a> http://rebelliondogspublishing.com/files/63409/barry-l-originof3rdtrad.mp3</div>
</div>
25:15
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/2986784
2014-06-02T10:27:10-04:00
2021-07-23T07:31:07-04:00
I am a sample—not an example! John L’s A Freethinker in Alcoholics Anonymous celebrates diversity
<a contents="Read, print or share as a PDF" data-link-label="rebellion-dog-blog-june-2014-sample-not-example.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/140003/rebellion-dog-blog-june-2014-sample-not-example.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;">Read, print or share as a PDF</span></a><br>I am a <em>sample</em> of recovery; I am not an <em>example</em>. I hear ya, “Come on Joe, you’re playing the semantics game, again. You’re not going to write a whole blog on it, are you?” Hear me out. What I am saying is this: isn’t it enough to show that it can work, without laying claim to how it works? If it works for me, it can work for you; if it works for her, it can work for him.<br> <table align="right" border="3" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width: 325px;"><tbody><tr>
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<em>Our <strong>Declaration of Unity</strong> was unveiled at the Miami Beach International Convention of AA in 1970: </em><br><span style="color:#00FFFF;"><strong><em>This we owe A.A.’s future: To place our common welfare first; to keep our Fellowship united. For on A.A. unity depends our lives, and the lives of those to come.</em></strong></span>
</div> </td> </tr></tbody></table>There are many <em>samples</em> of recovery that every new member can draw upon to forge their own salvation. We need not adopt the uniformity of zombies; no one should need to shoehorn themselves into someone else’s solution. In the rooms we find many people working individual programs of recovery—not everyone working an identical program. Some of these individual programs are in tune with the suggested Steps while others reject them completely.<br><br><br>By various online dictionary definitions, examples are “a person or way of being that is seen as a model that should be followed” (<a data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.Meriam-Webster.com" target="_blank">www.Meriam-Webster.com</a>) or “one that is representative of a group as a whole.” (<a contents="www.TheFreeDictionary.com" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.thefreedictionary.com" target="_blank">www.TheFreeDictionary.com</a>)”Oxford (<a data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.OxfordDictionaries.com" target="_blank">www.OxfordDictionaries.com</a>) includes, “A person or think regarded in terms of their fitness to be imitated.”<br><br>Samples of sample definitions include (<a data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.Merriam-Webster.com" target="_blank">www.Merriam-Webster.com</a> “a small amount of something that gives you information about the thing it was taken from” or better yet (<a data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.MathIsFun.com" target="_blank">www.MathIsFun.com</a>) “A selection taken from a larger group so that you can examine it to find out something about the larger group.”<br>In the same way a Psychology test mines a random sample, I like to include myself as being within an extreme range of possibilities in sobriety, more than I like to be emulated as a <em>power of example</em>.<br><br><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.amazon.com/Freethinker-Alcoholics-Anonymous-John-Lauritsen/dp/0943742234/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=rebeldogspubl-20&linkCode=w01&linkId=XAQNI7QAP45J2CBA&creativeASIN=0943742234" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/4b8d3ad2253d435eddb9833098413afef27d43c6/medium/john-lauritsen-book.jpg?1401718146" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" /></a>I say again that I believe that the role of a new member’s inner circle in recovery is to help her or him find <em>their </em>salvation—not indoctrinate them into <em>our</em> brand of salvation—a new person should observe many samples of recovery from an ample pool of addicts to help formulate their own plan for sobriety.<br>By the (big) book, “How It Works” is by implementation of the Twelve Steps of <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em>. John Lauritsen, in his new book,<a contents=" A Freethinker in Alcoholics Anonymous" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.amazon.com/Freethinker-Alcoholics-Anonymous-John-Lauritsen/dp/0943742234/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=rebeldogspubl-20&linkCode=w01&linkId=XAQNI7QAP45J2CBA&creativeASIN=0943742234" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;"> <em>A Freethinker in Alcoholics Anonymous</em></span></a> says “Not so fast!”<br> <div style="text-align: center;">“The Fellowship and the 24-hour Plan are the pillars of Alcoholics Anonymous. ... there is great freedom in A.A., both for the group and the individual. In my 46 years of sobriety I have always been able to find groups with a maximum of Fellowship and minimum of religiosity.<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title="">[i]</a>"</div><br>John reminds us that the <strong><em>suggested</em></strong> <em>Steps</em> is another way of saying the <strong><em>optional</em></strong> Steps. They violate his creed and core beliefs so he never worked the Steps. John explains why he disagrees with the powerlessness premise. The concept of an intervening deity has never proven in life or in AA. Forget morality; while the Step Four idea of taking inventory isn’t a bad idea, as John sees it, alcoholism isn’t brought about by moral defects. Alcoholism causes moral compromise—not the other way around.<br><br>John credits his success, which he describes as social, physical, financial and intellectual recovery to what he calls, “real A.A.” According to what John has observed in AA since 1968, what works is the 24-hour program, the Fellowship’s mutual-aid environment and a determined mantra of “If you get run over by a train, don’t blame the caboose for killing you; stay away from the first drink.”<br><br>The dogmatic preaching of the Twelve Steps is what John calls “false AA.” It’s not because he thinks the Steps don’t work; he accepts the claims of many that, for them, the Twelve Steps have been life altering. However, in <em>A Freethinker in Alcoholics Anonymous</em>, the argument is made that there are some premises about the Steps that are born of AA mythology and not our actual history. One myth is that this is exactly how the first 100 members got sober.<br><br>The early members had an oral tradition before we codified it into 164 pages. Most members who were Step oriented had a six-step process which varied from member to member and region to region. The Twelve Steps were new to these (mostly sober) members when they read Bill’s version of Chapter 5, “How it Works.” Some liked them, some objected. It was a tough sell for Bill to get the members to adopt the Steps and it was hardly unanimous. As John writes:<br> <div style="text-align: center;">“Whether the Steps are helpful, harmful or both, it is intolerable that they should become sacred dogma. Everyone should be free to criticize or reject the Steps—openly, and without risk of ostracism. Every A.A. member and every A.A. group should be free to reinterpret and re-write the Steps, in line with the principles of the A.A. Preamble and the Twelve Traditions. The True A.A., the Fellowship, belongs to us freethinkers as much as it does to the god-people.”<a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title="">[ii]</a>
</div><br>John’s books describes AA as a Fellowship of two million members all working their own unique “program” that we have quilted together in part from ideas and practices we learn from the sharing and encouragement we get in the rooms and, in part, from the values and practices we bring to or develop in recovery.<br><br>So, John L is a sample of recovery. Anyone from the rooms or the treatment industry ought to read his book to better understand AA’s wide tent. He is candid about his ideas of what could make AA better. One need not adopt his views, but we would be remiss to not hear how he came to these conclusions. John exemplifies, as many in AA do, that physical, social and mental recovery are all possible without adherence to a deity, the powerlessness notion or the idea that defects of character are correlated to substance or process addiction.<br> <table align="right" border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="3" style="width: 500px;"><tbody><tr>
<td> <div> <div style="text-align: center;">
<strong><em>Mantras for newcomers from early AA:</em></strong><br><span style="color:#00FFFF;"><em>A pickle never becomes a cucumber again; once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic.</em><br><em>If you get run over by a train, it’s not the caboose that kills you; it’s not that last drink that’s to blame – it’s the first drink that gets us.</em></span>
</div> </div> </td> </tr></tbody></table><br>I came here a drug addict who also drank compulsively. Alcohol wasn't a drug of choice over any of the others—it was good enough. I generally identify as an alcoholic. I freely talk about drugs if it fits into the story I am telling but I don't talk a lot about the past in meetings, in part because my greatest hurdles in life were to come after my last drink. In AA, sober, I had two kids from two moms and my infidelity was a contributor to both of those breakups. Herpes and HIV came after "the gift of the 12 Steps." The same is true with my financial bankruptcy; that was a gift of sobriety. I have compulsive eating working and hoarding tendencies that concern me at times. I was in jail five years sober for non-payment of speeding tickets. Somehow, I thought powered-by-AA gave me an exception to life’s rules; the Royal Canadian Mounted Police disagreed.<br><br>Mine is no conference talk about the socio-economic upward trend from day-one of sobriety through to present day. Some consider me an "example" of decades of sobriety. I call myself a sample, not an example. I don't have what everyone wants, nor do I want to have what everyone wants. I want to live my flawed, incomplete life without the pressure of other people looking up to me. Others can look and they can learn all they want. I live by my values. Sure, much of what forged these values was the lessons learned in the rooms. But I feel no obligation to be “on” or a power of example.<br><br>I champion radical inclusion and I speak out against what-you-need-to-do-ism. “My way is the best way” chatter is, what Ernie Kurtz calls spiritual arrogance—an oxymoron if I ever saw one. In his recent book, co-authored with Katherine Ketcham, <em>Experiencing Spirituality: Finding Meaning Through Storytelling</em>, a story of grandiosity or a sense of superiority is told:<br> <div style="text-align: center;">“‘Playing God’ can happen in small ways, for example in the ever-present temptation to seek an edge, gain some privilege:<br>A car accident occurred in a small town. A crowd surrounded the victim so a newspaper reporter couldn’t get close enough to see him.<br>He hit upon an idea. ‘I’m the father of the victim!’ he cried. ‘Please let me through.’<br>The crowd let him pass so he was able to get right up to the scene of the accident and discover, to his embarrassment, that the victim was a donkey.”<a href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3" title="">[iii]</a>
</div><br>Instant-karma, where the principle character immediately sees that his arrogance made him out to look like an ass to everyone else, isn’t always the case. Years of reinforcement can encourage those in the rooms who hold themselves out as the bishops and cardinals of <em>The AA Way</em>, compounding their arrogance and belligerence. This dynamic makes for what we see in some quarters of 12 & 12 Fellowships, an air of polarizing platitudes espoused by bullies that make those with doubt, critical thinking and alternate views look for the exits or alternatively, emotionally close down—becoming closet skeptics.<br><br>No one should feel that what they have to say about addiction and recovery is unfit for an AA meeting or any Twelve Step meeting for that matter. We are all samples, from the most devote servant of Yahweh to the boldest reductionist, we all have standing and we are all united.<br><br>I will close with some reflections offered by Bernard Smith, one of our early non-alcoholic Trustees and AA’s first Chair of The General Service Board (originally known as the Alcoholic Foundation). Bern authored the Bylaws of the General Service Board, adopted by AA in 1957. Smith’s Miami talk on Unity and Continuity in July of 1970 would be the last we would hear of Bernard Smith. He died the following month of a heart attack. Bill W was dying himself and could not make Bern’s funeral. He sent a tribute that would be read by another AA member. In this tribute Bill W gives thanks.<br> <div style="text-align: center;">“Bern made a remarkable and inspiring talk to some 11,000 of our members gathered in Miami Beach to celebrate our Fellowship’s 35<sup>th</sup> anniversary. The subject of his talk was ‘Unity’ – truly an apt subject, for no man did more than he to assure unity within our Fellowship.<br>For that matter, he did much to assure our very survival, for he was one of the principle architects of the General Service Conference.<br>Bern Smith would not want, nor does he need, encomiums from me. What he has done for Alcoholics Anonymous speaks far louder than any words of mine could ever do. His wisdom and vision will be sorely missed by us all.”</div><br>Here are some of the timeless worlds from Bern Smith’s speech. The demonstrate to me that all of us samples of recovery have standing and add value—to each other, now and for the still suffering alcoholic who has not yet reached our doors.<br> <div style="text-align: center;">“Perhaps no time in history has this land of ours been so torn by dissention, by divisiveness, by mistrust. Yet we are here in convention assembled as if on an island of unity in a world sea of disunity. What we seek now and will forever seek in the future is not to find unity, for we how have it, but rather steadily and unceasingly to insure that our precious unity will remain in continuity of all time.<br>Now, you may have observed that the title of my talk this evening is ‘Unity and Continuity.’ The word ‘unity’ is variously defined. I have chosen as the definition applicable to our Fellowship that which reads: ‘the quality or state of being or consisting of one, a totality of related parts.’ For, indeed, we are assembled here this evening as a true totality of related parts…<br>Slowly and painstakingly, we have built upon the spiritual foundation of this great Society a structure that, I believe, can with continued devotion insulate this Fellowship against the ravages of time, of dissent, of materialistic decay…<br>Alcoholics Anonymous does not claim any monopoly on the achievement of sobriety. While sobriety is indeed the end we seek, the means by which we attain it render this Fellowship unique. We believe, as Aldous Huxley said in his <em>End and Means</em>: ‘Our personal experience and the study of history make it abundantly clear that the means whereby we try to achieve something are at least as important as the end we wish to attain. Indeed, they are even more important. For the means employed inevitably determine the nature of the result achieved.’<br>Our message to society is not so much that we have succeeded in ceasing to drink, but that, by the nature of the means we employ, we have found a way to fulfill our lives. We do not acquire sobriety through the use of chemical formula or a powerful drug. We achieve it by applying to our daily lives the simple tenets of humility, honesty, devotion, love and compassion.”<a href="#_edn4" name="_ednref4" title="">[iv]</a>
</div> <br>Bernard Smith’s talk suggests to me that AA’s tents are universal principles that transcend language, creed and personal experience or taste. The means can be various and the end the same. We hear, “Go to enough meetings and you’ll hear your story.” The felling that comes from that experience is that we are no longer alone. That feeling is very empowering—very healing. Let’s hope that we can continue to celebrate the variety of AA experiences. Every sample and every example matters for any society with the legacies of recovery, unity and service.<div> <hr align="left" size="1" width="33%">
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<a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title="">[i]</a> Chapter 8, “The Fellowship,” Lauritsen, John, <a contents="A Freethinker in Alcoholics Anonymous" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.amazon.com/Freethinker-Alcoholics-Anonymous-John-Lauritsen/dp/0943742234/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=rebeldogspubl-20&linkCode=w01&linkId=XAQNI7QAP45J2CBA&creativeASIN=0943742234" target="_blank"><em>A Freethinker in Alcoholics Anonymous</em></a>, Dorchester: Pagan Press, 2014</div>
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<a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title="">[ii]</a> Ibid</div>
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<a href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3" title="">[iii]</a> Kurtz, Ernest, Ketcham, Katherine, <a contents="Experiencing Spirituality: Finding Meaning Through Storytelling" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.amazon.com/Experiencing-Spirituality-Finding-Meaning-Storytelling/dp/0399164170/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=rebelliondogs-20&linkCode=w01&linkId=567ACOOWBAIITGSL&creativeASIN=0399164170" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;"><em>Experiencing Spirituality: Finding Meaning Through Storytelling</em></span></a>, New York: Penguin, 2014, p. 205</div>
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<a href="#_ednref4" name="_edn4" title="">[iv]</a> More on Bern Smith: <a data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org/lang/en/en_pdfs/en_box459_oct-nov08.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org/lang/en/en_pdfs/en_box459_oct-nov08.pdf</a><br> </div>
</div>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/2951928
2014-05-16T14:57:28-04:00
2017-01-14T11:32:13-05:00
Will and Recovery: Is English adequate to translate the language of the heart?
Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will. ~Jawaharlal Nehru (1889 – 1964)<br><br>(Print, read or distribute with <a contents="PDF version" data-link-label="rebellion-dog-blog-may-2014-our-will-our-recovery.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/138242/rebellion-dog-blog-may-2014-our-will-our-recovery.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#00FFFF;">PDF version</span></a>) If <em>will</em> has no place in sobriety, what is meant by "willingness?"<br><br>This word is the first of three indispensable attributes (willingness, honesty and open-minded). While I would have loved at one time to be able to learn to drink in moderation (and I can't), I can channel moderation in my recovery. I must use my <em>will </em>according to Nehru. Self-will-run-riot is a type of blind insanity but determination is not. I don't blame AA literature or culture for inconsistencies; the English language is desperately lacking. There are things we know in life but can't express.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/c74b1382029fc18864edb0124e9aa63e25ca2c05/medium/experiencing-spirituality.jpg?1400266155" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" />Ernie Kurtz and Katherine Ketcham's new book <a contents="Experiencing Spirituality: Finding Meaning Through Storytelling" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.amazon.com/Experiencing-Spirituality-Finding-Meaning-Storytelling/dp/0399164170/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=rebelliondogs-20&linkCode=w01&linkId=567ACOOWBAIITGSL&creativeASIN=0399164170" target="_blank"><em>Experiencing Spirituality: Finding Meaning Through Storytelling</em></a> tells of a Taoist notion, "Those who know don't say and those who say, don't know." We all know what a rose smells like, right? Try describing it. There are things we know well but can't articulate. This is how language goes. You and I may have the same experience of yellow but language is inadequate for you and I to describe our experience to determine if both of us are seeing the exact same thing when we are looking at the color yellow. Staying with the Taoist theme, yin is spontaneity, but in the extreme, chaotic and nihilistic. Yang is order, but in its extreme, rigid and Fascist.<br><br>Chaos and order are not opposites. They are relative to each other and dependent on each other in a balanced person as in a balanced universe. I call my <em>will</em> that balanced place whereby I am not letting myself get too chaotic or too rigid. It is not God’s will and it is not self-will-run-riot. Appendix II of <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em> describes higher power in a way I can live with. "With few exceptions, our members have found that they had tapped an unsuspected inner resource that they currently identify as a power greater than ourselves."<br><br>As we know, the Big Book goes on to say, "Our more religious members call it <em>God-consciousness</em>." So, for those of us who are not in the "more religious members" category, there is no need to use the God language or even appease the masses with rhetoric like, “God <em>as I understand Him</em> means Group Of Drunks (or Good Orderly Direction).” I would never come up with these terms on my own. It’s only when I compare myself to the overwhelming majority of God-fearing or God loving (whatever they want to call themselves) members in Twelve Step recovery, am I inclined to relate my belief in their language. It would sound like nonsense in any context outside of a Twelve Step conversation. Sure, I can talk that way if I want to, but I don't want to be a people pleaser so I do not.<br><br>After all, GOD is also an acronym for <em>Gaggle Of Drones</em> – lol<br><br>Individualism and unity have that same interdependent relationship as yin and yang or order and chaos. What would be the value of a unified fellowship of drones, babbling a mindless cliché of uniformed gibberish? We need strong individuals to have a useful, meaningful unified whole. These individuals, for the whole to unified, have to be open-minded, honest and willing to get along. That isn’t all of us going along with exactly the same narrative to get along. Au contraire; it is embracing our differences, <em>Vive la différence</em>! That goes for all of us—atheists, agnostics, theists.<br><br>None of us have a lock on permanent recovery. None of us have an easier go of getting sober or a leg up on the other as far as finding a life of meaning in sobriety. While we need not obey anyone else’s belief system nor deny our own, what is there to learn from each other?<br><br>In a Ted talk, John Bellamy<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title="">[i]</a> makes the point that while yin is the white swirl and yang the black, each has the seed of its interdependent twin. Using the new-age spirituality of Star Wars, Luke Skywalker has dark side of the force potential, while his father, Darth Vader has the potential for good. This is a variation on the Jesus on one shoulder, Lucifer on the other myth.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/46610e68c0892e12c3699de84f33f09a94761d43/medium/yin-yang.jpg?1400266416" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" />This relativity is lost in the debate between a naturalist vs. super-naturalist worldview that only has room for one ultimate truth. Only ultimate purgatory—not truth—awaits a life lived in suspended animation holding out for this ultimate question of the universe to be resolved. That binary thinking doesn’t have to be our way.<br><br>Pluralism is how Twelve Step life was designed. We were invited to broaden our knowledge and open our hearts. Atheists are no threat to AA’s God-conscious members. AA’s antiquated literature is no threat to an atheist’s sovereignty. If you can’t find a secular narrative from the “as it was written” Big Book, should we blame the book?<br><br>Those of us in the middle of the yin/yang merry-go-round of worldviews are never put off balance by the opposing views of others. It is only those of us at the extreme that feel antagonistic, victimized or feel the need to petition the fellowship for urgent change.<br><br>Those of us with a rigid, literalist interpretation of our Twelve Step program want atheist to hit the bricks and stop the “destruction of AA from the inside.” They see in the nonbeliever, the threat of nihilism. What they call, “watered down AA” is, at the heart of it, the threat of liberalism that will secularize all of AA, undoing their imaginary legacy of a constant, uniformed message and interpretation. Fascism can’t stand individualism. It scapegoats minorities as evil or dangerous and rallies to take away standing for all nonconformists.<br><br>According to the Taoist philosophy the seed of the rigid literalist’s intolerance is their own fear born of their own doubt. Yes, it is the doubt that lingers in the believer the spurs them on to evict the atheist. Believers don’t have proof of a prayer answering god—only faith. And what do we say is the opposite of faith? Fear. While that faith is encouraged by likeminded adherents, it is threatened by those who may mock devotion as a child-like belief.<br><br>The extreme nonbeliever also rallies for change. We cry about persecution and justice and we say, as Jim Burwell told his fellows in the day, “AA would be better without all this God bunk.” Moderates don’t mind being in the presence of prayer. Extremists are insulted by it. What is it that seeds the nonbelievers demands for a new, more secular Big Book? If this is born of intolerance then, might it also be caused from the same fear that is only the natural doubt that comes from an equally un-winnable argument about a universe of chaos?<br><br>AA is changing because, as with all things, change is inevitable. Should it change according to the back-to-basics fundamentalists agenda? Should AA be re-written without the theistic assumptions of mid-20<sup>th</sup> century middle-class America? I don’t know that best practices are to be found in either of these extreme positions. Would AA be better if one extreme won out and demanded compliance from the rest of us? I don’t think so.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/e0a58d61b96b9625e9e327f1f413830eca08c47e/medium/argument-2.jpg?1400266178" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" />What keeps the Twelve Step rooms vibrant and viable is that there continues to be room for everyone. The ranters rant their liberal and conservative rants. The moderates mind their own business, curious and not threatened by each other. There has never been a better time to be in Twelve Step recovery. No matter what you believe someone is releasing a book that will reinforce your believe. Someone else is putting out a book that will challenge your beliefs. Fining an online room of your peeps has never been easier. Surround yourself with likeminded individuals, if that’s what you need. Reach out in every direction and leave no stone unturned, if you are a seeker. Challenge those who disagree with you, if you must. I need to remember that alternate worldviews in a pluralist society are relative to me—not opposed to me.<br><br>In my experience, I can always find a fight if I am in a fighting mood. I can always find the hand extended, If I (not they) am open-minded, honest and willing. Life is like a mirror. What happens to the image in the mirror when I frown? It frowns back. And when I smile?<br><br>The more insecure I feel, the more I need to persuade or evangelize my <em>As Joe Sees It</em> brand of life worth living. Why should it matter that even one person agreed with me if I am secure with my path that I have chosen for myself? If I have found what is true for me, agreement or disagreement should just be par for the course.<br><br>AA will unveil a new pamphlet about the variety of spiritual paths in AA, from atheism to the range of Abrahamic monotheistic beliefs, to Eastern and aboriginal philosophy and rituals. It’s called a spirituality pamphlet. If you don’t like the term spiritual experience, just call it experience or change the word—the word won’t mind.<br>I will close with this: Early in Ketcham and Kurtz’s <a contents="Experiencing Spirituality" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.amazon.com/Experiencing-Spirituality-Finding-Meaning-Storytelling/dp/0399164170/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=rebelliondogs-20&linkCode=w01&linkId=567ACOOWBAIITGSL&creativeASIN=0399164170" target="_blank"><span style="color:#40E0D0;"><em>Experiencing Spirituality</em></span></a> has this to say about experience:<br> <div style="text-align: justify;">
<em><strong>There are two terms that, while the processes surely are included in </strong></em><strong>experience</strong><em><strong>, are anything but substitutes for it: “feel” and “think.” The main problem with these terms is that each seems to exclude the other, or at least to downplay it. The special benefit of the word </strong></em><strong>experience</strong><em><strong> is that it includes all the senses and faculties mentioned above and more. <a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title="">[ii]</a></strong></em>
</div> <br>Thinking can be called Yang, while feeling could be Yin. There should be no master and no slave; balance is the key. Try reasoning someone out of a position they have come to through emotion; forget about it. Let’s follow Kurtz and Ketcham’s cue and stick to sharing our experience and not try to control how the message is received by others.<div> <hr align="left" size="1" width="33%">
<div id="edn1">
<a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title="">[i]</a> <a contents="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezmR9Attpyc" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezmR9Attpyc" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezmR9Attpyc</a> .</div>
<div id="edn2">
<a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title="">[ii]</a> Kurz, Ernest & Ketcham, Katherine, <em>Experiencing Spirituality: Finding Meaning Through Storytelling</em>, p. 30</div>
</div>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/2922296
2014-05-06T00:03:07-04:00
2020-09-22T10:29:38-04:00
Rebellion Dogs Radio # 5, Standing: Who get's a say in AA?
<p>Print or read the <a contents="PDF " data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-blog-may-2014-standing.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/136749/rebellion-dogs-blog-may-2014-standing.pdf"><span style="color:#40E0D0;">PDF</span> </a> Hear it as a podcast from <span style="color:#40E0D0;">Pod0matic</span><br>“Who is more contemptible than he who scorns knowledge of himself?” John of Salisbury (1120 – 1180)<br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/f087df864125946b71ce476d6b75955e6cad499a/medium/unconcious-civilization.jpg?1399345773" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" /><br>John Ralston Saul commentates on the relationships between citizenship, individualism and the public good. He argues that Western society, as a whole, suffers from “a fear of reality and a weakness for ideology.” As a way of describing our mental state while in the heart of addiction, AA members would be apt to describe ourselves as less in reality and more in delusion.<br><br>Today, let’s ask if AA as an organization ought to be mindful of our balancing act between reality and ideology. Are we as a fellowship losing touch with its own consciousness?<br>In his lectures and book, <em>The Unconscious Civilization<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><sup><strong><sup>[i]</sup></strong></sup></a></em>, John Ralston Saul suggests that John of Salisbury would give a nod to the adaptation of his quote above to “What is more contemptible than a society that scorns knowledge of itself?"<br><br>For those of who fashion ourselves as stewards of The Alcoholics Anonymous Twelve Step/Twelve Tradition way of life, here is a question that relates to AA reality and ideology:</p>
<ul> <li>Is AA a fellowship with a manual, or</li> <li>Is AA a book-based society?</li>
</ul>
<p>Are we a fellowship or are we a program? While we might want to retreat to the noncommittal, “aren’t we both?” let’s look first at our Traditions. Do these twelve principles defend and define a fellowship or a program? The answer is quite apparent. Unity, membership requirements, how we govern our groups, how the groups relate to each other, how we cooperate with society as a whole, why anonymity—these tenets describe a fellowship. One Tradition, Tradition Five, reminds us to relate <em>our message</em> of hope to the still suffering alcoholic.<br><br>We are a fellowship. This reality is lost in our current vernacular. “When I joined <em>the program</em>,” is said so many times it is, to many, our collective reality. In fact, we joined a fellowship. Many of us applied a suggested program but there is no program to join. Am I splitting hairs? I don’t think so; I think this a fundamental explanation of some of the dogmatic tendencies in AA today.<br><br>If we were a book-based society—and we are not—then the book would be sacred. The sacred book could not be changed, nor should the words inside be liberally interpreted. While this is a knee-jerk reaction by many of the membership, <em>The Big Book</em> itself discourages us from this type of dogma, not once but twice: "The wording was, of course quite optional, so long as we voiced the ideas without reservation." (P. 63) “Our book is meant to be suggestive only. We realize that we know only a little.” (P. 164)<br><br>For comparison's sake, let’s liken ourselves to a society of grade five math teachers. Since the late 1930s, the principles of math as it applies to grade five have not changed dramatically. Are we using the same text book to teach our children? No; we have found more contemporary ways to express these principles. While staying true to the same principles in grade five math, every generation of students gets the same or greater advantage compared to those who came before, based on these enhancements. How silly would we look if we reified the math-teaching process with a text book that was almost 80 years old, fearing that our mathematics would otherwise be watered down?<br><br>If this is an unfair comparison, I am all ears and eyes. Tell me why.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/d09bdeeb995aa842ca1339925794351eef918848/medium/history.jpg?1399345794" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" />Recently I was chaired a panel at the 35<sup>th</sup> Eastern Ontario Spring Conference of AA in Ottawa Canada. This conference had something for everyone. Clancy I from Venice California was there. Big Book evangelist, Tom K from Boston was there. The old-timers panel was called “Sisters in Sobriety” with three 40 years+ sober women in AA. I was chairing a panel called “Unity Not Uniformity: Spiritual Variety in A.A." which was comprised of Atheist and Agnostic members with long term sobriety. I talked about stewardship in AA. “It’s Okay to want to be the <em>Tradition Police</em> in AA; that’s a good thing. But first, we have to put our time in at <em>the Twelve Tradition Academy</em> to learn about our history.”<br><br>When we study our history we see that history does have a tendency to repeat itself.<br>Our principles suggest that individualism is no threat to unity. As stated in Warranty Six in our <em>A.A. World Service Manual</em>,<br><br>“Much attention has been drawn to the extraordinary liberties which the A.A. Traditions accord to the individual member and to his group; no penalties to be inflicted for nonconformity to A.A. principles … no member to be expelled from A.A.—membership always to be the choice of the individual; each group to conduct its internal affairs as it wishes—it being merely requested to abstain from acts that might injure A.A. as a whole; and finally that any group of alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group provide that as a group, they have no other purpose or affiliation. . . we A.A.’s possess more and greater freedom than any other fellowship in the world.”<a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title=""><sup><sup>[ii]</sup></sup></a><br><br>I listen to Ralston Saul’s Massey Lectures about “Unconscious Civilization” and I wonder if AA isn’t becoming an “increasingly conformist society that pays only lip service to democracy and individualism.” Is Individualism in AA today (the autonomy of members and our groups) seen as a single ambulatory center of selfishness? Selfishness is a narrower, more superficial definition of individualism than our founders might have intended.<br><br>Today, do we feel bound to unify, despite our differences? Or do we feel obliged to conform to a uniformed set of rituals? Bill Wilson seemed comfortable choosing spontaneity and chaos over control and order. Imagine if you or I were laying out the groundwork. Would we give groups and members such autonomy? While groups are asked to consider other groups or AA as a whole, policing that request is left to that group’s best judgment. Why? Bill W’s view was that Alcoholics Anonymous is self-correcting. While you can apply a theistic narrative if you wish, Bill was certain that adherence to the <em>principles</em> behind our Steps and Traditions were obligatory to a group’s or individual’s survival. Was it ever intended that we ought to be obligated to submit to these Steps or Traditions literally, as authority from Yahweh the Creator? No. The <em>principles</em>, if followed, would work, in accordance to any creed or worldview. Any who stray too far away will not have to be policed or governed; they will fall by the wayside all by themselves. Based on the experience that informed our Traditions, Bill W. didn’t seem so concerned that any individual or group could drag the fellowship down with them. It was the intolerance, not the refusal to conform, that he saw as detrimental.<br><br>In the story of Tradition Three from <em>The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions</em>, Wilson relates this story about applying rules upon membership:<br><br>“Maybe this sounds comical now. Maybe you think we oldtimers were pretty intolerant. But I can tell you there was nothing funny about the situation then. We were grim because we felt our lives and homes were threatened, and that was no laughing matter. Intolerant, you say? Well, we were frightened. Naturally, we began to act like most everybody does when afraid. After all, isn’t fear the true basis of intolerance? Yes, we were intolerant.<br>How could we then guess that all those fears were to prove groundless? How could we know that thousands of these sometimes frightening people were to make astonishing recoveries and become our greatest workers and most intimate friends?”<a href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3" title=""><sup><sup>[iii]</sup></sup></a><br><br>So, according to AA lore, everyone lives happily ever after if and when we mind our own business and we don’t take ourselves too seriously. What is “too seriously?” How about when we assume power or jurisdiction over another?<br><br><span class="font_large">STANDING: losing your say in AA</span><br>In law, locus standi (standing) establishes who has a voice and who does not. <em>Free Dictionary.com</em> defines the term as, “The legally protectable stake or interest that an individual has in a dispute that entitles him to bring the controversy before the court to obtain judicial relief.”<br><br>In <em>Fire and Ashes</em>, Michael Ignatieff talked about lessons learned the hard way about how sinister the political ploy of undermining someone’s standing can be. What if you no longer have a say in the political arena? Ignatieff came from a politically engaged Canadian family. His dad was active in Liberal politics and his childhood memories include dinner time political debate. As a reporter, educator and author, Michael Ignatieff had been teaching at Harvard where he had received his doctorate of history. Liberal insiders visited him and laid out a proposal to have him return to Canada join and the Liberal leadership race with the intention of eventually running the country as Prime Minister.<br><br>His key adversary, Steven Harper, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada ran smear campaigns with the tag lines, “Michael Ignatieff – just visiting,” and “He didn’t come back for you.” The intended goal was not to rebut his criticism of how the Conservatives were running the country. It attacked the man, not the message; it suggested that Ignatieff had no standing in a discussion of what was best for Canada.<br><br>“Swift-boating,” is the term Ignatieff uses for undermining ones standing in the political arena. It refers to a successful attack on democratic presidential nominee John Kerry and his Vietnam record. As he returned home a decorated vet, he was critical of US conduct in the war. Kerry had seen action on a Swift Boat up the Mekong River in Vietnam and his anti-war ranting on Capitol Hill offended American prisoners of war and other US troops and their families.<br><br>There is always some truth to swift-boating. Ignatieff had been out of the country for thirty years. John Kerry was critical of the Vietnam War. Does that make either man unworthy of leading their country? Well, they don’t get to make their case, if they lose their standing.<br><br>When AA groups for agnostics and atheists are being ostracized by some of the more rigid local Intergroups, the Intergroup bodies assume governing power to revoke the agnostic groups’ standing in AA. Hasty and angry Intergroup bodies don’t hear the group’s rebuttal. In Intergroup’s rationalization, the nonconforming groups forfeit their AA group status for the crime of not adhering to the literal translation of AA’s Steps that the majority of groups do.<br><br>That much is true; some agnostic groups interpret the Steps in a secular (no God) way while others don’t read the Steps in meetings at all. The fact—the AA truth—is that there is no requirement for the membership or groups to strictly adhere to the Steps exactly as written. Because someone says “You can’t pick and choose what you like about the Steps and change the rest and still call yourself an AA group,” doesn’t make it true. AA doesn’t grant Intergroups authority over deciding who is or is not an AA group, nor what conventional or unconventional rituals can or cannot be practiced. On the contrary, “leaders are but trusted servants, they do not govern.”<br><br>When members are told that in order to share, they have to identify as, “My name is ________ and I am an alcoholic,” their standing is being threatened. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. How we identify ourselves—addict, person in long-term recovery, by first name only or full name—is an individual decision.<br><br>We don’t have a winning record with inclusivity as a fellowship. The first group conscience of Alcoholics Anonymous that entertained giving standing to women in AA decided, “No skirts.” Voting on including African Americans in AA was “No Negros.” The first LGBTQ groups that wanted standing were told “No sexual deviants in AA.” Young people have been shown the same bigotry, too. “I spilled more than you ever drank; what are you doing here?”<br><br>Almost all of us alcoholics have been denied standing just for being an alcoholic. Our word was nothing, our reputation was destroyed, our troubles elicited no sympathy. We were alkies, we were addicts, second class citizens. And sober, having suffered the indignity of it ourselves, we still dish it out to scapegoated <em>others</em> because their beliefs or some other characteristic disqualifies them from legitimacy (in our eyes). This is natural for humans. Not <em>them</em> but each and every one of us.<br><br><em>Fire and Ashes</em> talks about the reluctant move towards wider, more inclusive standing:<br><br>“America, and the democracies that take inspiration from it, are inching a step closer to that place glimpsed by Martin Luther King when he spoke of a distant country where people would be judged not by the characteristics, but by their character. Despite the victories that Obama has won, however, the country is still distant. Democratic societies that have outlawed discrimination nonetheless retain a complex code that still allows class, education and citizenship to be used to deny standing and to turn citizens from friends into foes in our politics.”<a href="#_edn4" name="_ednref4" title=""><sup><sup>[iv]</sup></sup></a><br><br>This isn’t new territory for Michael Ignatieff. In his life as a journalist, Ignatieff was on the front line of conflicts between the Tutsi and Hutu factions in Rwanda, the Croatians and Serbs in the former Yugoslavia were shooting at each other, and at the pre-911 Taliban affront on Afghanistan, before many American’s could point out Afghanistan on a world map.<br><br>In<em> The Warrior’s Honor, </em>Ignatieff draws upon the more conservative political scientist Samuel P. Huntington to help make the point that some of these differences we are talking about are not as simple as, “I like the New England Patriots and you like the San Francisco 49ers.”<br><br><em>“The Clash of Civilizations</em>, by Samuel Huntington states that it is liberal ‘secular myopia,’ he argues, to think that ethnic difference is minor. … Millennia of human history have shown that religion is not a <em>small difference</em>, he asserts, but possibly the most profound difference that can exist between people. The frequency, intensity and violence of fault line wars are greatly enhanced by beliefs in different gods.”<br><br>Ignatieff goes on to say about the warring Serbians and Croatians, so many expressed “surprise at the astonishing rapidity with which fifty years of ethnic coexistence was destroyed, perhaps forever.”<a href="#_edn5" name="_ednref5" title=""><sup><sup>[v]</sup></sup></a><br><br>So it’s one thing that we have meetings for the LGBTQ crowd or young people or for women. To be fair, AA was welcoming African Americans into the fold before Martin Luther King and Gay and Lesbian groups were part of AA when sodomy was still illegal and a dishonorable discharge awaited any gay man who came clean in the army. At least all of these special meetings of young, gay or female alkies were in agreement with the crowd as far as the “We Agnostics” line in the sand. On page 53 of the <em>Big Book</em>, we are confronted with, “We could not postpone or evade; we had to fearlessly face the proposition that either God is everything or else He is nothing. God either is, or He isn’t. What was our choice to be?” Most AAs through the ages agree on some Abrahamic Creator of the Universe or prayer answering, alcoholic saving power greater than our own will.<br><br>But when “God <em>as we understand Him</em>,” is “God is a myth,” or “I understand God to be born of fear and ignorance,” then this fault line difference is quite another thing. The reality that many stay sober without any supernatural dependency is a reality that, in some AA quarters, is giving way to a more dogmatic, uniformed God-conscious ideology of what AA is and has always been. Revisionist history is the foundation from the Back to Basics AA that <em>remembers</em> a time when everyone got sober and all the groups were harmonious. While there is nothing wrong with a literalist approach to AA, the problem comes when pluralism is abandoned and alternative paths to sobriety are dismissed as dry-drunk, second-rate alternatives or without standing.<br><br>Denying agnostic AA groups their standing in AA is a clear case of being discriminated against. Intergroups assume a governing role and avoid rebuttal by denying standing to agnostic groups. Are there more subtle systemic discriminations in AA, or as Ignatieff puts it, a “complex code that still allows class, education and citizenship to be used to deny standing?” Clues can be found in our demographics. Let’s look at how USA demographics (where ½ of AA members live) have changed from 1940 to 2010.<br> </p>
<table align="left" border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" style="width: 400px;">
<caption>Demographics of USA 1940 to 2010</caption>
<tbody> <tr> <td>USA demographics</td> <td>1940</td> <td>2010</td> </tr> <tr> <td>% of Caucasian (whites)</td> <td>90%</td> <td>72%</td> </tr> <tr> <td>% who completed High School</td> <td>24%</td> <td>86%</td> </tr> <tr> <td>% with a University Degree</td> <td>5%</td> <td>28%</td> </tr> <tr> <td>% of one person households</td> <td>8%</td> <td>27%</td> </tr> <tr> <td>% of female lead households</td> <td>11%</td> <td>20%</td> </tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><br>The USA looks very different over a 70 year period. What we call a family or household has changed. One person homes have risen from 8% to 27%; female led households have doubled from 11% to 20%. Americans are better educated; when AA started 5% of members had a university education. Now it’s 28%. America was 90% Caucasian when Bob and Bill met and in 2010, only 72% identified as white.<a href="#_edn6" name="_ednref6" title=""><sup><sup>[vi]</sup></sup></a> On the question of racial diversity, in the 2011 Triennial AA survey we see that AA is <em>whiter</em> than America as a whole: 87% of AA is Caucasian while only 72% of America is. According to the 2011 survey by SAMHSA, of the people being treated for alcoholism, 68% are Caucasian. Looking ahead, with a 100 year old AA, Caucasians will not be a majority in the USA (estimated crossover to be 2043). Is there something systematic in the rituals and literature of AA that gives more standing to white skinned members or men over women?<br><br>“God as we understand Him” doesn’t fit all AAs today in the one-size-fits-all way it did in 1940. As more Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and Atheists enter the rooms, what would be a more welcoming hand of AA for the newcomer of 2035 look like? Can we adapt? Will we adapt?<br><br>We say the Responsibility Declaration and we talk of AA inclusivity. Is our liberalism a myth (ideology) or reality? If we are inclusive, if we are accommodating, to what do we attribute the variance in statistics inside the rooms and the world just outside our meeting doors?<br><br>Ignatieff writes:<br>“Myth is a narrative shaped by desire, not by truth, formed not by the facts as best we can establish them but by our longing to be reassured and consoled. Coming awake means to renounce such longing, to recovery all the sharpness of the distinction between what is true and what we wish were true.”<a href="#_edn7" name="_ednref7" title=""><sup><sup>[vii]</sup></sup></a><br><br><em>The Warrior's Honor</em> refers to the James Joyce line from <em>Ulysses</em>, “History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.” With our emphasis on a spiritual awakening this idea should be like old home week for us. “Appendix II, The Spiritual Experience” describes most awakenings as being gradual. Maybe it’s a life’s work to renounce our longing for assurance and consolation. Could it be that it’s only human to surrender to self-constructed or mutually constructed realities that blot out the harsher truths? Constant vigilance is a more demanding master.<br><br>To follow the natural order of things is to resign ourselves to the finitude of all good things. AA, like any society, will decay if we follow our natural tendencies. To fend off this inevitability requires more than lip service to our brand of democracy. It requires each of us engaging in our citizenry and rising to the challenge, when anyone, anywhere reaches out for help. For AA to be there in 2035 we have to be firm with our principles and flexible with our method.</p>
<div> <hr align="left" size="1" width="33%">
<div id="edn1">
<a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title="">[i]</a> <a contents="http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/massey-archives/1995/11/06/massey-lectures-1995-the-unconscious-civilization/" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/massey-archives/1995/11/06/massey-lectures-1995-the-unconscious-civilization/" target="_blank">http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/massey-archives/1995/11/06/massey-lectures-1995-the-unconscious-civilization/</a>
</div>
<div id="edn2">
<a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title="">[ii]</a> <a data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.aa.org/pdf/products/en_bm-31.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.aa.org/pdf/products/en_bm-31.pdf</a> The AA World Service Manual (Twelve Concepts p. 74)</div>
<div id="edn3">
<a href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3" title="">[iii]</a> Anonymous, <em>Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions</em>, New York: Alcoholics Anonymous, 1953 p. 140 - 141</div>
<div id="edn4">
<a href="#_ednref4" name="_edn4" title="">[iv]</a> Ignatieff, Michael, <em>Fire and Ashes</em>, Toronto: Random House, 2013</div>
<div id="edn5">
<a href="#_ednref5" name="_edn5" title="">[v]</a> Ignatieff, Michael, <em>The Warrior's Honor: Ethnic War and The Modern Conscience, </em>Toronto: Viking, 1998 p 54, 55.</div>
<div id="edn6">
<a href="#_ednref6" name="_edn6" title="">[vi]</a> <a contents="http://www.census.gov/newsroom/cspan/1940census/CSPAN_1940slides.pdf" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.census.gov/newsroom/cspan/1940census/CSPAN_1940slides.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.census.gov/newsroom/cspan/1940census/CSPAN_1940slides.pdf</a>
</div>
<div id="edn7">
<a href="#_ednref7" name="_edn7" title="">[vii]</a> Ignatieff, Michael, <em>The Warrior's Honor:</em>. p 167</div>
</div>
29:43
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/2882642
2014-04-18T23:12:04-04:00
2021-10-08T14:06:58-04:00
Sober Truths: 50 years of AA critics, bad science and bad attitudes
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/d8d06fbcc98f416ce1169c8e7e7304a6d09afd5f/medium/penn-teller.jpg?1397877279" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" />Finding Fault like there's a reward to it - Isn't there more to constructive criticism than pointing out the faults in others? Meet the new book (same as the old book) that takes a pot-shot at AA, 12 Steps and the Treatment modality that embraces this "bad science." Authors Lance and Zackary Dodes sing a familiar refrain in <em>The Sober Truth: Debunking the Bad Science Behind 12-Step Programs and the Rehab Industry</em>. This just in: AA is flawed and unscientific. OK, so room for improvement isn't news. But is AA ineffective? So, in Episode 04 of Rebellion Dogs Radio, we look at AA-bashing from Dr. Cain in 1963's "AA: Cult or Cure?" to Penn & Teller's Bullshit episode on Showtime and this new book. We look at AA's own triennial survey results from 1977 to 1989 and why critics see embarrassing 5% success (or let's call it failure) rates. We counter that with peer reviewed studies that call such a conclusion erroneous or misleading. For 50 years and then some, as a fellowship, we have inspired many to change their life for the better. We have also inspired some to be critical of us.<br><br>Bill W was not reactive; he thought that our critics weren't all wrong and we could learn from them. From Cain to Dodes, fellowship reaction is always divided. Many are dismissive or hurt by the mean spirited condemnation. Others find it a breath of fresh and feel vindicated for their own frustration with AA's preaching personal inventory on one hand but being resistant or belligerent about meaningful change as a fellowship. It's a question worth asking for each of us: Am I change-resistant; do I default to <em>contempt prior to investigation</em> when:</p>
<ol>
<li>I am criticized,</li> <li>someone proposes a change in my home group,</li> <li>or, in this case, when someone is publicly critical of AA as a whole?"</li>
</ol><p>It's a regular Rebellion Dog-fight this month and we invite you to listen in or join in on the conversation. We race through the history of debunking and debunking-busting in 45 minutes. We are 100% in favor of skepticism. But have these critics got their facts straight?<br><br>At the end you can hear <em>Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life</em>'s author Joe C, playing lead and singing back-up on The Chronicle's song Jesse and he wrote, "Chronic Malcontent," the prefect theme song for Episode #4.<br><br>Read or download the transcript of <a contents="Episode 04 HERE" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-radio-04-the-sober-truth-other-rants.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/134562/rebellion-dogs-radio-04-the-sober-truth-other-rants.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#008080;">Episode 04 HERE</span></a><br> </p>
<table align="left" border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width: 470px;"><tbody><tr>
<td><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/328f78207a1d93040124136efc304077637fc59a/small/aasurvey.gif?1397876983" class="size_s justify_center border_none" alt="" /></td> <td>For links to Don McIntire,<span style="color:#FFFF00;"> “How Well Does A.A. Work?”</span>in Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly, <a data-link-label="aa-recovery-outcome-rates.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/134539/aa-recovery-outcome-rates.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFD700;">AA Recovery Outcome Rates – Contemporary Myth and Misconception</span></a> and Hoffmann (2003)<a data-link-label="aa-recovery-outcome-rates.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/condp30&div=31&id=&page=" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFD700;"> “Recovery careers of people in Alcoholics Anonymous.”</span></a><br><br><a contents="Penn &amp; Teller Bullshit" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUG9dr6SZSY" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;">Penn & Teller Bullshit</span></a> show on Showtime</td> </tr></tbody></table><iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=ss_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=rebeldogspubl-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=0807033154&asins=0807033154&linkId=GTU5B5BC24J5A5NA&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true" style="width:120px;height:240px;"></iframe>
<p><br><br><br><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="85" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rebelliondogs12stepradio.podomatic.com/embed/frame/posting/2014-04-18T12_40_48-07_00?json_url=http%3A%2F%2Frebelliondogs12stepradio.podomatic.com%2Fentry%2Fembed_params%2F2014-04-18T12_40_48-07_00%3Fcolor%3D43bee7%26autoPlay%3Dfalse%26width%3D300%26height%3D85%26objembed%3D0" width="300"></iframe></p>
45:42
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/2794442
2014-03-22T23:58:08-04:00
2017-01-14T11:32:12-05:00
What "Beyond Belief" means to me
A TRIBUTE TO THE LIFE OF MY FRIEND, THE LATE WAYNE M - TIED TO THE MEMORY OF WAYNE, IS A STORY THAT IS <em>BEYOND BELIEF</em>. WAYNE AND AA CO-FOUNDER BOB S. WALKED THE SAME WALK BUT THEY DIDN'T THINK THE SAME THOUGHTS.<br>(Read it in<a contents=" PDF" data-link-label="rebellion-dog-blog-march-2014-wayne-m.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/131169/rebellion-dog-blog-march-2014-wayne-m.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;"> </span></a><a contents="PDF" data-link-label="rebellion-dog-blog-march-2014-wayne-m-tribute.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/132743/rebellion-dog-blog-march-2014-wayne-m-tribute.pdf"><span style="color:#FFFF00;">PDF</span></a> if you prefer)<br><br>My AA home group is called Beyond Belief Agnostics & Freethinkers (Toronto, Canada). The group had its first meeting September 24, 2009. I guess the meaning of Beyond Belief could be different for each of us. Here’s what it means to me: between the deaths of AA’s first co-founder and the recent death in my home group, a portrait tells a story.<br><br>Our group lost one of our original members, Wayne M, to cancer March 21, 2014. In Wayne’s story we see that he was trying to stay sober from 1992 to 2004. He had been in four rehabs, two were 12 Step based and two were not. In an article about his atheist 12 Step recovery, “A Higher Purpose,” Wayne writes:<br><br><em><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.renascent.ca/" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/59727f081f7dad259118b7a9073446e14773cd1a/medium/renascent.jpg?1395553516" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" /></a>“After three months at Halton Recovery House (October 1997 to January 1998) I managed to stay sober for a year and a half. Then, I picked up a drink and the next thing I knew, it was five years later and I was in a psych ward. It was 2004 and I was jobless, homeless and friendless. Even my brother would not take a phone call from me.<br>It was there I decided that I did not want to die a drunk.<br><br>I knew I needed treatment to get started—again—and I chose <a contents="Renascent" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.renascent.ca/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;">Renascent</span></a> (House).<br><br>My sobriety date is Sept 30, 2004. In November I entered Renascent and completed treatment.”</em><br><br>All of us at Beyond Belief would have loved to celebrate Wayne’s 10<sup>th</sup> anniversary of continuous sobriety later this year, but it is not to be. I want to remember Wayne and share with you an uncanny connection that his story has to Bob S’s story from “The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous” P-53 15M 8/12 (RP) © Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. Dr. Bob said that “love and service” is the core of AA. He died of cancer in City Hospital, Akron November 16, 1950. No, I am not drawing a connection between AA service work and cancer. While these two men shared this life-ending experience, the point is how they lived sober and not how they died.<br><br>One of these men, Dr. Bob, saw himself as a servant of God and credited his sobriety to the grace of God. Wayne’s faith was in the transformative experience of (what the professionals call) cognitive restructuring, a psycho-therapeutic process of learning to identify and dispute irrational or maladaptive thoughts. Forget the, “Who was right and who was wrong” argument; or “Were they both guilty of <em>patternicity</em>?”—a word used by <em>Skeptic Magazine</em> Editor Michael Shermer to describe the believing mind’s tendency to find patterns or connections in the random noise and chaos of life’s experience. Let’s drop the language and imagine that both of these men’s stories are being told through silent film and not their own narration. Here we have to follow the alcoholic’s feet and stop listening to the words they choose to describe their experience. I think the actions and result of these two men are strikingly similar.<br><br>For my money, Ernie Kurtz seems to be saying two things about AA in the book about us, <em>Not God: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous</em>. A believer himself, he is not myth-busting the ABC of AA lore from “How it works:”
<ul>
<li>(a) That we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives</li> <li>(b) That probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism.</li> <li>(c) That God could and would if He were sought.</li>
</ul><em>Not God</em> means two profound things about how AA works: We had to stop trying to control the agenda (we were each <em>not God</em>); secondly, the transformative power of the AA way was not directly from the hand of God but the transference from despair to hope that comes from one alcoholic talking to another.<br><br>Bob describes AA as an oral tradition, one drunk talking to another before there was a book, a fellowship or a program:<br><br><em><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/6373e493b6d6508d8ea6427d7038149690af5ea7/medium/dr-bob.jpg?1395547479" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" />“You see, back in those days we were groping in the dark. We knew practically nothing of alcoholism. I, a physician, knew nothing about it to speak of. Oh, I read about it, but there wasn’t anything worth reading in any of the text-books. Usually the information consisted of some queer treatment for D.T.s, if a patient had gone that far. If he hadn’t, you prescribed a few bromides and gave the fellow a good lecture.<br>At that point, our stories didn’t amount to anything to speak of. When we started in on Bill D. (AA #3), we had no Twelve Steps, either; we had no Traditions.”</em><br><br>Before meeting Bill W, Doctor Bob was as hot and cold with God? He had prayed unanswered prayers in solitude to be freed from the merciless obsession of drinking. He had cursed God and vowed to never darken the door of a church ever again. Still, he was a member of the Oxford Group. Before and after his last drink Bob found merit in the Oxford’s Four Absolutes - Absolute Honesty, Absolute Purity, Absolute Unselfishness and Absolute Love. Like Wayne, who languished through fits of sobriety and relapse, Bob found himself discouraged in himself and hopeless. Here he is talking of Henrietta Seiberling, who would later be responsible for introducing Bob and Bill.<br><br><em>“‘Henry, do you think I want to stop drinking liquor?’<br><br>She, being a very charitable soul, would say, ‘Yes, Bob, I’m sure you want to stop.’<br><br>I would say, ‘Well, I can conceive of any living human who really wanted to do something as badly as I think I do, who could be such a total failure. Henry, I think I’m just one of those want-to-want-to guys.’<br><br>And she’d say, ‘No Bob, I think you want to. You just haven’t found a way to work it yet.’<br><br>The fact that my sobriety has been maintained continuously for 13 ½ years doesn’t allow me to think that I am necessarily any further away from my next drink than any of you people. I’m still very human, and I still think a double Scotch would taste awfully good. If it wouldn’t produce disastrous results, I might try it. … I’m not trying to be funny. Those thoughts actually do enter my mind.”</em><br><br>Bob articulated the humility of what makes us all equal in AA. While the length between us and our last drink may be different from each other, the possibility of the next drink remains the same distance away for all of us. Bob never had that white-light experience Bill had. Through all of his life, Bob, a devoted believer, felt the humility of what we still call—not a cure, but—a daily reprieve. For Bob as for many of us, including Wayne, this reprieve was contingent on a day-at-a-time approach that was nurtured by a willingness to help others.<br><br>Bob continues in his Detroit talk:<br><br><em>“I think the kind of service that really counts is giving of yourself, and that almost invariably requires effort and time. It isn’t a matter of just putting a little quiet money in the dish. That’s needed, but isn’t giving much for the average individual in days like these, when most people get along fairly well. I don’t believe that type of giving would ever keep anyone sober. But giving of our own effort and strength and time is quite a different matter. And I think that is what Bill learned in New York and I didn’t learn in Akron until we met.”</em><br><br>Wayne came to believe the same thing. For the last years of his life, Wayne returned to the place that he last went to treatment, first as a volunteer and then to work for a fraction of what he previously earned as a sales executive. Wayne writes:<br><br><em>“After being sober for more than a year, I started volunteering at Renascent. As time went by and I always showed up and did well at what they gave me, they started offering me paid shifts. I was offered a full time job in 2007. It was to assess people that wanted to attend our treatment program. My job was to interview them and determine if they were a fit for us and, more importantly, if we were a fit for them.<br><br>To say I loved it would be the understatement of all time. For the first time in my life, I had a job that was not a job. It was what I did when I woke up. I could not wait to get there in the mornings.<br><br>You see, it was an ideal way for me to live my higher purpose. That way I could be a useful part of the human race.”</em><br><br>Next, let’s look at how Bob describes, call it Twelve Step work or the transformative impact of recovery and service. We might imagine either Wayne or Bob saying the following, which comes from Bob’s last major talk:<br><br><em>“We should attempt to acquire some faith, which isn’t easily done, especially for the person who has always been very materialistic, following the standards of society today. But I think faith can be acquired; it can be acquired slowly; it has to be cultivated. That was not easy of me, and I assume that it is difficult for everyone else.<br>Another thing that was difficult for me (and probably don’t do it too well yet) was the matter of tolerance. We are all inclined to have closed minds, pretty tightly closed.<br><br>That’s one reason why some people find our spiritual teaching difficult. They don’t </em>want <em>to find out too much about it, for various personal reasons, like the fear of being considered effeminate. But it’s quite important that we do acquire tolerance towards the other fellow’s ideas. I think I have more of it than I did have, although not enough yet. If somebody crosses me, I’m apt to make a rather caustic remark. I’ve done that many times, much to my regret. And then, later on, I find that the man knew much more about it that I did.”</em><br><br>Both men’s recovery was glued together by the faith in being less interested in personal stuff and more interested in their fellows. Both men would agree that Ernie Kurtz’s observations were true; although one of them believes in a supernatural explanation of the process and the other sees a natural explanation for the <em>hows</em> and the <em>whys</em> in their worldview.<br><br>Both men are now dead. Both transformed his own life and left the world a better place.<br><br>Beyond the belief of each man (which we might be tricked into thinking defines them as people) is their legacy—what they did, the choices they made, the values that they lived by. To be mentally (or spiritually, if you prefer)<em> beyond belief</em> is to be beyond the narcissism of small differences. We are 99% the same which is what Wayne and Bob saw in another when communicating their experience strength and hope. Much of mankind is transfixed in the 1% of what is different in each of us. This is the road to isolation, loneliness or what artists portray as a living death. This loneliness is well known to the alcoholic, as both Dr. Bob and Wayne have shared in their stories.<br><br>What freed them from this purgatory? Was it what they believed or what they did? The clue for me is that in one way the two men differ greatly; in one way they appeared to be identical. The result for each, and the lesson it teaches us, is 99% the same. Faith without works is dead. Our works are surely the measure of each man’s life; beyond their beliefs, we find concrete values, which both men lived and left as their legacy.<br><br>Read the story of Wayne M, “A Higher Purpose” on AAagnositca: <a data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://aaagnostica.org/2014/03/09/a-higher-purpose/" target="_blank">http://aaagnostica.org/2014/03/09/a-higher-purpose/</a><br><br>Read the story of Doctor Bob S. at aa.org: <a data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.aa.org/pdf/products/p-53_theCo-FoundersofAA.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.aa.org/pdf/products/p-53_theCo-FoundersofAA.pdf</a><br><br>Pre-order Ernie Kurtz's new book Experiencing Spirituality (on sale May 15) with best price guarantee: <a contents="http://www.amazon.com/Experiencing-Spirituality-Finding-Meaning-Storytelling/dp/0399164170/ref=as_li_ss_mfw?&amp;linkCode=wey&amp;tag=rebeldogspubl-20" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.amazon.com/Experiencing-Spirituality-Finding-Meaning-Storytelling/dp/0399164170/ref=as_li_ss_mfw?&linkCode=wey&tag=rebeldogspubl-20" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com/Experiencing-Spirituality-Finding-Meaning-Storytelling/dp/0399164170/ref=as_li_ss_mfw?&linkCode=wey&tag=rebeldogspubl-20</a><br>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/2730717
2014-03-12T02:07:29-04:00
2020-09-22T10:23:55-04:00
Grief, the missing link in Big-Book-modality. An interview with John McAndrew
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/167b24ad49ea53b9896e036296af69413f694dd0/medium/sensiblespirituality.jpg?1394603260" class="size_m justify_left border_" />John McAndrew, MA, MDiv, is a spiritual teacher, facilitator, counselor, musician, and poet.<br><br>We found him at the National Conference of Addiction Disorders in Anaheim California, September 2013 giving a talk that asked if the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous is still relevant as a treatment modality in the 21st century. Well, as you might anticipate, it has it's strengths and weaknesses. There are core healing principles that have endured and will continue to last. What's missing? As alluded to in the Big Book, "more will be revealed." In treating addiction the <em>more</em> is in the treatment of trauma and grief. John has worked in Hospice, been the Director of Spiritual Care at the Betty Ford Centre and now he is a principle in a project new to 2014, Sensible Spirituality Associates. John knows about sadness, loss and making room and making time for grief.<br><br>Join us on Rebellion Dogs Radio as we look at grief and grieving and what our guest, John McAndrew and other 21st voices have to add to the 12-Step process. Listen, reflect and join the conversation.<br><br>Please visit:<br><br>John McAndrew and Sensible Spirituality Associates <a contents="http://www.sensiblespirituality.org" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.sensiblespirituality.org" target="_blank">http://www.sensiblespirituality.org</a><br>Dr. Geoff Warburton Ted talk on Death and Loss <a contents="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juET61B1P98" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juET61B1P98" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juET61B1P98</a><br>Laura Prince, Ted talk on Mourning <a contents="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4oTIJ-4mlE" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4oTIJ-4mlE" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4oTIJ-4mlE</a><br>Nancy Berns, Beyond Closure on Ted <a contents="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0rCfXSdYPE" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0rCfXSdYPE" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0rCfXSdYPE</a><br>Robert Kegan and Immunity to Change <a contents="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFYnVmGu9ZI" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFYnVmGu9ZI" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFYnVmGu9ZI</a><br><iframe frameborder="0" height="360" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="#" width="480"></iframe><br> </p>
39:05
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/2622682
2014-02-21T13:38:37-05:00
2020-09-12T23:55:26-04:00
Rebellion Dogs Radio Episode Two: Wellness Factors
Rebellion Dogs Radio was partly inspired by the 2013 National Conference of Addiction Disorders (NCAD). Next episode will feature our discussion with John McAndrew, MA, MDiv, the director of Sensible Spirituality Associates. This week we have another NCAD connection. Wellness Factors came by out book back in September 2013 in Anaheim. As a result of that meeting, Joe C. was invited onto Blog Talk Radio as a guest of Farida Contractor, host of Wellness Factors Lunch and Learn and Wellness Factors Directors of Client Care.<br><br>Wellness Factors can be found in New York City and the beautiful Okanogan Valley in the interior of Canada's British Columbia. Visit <a contents="Wellness Factors online" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.wellness-factors.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;">Wellness Factors online</span></a> to learn more about their publications and how they help Employee Assistance Programs and aid companies with health, wellness and prevention or listen to other episodes of <a contents="Wellness Factors on Blog Talk Radio" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/wellnessfactors" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;">Wellness Factors on Blog Talk Radio</span></a>.<br><br><iframe src="http://rebelliondogs12stepradio.podomatic.com/embed/frame/multi/0?json_url=http%3A%2F%2Frebelliondogs12stepradio.podomatic.com%2Fembed%2Fmulti%2F0%3Fcolor%3D43bee7%26autoPlay%3Dfalse%26facebook%3Dfalse%26height%3D307%26objembed%3D0%26width%3D410" height="307" width="410" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>
<br>
33:40
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/2469823
2014-01-26T18:35:30-05:00
2017-01-14T11:32:12-05:00
Beyond Belief is One Year Old - Thank You
Happy Anniversary everyone! <a contents="Read as a PDF" data-link-label="rebellion-dog-blog-january-2014-anniversary.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/123005/rebellion-dog-blog-january-2014-anniversary.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#00FF00;">Read as a PDF</span></a><br><br>This week is the anniversary of the first printing of <em>Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life.</em> There are 1206 people who own a paperback or eBook copy of <em>Beyond Belief</em>. I don’t personally know 1,200 people so someone’s talking it up and that someone is you. In fact some of you have become remarkable champions of the first daily reflection book for nonbelievers, freethinkers and everyone.<br> <br>This, I want to propose, is way more significant than simply beating the odds of a first-time print-on-demand project, over 90% of which never move 200 units. I think it signifies a paradigm shift. Sorry if you have heard that tired phrase in way too many boardrooms and trade-shows. Let me explain how this modest result is such an accomplishment and why you—not us—are responsible for it all. The first year buyers and readers are what market commentators call the early adaptors or visionaries. Let’s look at how, together, we have already shifted the recovery movement in a new direction—a better direction.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/7cd24c0705edf678f2adda358db7441a6ebd753b/medium/the-varieties-of-religious-experiences.jpg?1390778760" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" />We know Bill Wilson and the other founders were fans of the writings of William James. Pre-<em>Big Book</em> AA leaned on James’s <em>The Varieties of Spiritual Experiences</em>. When Wilson was penning an article for the <em>The Grapevine</em> (July 1946) called, “The Individual In Relation to A.A. as a Group,” Bill W writes those infamous words that we have since celebrated: “So long as there is the slightest interest in sobriety, the most unmoral, the most anti-social, the most critical alcoholic may gather about him a few kindred spirits and announce to us that a new Alcoholics Anonymous Group has been formed. Anti-God, anti-medicine, anti-our Recovery Program, even anti-each other—these rampant individuals are still an AA Group if they think so!”<br><br>Of course, unbelievers and nonconformists in recovery are moved by this unabashed assurance that unorthodoxy is as AA as “one day at a time” or “don’t drink and go to meetings.” But just as significant as the individualism that Wilson was celebrating was (as reflected in the title, “The Individual In Relation to A.A. as a Group”) the cue to the society to encourage and champion these odd-balls.<br><br>Wilson, along with the more savvy old-timers, counted on their fledgling society to muster the courage to change; any society that was going to survive, would need to adapt as foreshadowed in early writing—“We know but a little,” “More will be revealed,” “Never fear needed change.”<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title="">[i]</a><br>And what does change for the better look like? Well, it is un-pretty, cloaked in unpopularity and clamoring with controversy. Born of discontent, the survival of this anti-social, anti-whatever faction depends on being embraced by a flexible, trusting and tolerant society. Could AA do that? Does that sound crazy or impossible? It may well be that the genesis of Wilson’s scheme came from his readings of Williams James.<br><br>In a lecture called, “Great Men, Great Thoughts, and the Environment” delivered before the Harvard Natural History Society (published in the <em>Atlantic Monthly,</em> October, 1880) William James says this: “Thus social evolution is a resultant of the interaction of two wholly distinct factors, - the individual, deriving his peculiar gifts from the play of physiological and infra-social forces, but bearing all the power of initiative and originations in his hands; and, second, the social environment, with its power of adopting or rejecting both him and his gifts.” What resonates with where we stand today in 12 & 12 recovery is how James drives this idea home, “Both factors are essential to change. <strong>The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community</strong>.”<br><br>James says that our society will stagnate without <em>the impulse of the individual</em>. While it starts with one person saying, “This isn’t good enough, we can do better,” without the <em>sympathy of the community</em> it would all be for not.<br><br>Let’s say a single member feels malnourished by the lack of secular support literature in Twelve Step rooms. He writes a book into an untested market after pitching the idea and being rejected by both Hazelden and HCI Books. So what; so far we have nothing but one restless malcontent. To breathe evolution into the chaos, the impulse of the individual (or the whole writing/editing team) had to freefall into the sympathetic arms and hearts of a recovery community.<br><br>What we celebrate on the anniversary of the first printing of <em>Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life</em> is not the <em>impulse of an individual</em>, but <em>the sympathy of our community</em>. One person does not a 12 Step meeting make and a new book being read by a couple dozen recovering members does not constitute the evolution of a society that James pointed towards. But a thousand people just might be the start of evolution. I think this is very, very exciting and very, very hopeful.<br><br>We hear and read a lot of discontent about society—our recovery society—dogmatically bogging down into the reification of our principles and infighting among clashing personalities. Okay, true enough, you read a lot of this type of bitching from this very site and these clashing personalities. But while we seemingly bitch and finger-point, maybe we are becoming or evolving into what Ghandi called the change we “want to see in the world.”<br><br>You see, we are the Fellowship; it isn’t a rented office in Manhattan or a General Service Conference each April. Our society’s heart beats in every group through the words and deeds of every member.<br> <table align="left" border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width: 236px;" width="236"><tbody>
<tr>
<td nowrap style="width:172px;height:21px;"><strong>Paperbacks</strong></td> <td nowrap style="width:64px;height:21px;"><strong>Sales</strong></td> </tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap style="width:172px;height:21px;">Direct from Rebellion Dogs Publishing</td> <td nowrap style="width:64px;height:21px;">324</td> </tr>
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<td nowrap style="width:172px;height:21px;">Bookstores</td> <td nowrap style="width:64px;height:21px;">188</td> </tr>
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<td nowrap style="width:172px;height:21px;">Amazon</td> <td nowrap style="width:64px;height:21px;">405</td> </tr>
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<td nowrap style="width:172px;height:21px;">Conferences/Conventions</td> <td style="width:64px;height:21px;">52</td> </tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap style="width:172px;height:21px;">eBooks</td> <td style="width:64px;height:21px;"> </td> </tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap style="width:172px;height:21px;">Direct from Rebellion Dogs Publishing</td> <td style="width:64px;height:21px;">18</td> </tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap style="width:172px;height:21px;">Amazon (Kindle)</td> <td style="width:64px;height:21px;">164</td> </tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap style="width:172px;height:21px;">Kobo, Sony, iTunes, B&N</td> <td style="width:64px;height:21px;">33</td> </tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap style="width:172px;height:21px;"> Libraries</td> <td style="width:64px;height:21px;">22</td> </tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap style="width:172px;height:21px;"><strong>Total</strong></td> <td style="width:64px;height:21px;"><strong>1,206</strong></td> </tr>
</tbody></table><strong><em>Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life</em></strong><strong> is one year old now</strong>.<br>This is a time to share our joy and express our gratitude to all supporters. After one year in the market, 1,206 people own a copy of <em>Beyond Belief</em>. It isn’t the end of day-jobs for anyone at Rebellion Dogs but it is something to be thankful for. Coming from me (Joe C), I don’t actually know over a thousand people so I have all of you to thank for talking up this book, your encouragement and the many who are the champions of this book.<br> <br>For you curious cats, here is how it broke down: Paperbacks were preferred five to one, although several people want and have the book in both formats. Over two dozen booksellers, libraries and treatment centers have seen fit to bring this book to the attention of their visitors/clients.<br> <br>In any sales cycle there are the innovators who take the leap of faith before others have heard about the new offering, followed by the early adapters, the early majority, late majority and finally the laggards who buy something once it’s in Walmart. We are now at the early adapter stage.<br> <br>In technology, enthusiasts are in first because nerds love new technology for technologies sake. The love is not conditional on what the ultimate impact of the new technology is. The second phase is the visionaries; they are ahead of the crowd and buy in at top dollar to be there first. They see progress, momentum and potential and pay a premium to say, “I was there at the start.” The pragmatists join in when the price is more reasonable, the conservative are there once “everyone is doing it” and finally the skeptics give up and give it a try.<br> <br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/d32d5646a53901fc9e058cae4a6c9c6e16df7a5a/original/buing-cycle.jpg?1390779123" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><br>Everyone who owns a book now is an innovator, buying into an un-tested product, aimed at an unmet need. It is you that I want to thank and celebrate in this blog post.<br> <br><strong><em>Lessons from the music business</em></strong><br>Derek Sivers uses the term first follower(s) to describe the significance of innovators and early adapters. First followers turn a lone nut into a leader. In the way James recognized the needed combination of an individual impulse and community sympathy, Sivers recognizes that the leader(s) is over-glorified because it is really the first follower(s) who showed courage and start a movement. Wayne’s World wouldn’t be a world without Garth. Bill Wilson wasn’t a fellowship; Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, together, were the start of the AA fellowship.<br> <table align="right" border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width: 291px;"><tbody><tr>
<td><a contents="http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_how_to_start_a_movement.html" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_how_to_start_a_movement.html" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/552c0a08686f3e5a2c126b23815a4c527197003f/original/derek-sivers-ted-talk.jpg?1390833130" class="size_orig justify_center border_none" alt="" />http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_how_to_start_a_movement.html</a></td> </tr></tbody></table>Derek Sivers knows of what he speaks. He was a competent musician and composer but we don’t know him for these gifts. His claim to fame is founding CD Baby. Derek started helping to market other artists’ music and this became a multi-million dollar company. CD Baby was one of the early non-pornography internet sales success stories that Amazon, eBay, and many others have emulated. Our early adapting booksellers are the same heroes that Derek Sivers champions in a TED Talk and three minute video.<br> <br>The first retail stores that stocked <em>Beyond Belief</em> are some of what Sivers calls “first followers.” The most encouraging news I hear is that where <em>Beyond Belief</em> is on bookshelves, about half of the sales were from people who came into the store to buy something else. The book has a “Hey, what a good idea!” effect. Some of these stores are addiction/recovery specialty stores and others are more general booksellers that happen to have a well-stocked Self-Help section.<br> <br><strong><em>The big picture of the daily reflection market</em></strong><br>While I don’t know what the potential market for an agnostic daily reflection book really is or will be, we are off to a good start. Sure, if I wanted a best-seller I would have written another book for the rest of the marketplace that embraces and never tires of theistic daily devotionals. The total marketplace for these books is in the area of 750,000 unit sales per year. People who read Conference annual reports tell me AA sells over 150,000 <em>Daily Reflections</em> paperbacks each year. On Amazon, several books of this type outsell AA’s offering. Hazelden’s <em>Each Day a New Beginning</em> (for Women) and the 1954 <em>Twenty-four Hours A Day</em> outsell <em>Daily Reflections</em>. Outselling all of the daily reflection books, for codependents, is Melody Beattie’s <em>Language of Letting Go</em>. That book was written in 1990 and is still in the top 35,000 of the over one million books sold on Amazon.com, today.<br> <br>There are daily devotionals for men, young people, newcomers, Al-Anon members and recovering drug addicts. All of them assume a creator-God worldview. I think all the ones I mentioned, outsold <em>Beyond Belief</em> in the last 12 months. That’s Okay; sure I have a competitive streak. I’d like to kick-ass, but that’s up to the public, not me. If someone told me that, “1,200 and only 1,200 want and need this book; it will cost you more that you will make—will you write a daily reflection book that includes people who don’t believe in God?” I would have said yes.<br> <br>If 5% of the 750,000 people who buy daily devotionals would prefer an agnostic version, that can translate to 35,000 <em>Beyond Belief</em> owners a year. We can do that.<br> <br><strong><em>The Varieties of Beyond Belief Experiences</em></strong><br>According to Paul Simon there are 50 ways to leave your lover. How many ways are there to use <em>Beyond Belief</em>? Some read it alone, some with a friend and some in a 12 Step group. Some people read a page each day. Some flip through and read pages at random. Some go to the index and look up musings on specific topics like relapse, Step Six, open-mindedness or work-life. In this way some group chairs pick a topical musing to read as a kick off to group discussion the way <em>Living Clean</em>, <em>As Bill Sees It</em> or <em>Twenty-four Hours A Day</em> are used. How many of you noticed that the 10<sup>th</sup> of each month is the Tradition that corresponds with that month? March 10<sup>th</sup> is Tradition Three, for instance. Okay, so that’s me being nerdy. Ernie Kurt talked about reading with a pad and a pen to one side. Is anyone mucking their <em>Beyond Belief</em>? That would be kinda’ cultish. Others would like another index at the back so quote sources. That way, if you wanted to look up what dates Bill W or Janis Joplin or Carl Jung are quoted, you could. Maybe in a future version we can make room for that.<br> <br><strong><em>We Are All “the change we want to see in the world”</em></strong><br>Today’s celebration isn’t about one book. This last year other agnostic/atheist books have been released into the addiction/recovery community and older ones are getting a second life. Roger C who authored <em>The Little Book</em> also edits AAagnostica.org which is a hub of evolution. Look at all the Yahoo, Facebook and Google sites devoted to agnostic 12 Step community. Slightly older books, <em>The 12 Step Buddhist</em>, <em>The Skeptics Guide to the 12 Steps</em> and <em>Waiting: A Nonbelievers Higher Power</em>, are all catalysts of our evolution. Rebellion Dogs Publishing has changed our own bookstore page to celebrate many great books that represent our changing community.<br><br>No music fan owns just one record. No book-based society thrives on just one book—no matter what the thumpers might tell you. We aim to champion great books the way you have helped us spread the word about <em>Beyond Belief</em>. Play it forward, they say.<br> <br>Everyone of you who has started or helped to start a group—you are visionaries, too. Two thirds of the agnostic AA groups listed on the NYC agnostic AA worldwide group directory didn’t exist before the year 2000. The change we demand and anguish over not being a reality is already happening.<br> <br>So often we cry out about either the antiquated <em>Big Book</em> or the change-resistance of so many members but we miss the view of the forest because of the tree we are focused on. Who is the fellowship if it is not us? What is going on is cause for celebration. Sure, be a watchdog, identify wrongs and defend scapegoats. But let us not be so preoccupied with fault-finding that we miss the glorious truth that what we want has already started. Sure, it’s the one year key-tag, cake or medallion for <em>Beyond Belief</em> and everyone in recovery and every tool in the recovery tool-kit is a sign of hope. It takes a community to raise a child, help an addict recovery or move towards the society we want our children to feel included and welcome in.<br> <br>It’s happening. <a contents="Watch the three minute Derek Sivers Ted Talk" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_how_to_start_a_movement.html" target="_blank"><span style="color:#00FF00;">Watch the three minute Derek Sivers Ted Talk</span></a>
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<div id="edn1">
<a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title="">[i]</a> “Let us never fear needed change. Certainly we have to discriminate between changes for the worse and changes for the better. But once a need becomes clearly apparent in an individual, in a group, or in AA as a whole, it has long since been found out that we cannot stand still and look the other way. The essence of all growth is a willingness to change for the better and then an unremitting willingness to shoulder whatever responsibility this entails.” Bill W. A.A. Grapevine “July 1965<br> </div>
</div>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/2376868
2014-01-10T18:45:47-05:00
2021-04-15T08:28:18-04:00
Rebellion Dogs Radio Episode One
<p>Welcome to Rebellion Dogs Addiction & Recovery Radio Show, bringing you a 21st century look at 12 Step life, with more bite and less dogma.<br><br>Play the show in your own audio player or download it. Please note, it's a big file and might take a couple of minutes to download. Otherwise, scroll down and use the Pod-o-matic player which fires up right away... <a contents="http://rebelliondogspublishing.com/tracks/direct/3487278728/572292.mp3" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://rebelliondogspublishing.com/tracks/direct/3487278728/572292.mp3" target="_blank">http://rebelliondogspublishing.com/tracks/direct/3487278728/572292.mp3</a><br><br><br>I am currently reading Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey’s <em>Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock the Potential in Yourself and Your Organization </em>(Harvard Business School Publishing, 2009). Kegan is on record as saying:<br> <br><strong>“Successfully functioning in a society with diverse values, traditions and lifestyles requires us: to have a relationship to our own reactions rather than be captive of them; to resist our tendencies to make right or true, that which is merely familiar, and wrong or false, that which is only strange.”</strong><br> <br>Who doesn’t dismiss or is at least get uncomfortable with the unfamiliar. However, what’s the danger of making sacred that with is familiar? What is the danger of dismissing or demonizing that which seems strange to our way of doing things?<br><br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/bdcc16678d64f71df2f4dd003bee20b094e24bb0/medium/Bill-W-blog.jpg?1361493004" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" />Our blogs have been focused on the Vancouver situation for a couple of weeks and in 2014 they are treating as new, the same situation Bill Wilson dealt with 60 years ago: Who gets to say who or what is a real A.A. group?<br><br>In Bill W’s AA, if you want to change the Steps so they fit with your worldview – go for it. Will there be any pressure from AA to either conform or get the hell out of here – never. In a film about the Traditions Bill confesses that the Twelve Traditions are contrary to his own knee-jerk reactions. He had his own agenda and his own secret aims for AA. The Twelve Traditions reflect the experience that his fears proved to be groundless and his ambitions were purely egotistical. Our Traditions are not from the wisdom of AA elders but born of the bad experiences of following first impulses. In this inaugural podcast Bill W himself, warns us that the Traditions are to guard against temptations that are bound to resurface, the temptation to govern and the human tendency toward rigidity, fear and intolerance.<br><br>If we don’t know our history we are damned—damned to repeat it, so we take a time-capsule trip back to 1957 when AA history set in place the standard to deal with non-conforming AA groups that want to do their own thing and aren’t asking anyone’s permission to do it.<br><br>Coming Up this month we will be talking with a filmmaker from Oregon who will talk about why addicts are so fascinating, an addiction treatment professional from California who talks about the missing component to the Big Book approach – shame, guilt and trauma work, plus a University of Toronto Psychology teacher who will be talking to us about coming to terms with our own capacity for both evil and virtue.<br><br>That’s not very one-day-at-a-time now is it? As for February, I hope all those ideas will come from y’all. Let us know what’s on your mind. We’ll hunt down the answers.<br> <br>This is our new show and this is our new intro music. Tell us how you like it. <a href="mailto:news@rebelliondogspublishing.com">news AT rebelliondogspublishingDOTcom</a><br><br>Read or download <a contents="Show Transcripts" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-radio-script-1.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/121473/rebellion-dogs-radio-script-1.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#00FF00;">Show Transcripts</span></a> - Check out<span style="color:#FFFF00;"> </span><a contents="AAagnostica" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://aaagnostica.org/2014/01/19/is-listability-the-new-aa/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;">AAagnostica</span></a> to see what others are saying about the subject.<br><br><a contents="Listen, download, stream at Rebellion Dog's Pod-0-omatic Page" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;">Listen, download, stream at Rebellion Dog's Pod-0-omatic Page</span></a>.<br><br><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="85" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rebelliondogs12stepradio.podomatic.com/embed/frame/posting/2014-01-11T11_09_31-08_00?json_url=http%3A%2F%2Frebelliondogs12stepradio.podomatic.com%2Fentry%2Fembed_params%2F2014-01-11T11_09_31-08_00%3Fcolor%3D1c60ff%26autoPlay%3Dfalse%26width%3D500%26height%3D85%26objembed%3D0" width="500"></iframe><br>The player below will stream but it takes a few minutes to kick in (it's a 50 minute track). If you're impatient, the Pod-0-matic link above is instant.<br><br>When You’re Not the Lead Dog© Joe C, Jesse Beatson, The Chronicles<br><a contents="Listen or download for free" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://soundcloud.com/joe-chisholm" target="_blank">Listen or download for free</a>:<br><a contents="89 cents a song on Amazon" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.amazon.com/Chronic-Malcontent-The-Chronicles/dp/B00BIRRMF0/" target="_blank">89 cents a song on Amazon</a><br><a contents="99 cents a song on iTunes:" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/chronic-malcontent/id92253088" target="_blank">99 cents a song on iTunes:</a><br> <br>Like jumping from a ledge or retreating to a burning building<br>Time to choose the uncertain or settle for breaking even<br>A parable comes to mind from one of life’s wise Eskimos<br>I don’t remember it exactly but here is how it goes:<br> <br>When you’re not the lead dog, the view never changes<br>Life’s a crowded room full of faceless strangers<br>When you’re not the lead dog, the view never changes<br>I can’t settle for getting by so bring on the dangers<br> <br>You confess you have a dream – the other’s just don’t get it<br>Like an aging hipster, you don’t want to be pathetic<br>So you’re torn between a good living and a good life<br>You ask if it’s worth the risk, the sweat, the strife. You asking me?<br> <br>When you’re not the lead dog, the view never changes<br>Life’s a crowded room full of faceless strangers<br>When you’re not the lead dog, the view never changes<br>I can’t settle for getting by so bring on the dangers<br> <br>I won’t bah like a sheep, so I fight what I seek<br>You won’t put me to rest with my concerto incomplete<br>Life is not a punishment – more like a treasure hunt<br>So I’m jumping from the ledge and taking a run for the front<br><br> </p>
51:53
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/2312375
2013-12-31T23:48:06-05:00
2021-09-06T12:02:30-04:00
New-age AA stewardship: announcing the new Traditions 2.0
<strong><span class="font_large"><em>Vancouver Intergroup considers banning books, unapproved readings and rituals.</em></span></strong><br><a contents="Read, print, share as a PDF " data-link-label="rebellion-dog-blog-december-vanocuver-intergroup-ii.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/119448/rebellion-dog-blog-december-vanocuver-intergroup-ii.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;">Read, print, share as a PD</span></a><a contents="Read, print, share as a PDF " data-link-label="rebellion-dog-blog-december-vanocuver-intergroup-ii.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/119448/rebellion-dog-blog-december-vanocuver-intergroup-ii.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFFF00;">F</span></a><a contents="Read, print, share as a PDF " data-link-label="rebellion-dog-blog-december-vanocuver-intergroup-ii.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/119448/rebellion-dog-blog-december-vanocuver-intergroup-ii.pdf" target="_blank"> </a>- Have you ever heard someone interrupt a 12 Step meeting or group business meeting with this four word sentence: “That’s not conference approved”? These are the words of someone who reads the headlines of a newspaper and looks at the pictures but doesn’t have time for details. Still he or she is confident that they are well-informed because they looked at the newspaper. <br><br>There is no requirement for AA membership to be civically engaged, have a grasp of subtle nuances or even to be well-informed. But when it comes to our trusted servants, standards should be a little higher—at least as far as our own service structure is concerned. Vancouver AA Intergroup is being asked to consider trading in the status quo of our 12 Traditions for a more Orwellian AA era. The argument for this new order uses the phrase “conference approved” as an authority, while missing its intention.<br> <br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/fb155ec1a206b1897ff07e07b7e523c37a6ebd7e/medium/readbannedbooks.gif?1388551296" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" />In our previous blog post, I suggested that Vancouver Intergroup wasn’t happy with AA’s inverted triangle of service and felt things would be more effective <em>governing</em> groups instead of <em>serving</em> them. Leading up to the recent drama, a staff member got let go from Vancouver Intergroup, just after welcoming two agnostic AA groups into the fold. Viki was brought in and set things straight. The unbelievers were removed from the meeting list and a controversy was fabricated putting the blame on the victim of the discrimination—the agnostic AA groups. To create a crime scene where the bodies had been buried, rules had to be broken. Therefore, rules had to be created, or implied. The new rule (not our Traditions) is that for selected groups, inclusion in the AA fold has to withstand the popularity test of Intergroup reps. In the new Vancouver, two or more alcoholics gathered together for sobriety with no other affiliation aren’t a <em>listable</em> (made-up Traditions 2.0 word) group unless everyone else says so.<br> <br>Viki replied to Rebellion Dogs’ last blog post: “I find this type of publication of derogatory and inflammatory material about A.A. by professed A.A. members to be disappointing.”<br> <br>If a doctor tells us our smoking is killing us and we say, “I find this kind of derogatory and inflammatory conversation disappointing, especially coming from a doctor”—should the concern be with the doctor who confronts the problem or the patient who denies it? Viki would rather judge than be judged; Okay, who wouldn't? I challenged her about engaging in dangerous <em>seat of perilous power</em> type of behavior and kidding herself about the consequences. She diminishes me as a “professed” member.<br> <br>One of her Orwellian violations is uncensored readings. Reality check—before a pamphlet or new edition of the Big Book goes to the printer, our General Service Conference, representing members, groups and areas from every region of Canada and the USA, votes on it, granting approval to publish, copyright and print it with <em>conference approval</em>.<br> <br>What Viki leaves out but the World Service of Alcoholics Anonymous emphasises is that <em>conference approved</em> “<strong>does <u>not</u> imply Conference disapproval of other material about A.A. A great deal of literature helpful to alcoholics is published by others, and A.A. does not try to tell any individual member what he or she may or may not read.”<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><strong>[i]</strong></a></strong><br> <br>In a letter to Intergroup, Vancouver Viki blames two books for the chaos. She writes: “What is the controversy? These groups state they are AA groups stating their right to be so rests with the Third Tradition which states, ‘The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking.’ The controversy arises from the fact that these groups do not use the literature of AA at their meetings. They use <em>Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life</em>, <em>The Little Book: A Collection of Alternative 12 Steps</em>, and they have changed “How It Works,” The Preamble to Alcoholics Anonymous, <u>removing all reference to God or a Higher Power as we understood Him</u>.”<br> <br>Would AA be better if books should be either <em>conference approved</em> or forbidden? That’s not what AA World Service says, is it? AA members who don’t believe in God may be unpopular but there are no rules about what parts of AA can be accepted or rejected. It is neither stated nor implied in AA Traditions, Concepts, or Warranties that to be an AA group, obedience or conformity can or should be demanded of groups by AA as a whole.<br> <br>This isn’t a loophole. The intention was and is to widen AA’s gateway so anyone with the faintest interest in sobriety, regardless of what they believed or did not believe, could try AA on their terms.<br> <br>Viki, we don’t have to burn our books to show our loyalty to AA. On a lighter note, thank you. You flatter both Roger C., author of <em>The Little Book </em>and me for my book,<em> Beyond Belief</em>. It is an honour to be considered, if only by you, to be in the company of banned book-authors James Joyce, Ann Frank, Aldous Huxley, Noam Chomsky, Li Hongzhi, Dr. Seuss, Voltaire and George Orwell<a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title="">[ii]</a>. So, shine on 15 minutes of infamy, shine on.<br> <br><em><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/f4e3a822d0f811d69b88322eed54aea8da11a95d/medium/rollingstones.jpg?1388551315" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" /></em>Andrew Loog Oldham said, “There is no such thing as bad publicity.” If he were alive today, he might say, “It isn’t that the Central Office Manager of the Greater Vancouver Intergroup Society disparaged your book; it’s that she brought the books to the attention of every Intergroup rep and every AA group in the British Columbia Lower Mainland.” As manager of the Rolling Stone, Loog Oldham found momentum from letting The Stones be cast as the alter ego to the squeaky clean fab-four from Liverpool.<br> <br>“Would you let your daughter marry a Rolling Stone?” wasn’t a scare tactic that this brazen manager came up with but he played the hand he was dealt, brilliantly.<br><br>In the same album cycle that saw The Beatles release Let It Be, The Stones put out Let It Bleed. So, if Viki from Vancouver Intergroup wants to grasp at my daily reflection book as a culprit in her campaign to have local AA discriminate against agnostic groups, what can I say but, “At least you were thinking of me, Vik. ‘It’s only rock ‘n’ roll but I like it, like it, yes I do.’”<br> <br><em><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/c34e7adfec27341c16fc81f81e3d9d97eb965bff/medium/neko-case.jpg?1388551481" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" /></em>Closer to Vancouver that the Rolling Stones, Neko Case is known for her role in the local Juno Award winning band, The New Pornographers. South of the border Case is remembered for taking her shirt off during a performance on August 4, 2001 at an out-door Opry Plaza Concert. The penalty was that she was banned for life from the Grand Ole Opry. Subsequently she recorded a record called Blacklisted. Case said, “People would love [the topless incident] to be a ‘fuck you’ punk thing. But it was actually a physical ailment thing. I had heat stroke.”<br> <br>All these years later, who looks stupid now? The Grand Ole Opry may have been sure, at the time, that they had righteousness on their side, but they might have wanted to ask themselves, “What will the next generation say about our deeds?” Viki, will the next generation of AA members say, “Thanks for protecting AA from the modern lexicon,” or “How could you have be such a bigot?” History is not always kind.<br> <br>Last example—1976 was the year that I said, “Tonight’s the night”—I will never drink again. By golly, November 27, 1976 did turn out to be my sobriety date. Rod Stewart’s LP of the same year,<em> A Night On The Town</em><em>, </em>has a song called “Tonight’s the Night.” It was banned in many jurisdictions (probably in Vancouver, too) for unforgivably graphic lyrics. Consider what it takes today to get a Parental Advisory warning, let alone to be censored. In 1976 we, the public, were being protected from the lyric, “Spread your wings and let me come inside.”<br> <br><em><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/f4707e42de1d57b1faa809f1cdae07852128120f/medium/rod-stewart.jpg?1388551496" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" /></em>The album also had hits like “The Killing of Georgie” about homophobia and “The First Cut is the Deepest,” but no doubt it was the banning of the first single that earned the album two million record sales from a music loving public that would not be told what to say, hear, read or think. Who understood the zeitgeist of the times and who is being laughed at now for trying to keep society locked in the past?<br> <br>Back to you, Viki—you have zealously struck the Vancouver agnostic groups from the AA meeting list. Let me see if I follow your logic: You love AA; you are our loyal steward and you are protecting the integrity of the AA message. Does that sound like something you might say?<br> <br>Think of how history views the censor and the censored. How do you want to be remembered? Rod Stewart is remembered as an imaginative innovator. The Canadian Radio and TV Commission (CRTC) that censored him is chastised for out of touch, dogmatic buffoonery.<br> <br>Your intolerance isn’t for artistic liberty in meetings is it? You don’t mind that the Serenity Prayer, Lord’s Prayer, “Man in the Glass” or any of the other popular AA rituals are not <em>conference approved</em>. I mean, by your logic all groups that engage in these non-conference approved activities should be taken out of the list too, right?<br> <br>But your intolerance is for nonbelievers. Who would dare doubt the existence of God and/or His role in our sobriety? You don’t want them in your AA. You don’t like liberties being taken with your Steps. Viki, the Steps belong to all of AA. We are not a religion. We have no dogma that needs protection, nothing is sacred and nothing is forbidden. And if I am jumping to conclusions, and you do welcome agnostics and atheists, then we can hardly welcome nonbelievers without accommodating them.<br> <br>Toronto history bears out that if you cast a vote “for or against God in AA,” you can win that battle, framed that way. If you hold this vote, you’ll betray our Traditions. Might you win the battle and lose the war? AA has a place for all members and all of our groups. AA need not govern, expel or judge. Only someone who saw herself or himself as the agent provocateur of literalist hegemony would campaign that our culture of inclusion, love and tolerance is no longer the AA way. There is no emergency, there is no controversy and there is nothing to fear but fear itself.<br> <br><em><strong>EPILOGUE</strong></em><br>Now having said all that I want to conclude by saying I have had Viki in the cross-hairs of my anti-discrimination rant for long enough and I want to take a more global look at things. I don’t know Viki and she doesn’t know me. I bet if we were both sent on the same 12 Step call together we would tell our stories, listen to the newcomer and behave as members of a cohesive, viable unit. I want to bring someone else into the discussion here, too. Viki wasn’t the only one who had something to say about my last blog. Lech from Calgary, someone I respect a lot, said in so many words, “Joe, do you want to be right or do you want to be happy?” Often in life we can’t do both.<br> <br>More literally, he called me on my bullshit. While I point a judgemental finger westward, I am fault finding. The only thing I hate more than a bigot is a hypocrite and I am being one; damn. In the question of the Vancouver Manoeuvre, who is right and who is wrong is beside the point. I am playing the victim card—don’t persecute nonbelievers, minority rights, blah, blah, blah. In truth, we are all persecuted, we are all alcoholics. We have all been demonized for behaving as addicts will behave. So it seems silly to argue over who is the good deviant and who is the bad one. We have all suffered from being stigmatized and, in all likelihood, we have been guilty of it ourselves.<br> <br>This issue isn’t Vancouver’s dirty little secret. While AA is anonymous, we aren’t a secret society. This situation is being discussed in private Facebook groups and coffee shops throughout the recovery community. It is getting rather polarizing and I may be as much to blame as anyone.<br> <br>Does Rebellion Dogs see our role as watchdog? If so, that’s a bit of an ego trip that I, for one, aim to remedy. We aren’t anti-god; we are anti-dogma. We aren’t into a pissing contest about one worldview being more enlightened than another. We are about equality. The moderates would look at us—the “preserving the integrity of the message” camp and the “widening the gateway” camp—and say, “What are you arguing about? Your messages are one in the same. The message to be preserved is that there is room for everyone.”<br> <br>Lech’s message to me was to keep doing the right thing. The problem is out there (the still suffering alcoholic) not in here (the narcissism of small differences). Thank you sir; I will try to keep that in mind.<div> <hr align="left" size="1" width="33%">
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<a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title="">[i]</a> <a contents="http://www.aa.org/en_pdfs/smf-29_en.pdf" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.aa.org/en_pdfs/smf-29_en.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.aa.org/en_pdfs/smf-29_en.pdf</a>
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<a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title="">[ii]</a> <a contents="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_banned_by_governments" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_banned_by_governments" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_banned_by_governments</a>
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Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/2208108
2013-12-11T14:39:32-05:00
2022-01-07T06:31:06-05:00
Do we serve or do we govern? Vancouver ponders the AA Service Credo
<a name="a1468127_2943857"></a><br><strong><em>Bill W eliminated barriers to AA membership Why kick alcoholics to the curb now?</em></strong><br> <br><a contents="See, print or share as a PDF" data-link-label="rebellion-dog-blog-december-2013-vanocuver-intergroup-showdown.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/117032/rebellion-dog-blog-december-2013-vanocuver-intergroup-showdown.pdf"><span style="color:#FFFF00;">See, print or share as a PDF</span></a>. The inverted triangle of Alcoholics Anonymous service structure is fundamental to our society. To serve—not govern—differentiates AA from other societies. Ignoring this principle for a specific agenda or other exception will invite a cast of unintended consequences ranging from hard feelings to a total compromise of our system, forfeiting our fellowship as we have known it for over 78 years.<br> <br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/a74ae7c9d98fcdf16d577d0d791ca47c18b53684/original/aa-service-triangle.gif?1386757403" class="size_orig justify_left border_none" alt="" />The inverted triangle is AA’s protection from tyranny. Two tyrannies are described by Bill W. in the Twelve Concepts<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title="">[i]</a>. The two risks are the tyranny of the majority as well as the tyranny of the minority. This inverted triangle prevents the threat of a minority within AA having their rights trampled on. As well, special interest groups can’t railroad the agenda.<br><br>Most democracies work the other way around with the power held by a few at the top. They dictate rules, policy and enforcement upon the masses. Some of the inefficiencies, corruption and divisiveness we see in everyday politics are largely avoided in AA. Our inverted service structure is largely to thank for that. Upend this triangle— leaders at the top and members and our groups at the bottom, instead of members and groups at the top and <em>trusted servants</em> at the bottom—and we have the same struggles, lobbying, politics and inequity inside AA as we see in the world outside. Much of what Bill W. observed as causing the downfall of organizations that came before us have been solved or prevented, so long as we maintain the integrity of our code of love and tolerance.<br> <br>Predictably, when someone tries to subordinate groups and members with <em>leadership</em> the language used is, ‘This is an emergency.” Just as skilled interrogators can spot the <em>tells</em> of a liar, a supposed AA emergency is a <em>tell</em> that someone is on a power trip.<br> <br>For our non-alcoholic trustees who find their way to the AA General Service Board of Directors, one of the intriguing lessons about AA is an expression heard in Board meetings, “There are no emergencies in A.A.” The reason for that is our inverted triangle that sustains our unique society.<br> <br>Vancouver is on AAs’ mind for their winning bid for the 2025 World Convention. In 2015 we are in Atlanta, 2020 we head for Detroit, then many will gather in Canada’s <em>Left <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/9d5b8265778005a2a8443fe8e6e00a3e2022ec86/medium/vancouver.jpg?1386757887" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" />Coast</em> capital for what I am sure will be a great gathering. That’s not exactly living in the moment, I suppose, but having lived in Western Canada for a significant period of my sobriety I can say that our fellowship is in for a treat, or at least those of us who are still around. Right now, Vancouver is in the AA spotlight from another reason.<br> <br>Vancouver’s Intergroup has a nefarious power play going on. The situation compromises the integrity of our cherished inverted triangle service structure. While we need not meddle in specific issues of a specific Intergroup, this case is worth examining because it encapsulates a mean-spirited attitude that has implications for the whole of Alcoholics Anonymous.<br> <br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/b7bde0f33cf7dff8c15cfe5f66a92a6d28e7a29e/original/shermer-smaller.jpg?1386757621" class="size_orig justify_left border_thin" alt="" />Am I biased on this issue? More than most of us and I will happily disclose my vested interest. While it clouds my judgement, it need not cloud yours. I won’t feign objectivity but I do have a unique position that I will candidly put to you for your consideration. I suffer from the same confirmation bias described by Michael Shermer as does the powers that be at the Greater Vancouver Intergroup Society (GVSI). My hope is that I can make my point, fairly represent theirs, and you can be objective. This matter does impact all of us.<br> <br>What looks like a simple question of “are agnostic AA groups AA enough?” is a slippery slope, slipping out of the spiritual safety net of AA’s Twelve Concepts and Twelve Traditions. As I lay out Vancouver’s position, I contend that it is only defendable by ignoring the inverted triangle (groups on top, trusted servants below).<br><br>To be fair, I don’t know what other people are thinking or what motivates them. I am guessing here, drawing on what I am like when I think I am on <em>a mission from God</em>. I say this metaphorically, of course but who hasn’t been so sure we were right that we only see what we want to see. I have done it; I have been overly zealous. When I am like that, it’s tempting to think the end justifies the means. I not condemning Vicki; who is the GVIS General Manager who emailed all of the Vancouver Intergroup reps or Jim J. who authored an 18 page document called <em>Report on Agnostic Group(s)</em>. I am questioning the agenda, however. Actions suggests that whoever has removed AA groups from the directory and called for the urgent attention to get the blessing from the Intergroup reps for this discrimination, sees themselves as the leader, guiding the discussion, setting the parameters, and executing whatever executive privilege he or she deems that “the emergency” warrants. I just happen to disagree that there is an emergency or anything that needs intervention.<br> <br>Here are the facts of the Vancouver issue, as described by Viki’s email to Intergroup Reps and Jim’s 18 page <em>Report on Agnostic Group(s)</em>:<br> <ol>
<li>In 2012 We Agnostics Group registered their group with General Service Office in New York and provided their particulars to the (then) GVSI manager and We Agnostics was included in the meeting directory for the Greater Vancouver area.</li> <li>In the spring of 2013 Sober Agnostics followed the same process described above.</li> <li>By executive decree, the manager that included the agnostic groups as rightful peers was let go. The Fall 2013 Intergroup elite removed the two AA groups from the meeting directory, deeming them unfit.</li>
</ol> <br>Viki’s email to Intergroup reps states, “In January there will be discussion about this submission and a decision made as to what constitutes a ‘listable’ group.”<br> <br>Listable? I looked for that word in <em>the AA Word Service Manual</em> and again in the pamphlet “The A.A. Group” and I don’t find it. I looked again under “A.A. Guidelines: Central or Intergroup Offices, (G.S.O. MG 02).” I hit Control-F on my keypad, type in “listable” and no luck. Neither <em>listable</em> nor <em>unlistable</em> are part of the 78 year old service structure lexicon of Alcoholics Anonymous. <em>Listable groups</em> is a made-up emergency.<br> <br>AA has been here before; Woman, African Americans, LGBTQ and young people weren’t welcomed with open arms, at first. Bigotry darkened AA’s history. Today of course, men’s women’s, LGBTQ or young people’s groups exemplify how the majority accommodates the needs and wishes of the minority. Each group governs itself without supervision, scrutiny or the fear of expulsion. Disagreement, disobedience and nonconformity are no threat to AA unity. AA is self-correcting. If a group gets it wrong, it fades out by itself; no intervention required. We don’t judge. We don’t interfere. We certainly don’t expel members or their groups. We remember what Bill W. writes about our history:<br><br> <br><strong>"We built a fine-mesh fence right around A.A.<br> <br>“Maybe you think we oldtimers were pretty intolerant. But I can tell you there was nothing funny about the situation then. We were grim because we felt our lives and homes were threatened, and that was no laughing matter. Intolerant, you say? Well, we were frightened. Naturally, we began to act like most everybody does when afraid. After all, isn’t fear the true basis of intolerance? Yes, we were intolerant.<br> <br>How could we then guess that all those fears were to prove groundless? How could we know that thousands of these sometimes frightening people were to make astonishing recoveries and become our greatest workers and friends?"</strong> <em>Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions </em>p. 140 – 141<br> <br>The <em>Report on Agnostic Group(s)</em> claims that we have to <em>burn forbidden books</em> and demand conformity. I expect the <em>good intention</em> of delisting rogue groups is to preserve the integrity of the AA message. Jim sees himself as a righteous Intergroup protector and steward of the AA way of life. He has, as I will argue, slipped on a power-trip and taken liberties that no AA trusted servant should indulge in. The Intergroup police force’s rationalization for implementing the un-AA-like practice of judging and refusing service to groups they find disagreement with is that their ends (which Jim and Viki feel are in line with AA’s ends) justify their means. But the means embrace what we avoid in AA—the <em>seat of perilous power</em>.<br><br>There is no perilous power in AA’s inverted triangle. Groups are autonomous. AA has over 114,000 groups according the January 2013 survey<a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title="">[ii]</a>. That is over 100,000<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/e9a2576dde454756ad1bad2c13d4cbfce5d87758/medium/aatriangle1.jpg?1386789205" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" /> ways that our rituals are expressed, what we take and what we leave, with no one evaluating our <em>listability</em>. Only our group conscience dictates to the meeting. Guiding the group, we believe in a higher power, be it a creator-God or power of example and democracy within the rooms. That’s Tradition Two.<br> <br>Our General Service Office has no say on our group’s affairs. Neither does Intergroup. Every member gets one vote and the group as a whole decides, keeping our Traditions in mind.<br> <br>Alcohol impairs an alcoholic’s perception. Drunk, we fear things that aren’t real. The alcoholic’s ego gets warped at times. Power can intoxicate and impair our perception, too. Who hasn’t heard “this is a disease of perception.” When drunk on power, our world is turned upside down—including the AA service structure. We see this upended service structure in Vancouver judging group fitness. Here are Vancouver Intergroup’s arguments.<br> <ol>
<li align="left">Toronto delisted groups so Vancouver can, too.</li> <li align="left">Books are being read that aren’t <em>conference approved</em>.</li> <li align="left">The General Service Conference is the custodian of the Twelve Steps. Anyone who modifies the Step, forfeits their status in the fellowship of AA.</li>
</ol> <br>Toronto did de-list two agnostic groups and then gathered to throw out a third one. For the record, I am a member of one of these original groups sent to the curb. Only someone who sees themselves at the top of a pyramid scheme (pictured below) could justify another Intergroup as an authority or precedent. If there are no leaders, there is no follow-the-leader.<br> <br>Two wrongs don’t make a right. There are hundreds of agnostic AA groups and most are rights-bearing equals among the other groups in their districts (or Intergorups). When people understand AA’s structure you don’t have to doubt God to support agnostic groups. Most people who support gay and lesbian groups or woman’s or young people’s groups have never had been to one—who cares what <em>they</em> do at <em>their</em> group. “It’s not my business. They are a group if they say so.”<br> <br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/92d5c5f2e7e8ee80260bd5ca89f17710beb92167/medium/aatriangleii.jpg?1386789226" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" />Exactly the same drunk-on-power Kool-Aid is being consumed in other jurisdictions, including Indianapolis, Des Moines and Toronto. By the way, of note to Vancouver AA that was not covered in Jim’s 18 page report is this: since the Toronto agnostic vote, agnostic groups are multiplying and attendance is growing. Conversely, group contributions have been below budget at Toronto Intergroup ever since the listablility question (to borrow from Viki’s vocabulary). I don’t know if the discriminatory vote followed by the decline in Intergroup contributions is connected. Bill W did talk about “the power of the purse.” It is mere speculation to consider that Toronto is having another vote—voting with group contributions, showing disproval for their Intergoup.<br> <br>Toronto’s fight was not between those who believe in a creator-God and those don’t. It was a stand on which end of the pyramid is at the top and which end is at the bottom. Most member’s don’t support scapegoating minorities or discussing <em>other</em> groups’ affairs in <em>their</em> business meetings. That is un-AA. In an inclusive society, like AA, the majority reduces barriers and accommodates minorities. We don’t vote them off the island.<br> <br>Banned books? Are you kidding me? A power tripper might see General Service Office atop of their service pyramid, approves the books that we print and disapproves of books that AA doesn’t print. In reality, what members or groups read is not GSO’s concern. GSO sees its role as supporting the needs of the groups (at the top)—no policing, just service. Having written one of these books that renders a group <em>unlistable</em>, I will devote another, more humorous, blog post about forbidden readings in group rituals.<br> <br>Appendix E in <em>the A.A. Service Manual</em> is the BYLAWS of the General Service Board, Inc. Here’s what it says and this—I think—is the biggest cause of confusion and the most emotionally charged issue:<br> <br><strong>"The “General Service Board” (or the “Board”) claims no proprietary right in the recovery in the recovery program, for these Twelve Steps, as all spiritual truths, may now be regarded as available to all mankind. However, because these Twelve Steps have proven to constitute an effective spiritual basis for life which, if followed, arrests the disease of alcoholism, the General Service Board asserts the negative right of preventing, so far as it may be within its power so to do, any modification, alteration, or extension of these Twelve Steps, except at the instance of the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous." </strong>(S111, t<em>he A.A. Service Manual combined with Twelve Concepts of World Service </em>by Bill W.)<br> <br>To whom is this statement so emotional? Those who revere the Twelve Steps as sacred get a little testy about this turgid decree. On the other hand, if you see the Twelve Steps as suggestions and not a requirement for good standing in our Fellowship, or loosely articulated principles, the wording of such, being optional—then you would see agnostic Steps as imaginative—not sacrilegious. “Good for you; whatever works.”<br> <br>What oversight does “asserts the negative right of preventing, so far as it may be within its power so to do, any modification, alteration, or extension of these Twelve Steps” imply? Who does it govern and who is doing the governing?<br> <br>The answer to the above questions depends on what triangle you envision for AA service structure. If GSO (or Intergroup) is at the top, the Board takes action against any member, group or service body that takes artistic liberty with our Twelve Steps That’s because you would see the BYLAWS at the pointy top of the pyramid, governing all that are below.<br> <br>GSO is at the point but, the point is not the top; it’s on the bottom. These are the BYLAWS that govern the Board and the annual General Service Conference. It is a protection that prevents the few (being the Board of the delegates, trustees and AA employees that make up the Conference) from deciding, on behalf of us groups and members, what changes should be made to the Steps or Traditions. The Board and the Conference work for our autonomous groups whose will is filtered down through the service structure. The Conference conducts AA’s business on behalf of our members and groups. They serve—they do not govern. Perhaps GSO might ask a newspaper to correct a misrepresentation of the Twelve Steps but they certainly don’t tell 114,000 groups what to read or how to interpret the AA program. <br>Personally, trustees or delegates may disagree with my group writing God out of the Steps. They are entitled to an opinion. But they have no authority to have our group practices obeying their personal image of AA. Again, the theme is serving—not governing.<br> <br>Just as importantly, the minority of groups that state, “no God please, we’re agnostic,” cannot demand that AA change everything to suit them. There is no tyranny of the minority or the majority. Just because some find god-talk lacking or even offensive, not all of AA is going to change to meet each individual whim. We don’t have to be in uniformed agreement. Each group is autonomous.<br> <br>Meanwhile, back in Toronto, “Except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole,” is Barbara H’s retort to defend her stewardship of Toronto Intergroup. While she sees agnostic expulsion as doing God’s will, Bill W would have been ashamed of such bigotry. Being inventive about how a group interprets the Steps isn’t <em>affecting other groups or AA as a whole</em>. The author of our Steps <a contents="defended any group’s right to de-God the Steps or reject them completely" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.aatorontoagnostics.com/aa-comes-of-age-p81.html" target="_blank">defended any group’s right to <em>de-God</em> the Steps or reject them completely</a><a href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3" title="">[iii]</a>.<br> <br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/fb6abadd26585deebd9238b2d4fcaf6bb7a26df8/medium/aa-service-manual.gif?1386789707" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" />An Intergroup Chair, drunk on power, could suffer a hallucination of false authority. She or he would see the enforcement role not only as ultimate power but as an ultimate, noble duty. Is this an innocent mistake?<br><br>I am not so charitable. <em>The A.A. Service Manual</em>, when read in its entirety, has a spirit that is just so obviously inclusive and permissive. Membership requirements: zero. There is no authority over groups. Yes, we hope that groups and individuals understand and practice our Traditions. But members and groups are self-governing. Traditions are not AA rules. They are an expression of our experience—not our expertise. The final page of our Manual makes it so painstakingly clear; there is no punishment for nonconformity; love and service is our code.<br> <br>I think anyone who wants to impose their AA values as mandatory rules over another autonomous AA group is a zealot. I don’t like muckers so I don’t go to their meetings. I don’t try to run them out of AA; to each their own.<br> <br>Those of us with strongly held beliefs are sometimes threatened by those with convergent beliefs. The atheist, the poly-theist and the monotheist can’t all be right. But we can all get along. “Whenever, wherever a hand reaches out for help, we want the hand of AA always to be there.” For some, that means a slightly different way of doing things. The rest of us will accommodate—that’s love and tolerance. Accommodation is the AA way, not condemnation.<br> <br>To judge another is the most un-AA of all. To scapegoat is worse. The service we do in our Twelfth Step is not our recovery. If someone thinks someone else’s program need to be talked about and their “listability” should be discussed, that isn’t a service emergency. That’s a recovery emergency. <em>We claim spiritual progress, rather than spiritual perfection</em>. We all have recovery emergencies. There are no service emergencies. Hasty, uninformed and angry majorities haven’t made a better AA in Toronto. I hope Vancouver can learn from the mistakes of others. Let’s each stick to our recovery and ask how we can be of service to others.<br><br>Related Posts: <a contents="http://rebelliondogspublishing.com/home/blog/unity-or-popularity-contest-intergroup-s-role" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://rebelliondogspublishing.com/home/blog/unity-or-popularity-contest-intergroup-s-role">http://rebelliondogspublishing.com/home/blog/unity-or-popularity-contest-intergroup-s-role</a><br><br> <div> <hr align="left" size="1" width="33%">
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<a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title="">[i]</a> [1] “...the greatest danger to democracy would always be the ‘tyranny’ of apathetic, self-seeking, uninformed or angry majorities. Only a truly dedicated citizenry, quite willing to protect and conserve minority rights and opinions, could, he thought, guarantee the existence of a free and democratic society. All around us in the world today we are witnessing the tyranny of majorities and even worse tyranny of very small minorities invested with absolute power.” <em>the AA Service Manual</em>, p. 24 <a contents="http://aa.org/pdf/products/en_bm-31.pdf" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://aa.org/pdf/products/en_bm-31.pdf" target="_blank">http://aa.org/pdf/products/en_bm-31.pdf</a>
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<a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title="">[ii]</a> Box 4-5-9 Vol. 59, No. 2/ SUMMER 2013 reports 2,131,549 members and 114,642 groups as of January 2013 <a contents="http://aa.org/lang/en/en_pdfs/en_box459_summer13.pdf" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://aa.org/lang/en/en_pdfs/en_box459_summer13.pdf" target="_blank">http://aa.org/lang/en/en_pdfs/en_box459_summer13.pdf</a>
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<a href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3" title="">[iii]</a> <em>In his chapter on “Unity,” from </em><strong><em>A. A. Comes of Age, </em></strong><em>Bill W writes about Buddhists who said that they would like to be part of AA, but also would like to replace the word “god” with “good” so that the practice of the Steps would be compatible with their non-theistic belief. In 1957, Bill Wilson writes: </em><strong>“To some of us, the idea of substituting ‘good’ for ‘God’ in the Twelve Steps will seem like a watering down of A.A.’s message. But here we must remember that A.A.’s Steps are suggestions only. A belief in them, as they stand, is not at all a requirement for membership among us. This liberty has made A.A. available to thousands who never would have tried at all had we insisted on the Twelve Steps just as written.” </strong><a contents="Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age pg. 81" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.aatorontoagnostics.com/aa-comes-of-age-p81.html" target="_blank"><em>Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age </em>pg. 81</a>
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Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/2133527
2013-11-29T13:50:11-05:00
2017-01-14T11:32:11-05:00
Sober longer than God
<br><br><strong><em>At a time of Thanksgiving, author Joe C reflects over the years of recovery</em></strong><br> <br> <br><em><a contents="Read as PDF" data-link-label="rebellion-dog-blog-november-2013-sober-longer-than-god.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/115272/rebellion-dog-blog-november-2013-sober-longer-than-god.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#DDA0DD;">Read as PDF</span></a>.</em> I am not a journalist but I play in Rebellion Dogs blogs. I like to assume the role of truth-seeking, bias-avoiding, objective fact finder. Alternatively, I will channel my songwriting, story-telling self. I will dust off a tired old truth of the ages and present it in a way that makes others say, “I never thought about that, but yeah—I wish I’d said that.” This week, I come out from hiding—no quotes, no authorities, just the language of my heart. Today, I get personal.<br> <br>As of November 27<sup>th</sup>, 2013 I am 37 years sober. I had to do the calculate it; 2013 minus 1976 isn’t off-the-cuff math for me. After a few decades there will be those who say facetiously, “Joe’s been sober longer than God.” If you know I am an atheist you can really enjoy the irony of that statement. But, compared to AA’s own canonized heroes, maybe I am. Bill Wilson died with 36 years and about 45 days of sobriety. So I am sober longer than that guy. Imagine; January 24<sup>th</sup>, 1971—no one was sober (in AA) for 37 years.<br> <br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/e67a6732b492f06a6f193473e3f4cf4b67bccfb6/original/bill-w-grave.jpg?1385750564" class="size_orig justify_right border_none" alt="" />Thinking about that for a while, it didn’t make me feel special. It made me feel alone. I entertained the idea that my group of peers is shrinking. But that’s a fallacy. These days, 37 years is ordinary. It won’t get you a seat at the front of the stage at the quinquennial AA world convention’s Saturday night open meeting. That spot is reserved for the 40+ club and there are always a few dozen in attendance. Some of them speak a few words of wisdom. They draw names from a hat and bring a few up on stage. Some of them are not “all there” but they are all sober for four decades or more. Celebrations of 50 years and more are not unheard of in Toronto, where I live. AA has been here for 65 years and some of the early members helped sober up young punks who are still alive today.<br> <br>If you are still reading, maybe you want to know what it’s like to be sober <em>longer than God</em>. It is as surreal as you might expect. The day before my anniversary, I felt anxious—not grateful or all power-of-example-ish. So, I went to the <em>A.A. Grapevine</em> website and I listened to a sneak-preview audio recording of the December issue about Oldtimers. I found what I needed to hear in a story called, “You Won’t Find Rainbows at the Bottom of a Glass.” It was the story of a man 39 years sober who drank again. Ahhh, that hit the spot. As you would suspect form a <em>Grapevine</em> article, he went to treatment and he’s sober again, sharing his own unique experience, strength and hope like the rest of us.<br><br>I am not one of these members who starts everything I say with “My name is so-and-so and thanks to the program of AA and you fine people, I haven’t found it necessary to pick up a drink since _______.(cue the awe and wonderment).” I think there is something very un-AA about that. We are all equal and if you think that I am sporting false humility, count how many votes everyone gets at your next business meeting. Everyone has a say. Everyone has an equal vote because the objectivity of the newcomer is as vital to the group as the experience of the old-timer. Our survival depends on adaptation and where will our innovative ideas come from; from the way we have always done things or from a fresh way of looking at things?<br> <table align="left" border="1" cellpadding="1.5" cellspacing="1" style="width: 4px;"><tbody>
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<td><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/55d21296016736ccc9da8b8e6c45226b88c1ca37/original/one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest.jpg?1385750604" class="size_orig justify_center border_none" alt="" /></td> </tr>
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<td> <div style="text-align: center;">November 1976.</div> <strong><em>One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest</em></strong><strong> won best picture and <em>Still Crazy After All These Years</em> was the best album of the year. Montreal was the best at hockey, Cincinnati swept the Yankees and The Pittsburgh Steelers were defending Super Bowl champs. I listened to Led Zeppelin’s Presence on the headphones during my last acid trip. A.A. released the third edition of the Big Book and Barry L’s “Do You Think You’re Different” was introduced to AA rooms. A stamp cost 13 cents and the average household income was $12,660 per year. </strong>
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</tbody></table>A language new to the AA service work lexicon is, “My service sponsor said that his service sponsor told him…blah, blah, blah.” Does anyone see a problem with this?<br><br>While it is worthwhile to draw from the wisdom of our elders, if we have a problem, these oldtimers are the ones that got us into this mess in the first place. I wasn’t going to lean on any third-party authorities today, but didn’t Albert Einstein define Insanity as “Doing the same thing and expecting different results”?<br> <br>In our Public Information efforts, we spend too much time <em>talking</em> and not enough time <em>listening</em>. Instead of going into a community that is unfamiliar to us, and launching right into “When Bill W. met Dr. Bob in 1935…” why not ask a few questions? What are they doing now about members of their community who suffer from alcoholism? What might AA be able to do to help? Maybe if we see our role as out-reach instead of custodians of the holy grail, we will be more effective at <em>carrying the message</em>.<br> <br>Some group or district inventories are little more than self-congratulatory pats on the back. Or, there is a tendency to get <em>back to basics. </em>We look to the old farts to tell us about the good ol’ days. The newcomer (remember the newcomer—the most important person in the meeting?) is best understood by the newest member of our meeting. Why not ask the members with less than six months sobriety about their first impressions of our meeting. If we ask them to tell us candidly what compelled them and what concerned them, we can learn a lot. Is the purpose of the inventory to widen our gateway? Then we need to better understand where we are marginalizing others. It may be an innocent mistake in the way we talk in clichés or acronyms or how, as the meeting breaks up, we talk to our friends who we haven’t seen all week, while the newcomers head for the door. It could be that meeting rituals, that fit us like old slippers, are repellent to new people.<br> <br>The point I often make is that the newest members of our group, more than anyone, can give us clues as to how we can improve. This isn’t to discount tried and true experience but let’s keep things in perspective instead of skewing experience. When we label long-timers as experts and discount the newcomer, we are missing more than an opportunity, we are missing the boat. It doesn’t matter how confident we are when were driving in the wrong direction, we’re still not going to get the results we hoped for. And if AA isn’t growing and members don’t feel compelled to get engaged, doing more of “what’s worked in the past” won’t suddenly change this momentum.<br> <br>So that’s my rant against treating our sobriety date like a currency. I think it makes us more arrogant and less approachable.<br><br>But today, it isn’t the future of AA that makes me care so much about treating everyone in our meetings as equals. Today it is way more personal. I listened to the story of a member who lived with indifference to the allure of alcohol for decades and suddenly got blindsided. His fall from grace could happen to me—just like it could happen to anybody. Sure, anyone who comes back after a slip has a Monday-morning quarterback’s narrative about the cause and effect of what went wrong. The truth is that we wake up one morning, not knowing that today we will relapse, and when we slip it could be one drink, one decade or “till death do we part.”<br> <br>We are all equal in a meeting because it’s not the distance between us and the last drink that matters. We are all just one drink away, one moment of weakness away, from alcohol’s victory lap in the saga of our life. We are all a tragic Achilles-like tale waiting to be told. That distance, the unknowable space between me and my next drink, is what makes me feel very equal to everyone today. What is there to be lonely about? I am in grand company. It is nice to know that we are all in this together.<br> <br>“You Won’t Find Rainbows at the Bottom of a Glass”<br><a contents="http://www.aagrapevine.org/sites/fileuploads/isovera/drupal6core/AAGV_Dec13_Rainbows.mp3" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.aagrapevine.org/sites/fileuploads/isovera/drupal6core/AAGV_Dec13_Rainbows.mp3" target="_blank">http://www.aagrapevine.org/sites/fileuploads/isovera/drupal6core/AAGV_Dec13_Rainbows.mp3</a><br> <br>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/2043001
2013-11-13T15:16:13-05:00
2017-01-14T11:32:11-05:00
Just released - Thirteenth Step: Zombie Recovery - You’ll squirm, you’ll smile, you’ll need a meeting
<a contents="See as a PDF" data-link-label="rebellion-dog-blog-november-2013-thirteenth-step-zombie-book.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/112969/rebellion-dog-blog-november-2013-thirteenth-step-zombie-book.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FFD700;">See as a PDF</span></a>.<br><br>Today I want to tell you a story. It’s a story about a story called <em>The Thirteenth Step: Zombie Recovery</em>. The fiction adventure is by Michele W. Miller, a third-time novelist by night and New York lawyer by day. A member of the recovery culture, herself, 12 Step members figure significantly into this zombie apocalypse adventure.<br> <br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/dbb79e564f7d8077f2754eadac5eda3999e68e6f/medium/thirteenth-step-zombie-cover-659x1024.jpeg?1384373669" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" />Suddenly, planet earth is <em>zombified</em>. Those who are affected, start feasting on nearby others, who either become lunch or morph into the zombie ranks. A new take on a New York minute turns an ordinary day into the end of the world. Few survive. As they start to find each other they find they have something in common—the addict gene. They are alcoholics, addicts or adult children of alcoholics. Weird eh? This doesn’t make them immune to zombie attack but they are not the first to be sniffed out and munched on for zombie feasts. Maybe it’s because addicts have already come back from the dead. Could it be we aren’t fresh enough for the undead?<br> <br>The few that find each other decide that, together, they have to leave the city where they are outnumbered about 2 million zombies to each survivor. They seek out a more rural setting. Along the journey, they meet another clean and sober survivor who brings some inconvenient truth to the ranks; along with avoiding a world of zombies they have to stay clear of dozens of unattended ticking time-bomb nuclear reactors that would soon start leaking and eventually blow up from failed cooling and inattention.<br> <br>They escape the urban sprawl of the nuclear dependent North East, for the countryside, where maybe, just maybe a colony of fellow uninfected humans could be found.<br> <br>The zombie apocalypse is not the story; it’s the setting. This thought-provoking commentary on 12 Step culture—our pitfalls, majesty and volatility—is the treasure inside this story. I am not a fiction writer or reader. I labor through my own perceived need to frankly discuss our collective culture, our future and the struggles that internal dogma and an ever changing outside world bring to bear on our mortal fellowship. Sometimes it’s time to put the text books and clinical studies away and let fiction get to the truth of the matter. As old as “one day at a time,” story-telling has persisted as the lifeblood of the recovery community, revealing a truth that blood-tests and <em>f</em>MRI scans cannot.<br><em> <br>The Thirteenth Step: Zombie Recovery</em> outwits the best of investigative journalism at revealing some dear and disturbing truths about 12 Step life. Miller confronts the assertions of some of our harshest critics, tells our story, and speculates over our possible future, in a fair-minded and imaginative way.<br> <br>I cried, I laughed, I winced, just like I do at 12 Step gatherings that have too much cliché, and dogmatic ritual for my liking. Not a member of the <em>Don’t-Git-Bit </em>zombie love-fest, I skip the moves and TV shows and judge from a distance. I appreciate the fascination with end-of- the-world stories as bedtime stories around the <em>end of American Empire</em> camp-fire. It’s the end of the world as we know it and we want to feel fine. Or if we can’t feel fine, let’s lose ourselves for a while. I have no interest in <em>World War Z</em> themes; only the 12 Step angle of this story raised my eyebrow. I’ve spent a lot of time saying that our society isn’t entitled to perpetuity and in fact, I see concerning signs of reification and decay in our 12 & 12 world.<br> <br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/b2f85db51bc030c771d55db609f127af2ece3d6a/small/michelewmiller.jpg?1384373942" class="size_s justify_right border_none" alt="" />This book ranks as a <em>strong buy</em> from this analyst. I don’t care if you’re a 12 Step cheerleader or critic, in a world of fewer free buzzes, you’ll enjoy this ride. It was a hard book to put down and when I wasn’t reading it, I was thinking about it. Amazon buyers could hit the “buy button” at Amazon for <em>The Thirteenth Step: Zombie Recovery</em> November 11<sup>th</sup>, 2013. Think holiday gift for someone who has everything. I assure you, that they don’t have one of these.<br> <br>Michele Miller (pictured), a sneaky anonymous alias methinks, has her book available at an indie priced but with Park Avenue quality.<br> <br><a contents=" http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_20?url=search-alias%3Daps&amp;field-keywords=the%20thirteenth%20step%20zombie%20recovery&amp;sprefix=The+Thirteenth+Step+%2Caps%2C316&amp;rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Athe%20thirteenth%20step%20zombie%20recovery" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_20?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=the%20thirteenth%20step%20zombie%20recovery&sprefix=The+Thirteenth+Step+%2Caps%2C316&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Athe%20thirteenth%20step%20zombie%20recovery" target="_blank">Preview on Amazon</a> or go to <a data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://michelewmiller.com/" target="_blank">http://michelewmiller.com/</a> of <em>Thirteenth Step</em> on <a contents="Facebook." data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.facebook.com/ZombieRecovery" target="_blank">Facebook.</a><br>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/1985984
2013-11-04T16:38:39-05:00
2022-03-16T11:04:12-04:00
Right Sizing our Role Models: Madalyn Murray O’Hair, Nelson Mandela, Bill W.—game changers are people 1st, history makers 2nd
<p><br><a contents="Click to read, print or distribute as a PDF" data-link-label="rebellion-dogs-blog-madalyn-murray-ohair.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/111828/rebellion-dogs-blog-madalyn-murray-ohair.pdf"><span style="color:#FFFF00;">Click to read, print or distribute as a PDF</span></a>. What makes trailblazers remarkable? Are they gifted people who change the course of history or ordinary people who we canonize in reflection of their good deeds? Of course they are ordinary people with strengths and weakness who find themselves at a crossroads—maybe a familiar crossroads where they have been before. Our would-be heroes are generally facing insurmountable odds. More often than not, they are the defiant ones with the establishment against them. At that fateful moment they take the first step on a journey, the true significance of which, I suspect, they were ignorant about, and in so doing, they alter the course of history. We all have strengths and weaknesses. Some who shine so brightly with unique abilities might be severely lacking in fundamental skills that are expected and taken for granted.<br><br>Bill Wilson said that AA had many better examples of spiritual living (practicing these principles in all of our affairs) than he could live up to. He authored the formula. He was chosen by <em>Time Magazine</em> as one of America’s most significant individuals of the 20<sup>th</sup> century. His book, <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em>, was recognized by the Library of Congress for its impact on American culture. Was he a good sponsor? Was he a good husband? How would today’s recovery community rate his example to others? He experimented with LSD and his Twelve Steps were no match for depression that rendered him dysfunctional from time to time. He died of emphysema, or plainly put, addiction to cigarettes. He was a man, with noble attributes and glaring shortcomings. To this day, he has his worshippers and he has his critics.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/0ec4855dc9b6ed873e3b1a22852d9a8b5c0a12f1/medium/nelson-mandela.jpg?1383600323" class="size_m justify_right border_" /><br>A new movie, <a contents="Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ6eQN8o12o" target="_blank"><em>Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom</em></a>, celebrates one of our generation’s trailblazers. Nelson Mandela’s efforts and leadership forged a breakthrough for many. Was he a good father, was he a good husband? Nelson Mandela has had three wives and six children in his tumultuous life. Only three of these children are still living. A daughter recalls being met by a father who went from life-imprisonment to being released from prison 20 years ago (serving 27 years of a life sentence) and then being dragged away from the family again as he was thrust into the demands of public life. Zenani Mandela was five when her father went to jail. She remembers him being a stern disciplinarian, even from prison, running the family through letters and minimal contact. His son, Mandla, was recently embroiled in legal issues against the rest of the family. It’s not unreasonable to expect that Nelson Mandela was an absentee father with a lot on his mind. It would be forgivable that home life would have been chaotic but what kind of environment is that for kids to grow up in?<br><br>I am not fault-finding for the pure uplifting buzz of putting others down. What I am saying is that we all have our assets and liabilities, critics and fans. We tend to want to label everyone as being a good guy or <em>bad guy</em> as depicted in literature—the Jedi knights vs. the dark side of The Force. But what literature is whispering to us is the Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde in each of us; not us over here and them over there.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/d79878bdca20b8a73d1685491120320a8a8ebeb8/medium/the-lucifer-effect.jpg?1383600409" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" />Aleksandr Solzenitsyn said, “If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them; but the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”<br><br>We are all capable of good, we are all capable of vengeance. What psychologist Philip Zimbardo, author of <em><a contents="The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.lucifereffect.com/" target="_blank">The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil</a><a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><strong>[i]</strong></a></em>, learned about good and evil growing up on the mean streets of Brooklyn as a youth. About the line between good and evil, Zimbardo says, “Privileged people like to think [the line] is fixed and impermeable, with them on the good side and evil on the other side. But I knew that line could be movable and permeable; good people could be seduced into evil and in some circumstances, bad kids could recover.<a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title="">[ii]</a>” Our heroes have done regrettable things and villains have redeeming qualities. But we are still shocked when he hear the neighbor of the serial killer next door say on TV, “She was charming woman and president of the PTA.”<br><br>American Atheists have a Bill W-esque hero whose era overlapped the AA cofounder. Her name is Madalyn Murray O’Hair, another flawed person who did heroic things. Many of these people, Mandela and to some degree Bill W, were marginalized or persecuted people. Madalyn Murray O’Hair would become the most hated woman in America, ostensibly for being a patriot.<br><br>The 1953 USA of President Eisenhower was the Cold War era. Madalyn was a mother. The administration changed America’s Pledge of Allegiance. “One nation, <strong>indivisible</strong> with liberty and justice for all” was what the kids sung out in school every morning. The pledge was changed to “One nation <strong>under God</strong>…” “In God We Trust” was added to the currency as another attempt to encourage Americans to identify with their Abrahamic faith and distance themselves from the Godless communists of Russia.<br><br>Madalyn found it objectionable that her son or any child was pressured to participate in bible study in a public school. If her son resisted, he would be harassed. She objected. A decade after the unholy marriage between church and state in Eisenhower’s America, the Supreme Court declared that organized prayer in public schools is unconstitutional. It was a consolidated case, <em>Abington School District v. Schempp</em> & <em>Murray v. Curlett</em>, that were argued in February 1963 and on June 17, 1963 an 8 – 1 decision ruled that state-mandated prayer and bible reading were a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.<br><br>In this case Madalyn Murray O’Hair made this opening statement about what an atheist is. For those who identify as “spiritual, not religious,” tell me if it lacks anything from your definition of <em>spirituality</em>:</p>
<ol> <li>An atheist loves his fellow man instead of god. An atheist believes that heaven is something for which we should work now—here on earth for all men together to enjoy.</li> <li>An atheist believes that he can get no help through prayer but that he must find in himself the inner conviction and strength to meet life, to grapple with it, to subdue it, and enjoy it.</li> <li>An atheist believes that only in a knowledge of himself and a knowledge of his fellow man can he find the understanding that will lead to a life of fulfillment.</li> <li>He seeks to know himself and his fellow man rather than to know a god. An atheist believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An atheist believes that a deed must be done instead of a prayer said.</li> <li>An atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. He wants disease conquered, poverty vanquished, war eliminated. He wants man to understand and love man. He wants an ethical way of life.</li> <li>He believes that we cannot rely on a god or channel action into prayer nor hope for an end of troubles in a hereafter. He believes that we are our brother's keepers and are keepers of our own lives; that we are responsible persons and the job is here and the time is now.</li>
</ol>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/7e6ba6b00788621d28a9633cacebd4c0ab6501db/original/madalyn-murray-ohair.jpg?1383600346" class="size_l justify_center border_" />Is anyone hearing Twelve Step philosophy here? Minus the dependency on the supernatural, of course, this is our creed. Our one-day-at-a-time mantra is eloquently expressed. I suggest that atheists have a better one day at a time program than people who believe in reincarnation or heaven. “This life is it, baby; no dress rehearsal; no second chances.” Every day matters to an atheist.<br><br>Madalyn’s statement picks up on the maintenance Steps Ten to Twelve, minus the theism but true to the principles. “Only in a knowledge of himself and a knowledge of his fellow man, can he find and understand a life that will lead to fulfillment.”—The inventory of Step 10. I hear our “faith without works is dead” of Step 11 in “He seeks to know himself and his fellow man rather than to know a god. An atheist believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An atheist believes that a deed must be done instead of a prayer said.” Who connects with Step 12 in, “We are our brother’s keepers and are keepers of our own lives…”?<br><br>The Twelve Step principles were adapted from existing values, they didn’t create something new. It’s therefore reasonable to see them vaguely or more identically reincarnated into other creeds, be they religious, spiritual or militant atheist.<br><br>So, am I campaigning to have Madalyn Murray O’Hair canonized? Ah, no. She’s a person, not a saint. I don’t even pretend that she was a nice person. She was right to defend the American Constitution and affirm the separation of church and state. She went on to create the <a contents="American Atheist Society" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.atheists.org/about-us" target="_blank">American Atheist Society</a><a href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3" title="">[iii]</a> that still works to defend against First Amendment infractions. She started to get notoriety that day in 1963 when photographed on the steps of the Supreme Court. Over time she was known to be outrageous, funny and fearless, standing up to irrational forces on the road or from her headquarters in the belly of the beast—Texas.<br><br>That doesn’t mean she was sweet, loveable and kind. History has even more twists than I have described. Now, for the rest of the story:<br><br>One of Madalyn’s sons stayed at his mother’s side working in the cause of keeping the land of the free, free of any particular religious influence or favoritism. Madalyn’s oldest son drifted away. William J. Murray was an apostate. From the godlessness of home, he forged a new path for himself. William had problems with the law, violence and addiction. He may have found God in AA. This is from a 1980 People’s Magazine exposé about the rogue white sheep of the Murray family<a href="#_edn4" name="_ednref4" title="">[iv]</a><br><br>“By that time Bill was an alcoholic. He had a new marriage and a new job as an airline management consultant, but felt his life was falling apart. He quarreled with his wife one night, struck her, and when police came he fired a rifle shot through the front door. He was sentenced to five years probation for aggravated assault (he claimed the gun went off by accident).<br><br>Chastened by that, and other crises in his life, Murray turned to Alcoholics Anonymous. Combined with a volunteer job in a drug program, it was the turning point for him. ‘I saw some miraculous things people were able to accomplish with faith,’ he says.”<br><br>His mother would continue to be a thorn in his side. William lost a custody battle of his daughter to his mom—the child’s grandparent. He became militant in his Christianity, working to undo what his family had accomplished. Madalyn publicly disowned him with the same sarcastic dismissive demeanor that she afforded any believer. As a parent and as a child I don’t pretend to know what could possess a parent to be so cruel over a difference of opinion.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/67511e56ff7643f718fe14715eb5b7f940318605/medium/william-murray.jpg?1383600433" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" />William J Murray’s faith might not grant eternity but it did save his life here on earth. William’s mom, Madalyn, along with his brother and adult daughter would be murdered. They weren’t murdered for what they believed, said or did. It was extortion.<br><br>A former felon, David Ronald Waters, had infiltrated the American Atheist’s Center as an employee and observed a pretty stack of money being donated to the organization. In 1995 William Murray’s family would be killed for $600,000—a crime that would take years to solve. Another AA member figures into this story. George W. Bush would have been about nine years sober when he became Governor of Texas. Finding a missing atheist wouldn’t have been a top priority for the State of Texas in that era. It was the FBI and investigative reporters who kept the case alive and followed up on clues.<br><br>William Murray, the son who found God, is an author, Baptist minister, social conservative commentator and chairman of the Religious Freedom Coalition. In his role he defends Christians from American Atheists, Muslims and Communists.<br><br>If you have never heard of him it may be because he is too much of a kook even for the Tea Party. Well, I call him a kook. He feels that the Ten Commandments offer the stability that every citizen of earth should obey. Check for yourself at <a href="http://www.religiousfreedomcoalition.org/">http://www.religiousfreedomcoalition.org/</a><br><br>The point I want to get back to is that whatever spirituality is, it comes from flawed, regular people, often reluctant messiahs. Bill Wilson never considered himself to be AA’s best example of the spiritual path. Nelson Mandela admitted that his commitment to a cause made him a second-rate father. To work with or to interview Madalyn Murray O’Hair was no picnic and I expect that her my-way-or-the-highway narcissism made her lacking as a mother. Certainly, the binge and purge turmoil that her one surviving son exhibits, leaves one wondering about Madalyn Murray O’Hair—the whole person. Analysts would have a field day working backwards from William Murray’s alcoholism and his victim-rescuer, agitator role in life today. Looking back into Bill’s experience as a young boy under the hard-headed and tyrannical mother Madalyn, opens the door to criticism of her mothering by today’s standards. Madaly changed history but she ain't no saint.<br><br><br>Maybe the moral of the story is that while we are inspired by the accomplishments of others, we best not compare ourselves to them. And if we can’t help having the accomplishments of our idols make us feel <em>less than</em>, here’s what we can do. Digging deeper will reveal what was gained and what was lost by our role models. To see their achievements through, left them—like us—with a balance sheet of assets and liabilities. Would we be so eager to trade places when presented with the cost of doing so? Every act of greatness has a sacrifice to bear.<br><br>Madalyn Murray O’Hair reminded the U.S. Supreme Court that a noble credo needs no obedience to any creator. We are Humanists first and maybe we come this way naturally. Any civilized society demonstrates these guiding principles regardless of a predominant belief in Allah, many Allahs or no Allah at all. AA adopted this creedo. Every Twelve Step fellowship that followed did too, regardless of what liberty they took in the wording of the Steps.<br><br>Madalyn is not celebrated by her country as a patriot. Nonbelievers who share her worldview are still marginalized in the USA. Even though, as she eloquently persuaded the Justices of the Supreme Court, we are good with or without gods and devils—certainly not because of them. We can also be evil with or without gods and devils—and not because of them. <a contents="CLICK here to see the story of Madalyn Murray O'Hair" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGCEeln0OBQ">CLICK here to see the story of Madalyn Murray O'Hair</a></p>
<div> <hr align="left" size="1" width="33%">
<div id="edn1">
<a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title="">[i]</a> http://www.lucifereffect.com/</div>
<div id="edn2">
<a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title="">[ii]</a> <a contents="http://www.ted.com/talks/philip_zimbardo_on_the_psychology_of_evil.html" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.ted.com/talks/philip_zimbardo_on_the_psychology_of_evil.html" target="_blank">http://www.ted.com/talks/philip_zimbardo_on_the_psychology_of_evil.html</a>
</div>
<div id="edn3">
<a href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3" title="">[iii]</a> <a contents="http://www.atheists.org/about-us" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.atheists.org/about-us">http://www.atheists.org/about-us</a>
</div>
<div id="edn4">
<a href="#_ednref4" name="_edn4" title="">[iv]</a>People Magazine June 2, 1980 http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20076618,00.html</div>
</div>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/1925769
2013-10-25T11:00:00-04:00
2018-01-09T07:11:30-05:00
The evolution of language, group conscience &Twelve Step Interpretations (part 2)
<a contents="Read, print or share this blog as a PDF." data-link-label="rebellion-dog-blog-october-23-2013-12-step-evolution.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/110306/rebellion-dog-blog-october-23-2013-12-step-evolution.pdf" target="_blank">Read, print or share this blog as a PDF.</a><br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/f92a7bedd5b20ed0bbf81f098f6b4cfb18ec25e8/medium/new-york-daily-mirror-1950s.jpg?1382712358" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" />Advancing technology is in our face. In the most tech-influenced businesses, B.C. is now referring to “before computers” and A.D. means “after digital.” Grade seven students are A.D. children who never knew an era where every phone was stuck to a wall and <em>googling</em> was called “research.”<br><br>Our language is another characteristic of our culture that we adapt to reflect our changing attitudes and it then, in turn, adapts our way of seeing and thinking about the world around us. From imbecile, to mentally handicapped, to mentally challenged, the way we describe someone with an IQ of 40 has evolved to incorporate our evolving context and awareness. In a chicken and egg way attitude gives birth to new language, which in turn, compassion hatches from, bringing a higher quality to our civilization. We see people in a more holistic way; imagination brings light where stigma darkened our life before.<br> <br>Look at this 1950s New York City article from the Daily Mirror. The shocking candor of the attitude of the day angers us now. If the men quoted in this column were our grandparents or parents we would be ashamed of our family. But this is our lineages as a society. Dr. Jordan Peterson (pictured below) has degrees in Political Science and Psychology and has taught at Harvard and University of Toronto. When lecturing his students about good and evil, he tries to impart on students their own capacity for evil. He makes this challenge to students:<br><br>“There’s an overwhelming probability, if you were in Nazi Germany in the 1930s, that you would have been perpetrators and Nazis—an overwhelming probability. And if they can’t accept that, because it’s a historical fact, you have absolutely no idea who they are. Now, imagining yourself as a Nazi perpetrator is an unbearably terrifying thing to do. But I don’t think that you have any insight whatsoever into your capacity for good until you have some well-developed insight into your capacity for evil.”<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title="">[i]</a><br> <br>“Every time you make a pathological moral decision, you move the world one step closer to complete annihilation. Every time you make an appropriate moral decision and you manifest moral courage in the face of your own vulnerability, then you move the world one step farther from the brink.”<br> <br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/6b19fa3146f3745264b9b975990189805bbcd0af/medium/jordan-peterson.jpg?1382713072" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" />Yes, we all like to think that we would never have been sexist at any time in history. Yes, we like to think that we would have been the 1% of Germans who took action against the persecution of Jews. But odds are we would have followed the norm. Peterson’s point is that to recognize our personal capacity for evil, is to know our personal capacity for good. His ultimate point is that our own virtue should never be taken for granted. I use his shocking challenge to help make my point that we are evolving; we are becoming better. We are becoming more knowledgeable and to the extent to which we have virtue, increased knowledge means an increased compassion and usefulness to others.<br> <br>How has the Twelve Step culture evolved? Well, we are more compassionate, inclusive and useful to the still suffering addict and to each other. Today, we look at the evolution of Twelve Step language.<br> <br>In 1953 Narcotics Anonymous was formed, in 1957, Gamblers Anonymous came to be. So, before 1960 we found that the principles of the Twelve Steps could be spoken in a language to help any substance or process addiction. Dr. Peterson says that the foundation of all evil is arrogance and resentment. Looking at those opposites, humility and compassion, Our Twelve Step culture has allowed us to bring an immeasurable amount of good to the lives of those suffering in the grips of addiction.<br> <br>The shock factor of this 1950s clip from the Daily Mirror hits home regarding how attitudes change our language and that new language reinforces our attitude. By the time Adult Children of Alcoholics and Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous came around in the 1970s, the sexist language was gone. “God as we understood God” replaced “as we understood Him.”<br> <br>The turn of this century ushered in a maturing in our our collective understanding of non-theistic worldviews. Where in 1939, skepticism was likened to intellectualism or a stubborn defiance of the one true reality, today we embraced Humanists, Buddhists, Atheists and Agnostics, not as being at a way station to enlightenment, but as rights-bearing equals in a fellowship that embraces the Twelve Step program. Follow NA literature from late 20<sup>th</sup> century to the 21<sup>st</sup> century and you can see a new attitude. The basic text, <em>Narcotics Anonymous</em> goes from talking in the “we” voice, when referring to atheist and agnostics in the room. The tone is “they.” Look at this paragraph from “Just For Today—Living the Program:<br> <br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/1dbaae81cb4b029c199ae852df13899a2dd78514/small/living-clean.jpg?1382712463" class="size_s justify_right border_none" alt="" />“Each of us is free to work out our own concept of a Higher Power. Many of us were suspicious and skeptical because of disappointments that we have had with religion. As new members, the talk of God we heard in meetings repelled us. Until we sought our own answers in this area, we were trapped in the ideas gathered from our past. Agnostics and atheists sometimes start by just talking to ‘whatever’s there.’ There is a spirit or an energy that can be felt in the meetings. This is sometimes the newcomer’s first concept of a Higher Power; the group may be all the power greater herself that the member ever needs of the purpose of recovery. Ideas from the past are often incomplete and unsatisfactory. Everything we know is subject to revision, especially what we know about the truth.”<br> <br>Notice the subtle shift from “we NA members” to the third person description of nonbelievers. It may have been unintentional to exclude atheists and agnostics from team-recovery instead of saying, “We agnostics and atheists sometimes…” which would have been a more respectful, inclusive tone. But that was the 1980s.<br> <br><em>Living Clean</em> from 2012 has a different tone because it was written in a different time. The chapter called “A Spiritual Path” says, “We each find a way to surrender, but that does not mean we all come to believe in God. Many of our members have been clean for years as atheists. For some of us, coming to believe that NA can accommodate our atheism has itself been a leap of faith. We are welcome no matter what we believe. NA has no opinion on how our members define or practice spirituality.”<br> <br>Notice how atheists are “us” or “we” and no longer referred to in third person as outliers.<br> <table align="left" border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1.5" style="width: 325px;"><tbody><tr>
<td>
<strong>12 Principles for Atheists and Agnostics</strong> from Online Gamers Anonymous, <a data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.olganon.org/" target="_blank">http://www.olganon.org/</a><br> <br><strong>1.</strong> We admit we have been powerless over gaming, and that our lives have become unmanageable. Accept that we are no longer social gamers. It is affecting our real lives, and the lives of our loved ones, in a bad way. <strong>Principle - Honesty and Acceptance</strong><br><strong>2.</strong> Dare to believe that there lies within Us the Power to restore balance to our lives. <strong>Principle -</strong> <strong>Hope</strong><br><strong>3.</strong> Seek the help of someone qualified in counseling or someone that we trust from experience to be capable of helping us. <strong>Principle - Faith</strong><br><strong>4.</strong> Really take a good look at our lives, and make a searching and fearless inventory. <strong>Principle </strong>- <strong>Action and Courage,</strong> <strong>Action and Courage</strong> Have the courage to be aware of how we really lived our real lives. What were we trying to escape from? What didn't we want to face?<br><strong>5.</strong> Fully admit to a trusted or qualified person or support group our understanding of the exact nature of our problems. <strong>Principle -Integrity</strong> What did I find out when I took that searching and fearless inventory in step 4?<br><strong>6.</strong> We become willing to let go of our addictive patterns of behavior and start over. <strong>Principle - Willingness</strong><br><strong>7.</strong> Actually ask for help to remove our shortcomings from any person or persons or group that we feel are qualified to provide that help. <strong>Principle -</strong> <strong>Humility</strong><br><strong>8.</strong> Make a list of persons that we have harmed, during our gaming, and become willing to make amends to them (including ourselves). <strong>Principle - Love of our brothers and sisters</strong><br><strong>9.</strong> Make direct amends to such people wherever possible.<strong> Principle - Justice</strong><br><strong>10.</strong> Continue to take personal inventory, and when we are wrong, promptly admit it. <strong>Principle - Perseverance</strong> (Don’t just say, we are sorry, say we were wrong.) And, also, acknowledge when we do right.<br><strong>11.</strong> Find and study something that we find amazing. Realize that there are ways of living that can bring us a deeper degree of personal fulfillment.<strong> Principle - Spirituality</strong><br><strong>12.</strong> Having become aware of where we really ended up, how far down we went, and having discovered that there was a way out once we were willing to face our fears and come back to our real lives, we help others and share our story, and we help ourselves by practicing these principles in all of our affairs. <strong>Principle - Service</strong><br> </td> </tr></tbody></table>New fellowships born in the 21<sup>st</sup> century don’t have the dogmatic fear of change to hold them back. Of course they talk in a modern language; there is nothing sacred to honor or uphold. In 2001 Online Gamers Anonymous (OLGA) came on the scene as did OLG-Anon for loved ones of gaming addicts. The 12 Principles for atheists and agnostics offer a secular Step language that any addict/alcoholic/ codependent could embrace. Principle 3 is faith and it redefines, “Turned our will and our lives over to the care of God <em>as we understood Him</em>,” to “Seek the help of someone qualified in counseling or someone that we trust from experience to be capable of helping us.”<br><br>Check out #11 which is about beauty. They take AA’s prayer and meditation step and do this with it: “Find and study something that we find amazing. Realize that there are ways of living that can bring us a deeper degree of personal fulfillment.” Doesn’t sound like a lot more fun that the futility of the never answer plea to hear from on high, what “his will for us and the power to carry it out” entails? Hey choose your Kool-Aid; not exactly sure what the best-before date is, I’ll drink from the urn that hasn’t been sitting around for 78 years.<br> <br>Teen Addiction Anonymous (TAA) has been here since 2008<a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title="">[ii]</a>. You won’t find the word “god” used anywhere in the Steps. The word “Higher Power” works for believers but it also works for everyone so why would these Teen addicts cater to a tradition of reification? Wasn’t part of the reason for having their own meetings so that they could speak in their own present-day language?<br> <br>While taking out the binary thinking that the only explanation of how the universe is unfolding is under the guidance of a loving God, TAA also strips the religious morality out of the Twelve Steps. Step 4 reads, “I will make a fearless and honest review of my life, my values, and my goals.”<br> <br>To one with binary thinking, one style is correct; everything else is wrong. People are either good or bad. Everything is defined as ones and zeros or black and white. Another way of looking at things is life is neither all black, nor white; life is a whole spectrum of color. What is gained, what is lost by each choice, to what extent is this useful and to what extent is it lacking? The OLGA members who work the 12 Principles will get the same results as the AA fundamentalist gets from her or his Twelve Steps. Each will be freed from a “merciless obsession” and can reasonably expect to live happy, joyous and free.<br><br>The Twelve Step breakthrough is the same for a believer or skeptic. The words to describe the experience are quite different. The meaning associated with the experience is different. Despite these differences, to the onlooker, they see two clean and sober people who were previously hopeless cases. So the theist, atheist and agnostic can either be three addicts divided by a common language or they can <em>live and let live</em>. And if they can <em>live and let live</em>, any one could sponsor either of the other or be sponsored by them. Each can work with or learn from the other. We are all different—no two exactly the same—but we are equal.<br> <br>In our last Rebellious Dog Blog Post, we looked at how different language can and will be chosen depending if we have an external locus of control (“No human power could relieve our alcoholism.”) or if we have an internal locus of control (“[we] tapped an unsuspected inner resource…”). This time we look at how imagination makes the principles of the Twelve Steps of recovery accessible to all, regardless of our world view.<br> <br>Oscar Wilde said, “Disobedience, in the eye of anyone who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience and rebellion that progress has been made.” With all due respect to orderly, scientific change for the better, Wilde’s point has validity. We have talked about variations, interpretations or evolving Twelve Step languages. The fact is—inside and outside Twelve Step rooms—that most of the progress has been from the marginalized who refused to bow to the status quo and demanded better for themselves. The result is better for everyone.<br> <br>While the evolution of a more inclusive Twelve Steps naturally finds its way into the vernacular of newer fellowships, the granddaddy, Alcoholics Anonymous shows a few signs of being mired in resistance and/or hostility towards artistic liberty with the sacred wording laid out by our forefathers. Rebellion Dogs blogs have reported on the few Intergroups who set group and individual autonomy aside (as an emergency measure), in the name of preserving the integrity of <em>the message</em>. Most members and groups are left to follow their own conscience. However a handful of groups that read or distribute secular interpretations of the Twelve Steps have been de-listed by angry Intergroups who have taken it upon themselves to govern who is and is not an AA group. The larger question is, “What is <em>the message</em> that is being defended so zealously?” Was the message to obey a 1939 language or be excommunicated? Or was the message that more will be revealed and the principles—not the language—unifies AA members. There is room for the traditionalists; there is room for the radicals.<br> <br>Bill Wilson said, “Rebellion dogs our every step at first.” There is a time for capitulation and a time to stand our ground. No one has come up with a way that works for everyone, every time. So, let’s embrace a degree of rebellion and see it as our virtue. More will be revealed, indeed.<br> <div> <hr align="left" size="1" width="33%">
<div id="edn1">
<a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title="">[i]</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM25byj81Jc">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM25byj81Jc</a> <a href="http://porkosity.blogspot.ca/2010/10/fed-52-professor-jordan-peterson.html">http://porkosity.blogspot.ca/2010/10/fed-52-professor-jordan-peterson.html</a><br> </div>
<div id="edn2">
<a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title="">[ii]</a> <a data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.teenaddictionanonymous.org/the12steps" target="_blank">http://www.teenaddictionanonymous.org/the12steps</a><br> </div>
</div>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/1856246
2013-10-15T12:39:06-04:00
2017-01-14T11:32:10-05:00
Reactance Theory, Worldviews &Twelve Step Interpretations (part 1)
<em>How can 21<sup>st</sup> century psychology helps us understand how each of us interprets the 1939 Twelve Step?</em> <a contents="View or downlaod the PDF" data-link-label="rebellion-dog-blog-october-2013-reactance-theory-worldviews-and-twelve-steps.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/108837/rebellion-dog-blog-october-2013-reactance-theory-worldviews-and-twelve-steps.pdf" target="_blank">View or downlaod the PDF</a><br><br>Americans were polled by Harris[i] in 2009 and asked to indicate, for each category, if they believed, didn’t believe or were not sure. Some of the 2009 beliefs by category are: God: 82%, Miracles: 76%, Survival of the soul after death: 71%, Astrology: 26% and Reincarnation: 20%.<br> <table align="left" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 127px; text-align: center;"><a contents=" see the report" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.harrisinteractive.com/vault/Harris_Poll_2009_12_15.pdf" target="_blank"> see the report</a></td> <td style="width: 78px; text-align: center;">Believe</td> <td style="width: 90px; text-align: center;">Don’t Believe</td> <td style="width: 66px; text-align: center;">Not Sure</td> </tr>
<tr>
<td style="width:127px;">God</td> <td style="width: 78px; text-align: center;">82%</td> <td style="width: 90px; text-align: center;">9%</td> <td style="width: 66px; text-align: center;">9%</td> </tr>
<tr>
<td style="width:127px;">Miracles</td> <td style="width: 78px; text-align: center;">76%</td> <td style="width: 90px; text-align: center;">13%</td> <td style="width: 66px; text-align: center;">12%</td> </tr>
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<td style="width:127px;">Soul survives death</td> <td style="width: 78px; text-align: center;">71%</td> <td style="width: 90px; text-align: center;">10%</td> <td style="width: 66px; text-align: center;">19%</td> </tr>
<tr>
<td style="width:127px;">Darwin’s Theory of Evolution</td> <td style="width: 78px; text-align: center;">45%</td> <td style="width: 90px; text-align: center;">32%</td> <td style="width: 66px; text-align: center;">22%</td> </tr>
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<td style="width:127px;">Ghosts</td> <td style="width: 78px; text-align: center;">42%</td> <td style="width: 90px; text-align: center;">38%</td> <td style="width: 66px; text-align: center;">20%</td> </tr>
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<td style="width:127px;">UFO</td> <td style="width: 78px; text-align: center;">32%</td> <td style="width: 90px; text-align: center;">39%</td> <td style="width: 66px; text-align: center;">29%</td> </tr>
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<td style="width:127px;">Astrology</td> <td style="width: 78px; text-align: center;">26%</td> <td style="width: 90px; text-align: center;">52%</td> <td style="width: 66px; text-align: center;">22%</td> </tr>
</tbody></table>The USA, of course, is the most theistic of developed-world countries. Even throughout America, “God as we understand Him,” helps include those who worship different concepts of Gods but still excludes 18% of Americans who aren’t convinced of the presence of any supreme being. To 56.5 million Americas (18%), an intervening, prayer answering God is no more real than Zeus, Mother Nature, unicorns, Santa Claus and Spider Man. If we talk of miracles, some will nod approvingly in the rooms but this language excludes a quarter of any Twelve Step room. In Canada, the UK, Australia, Asia and Europe, a worldview that includes an intervening higher power is even more exclusive than in the USA. In Europe, less than half the population believes in God.<br> <br>“God-conscious” recovery is the preferred choice in Twelve Step rooms so what’s wrong with majority rule? Consider that A.A. has a credo. Our Responsibility Declaration has us saying that we want our message to reach <em>anyone</em>, <em>anywhere</em>. Our message is one of recovery from “a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body.” While obedience to “God as we understand Him,” comes with the territory for most, it isn’t demanded, it isn’t obligatory and it isn’t necessary. Sober atheists have been A.A. members since the beginning.<br> <br>How do we talk about the Steps without marginalizing anyone? Can atheists take the 1939 “God” out of their Twelve Step program without offending the religiously sensitive? Will this godless process be the same modality or a completely new modality?<br> <br>I believe that the Twelve Step exercise is the same experience for the atheist and theist—it is merely articulated in a different language. Just like the Punjabi and Swedish Twelve Steps sound foreign to the Anglophone, we know it works for them and their experience is essentially the same as our experience.<br> <br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/3fb8199355309f7a0338f4febbeddf4bd9a8ecbc/medium/the-believing-brain.jpg?1381851969" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" />Michael Shermer, in his book, <em><a contents="The Believing Brain" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.michaelshermer.com/the-believing-brain/" target="_blank">The Believing Brain</a>,</em> looks at the science of why humans believe stuff. Some of it is early cause and effect association. One caveman hears a rustle in the grass and immediately believes it’s just the wind and consequently, there’s nothing to fear. Another caveman fears that a rustle is a predator readying to pounce and impulsively retreats. Either could be wrong, of course. To some, the environment is a strange and dangerous place, to others it is our playground to tame. To what extent do we each feel <em>in control</em> of our surroundings?<br> <br>We all try to make sense of the world, whilst commanding just a fraction of the information and context available in the universe. Addicts or alcoholics may drift away from meetings for a period of time and then relapse. A connection can be made between not going to meetings for a few months (the cause) with relapse (the effect). She or he tells this story in a meeting and reassuring nods convert this possibility to a reality, a socially constructed reality. In truth, we never hear back from those who leave the rooms, get on with their life and never give in to temptation again. There may be a truth-based probability that continued abstinence is positively correlated with going to more meetings. Certainly, this is the experience for so many of us. But this is anecdotal evidence—hardly scientific or unbiased. Some call this intuitive knowledge.<br> <br>One Twelve Step member may relate that she or he tried over and over again to stop doing cocaine. They recall how a sponsor said, “Pray for help to abstain in the morning and give thanks to God in the evening.” They stay clean and this cause and effect—praying and recovery—are, in their minds, inescapable proof of God’s grace.<br> <br>Another may go the other way, praying sincerely for help from relapse to relapse, never finding long-term recovery until their faith was shattered and a more secular modality <em>breaks the curse</em>, say, the cognitive behavioral method. The coke-head may compare their post-theism success vs. their previous faith-filled recidivism. Would this be proof that God does not exist?<br> <br>Michael Shermer calls this tendency to find meaningful patterns—sometimes in meaningless noise—“patternicity.” Drawing upon a post-Big Book, 1966 study of environmental factors, self-determination and the conclusions we draw upon to construct our reality,<a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title="">[ii]</a> Shermer supports his patternicity and control theory. Here he draws upon what is called in psychology, “locus of control.”<br> <br>“People who rate high on <em>internal</em> locus of control tend to believe that they make things happen and that they are in control of their circumstances, whereas people who score high on <em>external</em> locus of control tend to think that circumstances are beyond their control and that things just happen to them.”<br> <br>Some of the patterns we see—the dots we connect—are a credit to our deduction skills but will also lead us to false conclusions, what Shermer calls, “apatternicity.” In the rooms, people with an external locus of control (LOC) say, “That’s my disease talking,” “No human power could relieve our alcoholism,” and “Nothing happens in God’s world by mistake.” People with an internal LOC will say, “Faith without works is dead,” “Easy does it, but do it,” or “If nothing changes, nothing changes.”<br> <br>Words like <em>powerless</em> and <em>unmanageable</em> mean different things, depending on one’s LOC. A “power greater than ourselves,” might have obvious but different definition to internal and external LOC types. While the power of example in the rooms might be the miracle of God to a theist external LOC, to a non-theist external LOC, the influence, example and teachings of others is powerful, yet hardly a miracle. An internal LOC theist will feel God’s guidance in their gut. To a nonbeliever internal LOC, they may describe “the personality change sufficient to bring about recovery from alcoholism” (as Appendix II of <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em> put it), as tapping into “an unsuspected inner resource.” They may call it their power greater than themselves to placate the majority in the room but they may not; instead, they may call this guiding force their value system, higher-self or common sense. To the internal LOC, especially a skeptic, the whole idea of willpower being an agent of relapse but not an equally critical ingredient of recovery, seems to be more dogmatic than dependence on a supernatural being. Willpower is a neutral term to those of us with an internal locus of control. It is the root of all good and all evil.<br> <br>Early recovery language suits an eternal locus of control type addict or alcoholic. Understanding is warranted for some internal LOC addicts who say, “Forget the Twelve Steps—they are a design for planned dependency.” Finding a non-Twelve Step modality is certainly an option. The Steps don’t corner the market in recovery. There are secular self-help options like Life Ring and Secular Organizations for Sobriety. They may not offer meetings every day in every city, face-to-face, but these communities and principles are readily available on the Internet.<br> <br>Internal LOC translations of the Steps are out there, although harder to come<br> by. For instance, in Roger C’s <em>The Little Book: A Collection of Alternative 12 Steps</em>, “Gabe’s 12 Steps” are written from an internal locus of control perspective. Step Six, in the literal translation, helps ready the alcoholic for God’s removal of character defects. Gabe’s internal LOC version reads: “We accepted our moral and personal weaknesses, and accepted that they needed to change.” No divine intervention needed here, just a greater clarity and the application of personal responsibility.<br> <br>The Twelve Step principles are universally grounded, even if we find the 1939 tone tainted with Abrahamic morality and theism. After all, Bill and Dr. Bob were <em>Yankees</em>, not Tibetan Buddhists. The language was limited to the realities of the day, place and time. A Tibetan Bill and Guru Bob would have yielded a somewhat different sounding solution on noble truths.<br> <table align="left" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr>
<td style="width:250px;">
<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/1aacac1fe7929bca74d18de747f751cfc43c3b8e/large/calab-lack.jpg?1381851735" class="size_xl justify_center border_none" alt="" /><br> Calab Lack <a contents="http:// Skepticink.com/gps" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://%20Skepticink.com/gps" target="_blank">http:// Skepticink.com/gps</a>
</td> </tr></tbody></table><a contents="Caleb Lack, Ph. D." data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.skepticink.com/gps/2013/02/24/psychology-of-belief-the-videos/" target="_blank">Caleb Lack, Ph. D.</a> is clinical psychologist and professor, working in areas such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and posttraumatic stress. He also studies what and why humans believe. Lack points out that by the age of two we have imprinting that renders us naturally wanting to believe things that aren’t necessarily backed by the evidence—think boogie-men, tooth-fairies and Hercules.<br> “That certainly helps contribute to our belief in supernatural things, later in life,” Lack says.<br> <br>Sometimes, in working the program with others, we see tragic flaws in someone else’s beliefs or reasoning. We might be quick to set them straight. Picture if you will an atheist and Big Book thumper trying to help <em>enlighten</em> the other. Yuck! Why doesn’t either side give in?<br> <br>Lack explains that when we feel compelled to say, “Hey, you’re wrong,” something called <strong><em>psychological reactance</em></strong> triggers the other to dig their heels in. Any self-doubt they may have entertained is abruptly cast out. Lack explains how we get the opposite result that we are seeking. Instead of “Oh my, you are right and I was wrong—thank you,” the reaction we inspire instead is, “Hey, screw you; now I am doubly right.” One who was once open to new ideas becomes stubborn with unyielding certainty. Lack says that we ought to “engage them in discussion: why do I believe what I believe, and why do you believe what you believe? . . . I am a huge fan of the scientific method. I think one of the best things our culture has produced over the last 400 years is the scientific method. It takes all these biases, all these heuristics that we are naturally prone to, and helps eliminate them... so we don’t fool ourselves which is the key to any real understanding of things. It’s not just, ‘Here is my evidence,’ but ‘here is my unbiased evidence.’ For me, personally, it’s about seeing the world for how it is—not as I want it to be.”<br> <br>This reactance theory, or psychological reactance as Caleb Lack says, is defined by the Psychology Dictionary as:<br> <br>The theory describing a motivational state consisting of distress, anxiety and desire to restore freedoms taken away when an individual responds to a perceived threat or to loss of a freedom. According to the theory when an individual feels forced into a certain behavior, they will react against the coercion. This reaction is often exemplified by an increased desire for the behavior that is now restrained. This resentment may manifest in doing the exact opposite of what the power authority wanted.<br>REACTANCE THEORY: “Reactance theory states that people will often resent the loss of a freedom and will rebel by doing the opposite of what they're told.”<br><br>Psychology Dictionary: <a href="http://psychologydictionary.org/reactance-theory/#ixzz2h9w1tjkl">http://psychologydictionary.org/reactance-theory/#ixzz2h9w1tjkl</a><br> <br>So where does all this leave us when we are talking to each other about the Twelve Step program? Let’s continue to share our <em>experience</em> and dispense with what we think is our <em>expertise</em>. As we work with another suffering addict, our role is to help them find <em>their</em> salvation, not <em>ours</em>. If we are working with an atheist and we can’t imagine being clean and sober without God, let’s remember that our description of the events leading to recovery, that we articulate as divine providence, may not be taken seriously by the newcomer. At worst, she or he may feel preached at, making the whole Step process very unattractive.<br> <br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/6af12afe37198b4320d429a6d7ee868aeb63b629/medium/jack-webb.jpg?1381852403" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" />Conversely, an atheist can still help a believer find recovery. “Just the facts, Jack, just the facts.(Dragnet’s character Jack Webb)” We keep our story to what we heard and learned, how we reacted, how we felt and what we did. Who will disagree with our experience? Our opinions are a whole different matter. The meaning that we assign to events in our life, what Shermer calls <em>patternicity</em>, might sound misguided to someone else. If we can tell our story to someone who holds a divergent worldview, and we don’t make<br>them defensive, we have likely done a good job at keeping our <em>experience, strength and hope</em> to just-the-facts. Recovery is <em>pan-cultural</em>. We can do more good if we can describe the process in neutral (or agnostic) language.<br> <br>What would happen if the believer told the atheist, “The only reason we work the Steps is to find God”? The same result would come from the atheist telling the believer, “While you are coming to terms with the fact that you are an alcoholic and you can never drink normally again, why not lose that silly Santa-God delusion, too? You don’t need it; it won’t help.” Either way, if we describe our experience through the lens of our own worldview only, we are going to inspire the psychological reactance described by Lack.<br> <br>What Bill Wilson wrote at the conclusion of Step Three (turning our wills and our lives over), was “The wording was of course quite optional, so long as we expressed the idea, voicing it without reservations.” <em>Alcoholics Anonymous</em>, p. 63.<br> <br>We can remind ourselves and others of this when we each describe our own process. One of us may describe our recovery experience as, “God was going to be our Director. He is the Father, and we are His children.” (p. 62). This might jive with our worldview but we may describe the same transformation as “what psychologist William James calls the ‘educational variety’ because (it developed) slowly over a period of time.” (p. 567).<br> <br>People in need, need to feel heard; no one likes to be told. Let’s leave our personal views at the door, as much as we can. If we put down someone’s beliefs as second-rate, that is bullying. Why tell them to keep an open mind and then trigger them into slamming their mind shut (psychological reactance)? We need not create a mimicking parrot that feeds back what we want to hear in order to <em>carry the message</em>. After all, they are addicts and their skills at telling us what we want to hear are probably sharper than our bull-shit detector can read. Wouldn’t it be better to help them define and describe their process in their words—a language that they already buy into?<br> <br>In our next Rebellion Dog Blog post, we will look at the Steps and examples of more inclusive, less binary language. We will look at the evolution of the Twelve Steps from fellowship to fellowship through the years. Every new fellowship gets the advantage of starting fresh, talking the language of the day without dogma inhibiting the discussion. Fellowships like Online Gamers Anonymous and Teen Addiction Anonymous are new to the 21<sup>st</sup> century. As we would imagine, the language of their program is more progressive than fellowships that started in the mid-20<sup>th</sup> century.<br> <br>We can each review our own language to test how inclusive we describe this process. Do I describe my experience in a secular way or is my recovery inspired by the grace of God? When I write down or tell my own story do I describe an internal or external locus of control? How could I describe my own experience in a more inclusive way that more people could relate to it?<br><br>FYI, here are all of Gabe S's interpretation of the Twelve Steps:<table align="center" border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width: 95%;"><tbody><tr>
<td> <ul>
<li align="left">1: We admitted we could not control our drinking, nor do without it, that our lives had become unmanageable.</li> <li align="left">2: We came to believe that others who had had or understood our problem could help us return to and maintain sanity.</li> <li align="left">3: We decided to accept what they said and act on their suggestions.</li> <li align="left">4: We made a searching inventory of our bad feelings, of those aspects of our character that had contributed to these and of the harms we had done. We note occasions where we had done well and were glad of these.</li> <li align="left">5: We showed the inventory to at least one other person and discussed it with them.</li> <li align="left">6: We accepted our moral and personal weakness, and accepted that they needed to change.</li> <li align="left">7: We became willing to admit those weaknesses to others, where appropriate, and to heed any advice that they might offer</li> </ul>
<div style="clear:both;"> </div> </td> <td> <ul>
<li>8: We became willing to make amends to those we had harmed.</li> <li>9: We mad direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.</li> <li>10: We continued to take personal inventory, when we were wrong promptly admitted it and when we had done well, recognized this.</li> <li>11: We adopted a practice of meditation and one of reflection upon our place in the world and how we could contribute to it.</li> <li>12: Having experienced a psychic change as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.</li> </ul>
<div style="clear:both;"> </div> </td> </tr></tbody></table><br> <br> <div> <hr align="left" size="1" width="33%">
<div id="edn1">
<a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title="">[i]</a> http://www.harrisinteractive.com/vault/Harris_Poll_2009_12_15.pdf</div>
<div id="edn2">
<a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title="">[ii]</a> J.B. Rotter, “Generalized Expectancies for Internal Versus External Control of Reinforcement,” Psychological Monographs, 80, no. 1 (1966): 1 – 28.</div>
<div id="edn3">
<a href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3" title="">[iii]</a> Gabe’s 12 Step are printed with permission from C., Roger, <em>The Little Book: A Collection of Alterative 12 Steps </em>2013</div>
</div>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/1739722
2013-09-29T18:45:00-04:00
2017-01-14T11:32:10-05:00
Unity or Popularity Contest: Intergroup's role
How does Intergroup serve the fellowships minorities, majority and the still-suffering addict? Let's look at an A.A. example. <a contents="View or download as a PDF" data-link-label="rebellion-dog-blog-september-2013-intergroup.pdf" data-link-type="file" href="/files/107636/rebellion-dog-blog-september-2013-intergroup.pdf" target="_blank">View or download as a PDF</a><br> <table align="right" border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" width="435"><tbody>
<tr>
<td><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/f0f195446e590b9a208da09114c6418d17caf01b/original/alexis-detocqueville.jpg?1380506377" class="size_orig justify_middle border_" alt="" height="208" width="435" /></td> </tr>
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<td><i><b>Alexis de Tocqueville had an influence on A.A. co-founder, Bill W., who quotes him in Concept V of the Twelve Concepts of World Service</b></i></td> </tr>
</tbody></table>Here is the first thing we read inside the <i>General Service Offices, Central Offices, Intergroups and Answering Services Overseas ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS 2012 – 2013</i>:<br><br><b>“The offices listed in this service directory are listed at their own request. A directory listing does not constitute or imply approval or endorsement of any office policies or approach to or practice of the traditional A.A. program.” </b><br><br>Any service body will be listed regardless of their obedience to “the traditional A.A. program” or not? Why doesn’t the General Service Office (GSO) of Alcoholics Anonymous govern Intergroup offices or groups or members? The answer is that in the A.A. way, GSO is a service body, mandated to fulfill the bidding of the groups and members. It neither dictates nor polices. The groups have the authority at the top of our inverted triangle of A.A. Service bodies such as Intergroups, districts, areas and GSO are below, doing the bidding of the groups.<br><br>Warranty Six of the Twelfth Concept talks of <b>“extraordinary liberties which the A.A. Traditions accord to the individual members and to (their) group: no penalties to be inflicted for nonconformity of A.A. principles; no fees or dues to be levied—voluntary contributions only; no member to be expelled from A.A.—membership always to be the choice of the individual; each A.A. group to conduct its internal affairs as it wishes—it being merely requested to abstain from acts that might injure A.A. as a whole; and finally that any group of alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group provided that as a group, they have no other purpose or affiliation, . . . no action ought to be taken in anger, haste or recklessness; that care will be observed to respect and protect all minorities, that no action should ever be personally punitive; that whenever possible, important action s will be taken in substantial unanimity; and that our Conference will ever be prudently on guard against tyrannies, great or small whether these be found in the majority or in the minorities.”</b> <a href="http://aa.org/pdf/products/en_bm-31.pdf" target="_new"><i>Twelve Concepts for World Service</i></a>, pg. 74<br><br>Minorities have always been reluctantly welcomed into the A.A. fold—at least at first. The stories of our first women in A.A. include being told they weren’t welcome or instructed to sit with the wives in the other room while the A.A. men had their meeting. The first vote to welcome African Americans excluded them. Later they were allowed to attend as visitors, start their own segregated fellowship and then eventually welcomed as equals. LBGTQ groups and young people’s group all faced bigotry from those who spoke of A.A. stewardship and acted with fear and intolerance. Our society holds the same qualities of evil and goodness as the rest of humanity; our progress has been far from perfection.<br><br>The latest minority to threaten A.A. conservatives is the atheists and agnostics. If you don’t attend one, it’s helpful to note that agnostic A.A. groups have been part of the A.A. fold for longer than most members are sober or, in some cases, alive. The majority of A.A. members have a healthy indifference or “Live and Let Live” attitude about AA recovery that includes no obedience to any deity of any understanding. “I wouldn’t go to that group but to-each-their-own,” is the attitude of many <i>god-conscious</i> members. However, as the tension between secularists and theistic fundamentalists makes mid-day news outside our rooms, inside Alcoholics Anonymous tension has emerged in our local service structures about our nonbeliever-members.<br><br>A.A. alarmists accuse some agnostic groups of reading non-<i>conference approved</i> literature. Putting aside for one moment, the obvious—“The Man in the Glass,” “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow,” prayers as well as many of the slogans that our various groups proudly display—none of these are <i>conference approved</i> either. But because GSO faced so many calls to stop groups from doing un-AA things, this statement was put out to set the record straight. From <a href="http://www.aa.org/en_pdfs/smf-29_en.pdf" target="_new">aa,org/en-fdfs/smf-29_en.pdf</a>:<br><br><b>“The term ‘Conference-approved’ describes written or audiovisual material approved by the Conference for publication by G.S.O. This process assures that everything in such literature is in accord with A.A. principles. Conference-approved material always deals with the recovery program of Alcoholics Anonymous or with information about the A.A. Fellowship.<br><br>The term has no relationship to material not published by G.S.O. It does <u>not</u> imply Conference disapproval of other material about A.A. A great deal of literature helpful to alcoholics is published by others, and A.A. does not try to tell any individual member what he or she may or may not read.” </b><br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/55c957c1bb64b461839d5ea63981fba70636d5c1/original/aa-comes-of-age.jpg?1380507868" class="size_orig justify_left border_" alt="" height="339" width="232" />If you read <i>A.A. Comes of Age</i>, you know that the first groups to interpret and read A.A. Steps without the word “God” were Buddhist groups early in A.A.’s growth into the East. In a blog post from a year ago I referred to how this 1950s artistic liberty with the Twelve Steps met with concern from well-meaning absolutists. In his “Chapter on Unity” in 1957, Bill W. writes:<br><br><b>“To some of us, the idea of substituting ‘good’ for ‘God’ in the Twelve Steps will seem like a watering down of A.A.’s message. But here we must remember that A.A.’s Steps are suggestions only. A belief in them, as they stand, is not at all a requirement for membership among us. This liberty has made A.A. available to thousands who never would have tried at all had we insisted on the Twelve Steps just as written.” </b><i>Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age</i> pg. 81<br><br>Moving on to what role Intergroups play, they are also service bodies—not supervisors or moderators. A.A. is not a popularity contest. The most marginalized, repugnant or anti-establishment of us are still rights-bearing-equals. Can we vote on each group’s legitimacy before entering them into the meeting list?<br><br>From <a href="http://www.aa.org/en_pdfs/mg-02_centralorinter.pdf" target="_new">A.A. Guidelines: Central or Intergroup Offices</a> (MG 02 Rev. 2/12)<br><br>1) Listing of all groups in the community that want to participate.<br>2) A reminder that financial support is voluntary and not a condition of membership (in keeping with A.A. tradition).<br>3) A clear explanation that responsibility for the maintenance of the service office rests with the groups. Therefore, each group should name a central office representative and an alternate to serve a specified term as the connection link between the group and its central office.<br>4) A summary of the functions of the central office and an explanation of how it will be staffed and operated.<br>5) A discussion of how the service office will handle such vital matters as inquiries from newcomers, relations with the press, and similar duties.<br>6) Assurance that the service centre will be operated in keeping with A.A.’s Twelve Traditions.<br><br>Every group that wants to be included is to be included. What a slippery slope we decline down when one alcoholic is given authority to judge another. If an Intergroup office wants to take inventory, should it be the groups it serves or its own operating procedures that should be scrutinized?<br><br>I am a member of one of these groups that been discriminated against by what Bill W. calls in Concept V, an<b> “apathetic, self-seeking, uninformed or angry majority.” </b>Concept V also states that, <b>“When we look at our minority groups, we find that here we have also gone to great lengths in our trust of minority groups. Under Tradition Two, The group conscience is the final authority for A.A.,”</b> <i><a href="http://aa.org/pdf/products/en_bm-31.pdf" target="_new">The Twelve Concepts of World Service</a>, </i>pg. 23<br><br>Toronto Intergroup assumed this role of authority, higher than the groups it serves, the seat of perilous power, declaring my group and one other not-A.A enough for the meeting list. Of course we’re still part of the General Service structure; we still contribute our time, talent and money to district and area, working in Hospitals, Grapevine, Archives and Public Information. Without Intergroup, since our first agnostic A.A. meeting started four years ago this month, eight other agnostic A.A. groups have started and are growing. Still, we don’t find the now five evenings of Toronto area agnostic A.A. meetings in the meeting list, phone greeters are forbidden to mention us to interested callers and our groups have no voice on the Intergroup floor.<br><br>A well informed, less self-serving and less hasty intergroup body would not allowed a vote in the first place. The very act of singling out a group for judgment is a form of harassment. Who is being un-AA when such a discrimination takes place—the agnostics or the Tea-Party-esque conservatives? Right now, another Intergroup is considering if their A.A. is best served by implementing this <em>new-A.A</em>. brand of <em>creed cleansing</em> or homogeneity.<br> <br>If love and tolerance is spirituality then, scapegoating and judgment is evil. Isn’t evil the opposite of spirituality? I put that question to you because before posting, I scrutinized the word, “evil,” wondering if I wasn’t being melodramatic. Individually, aren’t these Intergroup reps just trying to be good stewards of our fellowship? Wouldn't we be right to feel shame for the disrespect that A.A.'s legacy of minorities suffered from our fellowship in their hour of greatest need. I don’t think the next generation will view group-banishing Intergroup reps as well-intentioned or in any way stalwartly.<br>.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/1269b837179cf3838ec914a9d75f11c75f920846/original/rebellion-dogs-blog-aa-service-structure.gif?1380508955" class="size_orig justify_left border_" alt="" height="527" width="443" />Where did this law-and-order conservative pathology come from? At some level, it’s always been part of the A.A. tapestry. For those of us who weren’t around in 1986 to know GSO’s retiring General Manager, Bob P., his final talk to the General Service Conference was reprinted in Box 4-5-9 (Vol. 50, No. 2/April May 2004) Here he had this to say about the rigidity of the day:<br><br><b>“If you were to ask me what is the greatest danger facing Alcoholics Anonymous today, I would have to answer: the growing rigidity that is so apparent to me and many others; (i) The increasing demand for absolute answers to nit-picking questions; (ii)Pressure for G.S.O. to ‘enforce’ our Traditions, (iii) Screening alcoholics at closed meetings. . . . And in this trend toward rigidity, we are drifting further and further away from our co-founders. Bill, in particular, must be spinning in his grave, for I remind you that he was perhaps the most permissive person I ever met. One of his favorite sayings was, ‘Every group has the right to be wrong’; he was maddeningly tolerant of his critics and he had absolute faith that faults in A.A. were self-correcting.”</b><br><br>In a self-correcting A.A. no one has to be voted off the island. Call it “God’s will,” or Darwinian “survival of the fittest,” but A.A. meetings that are on the wrong track will go away all by themselves; and they will hardly drag A.A. along with them.<br><br>In the same issue of Box 4-5-9, John K., Director of A.A. World Service who spoke at a General Service joint sharing session in November 2003 is quoted. The title of John’s talk was “A Vision for A.A.’ Future—A Continuous Moral Inventory of Our Collective Behavior.” Here is what Box 4-5-9 shared with all of A.A. from John K.’s message:<br><br><b>“Our co-founders were pragmatists—try something, test it, change it, review it, test it, then change, review, test it again. As a result, our knowledge as a Fellowship is based not on logic, or revelation, or authority—it is based on experience, on what works, and as such, it is always subject to change. Our basic vision of the future is simple: It is to carry our message of recovery from alcoholism to the still-suffering alcoholic, and to do so through the efforts of each and every one of our members. . . . Co-founder Bill W. wrote frequently about his vision for A.A.’s future. In April 1959, he said: ‘Maybe we have a policy or plan that still looks fine and is apparently doing well. Nevertheless we ought to ponder very carefully what its longtime effect will be. Will today’s nearby advantages boomerang into large liabilities for tomorrow? The temptation will almost always be to seize the nearby benefits and quite forget about the harmful precedents or consequences that we may be setting in motion.’. . . Almost every act has an unintended consequence, yet often we give too little thought to follow-up testing and assessment to determine whether anything we have, as Bill said, ‘boomeranged into a large liability for tomorrow.’. . . I think we now need to pause to ask if in the process, the cumulative effect of individual ‘minor’ changes might make, over time, a significant change overall. . . . I hope our vision for the future emphasizes the A.A. group as the fundamental unit of recovery. I hope our vision includes an A.A. where groups still have the right to be wrong . . . I hope our vision for A.A.’s future includes a willingness to engage in a ‘continuous moral inventory of our collective behavior,’ and to include as many of our members as possible in every aspect of that exercise.”</b><br><br>Interestingly, another article in this Box 4-5-9, is called “Unity and Sharing Are the Glue of Intergroup Seminar.” <i>Unity</i> in the founder's A.A. never meant <i>uniformity</i>. On the contrary, unity underscores our basic and spiritual tenet of love and tolerance for all.<br><br>In conclusion, let’s look at the tyranny of the minority. This story looks like one of squabbling minorities. The majority of A.A. supports a wide tent, celebrating the <em>variety of spiritual experiences</em>. In one corner, we have the minority agnostics. If they demanded that God is un-known and unknowable, and insisted that this restrictive worldview be removed from all A.A. literature—that would be <em>tyranny</em> from the <em>minority</em>. But they don’t demand that A.A. change—they just expect to be accommodated. Agnostic groups want to be included, welcome one and all, and mind their own business. In the other corner, the absolutist <em>minority. They</em> want to cleanse A.A. of unconventional meeting rituals. This is campaigning for change. They <em>say</em> they are preserving the integrity of the A.A. message. But what is the A.A. message? It is that we are a fellowship—not a program. We have “suggested” Steps and only one requirement for memberships—that doesn’t include obedience to, or belief in, Allah. An Intergroup that governs groups betrays the very A.A. principles they ought to be protecting. Allah doesn’t need their kind of help and neither does A.A.<br><br>Here is an idea for Intergroups concerned about being seen to endorse something that doesn’t sit well with everyone. Learn from the General Service Office that will continue to include you—regardless of how an Intergroup adheres to our Traditions. Simply say what they say in their directory: “The groups listed in this directory are listed at their own request. A directory listing does not constitute or imply approval or endorsement of any group policies or approach to, or practice of, the A.A. program.”<br>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/1598657
2013-09-11T13:15:00-04:00
2018-03-29T14:02:33-04:00
A rebel’s welcome to new AA Chairperson, Terry Bedient
<a href="/files/105460/Rebellion%20Dog%20Blog%20September%202013%20Terry%20Bedient%20AA%20Chair%20of%20the%20Board.pdf">READ and/or download as a PDF</a><br>
From Box 4-5-9, Vol. 59, No. 3 / Fall 2013 edition, Terrance M. Bedient, of upstate New York, is reintroduced to AA as our latest Chairperson of the General Service Board. Selected to the board as one of seven rotating non-alcoholic Trustees in 2008, Terry comes to AA from an Employee Assistance Program background and has been active in Public Information, several other committees and, most recently, AA’s Treasurer.<br><br>
Terry is most impressed with AA’s Responsibility Declaration; “When anyone, anywhere, reaches out for help, I want the hand of A.A. always to be. And for that; I am responsible.” To that end, according to Bedient, “The key issue facing A.A. is membership growth and engagement.”<br><br>
Terry Bedient was introduced to AA in 1975. He has seen our fellowship reach one million members, peak at 2.2 million ten years ago, only to struggle, never eclipsing that high-water mark in the decade to follow. The month of September is Recovery Month in America. We, the greater community of those who have overcome addiction, has grown over the last few years from 20 million to 23 million Americans while AA’s population has faltered as a percentage of the whole (AA membership in the USA is 1.3 million members).<br><br>
Both engagement of the current membership and the attraction of new members will mean stemming the tide of decline. America is changing, Terry. What do you plan to do to help AA catch up with this change? For any of us that think AA can stubbornly stay the same AND be entitled to growth, that’s where Step Two comes in to play, Terry. Any class B (alcoholic) Trustees will happily discuss their own personal experience with Step Two, “Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” Wanting things to change without being willing to change—that’s nuts. <br><br>
Taking a sober look at the strengths and weaknesses of Alcoholics Anonymous, the challenges to Terry’s vision for AA’s future, can be better framed by a new study that describes how America looks at and struggles with a changing culture. AA, I am sure you will agree, is facing the same growing pains inside our meeting rooms, as is going on just steps outside our doors. In February 2013, Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), in partnership with the Brookings Institution, conducted one the largest surveys ever fielded on immigration policy, immigrants, and religious and cultural changes in the U.S., spanning the political, religious, ethnic, geographic and generational horizon. 4,500 people were surveyed.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/8461056a0da368258719f82eaf0e5ff77d8ff507/original/Rebellion-Dogs-Blog-mulicultural.jpg?1378934676" class="size_orig justify_left border_" alt="" height="279" width="396" />An easy way to stem the tide of falling AA population is to better serve our growing minorities—atheists, women, visible minorities and youth. The greatest possibility of growth is in this under-serviced subculture of AA life. <a target="_new" href="http://publicreligion.org/research/2013/03/2013-religion-values-immigration-survey/">The <i>Citizenship, Values, & Cultural Concerns: What Americans Want From Immigration Reform</i></a> (Findings from the 2013<i> Religion, Values and Immigration Reform Survey</i>)<span style="font-size: x-small">1</span> speaks to American core-beliefs which have to be understood in any effort to engage or enlarge AAs population.<br><br>
By the numbers, AA doesn’t keep pace with societal change. Our own 2011 membership survey tells of our cultural anomalies when compared to other available data. Drawing from the 2011 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration <a target="_new" href="http://www.samhsa.gov/data/NSDUH/2011SummNatFindDetTables/NSDUH-DetTabsPDFWHTML2011/2k11DetailedTabs/Web/HTML/NSDUH-DetTabsSect5peTabs1to56-2011.htm#Tab5.41A">(SAMHSA) survey</a> of who needs and gets treatment for alcoholism in the USA, AA is more Caucasian, more male and older than the Americans that are being introduced to our fellowship. In 2011, 68% of the people being treated for alcoholism were white, while 87% of AA (2011 Membership survey) are white. The AA population of under 30 is 13%—one half of the 25.7% of youth who received treatment in the USA. <br><br>
One possible reason that many come to AA, but only a certain demographic stay, is a condition known to human rights or human resources personnel as “systemic discrimination.” Terry, we say that we want the hand of AA always to be there for one and all, but what makes us more attractive to a whiter, older, male population, compared to the greater population seeking recovery from alcoholism.<br><br>
So AA’s population isn’t reflective of the American alcoholic population despite the fact that over ½ of AA’s population is American. Three areas that AA’s board could look at, even in an inverted triangle service structure, are (i) statistical data, (ii) policies and procedures and (iii) organizational culture . Looking at one place AA faces an ongoing problem—the delisting of agnostic meetings in Toronto Canada, the provincial human rights regulator (Ontario Human Rights Commission) offers this look how organizational culture inadvertently favors the majority and marginalizes minorities:<br><br>
“Organizations can have their own internal cultures which, if not inclusive, can marginalize or alienate racialized persons. For example, an organization that values a particular communication style based on how people from the dominant culture tend to communicate may undervalue a different, but equally effective, communication style used by a racialized person. Similarly, social relationships and networks that are an important part of success may sometimes exclude racialized persons.”<span style="font-size: x-small">2</span><br><br>
Toronto would be a clear case of majority intolerance of the minority (atheists/agnostics). As the agnostic groups assert their rights to communicate in a “different, but equally effective, communication style,” they were banished from Intergroup for nonconformity. <br><br>
Maybe the fact that women remain underrepresented in AA has something to do with communication style, too. One hundred men wrote the Big Book in a communication style that may not speak to women with the ease to which it speaks to men. Maybe there are cultural traditions that, while AA doesn’t intentional discriminate, we marginalize youth, people of color and minority creeds, too. <br><br>
AA knows that we have a history of aversion to change. That isn’t an alcoholic tendency; it’s human nature. This year’s <i>Religion, Values and Immigration Reform Survey</i> offer some important insights as to tribal tendencies that have to be addressed. Here are some highlights of what this survey discovered about Americans and their attitudes:<br><ul>
<li>Majority of Americans (54%) believe that the growing number of newcomers from other countries helps strengthen traditional America customs and values. 40% see newcomers as a threat. The balance sees newcomers as having no impact.</li>
<li>American society has changed dramatically over a single generation; 71% of (Americans) age 65 and older, identify as white Christian. By contrast, 28% of Millennials (age 18 – 29) identify as white Christian (evangelical Protestant, mainline Protestant, Catholic).</li>
<li>Millennials (13%) are four times more likely to identify as atheist or agnostic than seniors (3%). Another 31% of Millennials are religiously non-affiliated compared to 11% of the 65+ club. In other age groups, of Americans in their 30s and 40s, 22% are religiously unaffiliated, and 16% of 50 to 64 year old Americans are religiously unaffiliated.</li>
<li>Who is nostalgic? Whiter older Americans feel like American culture and way of life has eroded since 1950. Younger people and people of color think it has improved.</li>
</ul><br>
If you are a young Hispanic gay atheist American, you find it hard to make friends. The one change that would improve your popularity more than anything is feigning belief in God—if you can afford to forgo authenticity for popularity. Atheists are the least-liked minority in the USA with only 10% of our fellows believing nonbelievers have something good to offer American life. “In God we Trust—or else!” Four out of ten of our neighbors think America would be better if atheists left town. Americans have a more negative attitude towards atheists than Muslims, the non-religious, immigrants, queers, the Tea Party and youth, all of which face dislike from at least one out of four in the USA. Imagine having that many people believing you were making society worse.<br><br><div style="text-align: center"> </div>
<div style="text-align: center"> </div>
<table border="1" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" width="95%"><tbody>
<tr>
<td> </td>
<td style="text-align: center">Positive Change on USA</td>
<td style="text-align: center">No Impanct on USA</td>
<td style="text-align: center">Negative Change on USA</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Atheists</td>
<td style="text-align: center">10%</td>
<td style="text-align: center">46%</td>
<td style="text-align: center">39%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Non-religious</td>
<td style="text-align: center">16%</td>
<td style="text-align: center">48%</td>
<td style="text-align: center">31%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Muslims</td>
<td style="text-align: center">18%</td>
<td style="text-align: center">44%</td>
<td style="text-align: center">27%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Tea Party</td>
<td style="text-align: center">24%</td>
<td style="text-align: center">30%</td>
<td style="text-align: center">30%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>GLBT (Gay/Lesbians)</td>
<td style="text-align: center">24%</td>
<td style="text-align: center">42%</td>
<td style="text-align: center">29%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Immigrants</td>
<td style="text-align: center">38%</td>
<td style="text-align: center">26%</td>
<td style="text-align: center">28%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Hispanics</td>
<td style="text-align: center">39%</td>
<td style="text-align: center">35%</td>
<td style="text-align: center">20%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Asians</td>
<td style="text-align: center">40%</td>
<td style="text-align: center">43%</td>
<td style="text-align: center">9%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Young People</td>
<td style="text-align: center">43%</td>
<td style="text-align: center">21%</td>
<td style="text-align: center">30%</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-size: smaller"><br>
Public Religion Institute, Religion, Values and Immigration Reform Survey, March 2013</span><br><br>
What can these attitudes tell us about attitudes inside AA and AA’s prospects for adapting to a changing face, creed and culture of people knocking on our door? Compared to the general population outside of AA, inside our rooms our nearly 80-year-old fellowship still looks like the 1950s that our more nostalgic Americans pine for.<br><br>
On the chart above, only 10% of Americans believe atheists make their country better. A staggering 39% of Americans think their society would be better without nonbelievers. No wonder why atheists are the forgotten minority in AA. Yes, nonbelievers have been with AA from the very beginning but when you look at how little celebrations of atheism there is in our literature, the success of the Twelve Steps without a belief in an interfering/intervening deity is AA’s <i>dirty little secret</i>, more than our power of example. Aboriginal North American members are under-represented in AA and they have a pamphlet devoted to them. Women do, the GLBT community does and so do young people and African Americans. AA wants these minorities to feel welcome and equal. <br><br>
Where’s the pamphlet for atheists and agnostics? It has been easier for our queer community to come out of the closet in AA because it is clear that that alcoholics can be here, queer and welcome. For skeptics and realists, it’s a old refrain I hear all the time; members bite their tongue instead of speaking candidly about how childish they feel, talking about or praying to an imaginary “God as we understand Him” when they neither understand, believe in, nor depend on any god. They bite their tongue because of the hostile way that they see other atheists treated in meetings or talked about in coffee shops. <br><br>
While the General Service Conference resists approving the same welcome mat that other minorities enjoy, in places like Toronto Intergroup or Tampa Florida, atheists and agnostics are confronted with the notorious “<a target="_new" href="http://www.164fl.com/wp.pdf">White Paper on Non-believers</a> ” which suggests that atheism is the inferior AA and is the scapegoat for many of AA’s woes. The wording used when the Indianapolis We Agnostics Group was delisted in their Intergroup newsletter was, “AA stays pure.” <br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/8a637e220e075efea5cc67777394f94f084ad4d7/original/Rebellion-Dogs-Blog-Dennett-book.jpg?1378934676" class="size_orig justify_right border_" alt="" height="376" width="244" />“When people sense that something they love is under threat, their first reaction is but build an “impenetrable” wall, a Maginot Line—and just to be extra safe they decide to enclose a bit more territory, a buffer zone, inside its fortifications,” is how Daniel Dennett describes what he has coined as hysterical realism. Dennett goes on to describe policies and procedures that start to show themselves in a reifying society, like any book-based society is susceptible to. Terry Bedient, you may find this familiar or it may be strange to you. Either way, engaging and enlarging the membership will require understanding some of the forces thwarting your noble efforts. “This policy typically burdens the defenders with a brittle, extravagant (implausible, indefensible) set of dogmas that cannot be defended rationally,” says Dennett, “and hence must be defended, in the end, with desperate clawing and shouting. In philosophy this strategic choice often shows up as absolutism of one kind of another. ”<span style="font-size: x-small">3</span><br><br>
The AA story is painted by the numbers. The data referred to here will impact membership growth and engagement. AA’s history shows that when we overcame our fear and intolerance of women, we grew. When we overcame our bias against African Americans, gays and lesbians, as well as young people, we grew in size. <br><br>
Atheists, Hindus, Muslims and countless other creeds and cultures have come knocking on our door. To welcome everyone, to take our creed of “anywhere, anytime” seriously, we will engage with members who communicate in a modest or dramatically different means as our main-stream “God-conscious” membership. To welcome others sincerely, we must accommodate a new language and new rituals. Uniformity is not unity.<br><br>
Mr. Bedient, welcome to the bottom rung of AA’s inverted triangle of service. Your primary purpose is a noble one but a goal fraught with challenges inside and outside our fellowship. How we treat each other will certainly have a bearing on how inviting our fellowship is to others.<br><br>
Engagement and growth will meet with wide approval but it will mean something different to each generations of AA, as well as our liberals and our conservatives. They say that chance favors the brave. It is a brave undertaking that you have set your sights on. I am sure you have contemplated the alternative. Best wishes.<br><br><br>
1. <a target="_new" href="http://www.samhsa.gov/data/NSDUH/2011SummNatFindDetTables/NSDUH-DetTabsPDFWHTML2011/2k11DetailedTabs/Web/HTML/NSDUH-DetTabsSect5peTabs1to56-2011.htm#Tab5.41A">http://www.samhsa.gov/data/NSDUH/2011SummNatFindDetTables/NSDUH-DetTabsPDFWHTML2011/2k11DetailedTabs/Web/HTML/NSDUH-DetTabsSect5peTabs1to56-2011.htm#Tab5.41A</a><br>
2. <a target="_new" href="http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/racism-and-racial-discrimination-systemic-discrimination-fact-sheet">http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/racism-and-racial-discrimination-systemic-discrimination-fact-sheet</a><br>
3. Dennett, Daniel C., <a target="_new" href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16241139-intuition-pumps-and-other-tools-for-thinking">Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking</a>. New York: Norton,. Pg. 204<br><br><br>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/1534717
2013-08-31T15:20:00-04:00
2017-02-02T07:34:31-05:00
Light & Shades: A more artistic groove to recovery
<a target="_new" href="/files/104014/Rebellion%20Dog%20Blog%20Light%20&%20Shades.pdf">READ or downlaod</a> as a PDF <br><br>
You may hear in a 12 Step meeting, “You gotta’ pay your dues if you want to sing the blues, and you know it don’t come easy.”The lyric, credited to Ringo Starr, with a little help from his friends, such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p5yzdCa2GE" target="_new">George Harrison</a>, could be the theme song of many addiction stories and, as many of us know all too well, recovery stories. Recovery doesn’t come easy, at least not at every turn. We continue to <i>pay our dues</i> and, from time to time, <i>sing the blues</i>.<br><br>
I am reading <i>Light & Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page</i> by Brad Tolinski with producer/guitarist/founder of Led Zeppelin, James Patrick Page. There are a few breaks from the chronology by way of conversations with other notables, such as John Paul Jones and Paul Rodgers. In one of these musical interludes, Jack White and Jimmy Page are talking together. Page says something about music that I think is a bustle in the hedgerow for any Twelve Step program member.<br><br>
Let’s see what Jimmy Page says about the blues:<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/73a57cfeca14b4a09aaeda3ed9fd0b8232e03886/original/Rebellion-Dogs-Blog-Jimmy-Page-pic.jpg?1378007814" class="size_orig justify_left border_thin" alt="" height="624" width="402" />“The key is you don’t want to copy the blues; you want to capture the mood. On [Led Zeppelin] III, we knew we wanted to allude to the country blues but, in the tradition of the style, we felt it had to be spontaneous and immediate . . . You can’t overthink this music. Mood and intensity can’t be manufactured. The blues isn’t about structure; it’s what you bring to it. The spontaneity of capturing a specific moment is what drives it.” <br><br>
The Twelve Steps aren’t about <i>structure</i>; they are about what each addict/alcoholic/codependent <i>brings to it.</i> I hear members proudly recite “How it Works” word for word as if imitation is the secret to long-term sobriety. Sobriety isn’t a role with 12 directorial cues and 164 pages of lines. Everyone has heard some member pontificating, “If you don’t work the Steps exactly as prescribed in the book, you’re going to get drunk!” Bullshit.<br><br>
Have you ever seen one of these seven-year-old virtuosos playing the “Stairway to Heaven” guitar solo, note for note, bend for bend on YouTube? It’s hard not give them credit for the hours of practice, but… But what; what’s missing? I can tell you what’s missing: Feel, passion, authenticity—it is not because of their age or privilege in life; it’s not because at seven you can’t play the blues because you haven’t paid your dues; the reason is that these notes are another man’s notes expressing another man’s emotions. Something very significant is lost in translation when any of us try to duplicate another—even if the other is a genius or an original.<br><br>
As Bill Wilson put it, "The wording was of course, quite optional, so long as we voiced the ideas without reservation." <i>Alcoholics Anonymous</i> (The Big Book) pg. 63<br><br>
When Page says we don’t want to copy—we want to capture a mood—he is saying much the same thing our cofounder wrote. Use a guide for the 12 Steps if you feel compelled to follow the instructions or “do it as it’s laid out in the Big Book” if you are concerned about being left to your own devices. But the instructions from author Bill W are not to follow a verbatim, sequential path; rather we are encouraged to “capture the mood” or “voice the ideas.” <br><br>
I have been known to say that any 100 members today, sequestered in a room to write us a new Big Book, would almost invariably write us a better book. I know; this is sacrilege to some of us, a disrespecting of our sacred text. But any 100 people today know more about addiction and recovery than the founders of AA did. A random 100 would have more recovery under their belts than the zero to three years sobriety that our founders mustered at the time of writing <i>Alcoholics Anonymous</i>. There was no one with double-digit longevity in 1939. Now, one million members in AA alone have over a decade of recovery. The language of the new book would be in today’s vernacular—less masculine, Christian and heterosexual stereotyping. Hopefully, the new book would update the words while maintaining the mood, intensity, spontaneity and authenticity.<br><br>
We can work the Steps without believing in God or other super-powers. Because of the transforming impact of the Twelve Steps, some of us will either gain or lose faith in a deity part way through the process. Each of us should question if alcoholism is an allergy or a disease. Each of us can decide if “character defects” ring true for us or if our addicted lives could and should be characterized as “insane.” Is the recovery experience going to be, for us, an event to which we will thank those who helped us and then get on with our lives, or is recovery a lifestyle that will include meetings, members and/or servitude?<br><br>
I don’t think there is a wrong way to say it, do it, work the Steps or live recovery. I didn’t get sober until I tried to help my cousin recover. My life wasn’t worth saving as far as I was concerned; hers was. “The Steps are in an order for a reason,” doesn’t hold true as a rule for working my program. I got sober working Step Twelve before I had a firm foundation on Step One. Following an order, by the book, wasn’t working for me. Two-stepping did. I was able to voice ideas without reservation to her, which I couldn’t take seriously for myself.<br><br>
I see people work the program in their own authentic way with great success. I see others who treat recovery like a grade 9 test; “Did I say it right?”, “Did I get it right?”<br><br>
Learn the rules and then break the rules. Don’t break them just to be disagreeable. Break them to custom-fit your own needs. How this looks in practice can be learned from prolific artists like Jimmy Page. A lot is said about the longevity of Led Zeppelin’s popularity. Was it because John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page were geniuses or becasue the whole is greater than the sum of the parts?<br><br>
These questions are answered in the twenty years of interviews with Jimmy Page that make up Brad Tolinski’s <a target="_new" href="http://www.amazon.com/Light-Shade-Conversations-Jimmy-Page/dp/0307985717/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0#"><i>Light & Shades</i></a>. Looking at Page through a 12 Step lens we see no half-measures; what we do see is complete abandon, an open mind, willingness and artistic honesty. Long before anyone knew Jimmy Page the guitar-god, he was a sought after producer and session musician. He helped make hits for Herman and the Hermits, The Who, The Kinks, Neco and Burt Bacharach. A very young Jimmy Page had a hand in soundtracks like the 1967 “A Degree of Murder” along with Rolling Stone, Brian Jones and “Goldfinger,” the James Bond theme song sung by Shirley Bassey. Page had a sitar before George Harrison did, having taken some time out in India after the Australian leg of a <a target="_new" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90vQG152hUk">Yardbirds</a> tour to learn and understand Indian music. He had a real love for Celtic, folk, African and classical music as well as rock and the blues.<br><br>
Led Zeppelin was his third touring band. He learned about studio recordings, he learned about live performance, instruments, music history, publicity, art and the business of music. He learned the rules and then broke the rules—not indiscriminately, but to accommodate his unique vision.<br><br>
If we learn the Steps and Traditions and the myriad of recovery knowhow, then we can make a mindful choice about what to follow, reject or modify to meet our needs.<br>
The point is, Jimmy Page learned the rules first, then he broke them. In doing so he altered history and culture. He was no drummer, but he noticed that the records of the day did not capture the full ambiance of drums. He looked at drums as an acoustic instrument and drum beats need room to breathe in order to feed us their fat sound. He experimented with microphone placement and found that richer sound could be gained by moving the mics further away, not closer to the drum. “Distance equals depth” is one of Page’s famous sayings and anyone who can imagine the Led Zep IV’s “<a target="_new" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEKkJHSO8A0">When the Levy Breaks</a>” knows how this type of memorable sound can be created by making a process, the music production process in this case, one’s own. <br><br>
Did you know how the song “Four Sticks” came about? In <i>Light & Shades</i>, Page recalls that the band was having trouble with the song; it wasn’t happening and they moved on to something else. One night John Bonham left the bands recording getaway estate for an evening out to watch Ginger Baker (formerly of Cream) perform. Bonham came back muttering, “I’ll show Ginger Baker something.” The late John Bonham took two drum sticks in each hand and started pounding out a beat, which became the new backline to the song—and incidentally, the inspiration for the name, “<a target="_new" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyZc2Xqav_4">Four Sticks</a>.” The most requested song in FM radio history, “<a target="_new" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7FUo_XaJs4">Stairway to Heaven</a>,” was too long to be a hit and abandoned structural conformity with no chorus to it. “Over the Hills and Far Away” and “Kashmir” also have no chorus and don’t seem to be missing one. <br><br>
Many innovations and many breakthroughs come from expressing ourselves in our own unique way. Any fellowship in danger of reification can take a few cues from the more artistic members as they capture a refreshing new “mood and intensity” from age-old tenets.<br><br>
Quote: Tolinski, Brad. <a target="_new" href="http://www.amazon.com/Light-Shade-Conversations-Jimmy-Page/dp/0307985717"><i>Light & Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page</i></a> New York: Crown Publishing, 2012, p. 132<br><br>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/1389051
2013-08-12T20:20:00-04:00
2017-01-14T11:32:09-05:00
Editors want to print what you want to say.
Download <a href="/files/101857/Rebellion%20Dogs%20Editors%20Want%20to%20Write%20What%20You%20Want%20to%20Say.pdf" target="_new">PDF Here</a> - Have your voice heard if you have something important to say. If there is anything I can offer about what to write, I learned it from my teachers in songwriting. Ralph Murphy, VP of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, is a producer, performer and songwriter himself. He very generously helps emerging artists hone the craft of songwriting. When asked about how to write songs that will be attractive to radio programmers, he says to write what comes from your heart. He has only two suggestions of what not to do, “Don’t bitch and don’t preach.”<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/658be294f3e32ddf08544e48db2460ec771146d1/original/grapevine.jpg?1376598346" class="size_orig justify_right border_" alt="" height="554" width="374" />That rings true with our experience strength and hope mantra. Whatever fellowship you are part of, the literature is your literature. The magazine, eZine or web-journal is yours, too. I assure you, the editor wants you to have your say as much as you want to be recognized. Their job is to churn out a fresh look at the same old thing with as many points of view as is reasonably possible. Every publication has an editorial style and new writers should learn to accommodate the style. If you do, it makes it easy for editors to see your work in their magazine.<br><br>I tend to want to write what hasn’t already been said. When I have an idea, I look for it online. If I can't add it to my collection or writing because it doesn't exist, I consider doing it myself. Sometimes, all that is needed is to say something in a way that has never been said. I have been rejected way more often than I have had the welcome mat rolled out. That’s a big part of the life of a writer.<br><br>In writing for peer-to-peer fellowships we tend to write in the editorial we or the first person; “My experience with practicing these principles in all areas of my life has been … ,” or "Our experience tells us ..." Starting out in a meeting with. “You should …” won’t help build a curious audience. The same consideration is worth bringing to the printed word. No rule is an ultimate rule. In the arts, rules are meant to be broken. There is a time and a place for anything if it is considered timely, helpful and relevant.<br><br>Below is a 2009 example that I wrote and The Grapevine published in their December issue. It isn’t typical; it is an opinion piece. It happened to be my experience that these were things I was thinking about and the editor thought others would identify. It was well received by some readers and it challenged or offended some others. Editors aren’t afraid of controversy. Bad taste is their only enemy.<br><br><span style="font-size: x-large;">Overhaul? Can our literature be as cutting edge as it was seven decades ago?</span> By Joe C., Toronto<br><br>Maybe our Fellowship is overdue for some neglected renovations. I arrived at the doors of AA in the mid ‘70s, when the Fellowship had seen journeyman duty through five decades. It became my refuge and now it’s my home. Three decades later I wonder, more and more—if AA were a house, what kind of a house would it be? Would it be called a “fixer-upper” by real estate agents putting a positive spin on what might otherwise be termed “in need of meaningful overhaul?” Like a house, if we are to stay safe and inviting, a periodic renovation is needed, as well as staying up to code.<br><br>Is AA as effective and relevant today as it once was? Furthermore, will AA be relevant and effective when our children or grandchildren need help? If an ongoing legacy of service is important, what do we have to do now to ensure AA is relevant to the next generation? Maybe e some are already retorting, “We don’t have to do anything—it is just fine the way it is!”<br><br>Around my home group, I often speak about how I think a lot of our literature could be better and open the hearts of more suffering alcoholics. Many young people today don’t turn to formal religions for their spiritual answers, often because the formal practices and language seem too antiquated to be relevant. I wouldn’t want future suffering alcoholics to forgo AA for the same reasons. Example: At meetings emphatically read from Chapter Five as if to say, Just yesterday, I was working with a newcomer who said to me, “What an order—I can’t go through with it.” In 32 years, I have never literally heard anyone speak those words. What I have heard is, “Are you out of your mind,” or “Whatever!” or “You’ve got to be kidding me!”<br><br>We are a decade into the 21st century and we still have a chapter called, “To Wives.” If your goal is to reach out to the still-suffering, wouldn’t we reach more people and offend fewer if we rewrote it as a new chapter called, “To Loved Ones?” Not everyone who comes here is heterosexual. Not everyone comes from a nuclear family.<br>Furthermore, even in traditional families, it’s not always the male head of the household that is the problem drinker.<br>The line “every boy dreams of being our country’s president” made sense for a Fellowship from the middle of last century—male-dominated and not extending past the borders of the United States of America. But today, AA lives in many countries—many without presidents as the head of state, not to mention the obvious patriarchy of the premise of the statement.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/191468d7b7c940a622904b4fef62c2ef01be7fe0/original/Grapevine2009.jpg?1376598347" class="size_orig justify_left border_" alt="" height="406" width="360" />Personally, I identify as an agnostic member of AA. In my home group, friends joke that I used to be the apologetic agnostic, and now I am the obnoxious agnostic—always speaking up for the rights of non-believers. The chapter “We Agnostics” can feel patronizing. The sentiment is that atheism or agnosticism is a temporary hold-out for members who will eventually “see the light” and come in line with traditional AA belief.<br><br>That’s true for many people but not for everyone. Our book was written by the first members, with only a few years of AA history. Time has shown that there is room for any belief system in our Fellowship, as long as do the work and keep an open mind. Wouldn’t it be refreshing if, in the next writing of Alcoholics Anonymous, this chapter was written by agnostics and not for agnostics?<br><br>I am not suggesting we alter the foundation of our AA home—this is more like a paint job with some energy efficient windows. We all want AA to keep working, keep growing and be more inclusive. To do so, we need to evolve.<br><br>Resistance to change in AA is understandable—why mess with success? The AA text and program as is are sufficient for anyone desperate enough to free himself or herself from a “seemingly hopeless state of mind and body.” But how can it be improved and expand its reach?<br><br>Our stagnation could mean seeing our Fellowship reduce in size and worse, reduce in relevancy. AA has adapted and it must continue to. In the AA I was introduced to, we smoked during the meetings. IN the ‘80s church and community centers that housed AA began to change their rules. In the city were I live, non-smoking meetings quickly transformed from a rarity to the norm.<br><br>This is one way AA changed to keep pace with the world around us. More and more, I feel that it is time for us to change with the times. I love my program and Fellowship. I love the big Book. But I don’t see our text as being above reproach. Its authors foreshadowed evolution: “We realize that we know only a little. … More will be revealed.”<br><br>I am not proposing changing the message, just keeping the medium relevant. I just want AA to be relevant when my children or grandchildren need it.<br>Joe C. Toronto, Ontario<br><br><span style="font-size: smaller;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;">EDITORS NOTE: Over the years AAs have hotly debated whether to update the the books written by Bill W. The General Service Conference discussed changing the Big Book in 1995 and the Twelve and Twelve in 2002, both times voting to keep the basic text as is.</span></i><br>Copyright © The AA Grapevine, Inc. (December, 2009). Reprinted with permission.<br>Permission to reprint The AA Grapevine, Inc., copyrighted material on RebellionDogsPublishing.com does not in any way imply affiliation with or endorsement by either Alcoholics Anonymous or The AA Grapevine, Inc.</span><br><br>See the <a href="/files/101374/GrapevineDecember2009.pdf" target="_new">original Grapevine article HERE</a><br>Hear the Grapevine audio version.<br>
5:25
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/1289367
2013-07-29T00:00:00-04:00
2019-10-07T03:08:41-04:00
Definitions and Metaphors: What is addiction?
<br><span style="font-size: small;">In his book, <i>Religion for Atheists: A Non-believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion</i><span style="font-size: smaller;">1</span>, Alain de Bottom’s opening position is, “The most boring and unproductive question one can ask of any religion is whether or not it is true—in terms of being handed down from heaven to the sound of trumpets and supernaturally governed by prophets and celestial beings.”<br><br>There is almost a religious fervor in how the addiction/recovery community grapples with our current disease model. And like any religion, there are loyal adherents and skeptics that denounce the tenet as dogmatic and unsubstantiated by facts. Silkworth’s “The Doctor’s Opinion” in <i>Alcoholics Anonymous</i> uses the allergy idea. “We believe, and so suggested a few years ago, that the action of alcohol on these chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy: that the phenomenon of craving is limited to this class and never occurs in the average temperate drinker.”<span style="font-size: smaller;">2</span><br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/1072f17de05ee5babe60edda0fee1fd8a1f5e6a9/medium/drwilliamdsilkworth.jpg" class="size_m justify_left border_thin" alt="" />Perhaps Silkworth and his contemporary’s allergic reaction classification sheltered alcoholics/addicts from stigma of the day that addiction was a moral failing, a lack of character and a self-inflicted condition.<br><br>In the 1970s the American Medical Association would deem alcoholism as a mental disease and in 1991 amend their definition to a mental and physical disease. Today, neuroscientists are rattling the cage with a vigorous skepticism about the disease model of addiction. In this religious-skirmish between establishment and rebellious science, both sides claim that the evidence sides with them, while the other is surfing a wave of ideology.<br><br>By the book, addiction doesn’t present like its killer cousin, disease cancer. Science can expose rogue cells that destroy their host body. Addiction isn’t like HIV which can be transmitted by intimate contact and identified in our blood. So is addiction a brain disease instead of a blood, bone or organ disease?<br><br>Online, <a href="http://www.webmd.com" target="_new">http://www.webmd.com</a> displays a list of brain diseases that include Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, Alzheimer’s, Cerebral Palsy, Multiple Sclerosis and Dyslexia. The list doesn’t include alcoholism, gambling, smoking or substance abuse.<br><br>Do we call addiction a disease because it is beyond the sufferer’s control? And is that really true? We can kick our heavy drinking habit; we can’t kick cirrhosis.<br>Alcoholics Anonymous or other 12 & 12 fellowships don’t technically enter the public debate on this or any controversial topic.<br><br>Tradition Ten: <i>No A.A. group or member should ever, in such a way as to implicate A.A., express any opinion on outside controversial issues–particularly those of politics, alcohol reform, or sectarian religion. The Alcoholics Anonymous groups oppose no one. Concerning such matters they can express no views whatever</i>.<span style="font-size: smaller;">3</span><br><br>Was it evidence or opportunity that the American Medical Association embraced the disease model of addiction? Just to be cynical for a moment, what a glorious franchise to capture exclusive domain over the treatment of people doing what people want to do. As an example of how respected medical establishments followed the party line, from, the Mayo Clinic, here is their definition of alcoholism: “Alcoholism is a chronic and often progressive disease that includes problems controlling your drinking, being preoccupied with alcohol, continuing to use alcohol even when it causes problems, having to drink more to get the same effect (physical dependence), or having withdrawal symptoms when you rapidly decrease or stop drinking. If you have alcoholism, you can't consistently predict how much you'll drink, how long you'll drink, or what consequences will occur from your drinking."<span style="font-size: smaller;">4</span><br><br>Dr. Stuart Gitlow is President of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. On January 2013 Dr. Gitlow blogged about the new DSM-5 in his post When Will There Be Definitions and Terminology in Addiction Medicine? “I've heard that it creates definitions for mild, moderate, and severe substance use disorders, something we've not had before and something I've never heard any of our members request. I can't see myself telling a patient that he has a ‘moderate alcohol use disorder.’ And I worry that an individual defined as having a ‘mild’ substance use disorder would not be able to gain access to treatments that would be available if he simply had a substance use disorder. What I've learned from patients is that addiction is something you either do or do not have. There's little middle ground. I've also heard that DSM-5 fails to correct the oversight of earlier editions that separate alcohol use disorders from other sedative use disorders. This means that by definition, individuals' alcohol use disorders are gone once they've switched from Bud to Xanax. They now have another disease state. And that is simply wrong.<br><br>“But we've never said that formally. Isn't it time to do so? Isn't it time, now that we have our own Board and our own residencies and our very well established specialty of more than 50 years, to have our own set of terms and definitions?”<span style="font-size: smaller;">5</span><br><br>A question worth asking is whether medicine and drug treatment have compatible ethos and philosophy in the first place. The legacy of doctor addicts in legion, if not cliché. Who has not seen the T-shirt with America’s favorite TV doctor, House, addicted to America’s most prescribed pain killer? “Wake up and smell the Vicodin,” the trendy T-shirt reads.<br><br>Disease model skeptics look for a better metaphor. Some liken addiction to be more of a behavioral disorder. Some follow poetic license and liken addiction to love as songwriters and poets do: “I got the love bug” or “love sick” are cliché now. Who said it better than Robert Palmer—“Doctor, doctor, give me the news, I gotta’ bad case of lovin’ you; no pill’s gonna’ cure my ills, I gotta’ bad case of lovin’ you?” Seriously, Robert Palmer was prophesying the future. MRI brain scans show infatuation with another human presenting like addiction and the rituals of love and obsession that come with it.<span style="font-size: smaller;">6</span> Other research corroborates these addictive overlaps in brain patterns in internet and smart-phone enthusiasm.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/553486a91b0aff96b1a08dfe5897934831972dee/medium/The-Fix.jpg" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" />Damian Thompson, in his book <i>The Fix: How Addiction is Taking Over Your World</i>, looks at how pervasive process and substance addiction is today, from iPhones to cupcakes to retail therapy. This self-admitted alcoholic challenges the disease model, wondering how heroin addiction can be just like chronic alcoholism and how these can both be like a preoccupation with online pornography. If addiction is like being in love, then it’s like a relationship—only an infatuation with a process or a substance that becomes the basis of our primary relationship, snubbing any human connection that comes between us and our fix. Thompson shares what he has been observing and some insights from his favorite reading list.<br><br>“Perhaps the crucial feature of addiction is the progressive replacement of people by things. That deceptively simple statement is a brilliant insight, though I can’t claim credit for it. It comes from Craig Nakken, author of the bestselling book called <i>The Addictive Personality</i>, who argues that addicts form primary relationships with objects and events, not with people.<br><br>“He writes: ‘Normally, we manipulate objects for our own pleasure, to make life easier. Addicts slowly transfer this style of relating to objects of their interactions with people, treating them as one-dimensional objects to manipulate as well.’<br><br>“What begins as an attempt to find emotional fulfillment ends up turning in on itself. Why? Because the addict comes to judge other people simply in term of how useful they are in delivering a fix. And at some stage, everybody lets you down. Therefore the addict concludes that objects are more dependable than people. Objects have no wants or needs. ‘In a relationship with an object the addict can always come first,’ says Nakken.”<br><br>Thompson goes on to describe how otherwise well adjusted people around him started behaving in just this way. Any of us who have been affected, maybe even traumatized by a betrayal of trust—sexual exploitation by a parent figure, feeling the brunt of an adult-rage-a-holism or suddenly losing a loved one—we start to consider how fallible the best intentioned humans in our life are and how much more dependable our rituals and substances can be to bring us bliss or oblivion.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/2a5d22015665e427c051c823bf97f0acab477438/medium/marclewis.jpg" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" />Marc Lewis, in his <i>Memoirs of an Addicted Brain</i> chronicles the emotional and physical downward road of his own intravenous drug use. From the vantage point of a neuroscientist, Lewis gives us a rare, firsthand account of the brain chemistry causes and effects as well. Observe as he describes, not just the process of getting high, which he does with shocking candor in his book, but the process of longing to be high and loathing the obstacles in our way.<br><br>(Note: At the point of this quote, we are over 150 pages into the book now so there are some scientific terms used that Marc Lewis previously defined. If the terminology is unfamiliar, focus instead on the emotional description of obsessive compulsiveness. If striatal craving and amalgam consolidating don’t paint a picture, the raw desire and incomplete soul should ring a bell.)<br><br>“Dopamine creates engagement with life’s pleasures—both natural ones, like the taste of cheesecake, and unnatural ones, like the pulverizing fist of narcotic sedation. But when those pleasures are out of reach, when the goal is beyond your grasp, two things happen. First, if the goal remains attainable, anticipated by not yet present, dopamine flow gets stronger, energizing pursuit, turning obitostriatal connections in the moment and entrenching those same connections over minutes and hours. In this way, oritofrontal value is translated into striatal craving and with repetition, the value—craving amalgam consolidates into a lasting union, a dependency that drives away the competition, perhaps forever. When the object is just out of reach, that gush of dopamine feels like raw desire, a deep itch, the contradiction of an incomplete soul—whether the object of our desire is a girl or a drug. The second stage is when the goal is no longer anticipated, when you’ve given up. This stage brings the addict face to face with the world’s other half: the not-so-good half. Because when the drugs (or booze, sex, or gambling) are nowhere to be found, when the horizon is empty of their promise, the humming motor of the OFC sputters to a halt. Orbitofrontal cells go dormant and dopamine just stops. Like a religious fundamentalist, the addict’s brain has only two stable states: rapture and disinterest. Addictive drugs convert the brain to recognize only one face of God, to thrill to only one suitor. And without that purveyor of goodness, orbitofrontal neurons become underactive, sleepy, deadened.”<span style="font-size: smaller;">7</span><br><br>Life is a balancing act for any addict to find sustainable satisfaction. To be either so risk-adverse that we are rigid or so careless that we are self-destructive would be a tragic consolation prize compared to peacefully breathing in a life of wonder. The manic “rapture” and depressing “disinterest” that Lewis describe as the addict’s opposite extremes life is easily relatable to any addict.<br><br>A foot in a bucket of ice and the other in boiling water may be statistically balanced but try it… Now try doing your job or being present to your children while you are simultaneously being poached and frozen. This is how addiction becomes a demanding mistress, forbidding other love-interests or life-interests. Other people, whom we say we love more than anything, to an addict are reduced to enablers that maintain our primary relationship or, a deterrent that becomes the target of our wrath or passive aggressiveness.<br><br>Where does that leave us, other than with a belly full of doubt? The debate over articulating the illusive experience of addiction rages on and so it should. Dogma is deadly when it comes to a phenomenon that continues to ravage so many lives and homes. It’s always a shame to hear cranky 12 Step old-timers telling newcomers to unlearn the head full of vocabulary that 28-day treatment center instilled in them. “Sit down and I will show you how it worked for thousands of drunks ½ a century ago, a la Big Book.”<br><br>Group think is suspect in every institution—scientific or spiritual. It is easy and lazy to create a legacy out of what has already been discovered. We need our laboratories, our dedicated thinkers and worker-bees pushing the envelope.<br><br>But where the rubber hits the road—where each addict wrestles with their own conundrum of addiction—what is in a metaphor? Going back to what Botton offered us at the beginning—what does it matter if disease isn’t a clinically accurate truth when describing addiction? It’s easy to poke holes in folklore and mock tradition. Looking for fault and contradiction as if there is a reward for it isn’t the same as presenting a superior alternative. If, for the sufferer, the word “disease” is a stepping stone to a “personality change sufficient to bring about recovery...” or a “profound alteration in his reaction to life,” as is described in Appendix II of <i>Alcoholics Anonymous</i>, then how important is semantics to the addict?<br><br>Yes, holding up the disease model as a sacred truth is wrong. So is being apathetic about surging forward towards better understanding. But it works as a metaphor—for now.<br><br>“I am not a bad person trying to get good,” we hear for 12 Step armatures, “I am a sick person, trying to get well.” Robert Palmer might sing about addicted to love. Bob Dylan might sing, “It might be the devil or it might be the lord but you’re going to have to serve somebody.”<span style="font-size: smaller;">8</span> These are not intended to promulgate either a medical or theistic worldview. They are artistically sharing the language of the heart, from their heart to ours.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/90783e3190ed704cdda7f0567c91b16af6b94eaf/large/addicted2love.jpg" class="size_l justify_right border_none" alt="" />What is addiction; is it a bad habit or an environmental or hereditary disease? I don’t know, although I am curious. However mysterious this phenomena remains, there is a solution that has been found and shared by millions who aren't so fussy about a clarification. A hallowed tradition, that predates both modern medicine and guitar picking, is the transforming power of storytelling—from one peasant to another.<br><br>Every day, rational alcoholics or addicts in recovery are not married to illness, disease or disorder as a strict clinical definition for our addiction any more than crying out “Oh God,” during sex is a sincere prayer to our creator. Rather, it is just what we say to describe our experience. Other people seem to get it, so as any storyteller will confess, “Why let the facts interfere with a well told story?”<br><br>It is our nature to seek. We ought never grow complacent. But while we invest in better language with the ultimate goal of relieving more suffering, let’s try not to get reactive or judgmental about our flawed but functional current system. Our leaky boat needs replacement but in the mean time it still rescues the drowning and brings them to shore. Wouldn’t that be just like the addict to bite the hand that feeds us, abandon our ship and swim towards the horizon with visions of a more luxurious ride over the horizon? Let’s not forget who are, after all. As Carl Jung cautioned us, “Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism.”</span><br><br><span style="font-size: smaller;">(1) De Botton, Alain, Religion for Atheists: A Non-believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion. Toronto, McClelland & Stewart Ltd. 2012<br>(2) A.A. World Service, Alcoholics Anonymous Third Edition, p. xxvi<br>(3) A.A. World Service, Alcoholics Anonymous Third Edition, Appendix I Tradition Ten(long form) p. 565<br>(4) http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/alcoholism/DS00340<br>(5) http://www.asam.org/publications/president%27s-blog/asam-president%27s-blog/2013/01/27/when-will-there-be-definitions-and-terminology-in-addiction-medicine<br>(6) Ortigue, Shephanie, Ph.D., Bianchi-Demicheli, Francesco, MD, Pastel, Nisa, MS, Frum, Chris, MS, Lewis, James W., Ph.D., Neuroimaging of Love: fMRI Meta-Analysis Evidence toward New Perspectives in Sexual Medicine, The Journal of Sexual Medicine DOI: 10.1111/j.1743-6109.2010.01999.x<br>(7) Lewis, Marc, Memoirs of an Addicted Brain. Toronto: Double Day Canada, 2011 pp. 158 – 159<br>(8)Dylan, Bob, Slow Train Coming, Columbia (1979)</span><br>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/1246629
2013-07-22T15:30:00-04:00
2017-01-14T11:32:08-05:00
Did you hear the one about the six nonbelievers that walked into an A.A. room?
<span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 204, 255);"></span></span><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/db9dba58a4b3ede0787a9af48fe280c8aa40cd95/original/athiestbillboard.jpg?1374787641" class="size_orig justify_right border_" alt="" height="197" width="380" />(See Blog as <a href="/files/100653/Rebellion%20Dog%20Blog%20UTC%20study%20of%20nonbelievers.pdf" target="_new">PDF</a>)<br><br>
Deep in bible belt- tightening USA, an eye-opening study comes from University of Tennessee (UTC). Christopher F. Silver and Thomas J. Coleman III discovered that people without a higher power worldview fall into six types, based on the analysis from 59 interviews across the country. “We're pretty sure we've spotted all six in our comments section,” says lead researcher, Christopher Silver.<br><br>
Among believers in 12 Step fellowships we recognize a range—from theistic literalists to doorknob devotees and everything in between. So why limit the many colors of nonbelievers? From the analysis of their data, UTC comes up with six categories:<br><br><b>Type 1) Intellectual atheist/agnostic</b>: Well read, eager to engage in debate or any social intercourse that will stimulate them intellectually. The debate is seen as sporting. <br><br><b>Type 2) Activist atheist</b>: This unbeliever isn’t content with just disbelieving in God; they speak to the dangers of theism and the religions that preach theistic dogma. Politically engaged, the activists bring their brand of scientific realism to causes from minority rights to the environment.<br><br><b>Type 3) Seeker-agnostic</b>: “I don’t know and can’t know—and neither can you.” Divinity, if it exists, is beyond human understanding and these seekers, although searching, are skeptical that any of the book-based messages from God are anything other than political/cultural, man-made fiction. Doubt is a greater state of enlightenment than certainty. Type 3s don’t see themselves as undecided, rather, they are firmly committed to middle ground.<br><br><b>Type 4) Anti-theist</b>: Being diametrically opposed to religious ideology, anti-theists denounce the promulgating of ignorance and delusion. This group feels that theirs is the more enlightened and superior worldview; superstition is socially detrimental. Confronting belief and opposing religion is a duty.<br><br><b>Type 5) Non-theist</b>: This group is apathetic. Rarely giving the matter any thought, this smallish group wouldn’t care about the debate on Divinity any more than someone from New York would care about what day of the week that trash was collected in Beijing. Non-theists neither feel part of a team, a cause nor find worldview debates to be useful or entertaining.<br><br><b>Type 6) Ritual agnostic/atheist</b>: “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater,” would be a theme for this nonbeliever who still finds cultural connection to their religion of birth or worthy philosophy from religions as a whole. Secular Jews, Baptists, Muslims or Hindus might not worship Gods, Allah or Shiva or believe in the afterlife. However, they feel a connection to the community that religious tradition offer. Even a priest could be an atheist but fulfill his role in a community of adherents. Some who check off, “Protestant,” in a survey might not believe the Jesus or virgin birth myth but they identify with their cultural background.<br><br>
More will be revealed. UTC psychology department fully expect there to be 50 shades of skepticism as more attention is spent on our growing demographic. Silver says, “One of the main purposes of this study is to start a conversation and raise awareness of the diversity of the nonbelief community. Tommy and I both accept that there are other academic researchers out there with far more psychometric and methodological sophistication. Certainly these researchers may be able to explore the community in greater detail, shedding light on aspects of the community not detected in this study. We welcome others to explore the diversity of nonbelief and share their data and conclusions.”<br><br>
The <a target="_new" href="http://www.pewforum.org/2012/10/09/nones-on-the-rise/">Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life</a> in America separated their respondents as claiming to be a member of a named Christian or other religion and if they didn’t fit in one these numerous categories, there was “atheist,” “agnostic” or “none” left to choose from. Silver and Coleman try to expand on who this growing category of nonbelievers really is.<br><br>
The A.A. Pamphlet “<a target="_new" href="http://www.aa.org/pdf/products/p-13_doyouthinkyourediff.pdf">Do You Think You’re Different?</a>” was crafted by Living Sober author Barry L in or around 1976. In that pamphlet that relates the stories of A.A. minorities, one agnostic and one atheist tell their story along with the GLBT, visible minorities, a teen, a senior citizen, a high and a low bottom drunk, a celebrity and member of the clergy.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/b1f40f3b21d5b569caad1bc88b07430dcf3a3c92/original/University_of_Tennessee_Chattanooga.gif?1374787643" class="size_orig justify_left border_" alt="" height="81" width="463" />Let’s look at how the UTC categories might present inside our A.A. fellowship:<br><br><b>Type 1</b>, the intellectual atheist will know our history, from Jim Burwell to the official endorsement that the first Buddhist AA groups to re-write a God-free version of the Steps from the Steps author, Bill W., to how many agnostic groups are found in the world directory and where to find and quote Warranty Six in Concept XII of the A.A. Service Manual: <br><br>
“<i>Much attention has been drawn to the extraordinary liberties which the A.A. Traditions accord to the individual member and his (or her) group; no penalties to be inflicted for nonconformity to A.A principles; no fees or dues to be levied—voluntary contributions only; no member to be expelled from A.A.—membership always to be the choice of the individual; each A.A. group to conduct its internal affairs as it wishes—it being merely required to abstain from acts that might injure A.A. as a whole; and finally, that any group of alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group provided that, as a group, they have no other purpose or affiliation.</i>”<br><br>
Type 1 wouldn’t shun or discourage theistic devotion. However, she or he would prefer lively debate over everyone keeping to themselves regarding worldview issues.<br><br>
The Activist Atheist, <b>Type 2</b>, would remind others in meetings that belief in a sobriety-granting deity is optional—not mandatory. Type 2, as they engage in service work, will take stock of some of the other more dogmatic tenets in A.A. They may prefer a more up-to-date A.A. Instead of sacralizing the first 164 pages of the Big Book, how about a less dated, sexist, American-centric Big Book? “If it works don’t fix it,” should be weighed against, “how could we alter or improve literature to be more current and helpful?” The secret healing power is in the idea behind the message, not in the carefully preserved words. As the founders wrote, (Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 63) “<i>The wording was, of course, quite optional so long as we expressed the idea, voicing it without reservation.</i>”<br><br>
From the disease model made popular in modern day AA to the original allergy metaphor put forward by Dr. Silkworth, why make anything sacred? If the Big Book has “The Religious View of A.A.” as Appendix V, in this day and age, we are remiss to omit a Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Taoists, and Sikh view on A.A. How about retiring “To Wives” and replacing it with “To Love Ones?” How about “We Agnostics” being written <i>by</i> agnostics, not<i> for</i> agnostics? The A.A. world of 2013 is bigger than New York and Ohio A.A. of 1939. Once we learned the world wasn’t flat anymore, what was the point in stubbornly clinging to tradition?<br><br><b>Type 3</b>, the seeking agnostic might get more heat from nonbelievers in the rooms than the more religious members. While A.A. believers will <i>knowingly </i>wait for the seeker to <i>come to believe</i>, committed skeptics may be more impatient, “Stop fence-sitting! ‘Half measures avail us nothing.’ How could you still think an interfering/intervening deity is possibly keeping you sober? There’s no Zeus, no Santa, no Unicorn, no God; get over it and move on.”<br><br>
The seeker may even feel their doubt is a higher spiritual plane than the certainty of either their atheist or theist sisters or brothers. Binary thinking demands that either the world is this way or that way (everything is a one or a zero). The seeker isn’t a binary thinker; their worldview isn’t rigid and doesn’t need absolutes to get on with the business of sober living.<br><b><br>
Type 4</b>, the anti-theist will quote Jim Burwell, “I can’t stand this God stuff! It’s a lot of malarkey for weak folks. The group doesn’t need it and I won’t have it.” Type 4 will always be ready in a meeting to counter someone’s proselytizing passive-aggressiveness with a direct assault. A thesit may smugly suggests, “When you’re ready to stop drinking, you’ll find God.” Anti-theists may feel like the meeting’s monitor and cross talks with, “Keep an open mind’ goes both ways, you know. What works for you isn’t a universal formula for one and all. Live and let live.”<br><br>
The most dogmatic of us nonbelievers would be the anti-theist. Many type 4s won’t stay. They really think AA would be better off without the God talk because atheists are superior. Many will migrate to SMART recovery SOS or another secular peer-to-peer fellowship where they will be in the company of only like-minded folks.<br><br>
Tommy Coleman told me, “The Anti-theist is probably more likely to be a recent apostate, de-convert etc. from a religious tradition.” So in A.A. terms, the anti-theist may be one of us who just recently let go of God—having bought into the “God of our understanding” model, some of us later find the light goes out on our faith in the unseen. “There are none so righteous as the recently converted,” can apply to A.A. apostates who once went along with the crowd but later dismiss such beliefs as an unfounded and unnecessary crutch.<br><br><b>Type 5</b>, Non-theists are at risk of drifting away from the rooms, too. Constant talk about God or constant belittling of god-consciousness, are both really boring to Type 5. If everyone is so sure of what they believe why don’t they just shut up and get on with it? All the description of how God is working in each of our lives is really boring to a non-theist.<br><br>
There is so much more about recovery to talk about—why focus on what we believe when the material world inspires all the awe and wonder we need? One day at a time, don’t pick up the first drink, stick with the winners, personal inventory, making amends, meditation—these are things the non-theist will be heard talking about. These secular subjects are real, concrete and what living sober is about.<br><br>
Non-theists find their way into service work. The Twelve Traditions only talk of God once and the Concepts are secular tenets. Working on conferences, public information or getting involved in General Service is where you might find some of us type 5s. There is a lot less debate about God at an Area Assembly than there is in a Step discussion meeting.<br><br><b>Type 6</b> 12-Steppers, the ritualistic atheist or agnostic, enjoy the camaraderie of being part of something. The ritualistic adherent is caught up in the <i>doing</i> of A.A. more than the <i><b>believing</b></i>. Higher power, “God as we understand Him,” praying to doorknobs, or G.O.D. acronyms are no big deal to nonbelievers in of the 6th type. The <i>esprit du corps </i>felt in the rooms is powerful enough to keep us sober and we aren’t offended with anyone’s banter about belief or lack thereof. We go along to get along if we are a type 6. The ritualistic atheist might even be heard saying the Serenity Prayer or telling us how they turned their life over to God, not because that’s what they believe—but because that’s the language we speak in A.A.<br><br>
Ritualistic atheists might be closet-atheist but they want to fit in—not take a stand. If it’s all bull shit, what does it matter saying “God could and would if He were sought?” Who knows how many of our 12 Step member are closet atheists see the fellowship as a popularity contest. If you want to speak at conferences, chair meetings and get elected to service positions, you better say what other people like to hear. “What about rigorous honesty,” you ask? “Except when to do so would injure them or others,” is our response. Why make waves?<br><br>
So, reader, have you found your<i> type</i> or are you terminally unique. Some of us evolve from one type to another. Tommy Coleman told Rebellion Dogs, “Now in terms of individuals looking to find out which type they are, we say that due to the nature of all typologies, you may see yourself in more than one. However, we ask that you pick what describes you best as most people usually have one type that fits them better than the rest.”<br><br>
Personally, I was a closet-atheist 6 for years of my sobriety. I was hiding out in plain view A.A. It was easier for me to talk like everyone else than it was to be confronted. I even thought on a certain level that if I faked it, I would make it. When I felt the need for more integral sobriety, I came out of the closet. I was an apologetic atheist at first, but anti-theism was just too tempting in my <i>recently converted </i>phase. Suddenly, after decades of going along with the crowd, I was now offended by the blatant and sometimes bullying pro-theism or big-book-thumping.<br><br>
Today I identify as a type 1 nonbeliever, although I empathies with every edge of the nonbeliever’s hexagon. Maybe one day I will be non-theist # 5 and grow bored of the whole discussion but right now, I find the debate irresistible.<br><br>
The study made me think that there is no universal “us” voice,” and it isn’t being countered by a universal “them” voice. None of us can speak for all of us and I for one will tread more carefully when I am tempted to start a sentence with “What makes more sense for nonbelievers is …” or, “The difference between believers and nonbelievers is …” This UTC study is a reminder to me today to not be presumptuous about the preferences or values of others. We have the voice of the Pharisee and the Recalcitrant on both sides of the God question. The Twelve Traditions accommodates a 12 Step coat of many colors. The challenge for me is not to see it as a black and white coat. <br><br>
Comment or follow along the UTC ongoing study at Facebook: <a target="_new" href="https://www.facebook.com/atheismresearch">https://www.facebook.com/atheismresearch</a> or from their website: <a target="_new" href="http://www.atheismresearch.com/">http://www.atheismresearch.com/<br><br></a> <br>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/1124289
2013-07-13T13:13:40-04:00
2021-06-28T21:33:40-04:00
How Pessimism Can Save Us All: The Anti-Tony Robbins quest for better living
“We can change our lives. We can do, have, and be exactly what we wish.” This is Anthony Robbins promise if you want to “Unleash the Power Within.” According to his web site you can use your credit card to set your “level of commitment” which ranges from General Admission at $795 to Diamond Premiere Commitment for $2,595. Someone who pays almost $3,000 for a weekend of hope and a book, a DVD and a T-Shirt should be committed. You can interpret “committed” as you see fit.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/13dd3d48c87abac1694c113053ca6a6440f199fc/original/_tony_robbins.jpg?1373951886" class="size_orig justify_left border_" alt="" height="240" width="360" />The great thing about this bulletproof scam is that if you spend your money and don’t have all your dreams come true, you (not Uncle Tony) are to blame. Tony Robbins defies scripture. It’s not the meek that shall inherit the earth; rather, it is his Diamond Premiere committed people. The meek can have the scraps that the winners leave behind. I don’t think people are wrong to spend money on hope or Robbins is immoral to sell it but Buddhism, Twelve Step work or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy unleash the power from within and two out of three of these choices don’t want your money.<br><br>
To be content, I need to feel like I make a valued commitment to life of meaning. Of course life doesn’t come with meaning or value; we assign meaning and value to our life. Today I want to talk about how pessimism can be a touchstone to greater happiness for anyone—certainly, to an addict in recovery. When I lower my expectations I am free of much anxiety. When I stop demanding that my world and the people in it meet my needs, my longing diminishes. When I see myself and everyone as flawed, forgivable and deserving of second chances, I am less critical, less dissatisfied and more connected to humanity.<br><br>
Chris Hedges is not on the sidelines about peddlers of hope. In <i>Empire of Illusion</i> he breaks down what these snake-oil salesmen are spinning, “Once we adopt a positive mind, positive things will always happen. This belief, like all other illusions peddled in the culture, encourages people to flee from reality when reality is frightening or depressing.” The book dispels this illusion for the false idol we are really praying to, “The gimmick of visualizing what we want and believing we can achieve it is no different from praying to a god or Jesus who we are told wants to make us wealthy and successful.” (<i>Empire of Illusion</i> p 119)<br><br>
In Damian Thompson’s <i>The Fix</i> we see how our societal aversion to pain and our communal attraction to pleasure has made us susceptible to addiction and a life of always reaching for but never tasting a carrot just beyond our lips. Thompson makes an important distinction about how it is not about<i> liking</i> things too much; it’s about <i>wanting</i> them too much. In Eastern philosophy these are the <i>sins</i> of attachment and longing. It is well and good for me to like being in a loving/committed relationship but it’s the <i>wanting</i> that can exacerbate to obsession and/or addiction. <br><br>
We ritualize our addictive patterns. I bet the person who presses “add to shopping cart” on the Anthony Robbins Chicago seminar page will start feeling better about her or himself the moment the credit card is approved. In <i>The Fix</i>, Thompson describes rituals from his own addictive past, “This was a late stage in my addiction to alcohol, by which time most of my relationships were in ruins anyways and I was busily replacing people (with) things. So I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I developed a ritualized relationship with zopiclone pills. There must have been an almighty dopamine rush when the chemist handed me that paper bag of goodies—not unlike the thrill the compulsive shopper feels when a credit card payment goes through. And I know that, from the moment I had the pills in my pocket, I was already planning what was, in effect, the ceremony of taking them.” (<i>The Fix</i>, p 163)<br><br>
I know this to be true. Even before the effects of the bag of pot, horse-capsule of mescaline or bottle of gin I just bought had been consumed, I was comforted holding it close to my body, planning and excited about the process and ritual of getting obliterated that was coming. Like being excited about a date with the latest infatuation, I had a giddiness in my stomach and a lightness to my step. <br><br>
I was resisting my life and my feelings about life. I wanted relief from my wants and uncertainty. Too bad I didn’t have the courage and/or tools to manage my longing and my loathing. Later in recovery I could confront uncertainty and make peace with the chaos of life. Existential angst led me to drink. The unbearable quandary, “Is that all there is?” had to be drowned. Today I can answer “Is that all there is?” with “Yes, Joe, that’s all there is and all that there is, is enough.” At times it is more than enough—it is wondrous—but for the most part, a flawed uncertain life is still a good life. The tragic flaw in our consumer lifestyle is that more must always be consumed, cast aside and replaced. <i>Good</i> isn’t good enough; we have to have <i>great</i>. Achievement isn’t enough; the competition has to be crushed. Love isn’t enough; I have to be adored. I wrestle with a core-belief that “there will never be enough.” This is a belief and not an absolute truth. There is enough love in my world. I am good enough, my family is good enough and the world is good enough. It’s good to like approval, accomplishment and a full tummy. It is the wanting I need to manage. <br><br>
The Tony Robbins game feeds off of scarcity. There will never be enough love and money and happiness for everyone so hurry up, pay up and get your share. Scarcity is a belief that instills fear but is love and happiness scarce or infinite? <br><br>
Before the “singleness of purpose” mongers had their way, there was a story in the Big Book called, “Doctor/Alcoholic/Addict.” Too many dually addicted members were pointing to this passage as justification about identifying as an addict in AA. Did the zealots have their way in changing the title to “Acceptance was the Answer?” Nevertheless, the strength of the story remains about how for this AA member, when he is unhappy, some person, place or thing isn’t exactly how he wants it to be. His serenity is directly proportional to his level of acceptance. <br><br>
On page 420 of the Fourth Edition of <i>Alcoholics Anonymous</i>, we read, “Perhaps the best thing of all for me is to remember that my serenity is inversely proportional to my expectations. The higher my expectations of Max and other people are, the lower my serenity. I can watch me serenity level rise when I discard my expectations. But then my ‘rights’ try to move in, and they too can force my serenity level down. I had to discard my ‘rights,’ as well as my expectations by asking myself, ‘How important is it, really?’ how important is in compared to my serenity, my emotional sobriety? And when I place more value on my serenity and sobriety than on anything else, I can maintain them at a higher level—at least for the time being. “<br><br>
In<i> Religion for Atheists: A Non-believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion</i>, Alain de Botton, explains how Christianity does a pretty good job at lowering folks expectations—for this life anyway. We are weak, life is suffering and we will be cursed with desire, loss and eventually death. de Botton blames secularists for creating an expectation that anything is possible, all will be revealed and life is infinite possibilities. That’s a pretty good formula for disappointment, isn’t it? “…we are usually cast into gloom not so much by negativity as by hope. It is hope—with regard to our careers, our love lives, our children, our politicians and our planet—that is primarily to blame for angering and embittering us. The incompatibility between grandeur of our aspirations and the mean reality of our condition generates the violent disappointments which rack our days and etch themselves in lines of acrimony across our faces.” In his book, de Botton goes on to describe what many of know to be the relief that comes from Twelve Step fellowship in the rooms, “ … our very worst insights, far from being unique and shameful, are part of the common, inevitable reality of mankind. Our dread that we might be the only ones to feel anxious, bored, jealous, cruel, perverse and narcissistic turns out to be gloriously unfounded, opening up unexpected opportunities for communication around our dark realties.” (Religion for Atheists, p. 181)<br><br>
It is hard to stay present when we are brainwashed into consumerist mentality. We are longing and loathing, wishing and regretting, wanting something more and something else, a good deal of the time. The meek do inherit the earth. To have and appreciate life we have to like what we have, not have what we like. To be meek who are humble and patient under the provocation of others are more attuned to the world and the moment that someone hell-bent on change.<br><br><br>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/948421
2013-06-15T12:09:13-04:00
2017-02-02T02:16:02-05:00
A Fathers Day look at the Man in Black and a fellowship in the red
Every summer, AA population,according to Alcoholics Anonymous’ own membership survey, is posted. Membership, year over year is down 2,293 members worldwide (2012 vs. 2011) at 2,131,549. Compared to AA’s all time high a decade ago, of 2,215,293 (2002) we see a trending that we can call flat of declining.<br><br>
As a percentage of the overall population membership is on a sharper decline. USA alone, where ½ of AA resides, the overall population is up 23.7% over the two decades from 1990 to 2010. AA members from the USA have seen a modest increase in membership; it’s the rest of the world that is showing a growing indifference to AA; for every newcomer, another member permanently frees up a seat. Still, as a percentage of USA population, AA domestically is smaller now than last year and smaller as a percentage of USA population compared to twenty years ago.<br><br>
Voices and Faces of Recover report 23 million people in the USA self-identify as in recovery from addiction. Not all of those are alcoholics and less than 5% of the USA recovery population call themselves members of Alcoholics Anonymous. AA is not the only way to live sober in the 21st century. <br><br>
To deny that General Service Office isn’t anxious about the possible causes of membership stagnation would be naïve. How does one steward an organization that falls prey to the everyday human nature of resisting change. All book-based societies have a tendency to grow rigid and fearfulness about meaningful change. <br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/50a8e14d472cd2bd4f10fea9559cfe4050169ca3/original/MyFatherAndTheManInBlack.jpg?1373492625" class="size_orig justify_right border_" alt="" height="452" width="342" />In Toronto<a href="http://nxne.com" target="_new"> North by North East </a>(NXNE) is in its 19th year, exposing emerging art and media of many kinds. Last year I saw a movie debut, My Father and the Man in Black, a story told by the son, Johathan Holliff of Johnny Cash manager Saul Holiff. It is a beautifully told “adult child of a workaholic” tale told after the suicide death of Saul Holiff and the discovery of audio memoirs by his son. <br><br>
The angst, awkwardness and wondering why he grew up feeling unloved and unimportant to his dad are foist upon the audience in a touching tale. One would think the glory days of Johnny Cash would steal the show but it is really a story about addiction and how far reaching the emotional fallout and scaring spreads from one man’s internal demons. The movie debuted in Toronto at NXNE last year and it makes its TV debut here Fathers Day (Sunday June 16 on CityTV).<br><br>
This year there was, “The Life of Riley” a documentary about B.B. King, still playing at 85 years of age. It was awe inspiring to see all the great artists, in their own right, paying tribute to the man who has such an influence. And so many of these legends, you will know from the rooms—a good news story of addiction.<br><br>
As I post this, it is back to NXNE for me. Thanks for reading. Mother’s day and Father’s days aren’t always peaceful, warm experiences for those of us who come from dysfunctional homes. Regardless of our experiences with Father’s day past, good or bad, let’s treat it as one day with an open mind. <br><br>
Joe C<br><br><br>
Sources: <br><a href="http://aa.org/subpage.cfm?page=27" target="_new">Box 4-5-9 News and Notes from GSO</a> <br><a href="http://www.census.gov/">http://www.census.gov/</a><br><a href="http://www.facesandvoicesofrecovery.org/publications/life_in_recovery_survey.php" target="_new">Faces and Voices of Recovery survey</a><br><br>
See Joe C's NXNE coverage on<a href="http://indiecan.com" target="_new"> IndieCan Radio<br></a><br>
See a trailer for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtovAxxPo2Q" target="_new">My Father and the Man in Black</a><br><br><br>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/902137
2013-06-08T11:43:54-04:00
2017-01-14T11:32:08-05:00
Michael's New York Minute in 28 Seconds: A book review
Poking fun at my recovery journey, I like to say that, “I don’t have an AA conference talk. After hitting bottom, sobriety hasn’t looked like a five-star mutual fund mountain chart. The type of fund we want to trust our financial security to, and the life we hope for in recovery, have the same characteristics: Starting way down here at zero, over time, life gently weaves from bottom left to top-right. Our socio-economic status, health, reputation, wisdom and power-of-example currency rises with the odd dip and rally along the way just for good story telling. Who would spend their time and money to come hear a speaker say that, “The worst may be behind me and it may be ahead; there is no way for any of us to shelter ourselves from life’s chaos.”<br><br>
In so many words I am saying from the podium, “Hey, if your life is overwhelming today and you don’t know if you have the resources to overcome your difficulties, I identify with you. You are not alone.” The moral of our stories is that the Steps and skills of living sober don’t ensure us a carefree pass; they ensure us that perseverance is possible—come what may. Isn’t that what we really need to hear—that the Steps aren’t a test from which a passing mark will grant us the keys to the kingdom? Rather, “… Our whole attitude and outlook will change. Fear of people and economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively be able to handle situations that used to baffle us … (<i>Alcoholics Anonymous</i> p 84).”<br><br>
My area delegate reported on the April General Service Conference, “AA gets a B+.” We are passable but neither flawless nor indestructible. One thing AA has going for it is the tradition of teaching and connecting through story telling. That social construction is older than religion, older than modern civilization. What I am looking for in a Twelve Step talk is not that recovery is a better dream than drugs and alcohol. Recovery is an awakened state and I will not fear or be quick to judge the events in my life.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/d1e6a80ad20e8e7b04fa14de1d7b446ea23db296/original/28-seconds.jpg?1370719756" class="size_orig justify_left border_" alt="" height="300" width="300" />Michael Bryant’s <i>28 Seconds: A True Story of Addiction, Tragedy, and Hope</i> is such a story. Michael’s bottom wasn’t when he put down his last drink. His family, health, freedom and reputation were intact when he stopped drinking. He was famous, powerful and despite the handicap that alcoholism presented upon his mental and physical health, most of us would say, “Hey, he’s doing OK.” Michael is a Harvard alumni, he was a Canadian law maker and was never uncomfortable as a front-page regular in the national media. <br><br>
His emotional bottom was 28 unpredictable seconds whereby he was driving, clean and sober, with his wife. He found himself under attack by Darcy Allan Sheppard, a recidivate of correctional institutes, mental health and addiction treatment centers. Darcy’s life would end and Michael would be charged with criminal negligence causing death. Michael writes about his first time in jail:<br><b><br>
“Is that really me in that photo in the newspaper, or is this not quite real? Am I really being arrested for a homicide, or is this an illusion? Am I really the first former Attorney General to sit in a jail cell for allegedly killing someone, or is this not quite a bad dream? This is not a trick that can be performed . . . . But a sober 44-year-old can do it sometimes around midnight in a jail cell.</b><br><b><br>
‘I’ll lay me down and bleed awhile, and then I’ll rise and fight again.’ Richard, first Earl of Cornwall (1209 – 1272) <br><br>
There is no way to turn trauma around quickly. Delude yourself all you want, if that’s how you outfox insanity. But delusion and repression should be used sparingly, for they are boomerangs that come back to whack you, no matter how far or how hard you throw them. The harder the boomerang of delusion is hurled, the longer you repress, the harder the whack at the end of the cycle.”</b><br><br>
Nine months later the charges against Michael Bryant would be withdrawn. The cause of Darcy Sheppard’s death would prove to be of his own miscalculations. Michael never blamed Darcy for the life altering ordeal that he and his family would endure. Michael, sober at the time, identified with the chaotic, angry and self-destructive episode that Darcy was experiencing. Like any media-crazed tragedy, people lined up pretty fast in support of, or against, Michael Bryant. Few would let unfolding facts or their lack of first-hand knowledge blur their moral indignation. Later in the book, Michael writes about the fatal intersection of the lives of Darcy, his wife whom he was celebrating a wedding anniversary with and himself:<br><br><b>“The 28 seconds shared by Darcy, myself and Susan had been portrayed as rich vs. poor, influential vs. marginalized, privileged vs. oppressed. However, since regaining sobriety in the years leading up to August 31, 2009, and the years since, I have been a member of a niche of society where such distinctions carry absolutely no weight at all. We are all no better and no worse than the other.<br><br>
Alcoholism, as with addiction of any kind is utterly democratic. It disregards celebrity, social status, bank balance, club memberships, political office. In the rooms of recovery, people with Oder of Canada pins on their jacket lapels sit beside men who have done hard prison time. You will find women who are accomplished actresses or CEOs, and those who worked the streets as prostitutes and drug dealers. You will find men and women who arrive in high-performance automobiles, and those who come straight from hostels by foot or on the subway. You will find people of every conceivable race, background, religious creed and sexual preferences. You will find people 40 years or more from their last drink, and those still under the influence. You will find people just like me. And you will find people just like Darcy Sheppard. Andy you will find them talking, one with the other…”<br></b><br>
The author never returned to his status of political and social influence or public notoriety after he was vindicated. His sagging marriage didn’t rebound into a Hollywood climax. Michael Bryant was forever changed, but not at all regretful. In his book he pays tribute to the life of Darcy Allan Sheppard and paints a picture of a dysfunctional legal, healthcare and political system as the antagonist in this story. An insightful inventory of some of the systemic problems and what sound like reasonable solutions are presented in this book. <br><br>
This is the third memoir in a row I have read. I read Jowita B’s Drunk Mom and Marc Lewis, Ph.D., Memoirs of an Addicted Brain. I am not known for my love of light reading. Not to rank any of the three of these authors, Bryant’s work shows an uncommon insight and perspective. <br>
My own life has examples of how I have suffered at the hands of my own addiction, history and mental health idiosyncrasies. I have also had suffering inflicted upon me by the demons and darkness of others in my life. It’s tempting to blame. There’s a fool’s gold in the dream of vindication and retribution. In real-life drama such Hollywoodisms might comfort us through the night but they never materialize to uplift us in the light of day.<br><br>
Peace comes only from perspective, compassion, humility and forgoing the blame-game. If no one has to be to blame, no-win situations have a fighting chance for a new narrative. The story can be reframed without victims, perpetrators, enablers and rescuers. We can let go of our toxic moral indignation, we can love and we can free ourselves.<br><br>
I have to thank Victor, who insisted that I read this book. I might have judged the book by its cover. I was recounting to Vicotor, my own struggle over another front-page story and the people I loved who were suffering through it. Victor knew that I would find an understanding fellow traveler in 28 Seconds: A True Story of Addiction, Tragedy, and Hope. This is a story told by Michal Bryant, not about Michael Bryant. We all have life-altering New York minutes in our life (28 seconds on the metric scale). This book is the story of real life, of addiction, tragedy and hope. <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2012/08/20/michael-bryant-interview-28-seconds.html" target="_new">Interview with Michale Bryant</a> - Get <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15791995-28-seconds" target="_new"><i>28 Seconds: A True Story of Addiction, Tradgedy, and Hope</i></a>. <br><a name="28seconds"></a><br>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/822164
2013-05-26T00:00:00-04:00
2022-03-16T08:13:04-04:00
Retiring General Service Board Chair, Ward Ewing reflects on his time with Alcoholics Anonymous
At the 63rd General Service Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous, April 21 to 27, 2013, after 11 years as a nonalcoholic Trustee, Ward Ewing stepped down as AA’s Chair of the Board. Taking over for Ewing, fellow non-alcoholic Trustee, Terry Bedient is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, Vice-President of the Medical Society of New York and is a trustee of the New York Lawyer Assistance Trust, which oversees substance abuse programs for attorneys and judges.<br><br>Reverend Ward Ewing, in his role as Chair Emeritus for the General Service Board will be only a phone call away, should AA World Service need to consult him. “Before I worked for AA,” Ward tells us, “I was the head of a theological school in Manhattan. I am an ordained Episcopalian minister (Anglican Church in Canada and UK).”<br><br>Bill Wilson formed the original A.A. Board of Directors with 21 Trustees. Class A (nonalcoholic) Trustees made up 14 of the positions and seven were Class B (alcoholic). As Alcoholics Anonymous matured, the mix of Trustees reversed to 2/3 Alcoholic Trustees. Nonalcoholic Trustees bring leadership, connections and expertise in areas such as corrections, medicine, media or, in Ward Ewing’s case, spiritual/religious acumen.<br><br>No matter what fellowship we call home, as we transition from recovery to service, we appreciate that the Steps and Traditions of every fellowship were adopted from, or in reaction to, Alcoholics Anonymous. Rebellion Dogsspoke with Ward about his tenure as AA’s Chair, some of the accomplishments on his watch and some of the rough waters that face the next Board of Directors.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/bd359d1725ee0b45cef180f246c5680aed256433/original/Ward-Ewing-II.jpg?1369601054" class="size_orig justify_left border_" alt="" height="232" width="193" /><span style="font-size: medium;">What are the advantages to Chairing the A.A. World Services Board for a non-alcoholic Trustee?</span><br><br>“Class A trustees have one foot in—one foot out. The Board has faced a couple of really tough conversations over the last few years. Alcoholic Trustees and Delegates line up pretty quickly on one side or the other of issues. I really don’t have a commitment to one outcome or another, as a Class A Trustee. I have come to understand that my job as the Chair is to facilitate group consciences, not to present and push an agenda. By the end of the first year I learned that the authority comes from the group conscience. To facilitate that consensus, I think it is to my advantage that I am not predisposed to any particular outcome.<br><br>“Jim Estelle is a Chair Emeritus for the General Service Board (Chairman of the Board 1993 to 1997). Recently we spoke on another topic and he was reflecting on how people assume that, because he isn’t an alcoholic, he doesn’t really understand the Traditions and the Concepts so he can talk about them, shooting from the hip and if people don’t agree with him, they just dismiss him.” Ward laughs. “That’s a lot of freedom.”<br><br>“I do believe that the Board exists to serve the fellowship; the fellowship really does make the major decisions and the board sees these decisions through. At the Board I often heard that there are no emergencies in AA. When urgency creeps in, there is a feeling that we have to get this or that done. The system of building a substantial majority is compromised. Anxiety violates our democratic process. The program is happening at the local level, and, with respect to what is going on in New York, there’s time to get it right. Being a nonalcoholic helps me to help the Board and/or the Conference take the time to find its substantial majority.<br><br>The press has a hard time honoring anonymity. A nonalcoholic face of A.A. is acceptable to the press and doesn’t violate our Tradition of anonymity. That’s another gift Class As can bring to the fellowship.”<br><br><span style="font-size: medium;">Ward, do you think you were brought in for your religious prowess?</span><br><br>“One concern on both sides of the Canada/USA border is the issue of religion and spirituality. I am part of institutionalized religion—I wouldn’t call it organized religion because we aren’t very well organized—but I am a part of that world and AA is clearly not a religion. Religion has a set theology and liturgy and there are professionals who run the organization. These professionals have the answers and their job is to persuade others to accept and believe what they believe. Frankly, it’s all in the head. That’s religion and I am not against religion; I am one of these professionals paid to encourage people to be religious and I hope some are, but it doesn’t belong in AA.<br><br>“Spirituality is something everyone has. We wake up with it in the morning. It is love and hate, anger and joy; we are spiritual beings because we are affected if people love us or hate us or ignore us. In a spiritual program we have no creed or specific theology or rituals. Now there are some rituals in AA and I think we have to be careful about these. In the South they almost always end meetings with the Lord’s Prayer but when they did that at the world conference in San Antonio in 2010, I was surprised and frankly I was a little shocked. Again, I consider myself reasonably religious and I want you to be religious but don’t try to make A.A. religious. The line between religion and spirituality has to be maintained strongly in this fellowship.<br><br>“Religion is taught at the head level, ‘Here’s the book and here’s what it means and this is what we do here.’ Spirituality is shared, not intellectually but at the level of the heart. What changes people’s lives is one suffering alcoholic hearing their story coming from another alcoholic’s lips and a story of despair becomes a story of hope. Too much talk of God in the group can be a barrier. We are all spiritual beings on a spiritual journey but we all in different places. Our job is to help each other see where we are in their spiritual journey and to help see where our strengths are on this journey and how we each can grow. It is not our job to tell another that our way is the better way. God doesn’t need my protection and I am not here to tell you or anyone how to manage your spiritual journey—I have a hard enough time managing my own.”<br><br>Ward pauses for a moment and continues, “A new pamphlet is coming out about the spiritual journey including stories of atheists and agnostics. Some people are very upset about that but I am very excited. What some of us miss, who have theistic faith, is the spiritual qualities of those with no such faith. They have a story to tell and spirituality is communicated through stories. That’s why this pamphlet isn’t about what to believe or not believe. It will be people sharing their stories.”<br><br><span style="font-size: medium;">These are stressful, challenging times for any organization. What lies ahead for A.A?</span><br><br>“According to printers, A.A. is one of the USA’s largest publishing companies. I can’t see that being the case 20 years out or even ten years from now. We sell one million Big Books each year. Then there’s the Grapevine. Is it really AA’s meeting in print if less than 10% of the fellowship subscribes to it? We are enthusiastically marketing the digital version and features of Grapevine.<br><br>“I am someone who has many years of congregation leadership. I think AA does a fabulous job in regards to dealing with the whole spiritual relationship to self-support. In this age of wealth becoming so concentrated, A.A. continues to limit personal contributions or bequests.<br><br>“When I was first interviewing as a Class A Trustee I got my first surprise. In the interview process I was asked if I had any questions and I said yes I do. ‘With any board I have ever been on there is an expectation to make contributions (financial) which I am willing to do but I am curious to what extent I would be expected to contribute. Can you tell me how much you would expect me to contribute financially to AA?’ ‘Yes,’ they said, ‘we can tell you how much—zero. We don’t accept contributions from nonalcoholics.’ That blew me away. They explained that the Seventh Tradition is an expression of thanksgiving for the health and new life that one has received from the fellowship.<br><br>“With the goodwill we have in A.A. we could go gang-busters if we wanted to start building endowments. AA isn’t about making money. We would absolutely destroy the connection between spirituality and the financial end of this fellowship.<br><br>“I am getting ready to give a talk to a church about what the church can learn from AA. I can’t wait to tell them, ‘Limit contributions.’” Ward laughs. “They are going to shake their heads, ‘How can you even talk about something like this?’ But if they want to treat contributions as an act of gratitude then you don’t fund-raise in the same way.<br><br>“Of any organization I know, AA does the best in connecting the spirituality aspect of the program with the financial aspect. The challenge now is that currently only 40 to 45% of our income comes from group contributions. The rest is from literature sales. We have people studying this and talking about it right now. In an era of electronic Big Books and so on, no one is predicting that revenue will increase instead of decrease. But I have a sense that if the fellowship is well informed the money will be there. We’ve been talking about it at Regional Forums and in this economic downturn our reserve fund is increasing. This year we’ll be at about 11 or 12 months of operating expenses and that’s our prudent reserve. If we hit our target we will be reducing literature prices. The fellowship has always been supported by its members but I must say we also enjoy very competent management. Looking forward, money isn’t an area I have a lot of concerns with.”<br><br>As Ward Ewing handed over the reins of the lowest job on A.A.’s inverted triangle of service, he reminds us that it is the groups, not the General Service Office that runs A.A. GSO serves the will of A.A.—never dictating to the groups or members. Ward cautions us to avoid being dogmatic in our rituals and not to fear whatever the future holds in store.<br><br>At the time Ward Ewing talked with Rebellion Dogs his final duty of Chairing the 63rd General Service Conference, unfortunately, the spirituality pamphlet which includes stories of atheists and agnostics was not approved by AA’s trusted servants.<br><br>Sadly, the idea of officially saying to the world that our Godless brothers and sisters are welcome equals among us isn’t a change that 21st Alcoholics Anonymous is ready for. Bill Wilson, when A.A. was only 25 years old, said to us in the July 1965 Grapevine, <b><i>“Let us never fear needed change. Certainly we have to discriminate between changes for the worse and changes for the better. But once a need becomes clearly apparent in an individual, in a a group, or in A.A. as a whole, it has long since been found out that we cannot stand still and look the other way. The essence of all growth is a willingness to change for the better and then an unremitting willingness to shoulder whatever responsibility this entails.”</i></b><br><br>Hear Ward Ewing <a href="./wardewing2011.cfm">talking at Unity Day in 2011</a><br>
39:16
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/718178
2013-05-10T11:54:50-04:00
2017-02-02T00:29:11-05:00
Jowita B's DRUNK MOM #6 on Globe & Mail list for Mother's Day
<br>
The story behind the book <i>Drunk Mom</i> reminds me struggle that the song "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" went through. Eddie Schwartz wrote the song and couldn't find anyone who believed in it. There's a funny story about a label flying him down to LA to record some demos but they didn't want to do that one. He begged them and said, "Let's do it; if you don't like it, leave it off the demo tape." He recorded "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," they hated it and the producer ordered the engineer to erase the reel to real 1/4 inch. I mean, they really hated it.<br><br>
Lucky for Eddie, the engineer had already made a cassette tape of the demo. It was another year before anyone showed an interest. Peter Frampton was going to record it but while he was on tour, unknown, Pat Benatar was with her agent listening to demos at "Brand X" music and she heard the song being played through the wall. She just had to have that song. The agent didn't think it was a good idea but Pat Benatar wouldn't have it. Zeitgeist's influence in the sausage factory rock industry of the day was just waiting for a feminist anthem to break the trampy 80's mold. Pat Benatar (with Eddie's song) became a sensation in every music market in the world. Looking back, having any man sing it would have been uneventful.<br><br>
Remember, no one who was in the know at gate-keeper central believed in the song. They were wrong. <i>Drunk Mom: A Memoir</i> has released in Australia and in Canada. Based on the splash of publicity the book is about to get in the UK, that market is about to drop the book too.<br><br>
The USA says, "No way." According to <i>Drunk Mom's</i> Doubleday Canada (Random House) team, Random House USA acquisition loves the book but sales say it is unmarketable. People love "Momoires;" people love crash-and-burn addiction stories but never the two shall meet.<br><br>
I bet, Random House will soon see that if they don't release it, someone else will and like Eddie's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Drunk-Mom-A-Memoir-ebook/dp/B009Y4I5QO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368215644&sr=8-1&keywords=drunk+mom%3A+a+memoir" target="_new"><i>Drunk Mom</i></a> will have her Mother's day.<br><br>
The book was like heroin for me. I couldn't stop reading and everything else was secondary. Around 1/2 way through I thought I should try to pace myself because I would soon be out. I regretted it being over. Jowita has a real ease with wielding a metaphor. One addict she describes in treatment as being the type of person others are drawn to, like a camp fire. English is a second language for Jowita but she is never apologetic or overcompensating. The story is unabashed and beautifully vulgar.<br><br>
Here are two "Hit Me With Your Best Shot's." One by composer/writer, Eddie Schwartz and the one that changed the world, by Pat Benatar.<br><br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JRgHol94Xc" target="_new">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JRgHol94Xc</a><br><br><a href="http://%20https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nvA1OUlKk8" target="_new"><br>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nvA1OUlKk8</a><br><br><br><br><br><br>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/571629
2013-04-20T08:10:00-04:00
2013-04-20T08:10:00-04:00
Here the pannel on "Growing Along Spiritual Lines" given by Joe C and Joe L (priest)
There is a Solution was the theme of the Ontario Regional Conference of AA April 12th, 13th and 14th. Saturday, the annual Spirituality panel was shared by AA member (and Catholic Priest) Joe L and Beyond Belief Agnostics and Freethinkers Group member (and author) Joe C. You'll be amazed at who was the more outrageous speaker. In fact it was a very civilized, very intelligent, heart-felt panel on recovery and belief.<br><br>
Recording of the talks are courtesy of Mulitview.com (all rights reserved)<br>
You can download the mp3 from the Rebellion Dogs Publishing<a href="./rebellinks.cfm" target="_new"> Rebel Links</a> page<br><br><br><br>
42:46
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/500820
2013-04-10T05:51:32-04:00
2013-04-10T05:51:32-04:00
For those who think Jung
<div style="text-align: center;">“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. <br>
Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”<br>
Carl Jung (Man and His Symbols, 1964)</div>
<br>
The three great existential questions are “Who am I?”, “What am I doing here?” and “Who are these others?” Most of what has been posted in Rebellion Dogs blogs lately is about belief which is critical in grasping “Who am I?” This question is a challenge without perspective—“Who (or what) I am not?” The obvious boundaries are “I am not you.” Babies discover “this foot is ‘me;’ mother and father are not ‘me.’” <br>
More complicated boundaries—are we our thoughts, feelings, actions or beliefs. Statements like, “I am a Libra,” “I am a liberal,” “I am a child of God,” “I am a sugar addict” or “I am a sinner” are all beliefs. These theses are contestable facts but they are undeniable beliefs. The “Who am I” question may be superficial without consideration of our purpose and how we relate to the rest of the world (What am I doing here and who are these others?). Like the systems of a car, beliefs, behavior and belonging are interdependent. <br>
Although I outwardly rejected AA and showed no respect for the membership when I was new, I secretly wanted your approval. I wanted to belong and I thought that belonging meant believing certain things and behaving certain ways.<br>
Being a member of an AA group for agnostics and freethinkers, there is an obvious sense of belonging. Like any meeting with customs, there are “expected” and “discouraged” behaviors from the ritual of saying. “My name is Joe and I am an ____________,” to “carrying the message.” Membership assumes a familiar code and creed.<br>
Being a member of a subculture that is marginalized adds an extra sense of belonging. Reactance is when resistance or resolve doubles as an unintended consequence of the actions of another (or others). I expect that I do more AA service than I would normally, as a direct result of the Toronto Intergroup vote to expel our AA groups from the meeting list and Intergroup activity. I am the events coordinator for Public Information for the Greater Toronto Area, I am the registrar in our General Service District, I attend health fairs and speak at schools for AA and I wonder how much of it is to make the bigots squirm in their seats when they hear my name and home group referenced in Intergroup reports. I know, I know, I am such a child.<br>
A matrix is shared delusion or a consensual hallucination. Twelve Step fellowships have them. “An eating disorder is a disease” is not a scientific fact but such a statement will get bobble headed approval in an Overeaters Anonymous meeting. The same is true with “alcoholism is a mental, physical and spiritual illness.” This is another example of how believing, belonging and behaving are connected. We want to belong and so we concede to the group-think about our prognosis. We treat our habit with anecdotal steps of recovery and lean on each other’s feedback to assess our physical, mental and spiritual progress away from the “merciless obsession” and our <i>fatal</i> illness.<br>
There is nothing wrong with buying into a school of thought. It is better to do so mindfully. <i>For those who think Jung</i>, beating dependence to a process or substance by depending on a mythical savior god would be trading in one bad dream for a new better dream. But what if we want to be awake? A pre-packaged “solution” will stop the bleeding but will it nourish the longing that caused the existential crisis in the first place?<br>
Only comfort comes from blissful sleep. I say we have to be awake to find meaningful answers. <br>
I am not picking on the theists here. Pre-packaged atheism comes with its bible, <i>The Origin of Species</i>, its bishops and cardinals to which the faithful mindlessly imitate. Atheism has faith-filled assumptions to fill in the blanks such as “we will be able to explain everything through science.” How is that so different than “Allah works in mysterious ways?” Just because science keeps converting the unexplainable into the quantifiable it is still a leap of faith to draw a conclusion that sciences run at puzzle solving will be infinite. Evangelical atheists are as arrogant and intolerant as the theists that they despise. Going back to Jung, that is if I haven’t offended and lost everyone by now, he talks about searching our heart, not our head. It’s not a stretch to suggest that Carl Jung is pretty comfortable in the theatre of the intellect. Why so touchy-feely all of a sudden? Intuition is as great a resource as intellect, regardless of whether or not we are trying to stay clean and sober for one more day or if we want to understand our higher purpose. <br>
I see Eastern philosophy as more holistic than binary Western counterparts. Going back to the bigotry of the theistically leaning Toronto Intergroup that continues it’s policy of uniformity—not unity, I ask myself this question: Would a majority of secularists be so much more accommodating to a god-fearing minority? Atheist dogma suggests that it is religiosity that causes atrocity. Yes we find connections between theism and persecution. Look further and we see Stalin’s atheist regime had a death count in the tens of millions, too. I think it is a matter of human nature, not a question of what the superior worldview is. Perilous power will always feel threatened and scapegoat the minorities to assuage their own anxiety. <br>
It isn’t our beliefs that limit us, but our arrogant dismissal of other’s beliefs that cut us off from refreshing new ways of seeing. Like yin and yang, it isn’t the heart or the head that should rule the nest; it’s a balance and cooperation of our reason and our imagination.<br>
Alan Watts in his common eloquence said, “Myths can sometimes express philosophical ideas that more exact language can never get across. Mythological language is infinitely suggestive.” To me that suggest that when I am smugly saying “That’s not proven to be true,” maybe a more useful question would be “What’s the point?” Is the point of the anecdote or thesis true or in some way useful? Carl Jung similarly reminds me that it takes more than 20/20 vision and a clear day to see all the facts. For my vision to be clear, I have to use all my senses—not just one. <br><br>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/442321
2013-03-30T09:00:00-04:00
2017-01-14T11:32:07-05:00
A.A. takes its own inventory. Should we, too?
Jimmy Carter (President of the U.S.A. from 1977 to 1981), originally published an opinion piece in <i>The Observer</i>, July 15, 2009, called, “Losing My Religion for Equality.” Here, Carter talks about his long held devotion to Baptist faith, the comfort it gave him and the cognitive dissonance that he experienced as he balanced the righteousness taught by his faith and the practices in the church that couldn’t be rationalized. His own research found that around 400 AD (Common Era), Christianity and maybe all Abrahamic faiths went from revering women for their role in the Church and society to selectively quoting the holy book to scapegoat women as the second sex, responsible for sin.<br><br>
Carter contrasts this repression to the clear advantages when every opportunity is granted to one and all, regardless of gender. He reflects, not only of the obvious incongruence of discrimination in the name of God, but on the loss to society as the result of such oppression.<br><br><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i>It is simply self-defeating for any community to discriminate against half its population. We need to challenge these self-serving and outdated attitudes and practices . . . I understand, however, why many political leaders can be reluctant about stepping into this minefield. Religion and tradition are powerful and sensitive areas to challenge. But my fellow Elders and I, who come from many faiths and backgrounds, no longer need to worry about winning votes or avoiding controversy—and we are deeply committed to challenging injustice wherever we see it.</i></b></div>
<a target="_new" href="http://www.womenspress-slo.org/?p=11440">http://www.womenspress-slo.org/?p=11440</a><br><br>
At the 2013 General Service Conference in New York (Aril 2013), the delegates and trustees of Alcoholics Anonymous will be taking inventory of themselves. Being asked is this question: “Reflecting on Concept One, how does the Conference ensure that it is the conscience of A.A. as a whole?” Concept I: Final responsibility and ultimate authority for A.A. world services should always reside in the collective conscience of our whole Fellowship.<br><br>
I say “No it does not.” The conference,by its nature, homogenizes the voice of AA as a whole. Our 2011 membership survey reveals to us that AA meetings don’t reflect the community just outside our home-group doors. AA is more male, old and theistic than the people walking by outside the meeting. This disproportion is more exaggerated at the Conference than it is in our meetings.<br><br>
For instance, the percentage of delegates who are female is dramatically less than the 35% of our members who are female. The 28% of our members who are under 40 have 0% of the delegates and trustees in their age category. I expect the Conference is more heterosexual, Caucasian and theistic that our membership as a whole too. “Can I see a show of hands of lesbian, African American, atheists delegates under the age of 40 please?” No? Nobody? <br><br>
So what’s wrong with old white heterosexual men making decisions on behalf of all of us?<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/69cfe7475c9185a03a141271004c5e57c06716a3/original/prejudice-racism-discrimination.jpg?1366472446" class="size_orig justify_left border_" alt="" height="281" width="486" />An example comes by way of our 2009 Public Information Video aimed at youth. AA has 40,000 teenagers (2% of our population under the age of 21). Decisions made at the Conference might be made on behalf of minorities, but never by minorities. We are trying to make AA better for young people but none are part of the conversation at the Conference level. That's how we have "new" PI videos for "young people" with baby boomer music (Eric Clapton - very uncool). That's the sort of choice 50 to 60 year old AA members would make when asking themselves, “What do kids like?” because it’s what they liked when they were in high school. It sounds great to us old farts but does it resonate with our target audience—today’s teenagers?<br><br>
Most of the Conference items about social media and eBooks should be left to the more qualified 30-year-old and under group. You can't find 30 years sobriety in a 20 year old member but I suspect we would get new insights on these pressing issues that a 45 to 75 year old subcommittee could not come up with. Social media encroaches on our reality. To the youth, social media is their reality. We are never going back to the "good ol' days."<br><br>
Concept One promulgates that ugly word, systemic discrimination. When we are "hearing the voice of the minority" at the Conference, as is the custom, thanks to our Concept V, the minority opinion is still one of a homogenized representation of the fellowship. This systemic discrimination isn't sinister or ill-intentioned—it is a systemic flaw in our current system.<br><br>
On the Public Information front we get better and better at telling our story but maybe we need to train ourselves to ask better questions. How can we accommodate our communities? What do they think we can do to alter or improve AA? I think if PI was more out-reach focused, we would see a change in our membership. People want to be heard, not told.<br><br>
I had the privilege of being at the first ever Canadian Eastern Regional AA Service Assembly (CERAASA) in Montreal. Ours was the last region to hold such an assembly. The aim is to hold a get together before the General Service Conference so delegates who vote on the issues of the day can discuss these issues with members at large and guage their feelings on the issues of the day. Delegates are invited to vote their conscience but many prefer to express the views of their constituents.<br><br>
All ten delegates from Eastern Canada are Caucasian. Ontario has the greatest visible diversity, as 25% of us are from visible minorities yet 0% of Ontario’s four delegates are from these groups. Females are 50% of our Eastern Canadian population but just 20% of our delegates. Canada’s median age is 40.6 years old. It seems that 0% of our delegates are below this age. Half of Canadians by age have no voice as delegates. Here is some easily available data on our Eastern Canadian population:<br><br><table width="570" height="141" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" border="1" align="center"><tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;"><b>Province<br></b></td>
<td style="text-align: center;"><b>White</b></td>
<td style="text-align: center;"><b>First Nations</b></td>
<td style="text-align: center;"><b>Other Visible <br>
Minorities</b></td>
<td style="text-align: center;"><b>Total Population</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Ontario</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">9,041,210</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">242,490</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">2,754,200</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">12,028,900</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>P.E.I.</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">130,650</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">1,730</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">1,825</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">134,205</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Quebec</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">6,643,125</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">108,425</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">654,355</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">7,435,905</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>New Brunswick</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">688,655</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">17,650</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">13,345</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">719,650</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Nova Scotia</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">841,230</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">24,175</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">37,685</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">903,090</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Nfld/Labrador</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">471,440</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">23,450</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">5,720</td>
<td style="text-align: right;">500,610</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table><br><br>
In a previous blog I quoted the Ontario Human Rights Commission which talks to AA’s responsibility to advocate for minorities. <br><i><b><br></b></i>
<div style="text-align: center;"><i><b>“Organizations must ensure that they are not unconsciously engaging in systemic discrimination. This takes vigilance and a willingness to monitor and review numerical data, policies, practices and decision-making processes and organizational culture. It is not acceptable from a human rights perspective for an organization to choose to remain unaware of systemic discrimination or to fail to act when a problem comes to its attention.”</b></i></div>
<br>
That previous blog, “What can the Toronto Problem tell us about AAs Population Stagnation Worldwide?” talked about how AA’s own Numerical Data, Policies, Practices and Decision-Making and Organizational Culture shows an outdated lip-service concern for minorities, a failure to accommodate cultural differences within our own fellowship and our outreach.<br><br>
We are all about attraction—not promotion. But if there is something unattractive about AA for select communities, what is it? If minorities are not broadly represented in our meetings, what could we do to outreach to them?<br><br>
Going back to Jimmy Carter’s comments it is self-defeating to systemically discriminate against minority groups when it comes to inviting them into the recovery discussion at meetings and policy making at the level of General Service. The reason that this defeats us is that a homogenized voice dulls our senses from the same repetitive messages. By making AA a tapestry of culture and thought, more is added and there is more to feed all of our minds and souls.<br><br>
It is laziness to passively resign ourselves to the idea that this is just how it is. Ours is a program of rigorous honesty and personal responsibility. It isn’t enough to point the finger, taking GSO’s inventory, for we are looking in the mirror when we look at them. They are at the bottom of our inverted triangle. It is our own group that a start to change for the better begins. Great freedom is bestowed upon our group. Freedom comes with responsibility. Self support means more than tossing two bucks in the Seventh Tradition each meeting. Our time, talent are also needed to keep us sober, growing and free from complacency. So while this time of year invites us to take stock of our General Service Structure, let us not also remember to personally and at the group level, be the example we demand that GSO follows. How can I be more inclusive and tolerant? How can my home group do the same?<br><br>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/350119
2013-03-07T00:00:00-05:00
2017-01-14T11:32:07-05:00
Do Twleve & Twelve fellowships dislike nonbelievers?
I have my Box 4-5-9 (Spring 2013) and there are three stories that I will try to tie together into one blog. March is the 50th anniversary of the French Big Book. The Theme for the 2013 General Service Conference is “GSO takes its own Inventory.” Finally, Gayle S.R. steps down, retiring as a GSO trusted servant.<br><br>I was at an NA meeting last night on Step 11. I generally talk about what I believe and what I do to stay clean and sober. I don’t often talk about what I don’t do or don’t believe. I didn’t say a thing at this meeting. I read a paragraph like everyone else and I listened to hear if my experience with Step 11 would be honored or at least acknowledged in the reading. It was not. According to NA, I can assume that atheists are either cured of skepticism by Step 11 and ipso facto have made conscious contact with God as we understand Him. Or are we welcome to tolerate the majority theistic belief but discounted as non-spiritual and therefore unworthy of participating in a discussion of meditation or consciousness because the only Step 11 experience is the unavoidable and irrefutable proof of a power greater than ourselves that we ask for the right stuff in our prayers and hear the answers to our prayers in meditation.?<br><br>To believe such a thing is fine. To state it as a universal worldview is delusional. Believing something doesn’t make it true. Being certain doesn’t make it true. We were once sure the world was flat but we were mistaken. People who were right about our spherical world who spoke out about it were more often persecuted than respected. Back then we lived in a “majority rules” world that didn’t respect the minority opinion. We know now that the majority was completely mistaken. This resistance to an alternate worldview looks very unattractive to us now.<br><br>Isn’t spirituality about humility? Is close-minded certainty a state of divinity or arrogant megalomania? I would think that certainty about something that can’t be proven is more insane than spiritual. Even if we are by chance right, we are foolish to be so sure.<br><br>Back to Box 4-5-9 to address a question that begs to be asked. I was surprised to hear that a French Big Book wasn’t available until 1963. AA was almost 30 years old by then and the Big Book had been almost a decade into its Second Edition. I expect there were rogue versions of French interpretations of Alcooliques Anonymes in every corner of Quebec and France by the time the official version was available. In celebration, Bill W said of the French launch, “This is new and magnificent evidence that A.A. can cross every barrier, can speak in the language of the heart to all who suffer our strange and fearsome malady.”<br>When will AA print the Big Book in the language of the Nonbeliever?<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/3635798a433546dd701df26672eed05e841660c3/original/AA-GSO.jpg?1380569603" class="size_orig justify_right border_" alt="" height="196" width="350" />Will atheistic language in AA be seen as a righteous bridge-builder in the same heart-felt way as reaching out to our francophone brother and sister’s was? There is a way to tell the story of AA and the recovery program of the Twelve Steps without any deity or supernatural force. It is being told and the program is being worked that way now. It always has been.<br><br>Another story is the celebration of the years of stewardship of Gayle S.R. who curiously is quoted in the Spring issue:<br><i><b>"'Our membership,’ she says, ‘much like the society in which we live, appears to be getting more and more polarized. I have heard from A.A. groups that want to let anyone with any sort of problem come to meetings and share, with the reasoning that ‘a drug is a drug,’ and I hear from their A.A. groups that want to change our literature or institute ‘rules’ so that no nonalcoholic is ever referred to a meeting, or no one who hasn’t worked a particular Step is allowed to share.”<br>This increased polarization can generate a certain reactivity on the part of some in the Fellowship, says Gayle, noting ‘the willingness of so many members of A.A. to believe that we make decisions here at G.S.O. that would go against the best interest of A.A. as a whole. Staff members are also members of A.A., so we care just as much as anyone about the integrity of decisions made by the delegates and the trustees.” </b></i><br><br>What she is describing about how AA is getting is really what it has always been. I have written before about Bill W’s writings of the Pharisees and Recalcitrant’s. Our co-founder has also reminded us that there will always be radicals and traditionalists. So what Gayle is warning us about a trend, is no more than her gradual realization of AA’s diversity.<br><br>Is it possible to “care just as much as anyone about the integrity of decisions made” too much? Only if you feel your view of AA is right or counts for more than another’s. Gayle, as a trusted servant, used her position to have a New York agnostic remove their variation of agnostic Twelve Steps from their website. She said in a letter to the webmaster, the following:<br><b>“. . . the message of A.A. is about recovery from alcoholism through the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. A group which feels a need to change the 12 Steps and to change the message may be a recovery group, but it is not an A.A. group.<br>It has long been the case that Alcoholics Anonymous has freely granted permission to a wide range of <em>Anonymous</em> recovery programs to adapt the Twelve Steps of A.A. as well as A.A. literature and the Traditions. However, once they have done so, they are asked not to call themselves Alcoholics Anonymous. So we respectfully request that your group stop calling itself an A.A. group.”</b><br><br>In her letter she cited selective chapter and verse of selected AA Traditions and publications. She failed to include, among other more liberal interpretations, this declaration from GSO which first appeared in <b>Box 4-5-9 (Volume 23, No 4)</b> and then reviewed again in 2006:<br><br><b>"Any literature that pertains to the principles of AA or is approved by a GROUP CONSCIENCE - is perfectly acceptable to be read by any AA member or in an AA meeting."</b><br><br>Gayle sees the polarization within AA but could not see it in herself. If there are two camps in AA, one being the “Let’s create a larger tent” faction and the other being the “We must preserve the integrity of the message” camp, then Gayle is clearly a member of the second. The agnostic group(s) are clearly a member of the first. Gayle’s letter was ground for www.agnosticaanyc.org/ removing their version of agnostic Twelve Steps.<br><br>Was her letter to New York agnostics an abuse of power? Gayle’s own service manual reminds her that GSO is to “abstain completely from any and all acts of authoritative government which could in any wise curtail A.A’s freedom.” Bill goes on to say on page 72 of The A.A. Service Manual Combined With Twelve Concepts for World Service (2011-2012 Edition), “our Conference will always try to act in the spirit of mutual respect and love—one member for another. In turn, this sign signifies that mutual trust should prevail; that no action ought to be taken in anger, haste, or recklessness; that care will be observed to respect and protect all minorities; that no action ever be personally punitive . . . and that our Conference will ever be prudently on guard against tyrannies, great or small, weather there be found in the majority or in the minority.”<br><br>Was Gayle’s enthusiasm to assert the majority worldview in AA a betrayal of her obligation to protect the minority, each group’s autonomy and even our AA given right to be wrong. AA is self-correcting isn’t it? If agnostic Steps don’t work they will go away all by themselves. Every group is a group if it says so. That’s what Bill said and Gayle knew that.<br><br>I wrote to her, pleading for reconsideration or explanation. My letter was ignored. There was a victory lap to plan and accolades to indulge in.<br><br>The final part of Box 4-5-9 I will touch on is the theme around GSO’s personal inventory. I hope the way we fear ( instead of accommodate) our minorities will be reviewed. I hope that AA can have the courage to do the right thing—not the popular thing—when it comes to encouraging our godless members to tell our story in our language instead of seeing us as a threat to AA integrity. Gayle is not a lone-gunslinger. AA’s underrepresentation of the atheist voice is legion. What is now being tabled as a new pamphlet on varieties of spiritual experiences including agnostics and atheists, started out in 2001 as a pamphlet devoted to atheists and agnostics. All other minorities have their pamphlet—young people, women, aboriginal North American’s, African Americans, the elderly, the GLBT community, members in prison and so on. Why isn’t there a nonbeliever’s pamphlet?<br><br>There was a movement to remove agnostics and atheists from a pamphlet that was originally intended for us specifically. The 2010 Conference Agenda Item, “Consider developing Conference-approved literature which focuses on spirituality that includes stories from atheists and agnostics who are successfully sober in Alcoholics Anonymous” caused a stink by the militant faction that is offended by atheism being aligned with success in AA. The intolerant ones don’t want diversity in AA. They want conformity. To them, their sobriety is poof of god and our refusal to see god working in our life is intellectual stubbornness.<br><br>The vast majority of AA members are theists. The politest form of bigotry is to be invited to go start your own fellowship. Our founders left behind a pluralist society where people of all shapes, beliefs, and ways of staying sober would be equal and respected. The majority choosing for the minority is not the AA our founders left behind.<br>Did you know that six recommendations have come from AA’s Literature Committee to print a pamphlet for atheist and agnostics. Everyone was discussed and mothballed. Here’s a history of attempts to have our voice heard. I found this on the Area 17 web site. It has since been removed. I asked GSO to check the minutes and archives to confirm or deny these dates, names and facts. After considerable time I was told, “We don’t have the staff or the time to look it up. Sorry.” <a href="/files/73307/history_proposals_pamphlet_agnostic-atheist-nonbeliever_compiled_2-2008.pdf" target="_new">READ IT HERE.</a><br><br>The complexities of believers and nonbelievers is very involved and our next blog will report on how much more we know about faith and doubt that the day that We Agnostics” was written.<br><br>Stay tuned.<br><br>Rebellion Dogs Publishing is pleased to announce the first ever secular daily devotional. Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life – finally, daily reflections for nonbelievers, freethinkers and everyone.<br><br>Order yours now: <a href="https://www.createspace.com/4127122" target="_new">REBELLION DOGS</a> Amazon Page<br>See 100 pages for free: <a href="/files/82799/_Beyond%20Belief%20%20Sample%20Pages.pdf" target="_new">REBELLION DOGS PUBLISHING</a>.com<br>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/335623
2013-03-01T06:20:29-05:00
2017-01-14T11:32:07-05:00
Explaining addiction to the professional community
What is alcoholism?<br><br>
Last week as one of my duties in Public Information for Alcoholics Anonymous I started the first of three ½ days with first year medical students at one of Canada’s top schools. I started by saying that I didn’t want to talk about something that was obvious to them so I wanted to see if we had a consensus on what we are talking about. <br>
I asked, “By a show of hands, who sees alcoholism as a disease, as an illness.” Two hands timidly went up a couple of others looked around to see to how the others responded. One of those raised their hand ½ way up and back down again.<br><br>
“OK,” I said, “The American Medical Association classifies alcoholism as a disease, however controversial that is, but I see there in consensus on this theory here. How about alcoholism as a behavioral problem—an addiction that has to be corrected by reprogramming or cognitive behavioral therapy like smoking or poor eating habits?” A few of the the ten students rose their hand for that one. I said, “There is no right or wrong answers here and AA has no opinion or a position in public debate on the topic.”<br><br>
“Well then, who sees alcoholism as a moral failing or a spiritual malady?” Not one student budged. “Well, that’s good, I think for us alcoholics that you don’t see addiction as a moral failing. Before Alcoholics Anonymous existed, history recalls that the medical profession saw inebriants as morally depraved and not worth the medical community’s limited time or energy. We were left to die of alcoholic complications or put in a sanatorium if we had become a nuisance to others. So I am pleased to see you don’t view us as reprobates.“<br><br>
This started a discussion about how many AA’s anecdotally accept the physical allergy, coupled with a mental obsession description of alcoholism but AA wasn’t all that interested in whether the chicken or the egg came first—rather we tend to eggs as best we can. We have no experts in Alcoholics Anonymous in either alcoholism or recovery. We have experience—not expertise as our currency. We each have our experience of alcoholism that we relate to each other. The two million of us that are AA members have each found a few or many that we identify with in the stories and experience that are shared at meetings.<br><br>
“Between us here today, we seem to be the seven blind people and the elephant about this beast called alcoholism.” I said to the students. “We all have our limited experience to which we have drawn some conclusions. Perhaps none of us grasp the whole picture. I hope that, through this process together, we can all leave here with a greater grasp of what this affliction called alcoholism is and how the medical and peer-to-peer community can work together to do a better job at limiting the morbidity and mortality that alcoholism brings to bear on society.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/bc21cc57c080f9fd4508fd31c9080aafde01e4a7/original/What-is-alcoholism.jpg?1380569603" class="size_orig justify_left border_" alt="" height="175" width="310" />The first day followed with the history of AA, what we are and we are not, the Steps and Traditions, what an open or closed meeting would be and what might take place at each of these. CPC came in to talk about the rich history of cooperation between AA and the medical world. Our Area CPC chair and some stories about common misconceptions held by medical practitioners and how they are dispelled, in part, just by engaging in the conversation about addiction and recovery. AA members shared their stories of what it was like, what happened and what it was liked now. Often, members would speak directly to times that they evaded medical help or cases where practitioners carefully tended to symptoms such as strep-throat and depression without getting an accurate assessment of the cause, or in some cases, not even asking about how much we drank and how often. The symptoms were treated but not the cause.<br><br>
We know that influenza is a virus, cancer is unregulated cell growth but what is alcoholism? And why do cancer and flu victims seek help and alcoholics evade detection? It remains a wonder to me that like the cold or cancer, the medical world has not arrested the problem of alcoholism. Certainly no one has been able to inject the addict with a desire to stop acting in a self-destructive way. We can’t present more articulate arguments, we can’t scare them and we can’t medicate addicts and alcoholics to sobriety.<br><br>
Over the first two days the students got to hear three stories: <br><br>
• A suburban grade A student who found smoking drugs and drinking and before she finished high school was a homeless dropout panhandling and suffering the indignities of any woman on the streets with no means of support. She got pregnant and after fantasizing about how cool it would be to raise a homeless child on the mean-streets, off the radar, she gave the child up for adoption in exchange for burden-free drinking. Realizing what she had done she went to treatment and went back to get her son. It took her two years of relapsing for recovery to take but she got sober, went back to school, got a scholarship, became a lawyer and is now running a practice, raising a boy and going to meetings.<br><br>
• A teenager from a good home, school and carefree life found weed, cocaine and alcohol and was eventually confronted by an intervention and sent away to a sober treatment centre and has clean and sober since 18, active in 12-Step work, the AA young people’s movement and higher education.<br><br>
• A second generation alcoholic went from growing up in the shadows to abuse and alcoholism to getting sober, getting educated and relapsing into sex and drug addiction after 22 years of sobriety, trying new drugs he never tried before. He’s sober again a couple of months and battling criminal charges and is a patient for both anxiety disorder and complications from his relapse.<br><br>
This is what alcoholism (and drug addiction) is. We can’t qualify or quantify it but the best we can do to explain it to medical students is to tell them our story. And no single story can tell the whole story. But now they know, although they can’t explain it to another. Hopefully, in their practice they can identify the symptoms and confront one or two of us before it’s too late. <br><br>
Maybe, just maybe, one of them will have something to teach us about addiction one day.<br><br>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/306403
2013-02-11T08:20:00-05:00
2017-01-14T11:32:07-05:00
Future Shock 2035: Stewardship in the 21st Century
Like any newcomer, someone getting clean and sober today will wonder two things: A) Do I want to stay around here in the rooms and hang out with this motley crew, clean and sober for the rest of my life, and B) Can I, if I want to, be one of the few, with so many people falling off the wagon and/or dying from addiction? “Rarely have we seen a person fail, who has thoroughly followed out path…”, aside, success is not guaranteed.<br><br>
Let us imagine that today’s new process or substance addict has used for the last time and they recover. Also, let us assume that they stay around. Not everyone does. Twelve Step culture becomes a way of life for some of us while for others it is a leg up into a clean and sober productive life outside being a loyal member of a regular meeting home group. So, for the purposes of this mental exercise, we are assuming that today’s newcomer (it could be you or it could be someone you stayed up until midnight talking with last night) has had their last drunk, high or acting out experience and it is onward and upward for this now shaky woman or man.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/9657a2ed72390e86c300a11c07c88b6b8634357b/original/future-shock.jpg?1380569603" class="size_orig justify_left border_" alt="" height="279" width="396" />While we are exercising our imagination, why not also imagine the year 2035 and that this newcomer is tomorrow’s long-timer. The history of Twelve Step fellowships will then be 100 years old and today’s newcomer will be 22 years sober at the centennial of the first AA member’s last drink. Damn few of today’s 22 year sober members imagined being a power of example or steward of the Traditions and fellowship back when they “put the plug in the jug” for the last time. It would be hard to imagine for today’s newcomer, too.<br><br>
One more assumption we are making of course is that Twelve Step/Twelve Tradition fellowships are still around in 2035 and they haven’t gone extinct, giving way to some new means of peer-to-peer methodology. I am sure many experimental scientists today are hopeful that addiction will be a thing of the past in 2035. Someone in a lab coat somewhere or several someones in several labs are invested in something that they hope will medically relieve the physical, emotional and mental experience that is addiction.<br><br>
So if AA is still here for its centennial birthday and/or many of the Twelve Step models that followed are still kicking, what will have changed and what will have stayed the same? All of today’s old-timers will be dead. Fellowships will be run by people who are just getting or are not yet sober. For those of you that are waning, maybe thinking, “That’s enough Joe—what’s the point of playing ‘what-if’ so far out into the future?” I ask you to bear with me for two more minutes. Today’s decisions that are made at the group level and at the world level for each fellowship are, as they have always been, done for the benefit of those of us here in the program and those yet to come. I don’t think it is folly or grandiose to stretch our imagination and ask how we can preserve and prepare our fellowship for the next generation (or two) of those who need us.<br><br>
Through history, all organizations and societies grapple with the poles of preserving the message vs. widening the gateway. I was emailing briefly with an AA member who has served at General Service Office. He started there before there was an aa.org or a fourth edition of the Big Book and he has seen many things change and many things stay the same. He cares about the fellowship and has been there for many of our critical crossroads. He also has been studying other, older spiritual societies who struggle with growth and reification. I have been thinking a lot about what he told me and because I haven’t asked him if I could splatter the internet with his intimate thoughts, I will keep the member anonymous. Here’s is what he shared with me this weekend:<br><br><b>My exploration of the early history of various spiritual movements suggests there's always a tension between the "Integrity-of-the-Message" types and the "Big-Tent" types. This occurs in most movements no matter what the nature of the movement. The tension seems to intensify after the founder or founders pass from the scene and are no longer there to directly re-interpret what THEY meant, or otherwise arbitrate the dispute. That part of it seems fairly normal. My observation, though, is that sooner or later the "Integrity-of-the-Message" types tend to gain the upper hand in most movements, since they're usually more determined regarding their position (or more arrogant, as the case may be). They then either put the movement out of business entirely by their exclusivity, or they push it forward as a more cohesive group, but they can accomplish the latter only if in the meantime the movement has secured another power base to sustain itself, like money (lots of it), political power or governmental imprimatur. That's generally the sad part.<br><br>
In AA's case, where money and power are thought not to be a part of the equation, the issue may be a bit more balanced in the long run. There's also the fact that AA has always denied being a "generalized" spiritual movement directed at a universal world view, but one directed—with a "singleness of purpose"—only at a specific medical condition. I think Bill W. always relied on this rationale to favor the "Big—Tent" view. He assuredly did so with respect to issues of race, color and sexual orientation. From a personal basis he also stretched the "creed" part in the case of Catholics and Jews to broaden the AA universe. The circle was always enlarged to include, rather than exclude, on the basis that none should be denied access to a potential cure for a disease or malady. The cure wasn't to be withheld because "the doctor" had personal objections to the patient's personal beliefs, or even to the lack thereof. Bill never lost sight of this one overriding goal in AA's formative years—get the sufferer the help he needs. I'd hate to see AA (lose sight of this) now.</b><br><br>
In my book of daily reflections, <a target="_new" href="https://www.createspace.com/4127122"><i>Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life</i></a> I focus on the day to day realities of addiction, recovery and the journey of both. Also, I do invite the reader to honor and understand the past, as well as look to the future. If we think the future just happens, there is no “someone” or committee driving the train of our fellowship(s). The groups direct the fellowship and the members direct the groups. The future of Twelve and Twelve life will be decided where members meet—not around board room tables. If we believe in a guiding force that guides group conscience, let’s not forget that this guiding force was present to witness many monuments rise majestically, only to erode back into dust. Fate isn’t on our side if leaving a legacy is our plan. An old saying goes something like this: “Man makes plans and Allah laughs.”<br><br>
This blog is not intended to be fatalistic. I am not saying let’s stand on the deck of our Titanic, wait for the iceberg and say, “I knew it.” There is much to accept that I cannot change. But there is much to rise to the occasion of to facilitate, preserve and prepare. The question for me is where will I invest my thoughts and actions? Will I throw my hands in the air and declare, “What will be, will be,” or will I do my part to preserve and prepare our fellowship for the needs of tomorrow’s suffering addict?<br><br>
Feel free to “Pass it On” as you see fit. Send this blog to some of your friends<br>
Order Beyond Belief or link to or like it <span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.createspace.com/4127122" target="_new">HERE</a> </span><br>
Comment or contact <a href="mailto:news@rebelliondogpublishing.com">Rebellion Dogs Publishing</a> <br>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/297852
2013-02-04T07:20:00-05:00
2017-02-01T20:17:59-05:00
Author, lecturer, historian Dr. Ernie Kurtz shares about his experience with Beyond Belief
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: larger;"><br><i>Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life</i><br><br>
Daily reflections for nonbelievers, freethinkers and EVERYONE<br>
A commentary by Ernest Kurtz, Ph.D.</span></div>
<br><br>
Ernie Kurtz received his Ph.D. in the History of American Civilization from Harvard University in 1978. Dr. Kurtz was the first researcher to be granted unrestricted access to the archives of Alcoholics Anonymous. Hazeleden had the wherewithal to publish Ernie’s Ph.D. dissertation—the book that resulted was, <i>Not God: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous</i>. Along with Katherine Ketcham Ernie gave us, <i>The Spirituality of Imperfection: Modern Wisdom from Classic Stores</i> (1992), and a book that demonstrates Kurtz acute understanding of addiction, <i>Shame and Guilt</i> (revised and updated in 2007). For those in the know, catching an Ernie Kurtz lecture on his academic study of spirituality would be a life-altering experience. For those of us who missed that opportunity, there is more of Kurtz on addiction and spirituality in the 1999 <i>The Collected Ernie Kurtz</i>. There are been other books and other writings, both scholarly and popular but today, Rebellion Dogs are honored to share Dr. Kurtz’s experience with reading the musings of <i>Beyond Belief.</i><br><br><div style="text-align: justify;">
<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/6eda12d5c653d32601aa082995061aee7407314a/original/ErniePic.JPG?1380569603" class="size_orig justify_right border_" alt="" height="270" width="386" />One meaning of reflection, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is “the action of turning (back) or fixing the thoughts on some subject; meditation, deep or serious consideration.” This treasure of a book offers spurs to reflection and more. Drawing on a rich variety of often surprising sources, each day's reading provides not a mere bite but a full meal of thoughts for the coming or just-past day. Since my mornings tend to be rushed, <i>Beyond Belief</i> soon moved itself into my mid-afternoon “break” period, where it could shed more leisurely light both backwards and forwards. <br><br><i>Beyond Belief</i> terms its offerings musings rather than “meditations.” The O.E.D. gives the first meaning of the verb muse as “to be absorbed in thought; to meditate continuously in silence; to ponder.” Absorbed . . . ponder: this book is not light reading. I have not so far wanted to fight with it, but I do find Beyond Belief often challenging, sometimes provocative, unfailingly stimulating. <br><br>
The book is aimed at a general 12-Step readership, but it is mindful that there heretofore exist no such aids for unbelievers, freethinkers, and the unconventionally spiritual. Given that the latest Pew survey found that twenty percent of the American people list their religious affiliation as “None,” it is certainly time that the Recovery world took into consideration this population's needs.<i> Beyond Belief</i> addresses that need in a confident, non-aggressive way. I doubt that any believer will find anything objectionable in its pages. This believer, for one, finds much that is spiritually helpful. <br><br>
If I have one criticism of this book it is that its musings are too rich. On quite a few pages I wished to pause and think after virtually every sentence. For many, reading <i>Beyond Belief</i> will require a pen or pencil in hand and perhaps a notebook on the side. <br><br>
This is the first daily reflection book of which I know that offers a lengthy (17-page) “Notes” section as well as a full Bibliography. The Notes are far more than mere citations, often presenting brief additional discussion and even new material that more frequently than not is as rich as the text itself. <br><br>
In addition to the Notes and Bibliography, the end-matter of <i>Beyond Belief</i> contains full Index that allows searching out individual musings on just about any topic. Having problems with “ego”? Check out May 29, August 8, September 24 or seven other dates. Polishing your gratitude? Flip to March 2, June 16, November 12 or eleven other dates. <br><i><br>
Beyond Belief: Angostic Musings for 12 Step Life</i> will enrich anyone interested in living a 12-Step life.</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">Ernest Kurtz, Ph.D., author of <i>The Spirituality of Imperfection</i> and <i>Not-God: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous</i>
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Bob K is a contributing editor aaAgnositca.org and he had this to say about <i>Beyond Belief</i>'s agnostic musings after cracking his copy open: <br>
"I expected his book to be good. I was wrong. It’s WAY, WAY better than good. The book is outstanding. Two decades of not being a ‘daily reflections’ kind of guy are over. Now I have reflections worth reflecting over! Buy this book or you will suffer a horrible and painful death! Well, maybe not, but you’ll be missing out on something very good."<br><br>
This week, Bob offers some post-game colour commentary on the iconic Ebby Thacher. Check it out<a href="http://aaagnostica.org/" target="_new"> HERE </a><br>
If you would like to share Ernie’s thoughts on the book, how about passing on this link from <a href="https://www.createspace.com/4127122" target="_new"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">Rebellion Dogs Publishing</span></a><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">: </span><br>
https://www.createspace.com/4127122<br><br>
For more Ernie Kurtz - <a href="http://hindsfoot.org/ktcek1.html" target="_new">http://hindsfoot.org/ktcek1.html</a> <a href="http://www.hazelden.org/OA_HTML/hazAuthor.jsp?author_id=130&item=573" target="_new">Hazelden Publishing</a> <a target="_new" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghzITT_0Yuk">YouTube video</a> with Bill White<br>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/292311
2013-01-29T08:49:45-05:00
2019-09-30T11:09:18-04:00
Being open to new experiences... or not
Are you a Neophobic or a Neophyiliac? <br><br>
Neophobia is defined as a fear of new things, Neophilia as an attraction to new things on page 148 of The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, Johnathan Haidt.<br><br>
He describes conservatives as change-resistant neophobics and liberals as open-to-new-experience neophiliacs. I see that I am both. I see that either of these as extremes in my personality can be very damaging. When I was drinking and using drugs I thought that new experiences would shield me from the stillness of life where my feelings always confronted me. I thought it was because I was so rock-n-roll, such a wild and crazy guy but it was because I was an escape artist. <br><br>
Even in recovery I have a bag of tricks for escapism that won’t change my dry date per se, but these diversions will crush the quality of my sobriety. I can also be rigid (neophiliac) and I can resist changes in life, be it changing a ritual in my home group or upsetting my routine in some other way. <br><br>
Bill Wilson said something to the extent that we have to accept that AA will always have its fundamentalists, its radicals, and its traditionalists. I guess he was making a similar observation. So everyone-are you a “philiac” or a “phobic” when it comes to new experiences?<br><br>
Joe C, Toronto Canada<br><br>
BTW, if you are open to new experiences and you have never ventured over to AAagnostica, Carol M wrote the first ever review of <i>Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life<br>
You can join that conversation at <a href="http://aaagnostica.org/2013/01/27/beyond-belief-agnostic-musings-for-12-step-life/#.UQgY9GfQsr4" target="_new">AAagnostica</a> <br>
Own your own copy of Beyond Belief (buy in any currency) <a href="https://www.createspace.com/4127122">HERE</a><br></i><br>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/76701
2013-01-15T09:45:00-05:00
2017-01-14T11:32:06-05:00
A blog entitled “Where’s my damn book?”
<br>
How frustrating is it to be a customer awaiting a product that will be delivered “any day now,” everyday? How Early adapter—someone who puts their money on the line to help a noble cause, for a promise of delivery, are to be rewarded for their loyalty—or they should be. <br><br>
This feeling is a feeling I know. I am a customer more times during the day than I am a product or service provider. When I am disappointed by a bank, a mobile phone or internet provider or a restaurant, the great insult to injury is their desperate appeal for me to understand how difficult this is for them. “What I need you to understand …,” is often the last thing I hear because that’s when I stop listening. What I actually need to understand is that the company is empathetic about my needs and that they are bending over backwards to make it up to me.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/10b9c23be4b649ec3beffd97ac4ea8092500d228/original/_BB_BookCover_Jan5_270x422.jpg?1380569603" class="size_orig justify_left border_" alt="" height="422" width="270" />And as much as this blog is, in part, to update buyers of Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings of 12 Step Life, if you don’t read all the way to the end I want you to know that I feel your pain and Rebellion Dogs is rushing to bring our product to market but not at any costs. We want the book to meet your expectations. A year from now you’ll be very aware of how good or bad the book is, even if you don’t remember the emotional cost of having to wait another week or two.<br><br>
Here is something I do know from running a business 101: Under-promise and over-deliver. A client’s satisfaction is a measurement between her or his expectations vs. her or his perception of the results. It’s true in serving a cup of coffee and it’s true in one’s love life—expectations and results, or more importantly our perception of the results will dictate how satisfied each of us will be.<br><br>
So, knowing this, when I finished writing Beyond Belief in September or October, it seemed that targeting the holidays as a launch, I could get the news out right away and then exceed reader expectations; perfect. A pre-Xmas delivery went from improbable to impossible and at that time, January 10th looked like the outside drop date, even accounting for possible hic-ups along the way. Here we are, January 15th and “any day now” is still our official status. That sucks for you, and everyone waiting for a book. Your frustration is not a feeling I can undo. It’s also embarrassing for me, but let’s not worry about me right now.<br><br>
First of all, every delay has had a silver lining. That silver lining is that with each delay the book gets just a little bit better. That’s good. Secondly, I feel like I should have been able to anticipate some of this. I can’t anticipate every obstacle or control every outcome but did I learn nothing from the music business? Young bands leave the recording studio, all excited about their new CD. I see this all the time. They book a venue for their CD release party and make posters. In most cities, you have to book two months in advance if you want a premier venue. Bands figure that two months will be lots of time to get the CD mastered, the artwork done and CDs printed and packaged.<br><br>
Half the time, they are right. However, all it takes is one rights-release for a sample used in the album to be contested or delayed. Or what if there is a flaw in the master CD? Any number of unforeseen delays could mean that the whole project is setback 45 to 90 days. Bands still book CD release parties, album listening sessions and tours before they have the physical product in their hands. Then the big day comes and they are empty-handed. I see it all the time, yet here I am, red-faced from a situation that experience might have helped me anticipate.<br><br>
A manager from a woman's treatment center that ordered books from us just laughed. Their hospital has published a number of books and reports of their own and she knows about delays. As she has a saying that has worn on her over the years: "Deadlines amuse me."<br><br>
Getting a book to market is like playing dominoes. If any domino in the chain doesn’t execute as planned, the other dominos can’t make up for the rouge tile. So there have been a few rogue tile sand here is where we stand with the eBook and paperback versions of Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings of 12 Step Life.<br>
The eBook version is logistically a time consuming project. There are static and interactive eBooks. Static books are electronic versions of print—there is no interactivity. Interactive books allow users to move back and forth, look up definitions, go to end notes and back again and so on. We want our eBook to be cutting edge. There are over 100 end notes. There are over 1,300 links to 120 index/subject topics that we want to be hyperlinked to the corresponding pages for readers that want to see what there is to say on Traditions, relapse, codependency or Jungian individuation. People don’t start this book on page one—January 1st. If you start the book on August 19th, that’s page one for you. You won’t get to August 18 for 365 days. So the table of contents has to link to over 365 different pages to let people start anywhere.<br><br>
The 12 & 12 community has no such tool for recovery. That’s because there is no template and we are having it made for us—for all of us, actually.<br><br>
The paperback has had a few challenges. What’s in a font? Well not everyone has every font and if someone in the chain of events doesn’t have one of the fonts you started with, so what—they must have one that’s just like it or better. What I have learned about changing fonts is that not all the formatting follows along. For instance, if you lose a font, you might lose, say, all the italics words. In a 410 page document it will take a while to put them all back.<br><br>
We had our own internal editorial logjam. The last issue was about writing in the we voice which has became the style dating back to the writing of the Big Book: “Many of us exclaimed,” “We know but a little,” “We stood at the turning point,” “Our stories disclosed in a general way what we used to be like, what happened , and what we are like now.” This voice is fraught with traps. If you stay true to the rules of grammar, you have phrases like “our drugs of choice,” “We became our own loving parents towards our own inner children,” “We came to believe in gods of our understanding,” “We cleaned our sides of the streets first.” <br><br>
What might be grammatically correct would make the writer look like they had never stepped foot into a 12 Step meeting. No one talks like this. So we went looking for the rule. Authorities say, “Don’t do it.” When one insists, one is encouraged to pluralize everything. OK, so I looked for examples. Bill W. might start a sentence in the plural and change gears. On page 69 of Alcoholics Anonymous, writing about our Step Four, we read, “In this way we tried to shape a sane and sound ideal for our future sex life.” “We” is plural, “life” is singular; yet sometimes Bill says, “lives.” This seems to be what I found in Philip Z’s A Skeptic’s Guide to the 12 Steps, Jon Kabat Zinn’s Full Catastrophe Living or many of the books in the Self-help genre. There was no rule. Each daily reflection had to be read out loud and we discussed what sounded right.<br>
So where are we? I expect to look at the final draft January 16th. If it’s excellent we could be on the presses by Monday the 21st. I hate to jinx it but I will boldly say people who purchased a book or books will have them February 1, or to be safe, the first week in February. Otherwise I will leave everyone’s money under their door mat and you can find me busking in Mexico. Yes, I take requests.<br><br>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/273167
2012-12-30T22:25:00-05:00
2012-12-30T22:25:00-05:00
A New Years Look at Resolution Making: A celebration of diversity and lessons learned about rigidity
It’s a new year and here at Rebellion Dogs we would like to offer a contrarian approach to habitual resolution making. Put another way, we would like to suggest making peace with our foibles as a worthy alternative to shoehorning ourselves into right-living. Let’s never take ourselves too seriously.<br><br>
Are New Year’s resolutions a form of taking ourselves too seriously? It is an attempt to make ourselves one more step closer to adequacy or perfection, depending on our perspective. In Beyond Belief: Daily Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life we visit the resolution tradition of January First with a Taoist perspective. Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD says, <span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 0);"><i>“The Tao is a world unfolding according to its own laws. Nothing is done or forced; everything just comes about. To live in accord with the Tao is to understand non-doing and non-striving. Your life is already doing itself.” </i></span>This isn’t to say that self-improvement is pure folly. We are reminded, however that we are not trying to achieve worthiness. We are already worthy as fellow erring travelers of the human race. <br><br>
Rebellion Dogs Publishing is busy seeing Beyond Belief through to its printing scheduled for next week. At this time of annual reflection we are truly grateful for the support that the freethinking recovery community has shown. Those who have pre-ordered paperback and eBook versions of Beyond Belief have put their money where their mouth is in supporting this project and because of the initial support our initial run will be larger than first anticipated. We also want to recognize that early supporters have had to endure our missed target release of pre-holidays and your patience is not something we take lightly. It will be our great pleasure to ensure that you have your copies arrive in your hands before stores stock our book and we would be remiss if we didn’t say, “Thank you.” We hoped to say on this day, “Finally, a daily reflection book for nonbelievers, freethinkers and everyone.” With humility we are saying on this day, “Eventually, a daily reflection book for nonbelievers, freethinkers and everyone.” <br><br>
Another book we look forward to seeing early in 2013 is Roger C’s (http://aaagnositca.org) collection of alternative Twelve Step interpretations. Nothing deters the forces of dogma and reification like a constant flow of new ideas, inclusivity and flexible thinking. Let’s not forget that in Toronto Canada, agnostic groups are still banned from the Intergroup meeting directory. The voice of agnostic groups has been revoked on the Intergroup floor and removed from Intergroup activity. Although Toronto Intergroup is pleading with groups for help answering the phones, members of agnostic groups are forbidden to help. Of course, exclusivity is not AA culture and will discriminated against by Intergroup, these agnostic groups are respected, rights-bearing equals in AA from the General Service district table, on up to GSO in New York, as are all agnostic AA meetings. <br><br>
The crime committed that was found worthy of excommunication, according to the Intergroup power structure, was the reading of a secular version of the Twelve Steps at the first ever Toronto agnostic meeting, which continues to grow since its inception in 2009. Good luck finding the rule about nonconformity; there is no such crime and no such rule. The AA Service Manual states that GSO is charged with the preservation of AA’s Steps. This is in no way suggested or implied that this duty of preservation is a mandate to police and enforce group uniformity. If Time Magazine misprinted the Twelve Steps, AA GSO has the directive from the members to ask Time to correct the misrepresentation. However, an AA group is always a group if the group members say they are. Groups can read Twelve Steps, Six Steps, agnostic or gender-neutral Steps. <br><br>
The point is that the Twelve Steps are not sacred. To make them so is to make a religion and a mockery out of a fellowship devoted to recovery—not theistic conversion. Since AA’s inception there have been the liberals who further expand the reach of Alcoholics Anonymous and militant conservatives who see inclusivity as threatening our singleness of purpose. It was that way in 1936 and it remains the case 77 years later.<br><br>
So we Rebellion Dogs look forward to celebrating the artistic love that has gone into the Twleve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and we look forward to Roger’s collection of these interpretations eventually become a matter-of-fact adjunct to Twelve Step recovery. We also toast Toronto Intergroup and say to them, “We don’t take your bigotry personally. Your fear mongering and protectionist measures are a living, breathing example of why we have Traditions and how somewhere, somehow, each and every valued Tradition is being disgraced at this very moment. Congratulations for violating Tradition One, Two, Three, Four and Five all with one motion. Your historic blunder won’t soon be equaled. Intergroup, you are a glorious example of how fear and rigidity are something that all of us must keep in check so that missteps like yours are contained and don’t become contagious. We hope that AA will still be whole and enjoy a centennial anniversary in another 20 years or so. Hope won’t get us there—only a return to our Tradition of unity will get us to year 100. Thank you Intergroup for reminding us of Rule 62: Let’s never take ourselves too seriously.”<br><br>
On that note I want to share with one and all, some humor and wisdom I found from a site called “Serenity Found.” May we all remember never to take ourselves too seriously. <br><br><b>Over-Serious Anonymous - A 12 Step Program </b><br>
(Copyright © Serenity Found 2002-2004 All Rights Reserved. Source: http://www.serenityfound.org/humor/over_serious.html)<br><br>
1. We admitted that we were powerless over seriousness—that our lives had become unmanageable.<br><br>
2. Came to believe that only by lightening up could we achieve a state of non-seriousness.<br><br>
3. Made a decision to turn our constant self-criticism over to our sense of humor and learn to "lovingly and wholeheartedly" laugh at ourselves.<br><br>
4. Decided to give ourselves a break once in a while, instead of constantly doing searching and fearless moral inventories of ourselves.<br><br>
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being that our wrongs were often in our heads.<br><br>
6. Were entirely ready to accept that our [character was] as good as anybody else's and possibly better than most.<br><br>
7. Quit harping on our shortcomings.<br><br>
8. Made of list of all persons we thought we had harmed and saw that they'd forgotten all the crap we'd blown out of proportion.<br><br>
9. Quit making amends for breathing air and taking up a few square feet of the planet's surface.<br><br>
10. Resigned ourselves to the fact we were going to criticize ourselves at times, but would try to stick to our guns when we knew we were right.<br><br>
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to calm down and realize we're not responsible for everything.<br><br>
12. Having experienced immense relief from these steps, we would try to carry this message to other over-serious people and to practice these principles in all of our affairs<br><br>
Happy 2013 one and all. Please don’t take this blog too seriously.<br><br>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/238661
2012-10-23T08:45:00-04:00
2021-07-17T13:34:15-04:00
Thou Shall Not Be Aware: A Tribute to Alice Miller
<span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 0);"><i><span style="font-size: larger;">“The more we know about how we lost our spontaneous wonder and creativity, the more we can find ways to get them back.”</span></i></span> John Bradshaw (born 1933)<br><br>
So, as many of you know, I am writing the first book of daily reflections for addicts in recovery that is not predicated on the fact that a loving, intervening God gets us clean and sober and answers our prayers if we’re right with him. There are enough of those. I have read them and done the mental gymnastics required to feel included in the discussion. It’s not impossible to get something out of them but wouldn’t it be nice to have a daily reflection book that included everyone?<br><br>
So here’s how my book goes: Each day starts with a quote. It could be a philosopher, entertainer, author, psychologist or the wisdom from Twelve & Twelve rooms. I started in 2009 after a fruitless search to find a secular daily meditation book. The first thing I had to do was glean my top 400 quotes I have collected over the last 13,000 days of recovery. Then I had to whittle it down to the most appropriate 365. Some of the people are long since dead, others are younger than me. Now you might ask how it takes more than a year to produce a year of daily reflections. Well in my Attention Deficit Disorder case, it takes what it takes. <br><br>
So, since 2009 some of the people I quote have since died. I hope for your sake, you aren’t on my short-list. Scott Peck, Phyllis Diller and I missed it until I double checked yesterday, Alice Miller, who died in 2010. I didn’t know. It shook me. This woman was on my list of people who I sincerely wanted to personally say, “You changed my life.” Today I am feeling loss. I want to pay tribute to Miller and in a way tell you what I sincerely wish that I had the chance to tell her.<br><br>
Miller left psychoanalysis to write full time around 1981. Not long afterwards I would be in therapy. I think "Drama of the Gifted Child" was her first game changer which captured the Zeitgeist of the day. Adult Children of Alcoholics was rocketing in popularity as addicts started digging deeper and coming to believe that our self-destruction had more to do with our side of the street being tended. If I am not mistaken "Thou Shall Not Be Aware: Societies Betrayal of the Child (1984)" was the offering my marriage counselor recommended to me. At the time I reacted. I thought, “Great, the therapist is ganging up with my wife; I’m the bad boy, I am the one that needed help.” It wasn’t until I finished reading (if you think I take a long time to write a book, reading one is no easy task, either), which was a while after the relationship I was there to save ended, that I appreciated what this therapist was doing for me. It may be melodramatic to say one book saved my life, but it changed me as a man and a father and it altered the course of my life. <br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/3bbea95f43aac42308aaccdd622e7fbf70bb022d/original/AliceMiller.JPG?1380569603" class="size_orig justify_right border_" alt="" height="275" width="275" />Alice Miller (1923 – 2010) said that “Nobody is born evil,” Long before children can understand language, they can discern tenderness and cruelty. "Poisonous pedagogy" was the term she coined to describe repressive child-rearing that was influential in demons such as Hitler and Stalin (men whom she saw inflicting their will from her childhood home in Poland). Suppressed fantasies of revenge can lead to horrid atrocities. <br><br>
To Bradshaw’s point, Miller also points out the creative brilliance of Virginia Woolf and Pablo Picasso were the attempts to deal with childhood pain. <br><br>
“For some years now, it has been possible to prove, through new therapeutic methods, that repressed traumatic experience of childhood are stored up in the body and, through unconscious, exert an influence even in adulthood,” Miller said in a 1999 interview given to Noreen Tayor, The Times, London. “In reality, children tend to blame themselves for their parents’ cruelty and to absolve the parents, whom they invariable love, of all responsibility.” Dr. Miller describes narcissistic parenting as including inattention, coldness and physical abuse. Today, in some jurisdictions spanking in condoned, if not revered, while children are doomed to a lifetime of psychological and physical ailments. <br><br>
Critics dismiss the blaming parenting for society’s woes as overly simplistic. Of course, Miller would point to children who rise to their parent’s defense as suffering another of her turgid turn of phrases, “emotional incest,” whereby the child acts out the role of caregiver to the parents need for protection and comfort (Role reversal). John Bradshaw, as is hinted at by his quote here today, would not concur with the oversimplification criticism.<br><br>
Dealing with betrayal and neglect as a child is impossible—it is beyond the capacity of the child psyche. Pain is repressed and sometime forgotten, consciously. No one would venture back there for the pure sport of it. Speaking for myself, my life had to be rendered unmanageable and my resources depleted before I could complete my own journey back. <br><br>
Why would anyone, whose coping mechanisms were functional, invite Prometheus’s raven to rip out our guts? In the fable Zeus sentenced Prometheus to be chained to a rock, to have a raven peck through his chest and eat his liver. This indignity would be suffered every day until Prometheus admitted his wrongs, which he never did. Prometheus suffered this horror for thirteen generations until rescued by Hercules. Oh how this metaphor works on so many ways. That was my fear wasn’t it—that my pain, if faced would be a life sentence and no relief would or could be found. Who would rescue me? <br><br>
I will save you the self-involved story of the road to my enlightenment. It is sufficient to say that my pain didn’t overwhelm me. It wasn’t infinite. Facing my grief made me courageous. It allowed healing and insight. I see myself differently. I understand my own family dynamics I understand what it is to be a good (not perfect) father. I understand my enemies. “No one is born evil.” I empathize with them. I wish them well. I don’t regret the past and I am not limited by in the way my pain once constrained me.<br><br>
Thank you Alice Miller. Thank you also to Dr. Julie Righter who passed away in 2011, who had an instrumental role in my journey. More at http://www.alice-miller.com<br><br>
Thanks for reading, Joe C.<br><br>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/227284
2012-10-06T09:00:00-04:00
2022-05-09T05:28:52-04:00
The History of Proposals for an Agnostic/Atheist Pamphlet in AA
According to one source posted on an AA Area website in the USA AA World Service considered a pamphlet for nonbelievers in 1975, 1981, 1988, 1995, 1997and 2000.<br><br>This pamphlet idea dates back to the emergence of agnostic AA meetings in North America. This isn’t to say the two activities are related. The agnostic groups have grown to over 100 worldwide and we have yet to see an agnostic/atheist AA pamphlet. Two stories, one of an atheist and one of an agnostic appear in the pamphlet “Do you think you’re different?” authored by Barry L in the early 1970s (Staff member of AA at the time who also wrote Living Sober. Hear Barry L’s last talk at the International Conference of AA in Montreal in 1985 on our <a href="/files/63403/barry-l-originof3rdtrad.m3u" target="_new">links page</a> or scroll down to the bottom of this blog post).<br><br>Imagine the usefulness of such a pamphlet? It isn’t unreasonable to conclude that next to not really wanting to get sober, “the God bit” could be the leading reason that turns newcomers away from AA as a way to get sober. As we hear in many agnostic groups now, “No one will be asked to adopt someone else’s beliefs or deny their own in AA” but forgive a newcomer atheist for missing that message in their first 30 AA meetings doesn’t include an agnostic AA meeting.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/22be48cc1828a60498144cca86f51b622bf24c47/original/AtheismPlus_smallerBLOG.jpg?1380569603" class="size_orig justify_left border_" alt="" height="332" width="340" />Despite our insistence that we are a spiritual program, rather than a religious program, some USA Circuit Courts have ruled that sentencing alcoholics to AA is unconstitutional because AA is ostensibly a Judeo/Christian organization. Now I don’t belief that obedience to God is written into our fabric, but it is how many groups behave. “Spirituality is any interfering/intervening God that you choose;” that may be inclusive for 1/3 of the world and the majority of USA <i>middle-earth</i> but for just as many people around the world, our most popular worldview would be dismissed as superstitious. Would US courts see AA differently if we had a pamphlet that told of success stories without God? Right now they view AA as what Jim Christopher of Secular Organizations for Sobriety (SOS) has described as “a religion in denial.”<br><br>There is a new pamphlet that has been on the Literature Committee drawing board for over 11 years about the variety of spiritual experience in AA. It will include stories of atheists and agnostics. At the 2012 General Service Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous, the Literature Committee reported that 200 stories had been submitted and they had gleaned it down to 23 stories, in keeping with the direction they were given at the 2011 Conference. There are no emergencies in AA and this would be no exception. I expect a draft will be presented in 2013 and the earliest the pamphlet would be available would be the summer of 2015.<br><br>There is a real and motivated anti-agnostic underground in Alcoholics Anonymous. A White Paper on Non-believers argues that AA would be better off without catering to nonbelievers. Some liberals have called this paper the <i>Mein Kempt</i> of AA.. The author is anonymous. The main premise of the thesis is that AA is not and cannot be a pluralistic society:<br><br>“It is time to make the tough decision of whether we want to continue to allow the development of two AAs. One consisting of a path to sobriety using human power alone, the second, adhering to the belief that the only path to sobriety is through a God of our understanding. These two diametrically opposing belief systems simply cannot coexist!”<br><br>The author wields the politest of bigotry by “inviting” skeptics to take up residence in their own fellowship where they would be free to recover in doubt and in so doing would transform troubled AA of today to the mythological good old days when all groups were harmonious and homogenous and 75% of newcomers stayed sober.<br><br>The author offered several calls to action. The first was to write to GSO and voice objection to any talk of atheism as an option in AA recovery. Ward Ewing, AA’s Chairman of the Board in his Regional Forum addresses reports that there were many letters encouraging GSO not to articulate secular recover as a legitimate alternative inside of AA. The letters didn’t deter our Episcopalian Chairman. He sees the experiences of everyone getting sober as being helpful to all of us—widening our gateway, as it were.<br><br>The White Paper author blames the tolerance of secular translations of the Twelve Steps as the cause of AA’s sagging membership number. She or he sees agnostic AA as a watering down of Bill Wilson’s message as described in the Big Book. Nonbelievers are scapegoated the way communists or Jewish people have been in the past, as a threat to our societies survival. The author fails to grasp that AA itself does not treat the Steps as sacred and long before he or she got sober, our Twleve Step’s author applauded new ways to express the principles of AA recovery with or without God.<br><br>Secular versions of the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous (removing the assumption of a theistic being) date back to the 1950s. Bill Wilson was happy to see that people not of Abrahamic religious cultural background could find in the Twelve Steps sufficient guidance to get and stay sober without belief in a deity (See Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age pg. 81).<br><br>Like many of us, I look at the meeting literature table with pamphlets to youth, the queer culture, the elderly, people of colour, aboriginal North American’s and women, and I wonder what is missing. The nonbeliever is told that they are welcome but I don’t see their story displayed on the literature table.<br><br>When I found this History of Agnostic/Atheist Pamphlet proposals it read like a suspense thriller. Every time the idea comes up the literature committee loves it and recommends that the conference proceed. Every time the idea gets mothballed. There may be legitimate reasons why each attempt to have our story told got kyboshed but I don’t know why.<br><br>I tried to get confirmation from GSO as to the accuracy of this history of agnostic/atheist literature attempts. I got a nice letter and a phone call from the Chair of Literature. I was told that my request to verify or deny any or all of these records couldn’t be done. GSO doesn’t have the manpower. They would if they could but they can’t so they won’t. AA archives must have minutes from the committee meetings or statements in the Conference Annual Reports. The people mentioned by first name and last initial must have their letters in the AA archives if it is true.<br><br>I don’t live anywhere near New York City, but the next chance I have to visit the Big Apple, I will make an appointment to visit archives to see if I can corroborate any of the facts in this history. I have no reason to doubt what I read. It sounds plausible. But I would like to confirm it from a second source before I start yakking about it as a fact of our history. For your perusal here is a link to the <a href="/files/73307/history_proposals_pamphlet_agnostic-atheist-nonbeliever_compiled_2-2008.pdf" target="_new">HISTORY</a>. Do you know more about this? If you know any of these people referred to or know of them, please pass on any information you have.<br><br>Also if you haven’t seen it, on AA Agnsotica Roger C has compiled a <a href="http://aaagnostica.org/a-history-of-agnostic-groups-in-aa/#.UHBea1Gz4r4" target="_new">history of agnostic meetings</a> in AA and not only will you find it informative, but if you have more to add to the story, Roger would be glad to hear from you, too.<br><br>Finally, If you want to read this White Paper yourself, <a href="/files/73325/The%20White%20paper%20on%20Non-believers%5B1%5D.pdf" target="_new">HERE it is</a>. I found it very disturbing. The paper turned my stomach to such an extent that I couldn’t even enjoy lampooning the flawed logic and erroneous conclusions that this document is full of. Not for one minute do I think that this represents the general attitude of AA members. I think that most of us are comfortable in our beliefs and don’t feel put off or threatened by alternative worldviews.<br><br>Where you come from, this might be innocent freedom of speech (everyone is free to express their opinion). In Canada any speech or literature that incites hatred against an “identifiable group” by creed, sexual orientation or race is a criminal offense. Personally I don’t put this rambling in the same category as advocating genocide but I thinking Canadian zealots should think twice about supporting such a document. It encourages discrimination and expulsion. Getting behind such a document might be a legal grey area here in Canada. Of note, this document was circulated to Intergroup Reps in Toronto Canada by Brian W as an authoritative directive in the campaigned to help Toronto Intergroup come to believe that AA in Toronto would be better by excommunicating agnostic groups from the Intergroup floor and removing agnostic meeting times and places from the Toronto meeting list.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/39d5cd0d92da501ae5b37cecc098979fcce33c09/original/toronto_smallerBLOG.jpg?1380569603" class="size_orig justify_right border_" alt="" height="157" width="400" />It has been over a year since Intergroup overwhelming voted to cast out agnostic AA in Toronto. The groups are doing just fine without Intergroup and Toronto AA seems to be doing just fine without embracing our principle of Unity. It seems, according to Toronto culture, Unity can only be tolerated when defined as uniformity. Did this white paper tip the scale in Toronto? I can tell you that agnostic groups and mainstream groups were working harmoniously before this paper was circulated. Now there is somewhat of an “us” and “them” attitude that I never detected before.<br><br>I know that AA has been in this mess before. Once we didn’t allow women or African Americans as member, nor would we list a group as GLBTQ (Gay). Our children would disown us if we behaved that way now. Back then, discriminating against the few was argued as being a worthy sacrifice for the whole. Equality and human rights eventually are treated as obvious facts but it takes time. Complacency, more than bigotry, is the greatest risk to any organizations health and survival.<br><br>Less than a third of Toronto AA groups showed up to vote on the agnostic question. Edmund Burke (1729 -1797) said, “All that is necessary for the forces of evil to triumph is for enough good men to do nothing.” In Concept V Bill talks about the tyranny of an angry, hasty or a <i>complacent</i> majority. I think we owe it to ourselves to stay informed and to encourage inclusion and tolerance. Love and tolerance has saved the day in the past but never without concerted effort and kindness. I don’t advocate an “us” vs. “them” attitude. I advocate love.<br><br>AA is my home. I came here a broken teenager who may never have seen his 20th birthday. Instead I got sober, and helped raise other children to adulthood. It was an innocents lost for me to watch Toronto AA vote out nonbelievers. I believed that I was unconditionally loved in AA. I believed what I was told about being a member so long as I said I was a member. It broke my heart to be dismissed by my local AA. I don’t hate the people who voted against us. “AA will always have our literalists, traditionalists and reformers,” as Bill W said. And I must say that there was a worthy effort brought forward by others for AA to stay its course with inclusion and autonomy being our cue. Many mainstream AA groups were as devastated by the vote as our home group was. Their effort to see love and reason win the day should not be underestimated. What concerned me were the masses that said nothing. They may say it is not their business. Alright I say, but what does the responsibility declaration mean? What does our first Tradition mean? Are we not all in this together?<br><br>AA is about what we could expect from a group of drunks without leader or rules. Shit happens, mistakes happen and we learn and correct ourselves. I think AA will survive this. I am pleased to report that our group has survived. But there is a lesson to be learned and reconciliation still hasn’t taken place. Our group is part of the General Service structure and we are active in Treatment Centers and Public Information. Yet for many who don’t understand our anarchistic society, we still hear, “Your meeting was hard to find. I heard you got kicked out of AA.”<br><br><a contents="LINK to Barry L's 1985 AA talk" data-link-label="barry-l-originof3rdtrad.mp3" data-link-type="file" href="/files/63409/barry-l-originof3rdtrad.mp3" target="_blank"><strong>LINK to Barry L's 1985 AA talk</strong></a> at the Word Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous in Montreal Canada.<br>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/211887
2012-09-10T07:40:00-04:00
2015-06-17T18:42:08-04:00
AA's 2011 Membership Survey results are in. What does it mean for AA's future?
<span style="font-size: medium;">Commentary on the Triennial Survey of Alcoholics Anonymous members:</span>
<table align="right" border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" width="200"><tbody>
<tr>
<td>Demographic</td> <td>2007</td> <td>2011</td> </tr>
<tr>
<td>Non-white %</td> <td>14.9</td> <td>13</td> </tr>
<tr>
<td>Females %</td> <td>33</td> <td>35</td> </tr>
<tr>
<td>Average Age</td> <td>47</td> <td>49</td> </tr>
<tr>
<td>Average Sobriety</td> <td>8 yrs</td> <td>9.9</td> </tr>
<tr>
<td>Meetings/week</td> <td>2.4</td> <td>2.6</td> </tr>
<tr>
<td>members (Millions)</td> <td>1.99</td> <td>2.13</td> </tr>
<tr>
<td>under 21 %</td> <td>2.3</td> <td>2</td> </tr>
<tr>
<td>21 -30 %</td> <td>11.3</td> <td>11</td> </tr>
<tr>
<td>31 - 40 %</td> <td>16.5</td> <td>15</td> </tr>
<tr>
<td>41 -50 %</td> <td>28.5</td> <td>24</td> </tr>
<tr>
<td>51 - 60 %</td> <td>23.8</td> <td>27</td> </tr>
<tr>
<td>61 70 %</td> <td>12.3</td> <td>15</td> </tr>
<tr>
<td>70 + %</td> <td>5.3</td> <td>6</td> </tr>
</tbody></table>When I got sober AA was always growing. AA was under one million members. The average member was sober about two years. Less than 1/3 of AA members got sober in a treatment center; most did it by way of checking out meetings for a while and latching on to a sponsor or some running mates who were in the same boat as we were in. AA would balloon out to 2.2 million in the early 1990s. That high-water-mark has never been eclipsed. 1995 was be the year that the maximum number of members would attend the world conference (every five years, next one is in Atlanta in 2015).<br><br>While AA might be slowing down, according to the World Health Organization, alcoholism is the number one cause of premature death in the USA. Surely death from drinking is prevalent in other developed countries, too. So we aren’t running out of alcoholics. Maybe alcoholics have an ever increasing number of options.<br><br>The National Institute for Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse counts the number of Americans in recovery from addiction at 20 million people. One million of those are AA members (USA numbers). Of course many of recovery nation are sex, food or gambling addicts who wouldn’t be AA members. But it is likely that Moderation Management, SMART recovery, SOS and some of the other secular treatments are more appealing to more alcoholics than an old blue book and a seventy-five year old doctor’s opinion.<br><br>What about young people? In the North East urban center I live in, a Public Information rep for AA talked to a school board about having AA youth come in and talk to the students about alcoholism and sobriety. The PI rep was told, “We have a drug and alcohol response program here, but sorry, it doesn’t include Twelve Step programs.” A school board said, “No,” to free alcoholism education and free big books. What is it about AA that is so unattractive?<br><br>One anecdotal story of a single school policy does not a scientific finding make. But it is cause for concern. If youth are our future, under 21s and under 30 years-olds are slipping over the last three years and young people in AA have dropped over the last 30 years. Maybe that’s an issue of demographics. Maybe baby-boomer drunks ballooned youth population in the 1970s and 1980s and AA reflects the world outside. The annual International Young People’s in AA conference (ICYPAA) was exceeding 3,000 attendees and growing each year. 2,000 is what St. Louis is hoping for at th 54th ICYPAA.<br><br>These are strategic planning initiatives that AA will surely be contemplating in the years to come. Are there systemic discrimination factors that impact AA population? Cultural, gender and age related issues are possibly at play in AAs aging population? Change and Diversification were the themes of the 2011 General Service Conference. A new big book was considered in the 4th edition printing of <i>Alcoholics Anonymous</i>. We see the same 164 pages surrounded by a few new stories and a bright new cover, but it begs the question—when AA votes for change and diversification, why do we keep things the same?<br><br>Reification is a threat to any organization. We aren’t religious but we sacralize ritual and prose which may make us look very religious. It is a point worth asking—what makes us religious, is it how we describe ourselves or is it how we act? Why not take the gender bias out of the text? Why not find a less Judeo/Christian way to describe the God-Steps?<br><br>The rest of the world is adapting. Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD) is well known to addicts. More people with ADD become addicts and alcoholics than the general population. Advocates of ADD say that the way teachers and doctors treated this disorder when it was discovered would be considered malpractice now. In fact, it won’t even be called a disorder for long. It is one end of a spectrum but it is neither a deficit nor a disorder.<br><br>By comparison, people who are over 6’ 3” are very tall—they are at one end of the height spectrum that only 12% of people are in. Taller people don’t need to learn to be average in height. They have to live with the difference and society has to be accommodating. Everyone has some height; it’s just a matter of how much. Everyone is prone to distraction, how often and how frequently depends on if you have ADD or AD/HD or not. It would be absurd to think that better ways of dealing with ADD would be abandoned because we feared change. What if the new way doesn’t work? What will happen to the rest of us?<br><br>But isn’t this how AA feels about change? We talk about better ways to appeal to the newcomer and vote against it. Keeping things the same is ego-driven, “Nothing is ever going to work for drunks like what got me sober.” Adapting so that AA makes the newcomers more comfortable and the old-times more squirmy would hold us to our word when we say, “The newcomer is the most important person here; we’re glad you are here.”<br><br>Changing cup sizes or offering different beverages is just window dressing. A great deal of time has been spent on AA's website thinking we would increase membership and attract a younger crowd. It had no impact on youth or total population. We might want to consider getting to the heart of the matter which is then the average person in AA has been doing things a certain way for ten years, the routine has become familiar. Nothing new has been discovered in Grade 8 math in the last 80 years, but they change the text book every decade to keep the language current and keep the kids engaged.<br><br>No magic spell would be lost by changing “God as we understand Him” to “God of our understanding” or “power greater than ourselves.” The first removes the patriarchal slant; the second could open the Twelve Steps to religions that don’t recognize a deity by the name of God or title of “creator.” AA isn’t just New York City and Akron Ohio anymore. AA went to great pains to be inclusive in the first printing of <i>Alcoholics Anonymous</i>. Have we grown complacent since then? If you are thinking, “Yeah but it’s any God you want it to be. It can be Group of Drunks if you want the program to be your higher power,” I say lets look around us and see who is here. What we find is mostly the people who grew up in Protestant or Catholic or Jewish homes. What is it we say to newcomers? “You are crazy to do the same thing over and over again and expect to get different result.” Reification is a progressive disease too, which also may be fatal.<br><br>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/200118
2012-08-15T00:00:00-04:00
2020-07-26T12:02:47-04:00
Warning: To worship reason could have us kneeling at the alter of a false god
<p>Psychologist Jonathan Haidt has a book out called, <i>The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion</i>. He has something to say about sobriety, or what we might call, “sober second thought.” Do you consider reason sacred? I do. There are a few problems with that. Reason can be a trap that distances us from the truth. Here is an exchange on the Bill Moyers show. I encourage you to watch the full hour sometime. The link is below.<br><br>BILL MOYERS: This one took me aback, because it flies right in the face of my predisposition. “Anyone who values truth should stop worshiping reason.”<br><br>JONATHAN HAIDT: The idea of sacredness, the idea of sacralizing something. What I see as an academic, and as a philosophy major is there are a lot of people in the academic world that think, “No sacred cows.” We shouldn't sacralize anything.<br><br>But they sacralize reason itself, as though reason is this noble attribute, reason is our highest nature. And if we could just reason, we will solve our problems. All right, that sounds good on paper. But given all the stuff I just told you about what psychologists have discovered about reason, reasoning is not good at finding the truth. Conscious verbal reasoning is really good at confirming.<br><br>I say in the book, follow the sacredness. Wherever people sacralize something, there you will find ignorance, blindness to the truth, and resistance to evidence.<br><br>BILL MOYERS: So what does, what did the Hebrew prophet mean when he said, "Come now, and let us reason together." Are you saying we can't get at the truth that way?<br><br>JONATHAN HAIDT: No. That actually is very wise. What I'm saying here is that individual reasoning is post-hoc, and justificatory. Individual reasoning is not reliable because of the confirmation bias. The only cure for the confirmation bias is other people.<br><br>So, if you bring people together who disagree, and they have a sense of friendship, family, having something in common, having an institution to preserve, they can challenge each other's reason. And this is the way the scientific world is supposed to work.<br><br>And this is the way it does work in almost every part of it. You know, I've got my theory, and I'm really good at justifying it. But fortunately there's peer review, and there's lots of people are really good at undercutting it. And saying, "Well, what about this phenomenon? You didn't account for that."<br>And we worked together even if we don't want to, we end up being forced to work together, challenging each other's confirmation biases, and truth emerges.<br><br>We’ve heard the expression that an idea is only a bad idea if it’s the only one we have. I have someone in recovery that I bounce ideas off of, that I call a sponsor. He has a turgid little saying. When I am sharing one of my latest, greatest ideas, sometimes after letting me get it out, he’ll sometimes ask, “So what, now you want me to co-sign that bullshit?”<br><br>If I make my ideas sacred, I tend to demonize others who have opposing ideas. If I demonize opposing views how can I compromise—I would be betraying my principle. When I treat my view as the truth as a sacred reality, how easy it is to see detractors as delusional while I remain, by my judgment, clear headed. In recovery, in fellowship and in the service of others, there are no absolute truths. If I can tone it down and say that I have one view, they have another, compromise isn’t so difficult. Any society works best when people with converging ideologies work together to sort problems out.<br><br>See the whole interview <a href="http://billmoyers.com/episode/how-do-conservatives-and-liberals-see-the-world/" target="_new">HERE</a></p>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/183224
2012-06-25T09:25:00-04:00
2021-10-26T12:26:37-04:00
The Man who fomed AA never got to join AA
<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/8fb645777a434da0534b2fdba911b5071a4b95bc/original/BillWbanner.png?1380569603" class="size_orig justify_top border_" alt="" height="144" width="631" /><br>
Time Magazine released a list of the top 100 most influential people of the twentieth century. Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson is on that list. Like Opera Winfrey, Bill Gates, Sigmund Freud or any other others on the top 100 list, most of us have an opinion about them. People think Bill W. is a messiah or a cult leader and he is neither. Inside the fellowship, he has been canonized as being touched by God in some quarters of the fellowship, and demonized as a fraud and scoundrel in others. When either of these extremists start yapping it gets my eyes rolling. I am an alcoholic. The plain truth of this man is important to me; any exaggeration thereof is problematic. But what interest would film-makers who weren’t alcoholics have in this story told so many times before?<br><br>
The story hasn’t been retold as often as I thought. There are of course several books. There was the 1989 <i>My Name is Bill W.</i> and the more recent Lois Wilson story, <i>When Love is Not Enough</i> but there has never been a full length documentary about this particular Time Magazine Top 100. Between producer Dan Carracino and director Kevin Hanlon you won’t find an alcoholic. But shake any family tree and a few drunks fall out; Kevin speaks of alcoholism checkering his family story. Dan Carracino read Not God: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous and couldn’t put it down. He was captivated by the scores of hit-and-miss game changing event in the life of Bill Wilson and others that has given AA the legacy it has today.<br><br>
There is some new footage and stills. The film makers found some of it on eBay. Seventy people were interviewed for the film. About twenty made it to final edit including Annah Perch, Executive Director of Stepping Stones, Gail L., Akron Archivist, the voice of Bill W., Dr. Bob, Lois W. and Ruth Hoch, long time secretary for Bill. Bill White, Historian and Author of <i>Slay the Dragon</i>, Ernie Kurtz, Historian and author, <i>Not God: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous</i> and <i>The Spirituality of Imperfection</i>, AA member historians and grateful sober AA members on camera in shadow, some who knew Bill W., others who live in his legacy. <br><br>
Storytellers delve into the grim realities of 1930s alcoholism treatment that included electro-shock therapy, lobotomy and sterilization. The story follows Bill and Lois’s struggle as addict and codependent and we don’t meet Bob until Bill does and AA doesn’t officially launch until, after a few false starts, Bob sobers up for good June 10th, 1935. As members grew from a couple to several dozen the break comes gradually away from the Oxford Group, whose recovery principles were widely used by early AAs. <br><br>
In part, the discontent with the Oxford Group as a means of treating alcoholics had to do with America’s transformation from modernism to postmodernism. The Oxford Group and its Four Absolutes was the epitome of modernism and binary thinking. AAs evolution from Six Steps to Twelve showed signs of pluralism, relativism and the idealism of postmodern thought. It was really the maturity of AA and the evolution of the Traditions that moved AA from an autocratic to democratic society. <br><br>
This documentary honors Bill Wilson and the fellowship he created. If you are looking for a balance of naysayers and advocates, this story gives voice only to AA cheerleaders and champions. That said, as outsiders themselves, the filmmakers are candid about Bill’s use of LSD and they don’t dance around a favorite coffee shop topic: Did Bill Wilson scream for whiskey from his death bed?<br><br>
How did I like it? I am an AA nerd and an AA critic so I didn’t learn anything I hadn’t read or heard before. But I did gain a profound understanding for how Bill Wilson planted and tended to a shade tree under which he would never sit. Bill was as he characterized himself, “AA’s floundering father,” and he tried to become a member of AA like anyone else. It never happened. He wrote Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, he turned over the operation of AA to the fellowship of AA but we never let him just be a member. A chilling example is given of Bill Wilson hero-worship by a member who tells of how his sponsor returned to his home town to say he had met Bill Wilson. Everyone stood in line to shake the hand that touched Bill Wilson as if they were connecting with the life force of God. There was nowhere and no time that Bill Wilson could go to a meeting and be treated like a regular member of AA. He never got to take it or leave it, come or go as he pleased, like we all do. <br><br>
I do wish the documentary looked at the pressing problems of today’s Alcoholics Anonymous—the stagnation of membership numbers and the reification of our guiding principles. I wish some of the “AA is a cult” trolls got their say in this documentary. Why? Because I think it makes an even more convincing story when you add to it the violent opposition that had rallies to naysay. You can’t change the world without ruffling some feathers and inspiring dissent.<br><br>
The oversimplification was restated that “God as we understand Him” is for everyone, when clearly it is still AAs biggest barrier builder as our society grows more secular. Less people today in the western world who believe in a creator concept call their deity “God” or “Him.” And for most youth dabbling in drinking now, they have never been in a church and the idea of their fate being attached to adherence to a supernatural being would be simply absurd. How will they find their own authentic salvation in an AA that, in many quarters grows more dogmatic in sharp contrast to the communities it serves? <br><br>
That said, this isn’t a documentary about AA. It is about Bill Wilson who left a legacy of a growing, inclusive fellowship of spiritual anarchists. For 36 of our 77 year history, AA had a founder. How we will fare without one is a story that hasn’t reached a conclusion yet. But if you want to know how we got this far, Bill W. tells an important part of our story. For me, like watching the story of the Titanic, I wish it will end differently this time; I hope he quits smoking and doesn’t help save us from alcoholism only to die of another addiction. Oh, the spirituality of imperfection.<br><br>
Read an interview with the creators from <a href="http://www.thefix.com/content/bill-w-documentary-AA-film8620?page=all" target="_new">TheFix.com</a>: <br>
See the trailer for <a href="http://www.page124.com/trailer/" target="_new">Bill W.</a>: <br>
Find when and where the movie is showing or get on a <a href="http://www.page124.com/" target="_new">waiting list for the DVD</a>: <br><br>
AA’s General Service Office tells me that the number of groups AA has granted permission to amend the Twelve Steps for has now eclipsed 500. The movies closing credits states 60 groups that have morphed from the Twelve & Twelve concept, including Al-Anon 1954, Narcotics Anonymous in 1955, Gamblers Anonymous in 1957 Overeaters Anonymous in 1960, Neurotics Anonymous in 1964, Debtors Anonymous in 1971, Families Anonymous in 1971, Nar-Anon, 1971, Sexaholics Anonymous in 1979, Cocaine Anonymous in 1982, Nicotine Anonymous in 1982, Workaholics Anonymous in 1983, Co-Dependents Anonymous in 1986.<br><br>
For all of us, the life of William Griffith Wilson is one to get to know any way we can.<br><br>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/165919
2012-05-09T07:20:00-04:00
2021-09-08T12:32:42-04:00
What a Concept! AAs Concept Five threats minorities and unpopular opinions as rights-bearing equals
Background: In Toronto Canada a new era of AA stewardship is sweeping AA Intergroup. It is the era of governance, enforcement and homogeneity of a controlled interpretation of the message of Alcoholics Anonymous. If Bill Wilson were here today and still recording AA's legacy, he would surely have drawn upon this example of what we should not do in his Berenstain Bears essay style that the Twelve Traditions are full of.<br><br>
In Toronto, agnostic AA groups were carrying the message to nonbelievers that don’t subscribe to an interfering or intervening god. Some believers don’t like the idea of agnostic AA and stay away. Other members found it refreshing and the new meeting renewed their enthusiasm for AA. Everything was fine. Like AA worldwide, agnostic groups in Toronto took their place along other AA groups as rights-bearing equals, just as agnostic groups have done in AA since the mid-1970s. Toronto’s first agnostic group offered an agnostic interpretation of AA's Twelve Steps, removing “God.”<br><br>
Members voted with their bums – the modest meeting grew, the group gave out eight one-year medallions in the first 18 months and two more agnostic groups opened their doors to likeminded AA members and newcomers In Toronto. The group was also home to a half-dozen 20 year+ AA long-timers. <br><br>
Intolerant believers saw the presence of agnostic groups in the meeting directory as a threat—not to their own beliefs of course, but as always, there fear was on behalf of the fragile newcomer. A plot was hatched to find the groups guilty of an AA crime and excommunicate them. Intergroup did toss the agnostic groups from the directory and the Intergroup steering committee struck the agnostic groups from participation on the Intergroup floor, leaving no means of appeal – at least not by the directly affected parties. <br><br>
The groups that were dumped were alleged to have violated an AA rule--they read and distributed an interpretation of the Twelve Steps without the word “God.” Is there such a rule that trumps group autonomy? No but they just borrowed some wording from our Service Manual that limits the power of the General Service Board or Conference. GSO can’t change the Steps or Traditions without the OK of 75% of AA groups. Nowhere in this service manual does it suggest that this is a mandate to over-rule group autonomy.<br><br>
Al-Anon, a refuge of sober second thought, adopted a three-fold filter that Socrates is credited with offering us: Is it true? Is it fair? Is it useful? The agenda at Intergroup was hurried. We had to get these groups voted out before the May printing (2011) of the Greater Toronto Meeting List. In fact, we were out of meeting lists. Requests from groups were not being met because we couldn’t print new meeting lists until Intergroup rushed this motion through to oust agnostics from the Toronto AA lexicon. The reification of a singular pure message of recovery would be the hallmark of Toronto's new style of Intergroup governance.<br><br>
The vote wasn’t even close; agnostic AA isn't AA enough for Toronto. In the rush, these three questions were never asked – is it true that groups aren’t allowed to read their own interpretation of the Twelve Steps? Is it fair that an AA service structure can or should pass judgment on the merits of a group recognized by General Service Office as a legitimate AA group? Was it useful for newcomers to replace unity with uniformity.<br><br>
Indianapolis, Des Moines and, from what I hear, Boston have wrestled with this same debate? Is bigotry or preservation at work when new rules are added and enforced? Bill Wilson’s AA was and is one of reducing barriers to entry – not putting them up. In a Toronto General Service District Committee meeting the following essay was presented as a discussion piece on AA’s Twelve Concepts:<br><br><b><br>
Concept V : “Through our world service structure, a traditional “Right of Appeal” ought to prevail, thus assuring that minority opinion will be heard and that petitions for the redress of personal grievances will be carefully considered.”</b><br><br>
Bill W quotes a French nobleman, De Touquerville who visited North America to witness the new Republic. As noted by Wilson, the nobleman offered the new democracy some advice, "The greatest threat to democracy would always be the tyranny of apathetic, self-seeking, uninformed or angry majorities. Only a truly dedicated citizenry, willing to protect and conserve minority rights and opinion, could guarantee the existence of a free and democratic society.”<br><br>
When unpopular opinions are forbidden and minorities are scapegoats, De Touchqerville would view these signals as a society in decay. Are we a “truly dedicated citizenry?” Is AA in our area apathetic? Have we ever been part of a self-seeking, uninformed or angry majority that imposed our will on a minority? Concept V – the minority opinion is our best chance of not falling prey to this kind of complacency. <br><br>
The General Service Conference may seem like they take forever to get anything done. Hearing the opinion of the minority is something that AA goes to great lengths to ensure. Often when a two-thirds vote could easily be obtained the floor, agonizingly waits to hear what everyone has to say. The minority can alter the will of the majority.<br><br>
The late Barry L, author of “Do You Think You’re Different” and “Living Sober” was a GSO staff member in 1973 and 1974 and tells of the story when the Conference had to decide if Gay meetings could be so identified in AA directories. The mood of the floor was dead-set against the idea. Remember that homosexuality was still a felony and gay men and women were spoken of as deviants. <br><br>
In Barry’s 1985 World Conference talk in Montreal he recalls, “The discussion in 1974 went back and forth, back and forth for two days and two nights. Much of the agenda was wiped out. I remember one man saying, ‘I guess if this year you list the sex deviants, next year you’ll list the rapists AA groups.’ <br><br>
“A delightful woman from one of the northern States or maybe Canada, standing about three feet tall, came to the middle microphone and pulled it down to her face and said, ‘Where I come from alcoholics are considered deviants.’ The chairman astutely saw that the mood of the floor had changed and he asked if anyone wanted to call the question. The vote was cast and only two delegates voted against the gay and lesbian groups inclusion; it was almost unanimous, 129 votes to two.”<br><br>
Every generation thinks it has found some new threat to AA sustainability. If I were to bring up the topic of a group changing the wording of the Twelve Steps, you might think I am talking about AA literalists vs agnostic groups at Toronto Intergroup Circa: 2011. While it is true that here in Toronto, what the minority calls “group autonomy,” a resounding majority of Toronto Intergroup reps call grounds for dismissal. Fifty-five years ago, AA had a different attitude towards minority rights and group autonomy. <br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/bdcc16678d64f71df2f4dd003bee20b094e24bb0/original/Bill-W-blog.jpg?1380569603" class="size_orig justify_right border_" alt="" height="305" width="290" />A poignant story comes from the mid 1950s as AA was reaching alcoholics around the world, where the God belief that dominates AA culture was not shared by many. Bill Wilson was quite clear about the liberty for individual groups in his Chapter on Unity from “A. A. Comes of Age.” Buddhists announce to AA that they would love to be part of AA, yet they would be replacing the word “god” with “good” so that the practice of the Steps could be compatible with their non-theistic belief. In 1957, Bill writes: <br><br>
“To some of us, the idea of substituting ‘good’ for ‘God’ in the Twelve Steps will seem like a watering down of A.A.’s message. But here we must remember that A.A.’s Steps are suggestions only. A belief in them, as they stand, is not at all a requirement for membership among us. This liberty has made A.A. available to thousands who never would have tried at all had we insisted on the Twelve Steps just as written.” (from Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, page 81)<br><br>
Today’s Toronto Intergroup convincingly disagrees with our cofounder. Voting out atheists has surely increased the popularity of Intergroup participation. Intergroup is generally represented by 40 to 50 of Toronto’s 200+ groups. We got 82 bums in seats to keep two nonconforming groups from returning to Intergroup participation and to vote out a new deviant group.<br><br>
AA stewards have come out of the woodwork to see and participate in AA democracy – or at least AA democracy minus Concept V. When agnostics were first banished from the meeting list last May, AA’s “Right of Appeal” might have included this reading of AA history from Comes of Age. The reading might have made it clear that the exact wording of our Twelve Steps are neither law nor orthodoxy. Intergroup could have been reminded that not only has it always been permissible for each group to do as it chooses, but this autonomy has always made AA bigger and better, reaching the hand of AA out to all who suffer. <br><br>
But in May of 2011, the groups that were voted against were voted out of Intergroup. The voice of the minority was buried as the meeting names were stroked off the Intergroup list of members.<br><br>
The AA Service Manual states that “When a minority considers an issue to be such a grave one that a mistaken decision could seriously affect AA as a whole, it should then charge itself with the duty of presenting a minority report.” <br><br>
Bill goes on to say, “minorities frequently can be right; that even when they are partly or wholly in error they still perform a most valuable service, when by asserting their ‘Right of Appeal,’ they compel a thorough debate on important issues. The well-heard minority, therefore, is our chief protection against a, misinformed, hasty or angry majority.”<br><br>
In an AA without Concept V, unpopular opinions or ways of doing things are suppressed or eradicated, uniformity replaces unity and our AA becomes a culture of conformity, burying the tapestry that preceded it. This is the natural consequence of apathetic, self-seeking, uninformed or angry majorities that resist scrutiny. <br><br>
AA must also be protected from an angry, self-seeking minority. What if secular AA demanded that their way was right and all of AA should shape up with a more inclusive Twelve Steps that doesn't speak of a creator in the Judeo/Christian language of "God." Should all of AA change to accommodate the beliefs of the few? No it should not. Autonomy in AA rests with individuals and the groups. But an AA held hostage by special interest groups would be no more palatable than a minority discriminated against by the majority. Bill Wilson thought long and hard about these things: What is true, what is fair and what is useful? Long live Concept V.<br><br><br>
Notes:<br>
Hear Barry L's 1985 World Conference talk at 40 years sober, three weeks before his death. <a href="/files/63403/barry-l-originof3rdtrad.m3u">Hear it HERE</a><br>
Toronto Intergroup minutes (click on May 2010, March 2012) <a target="_new" href="http://aatoronto.org/webapp/app/webroot/index.php/intergroup/intergroup_meetings">Here</a><br>
Concept V from the AA World Service, The Twelve Concepts by Bill W, page 22 <a target="_new" href="http://www.aa.org/pdf/products/en_bm-31.pdf">HERE</a><br>
Berenstain Bears - "this is what you should not do, so let this be a lesson to you" <a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berenstain_Bears">HERE</a><br><br><br><br>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/137727
2012-02-05T07:23:22-05:00
2017-02-01T16:54:36-05:00
Subjectivity of my Reality
The only problem with reality…<br><br>
The only problem with reality is there are so many versions of it. Game Time: Think of a 12-Step meeting you look forward to going to. Now think of one that makes you roll your eyes. I practiced what I preached – they are in my head right now. Man those sanctimonious bastard think they know everything. Not like my home group – we aren’t perfect but we know a little something about humility, love and tolerance. How different are these two groups? To an impartial observer, they might not see much difference in either of them.<br><br>
In 1966, Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann expanded this theme in a book called The Social Construction of Reality. Consider that each autonomous 12-Step group is its own society, like two towns in the same country (fellowship). Berger and Luckmann write:<br><br>
“Two societies confronting each other with conflicting universes will both develop conceptual machineries designed to maintain their respective universes. From the point of view if the intrinsic plausibility the two forms of conceptualization may seem to the outside observer to offer little choice.”<br><br>
Let’s say a medical student picked two meetings to attend to learn about our brand of addiction and recovery. He picked the two closed meetings to school on consecutive nights. One was a mainstream AA meeting and the other was a Gay group, or Agnostic or young people’s group. Would he notice that one was different from the other. Each of them were peer to peer groups, they both read, “What is AA,” took a Seventh Tradition, talked about the only requirement for membership, the problem of powerlessness, the idea that alcoholism is a progressive, fatal illness and together we can do what alone we cannot. So even if one group was a “special interest” group, formed because members needed a place they could really relate to other alcoholics or addicts that appreciated what makes them different, these “conflicting universes” between mainstream and special focus groups could be so small that the casual outside observer doesn’t even see it. If we are members of these groups, we see what differentiates us; the outsider sees the common theme.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/445a228c68fcc3eb590ae2fcf24ba8f6e4200fe1/original/i_reject_your_reality_substitute_my_own.jpg?1380569603" class="size_orig justify_right border_" alt="" height="264" width="367" />What I know is real is really what I believe; what I believe colors everything I perceive as I tend to ask life to corroborate my worldview. My worldview is what I see outside my window. I don’t see the whole world, but I construct my view of the world, based on the fragment I see, the bit I have heard and what I imagine. It’s limited.<br><br>
Everyone in recovery knows that our worldview can change. I was sure that alcohol and drugs were the missing piece in the puzzle of my life. Everything made more sense and I felt more complete when I was intoxicated. I vehemently defended this perceived truth when confronted about my addiction. But now I accept that I am powerless. I have a totally new worldview, because I am looking out a different window.<br><br>
To borrow from Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 – 1860):<br><br>
“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”<br><br>
You told me I was powerless and my life was unmanageable. I scoffed at first. Then I raised my voice and got drunk at you. Now I am sober and expect to stay sober all day. My truth of the past went through three stages as it morphed into what I believe now.<br><br>
If we keep seeking, we go through this three-stage phase all the time. We all learn to “let go absolutely.” What becomes of that will once released is a much debated idea. Many know exactly what happens and why; that is their truth. All I know is that I hate being controlled and I want to have control. I believe that letting loose of my desire to control the agenda is good for me. What becomes of this willfulness is purely subjective. Now there have been times when I needed to understand what’s behind the curtain. Isn’t that funny – I was willing to let go of my controlling tendency, but I insisted on understanding what became of this will of mine – as if that’s important. But it was important to me, so I listened to some smart sounding people and made something up that kind of made sense to me. I explained this truth of mine in exquisite detail. Then I started to believe something else and explained how wrong I was then, and what the real truth is now. Oh, “there are none so righteous as the recently converted.” I have been converted a few times now.<br><br>
Understanding that my truth and what is real to me is subjective is important to me for two good reasons. First, I don’t want to stop growing. Second, I want to have compassion for others and if they differ from me, I best not think I am enlightened and they are deluded. It wouldn’t be any better to see them as whole and me as incomplete. Humility for me today is about me and my world being right sized. Maybe I am my brother (and sister’s) keeper, but I am not their master.<br><br>
I think that a spiritual journey is a continuum, more circular than linear. My tendency is to lock in on those who reinforce or validate my current worldview. I am quick to dismiss alternative worldviews. It is a reflex. It happens before my cognitive functions are engaged. That’s why I like think, think, think; if I give myself time to think and think some more before I react I can be more civilized than my base instincts. And really, who am I going to learn from. The people who mirror my moves, or the many who move to the beat of another drummer<br><br>
Have you ever seen the award winning documentary, “Escape from Death,” about the books by Pulitzer Prize author Earnest Becker, called, “Denial of Death” and “Escape from Evil?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Qwx4IDGWWQ<br><br>
This movie and the work of Terror Management Theorists shines a light on why I am more likely to dismiss, or feel threatened by, someone different than me, than I am to feel communion and connection. I want to get along; I want to see the beauty in others. To do so takes exercise to rise above my base instincts. Like all of us, I suffer from attribution tendencies. I attribute “reasons” for my flaws and those I love and I attribute “defective character” to the flaws of those outside my circle. For example: I am late because of traffic and look how busy I am. You are late – how could you show so little respect for my time, you narcissist!<br><br>
Part of Step Ten and Eleven for me is to meditate on compassion and assess how I am doing when I am in the kitchen where things get hot. I also review when I find myself defending my reality. When I am so sure I am right and I have figured a problem out, I now like to ask myself, “What else could this mean?” That’s one way, I have learned from others how to think, think, think.<br>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/132582
2012-01-08T18:25:00-05:00
2017-01-14T11:32:06-05:00
What can the Toronto Problem tell us about AAs Population Stagnation Worldwide?
As the Christian calendar rolled over to 2012, another AA member asked me why I thought AA was no longer growing. Like me, he remembers the 1970s and 1980s when perpetual population growth in AA was expected. AA population, which had always been growing, doubled from the 1970s to the 1990s. Population peaked just after 1991 and in the last 20 years we have never reached beyond 2.2 million members. AA language was cutting edge for the 1940s. Seven decades later the same old tune doesn’t sound so funky. The world is changing and AA can change too, but resists.<br><br>
As we seek understanding about the 20-year growth drought, clues might present themselves when we look at the problems at the Intergroup office in Toronto Canada. A changing of Canadian demographics tells a story of why, in Canada anyway, our fellowship may not be keeping pace with the larger community we say we are committed to, everyone who has a desire to stop drinking.<br><br>
THE FACTS ABOUT A CHANGING CANADA<br>
In 1991, Canada had 26.9 million people and 83% were Christian. In 2001 population grew 10% (29.6 million) and Christian population fell to 77%. Christian population (like AA population) stayed almost flat over the decade (1.5% increase) while the Canadian population increased over 2.5 million.<br><br>
Over that decade, Protestants are down 8%, Catholics are up 5%. The second largest religious population is no religion at all. The non-religious have increased 44% from 3.4 million to 4.9 million Canadians.<br><br>
Of the non-Christian religious, Jews remain flat as 1% of our population and predominantly eastern religions have exploded. Collectively, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs have doubled in population in Canada at the end of the 20th Century from 721,130 Canadians to 1,455,605 Canadians. For the record, people who fall into none of these categories are also on the rise. The “other” classification increased 72.5% from 1 million to 1.9 million Canadians.<br><br>
To accommodate the Islamic faith in AA not only would we allow the replacement of the phrase, “God as we understand Him,” with Allah but the male pronoun, “He” has to go. There is no gender or plural “Higher Power” in the Muslim faith. Muslims, who may be finding Allah “doing for them what they could not do for themselves” in AA, are but a sliver of the non-Judeo/Christian Canadian population.<br><br>
Buddhists, some of which would not define Buddhism as a religion at all, and have no interfering or intervening god, had a 88% growth rate from 1991 to 2001 in Canada from 163,000 to over 300,000. In one decade the total non-theistic population surge in Canada went from 4.5 Million in ’91 to 6.8 Million, a 51% increase.<br><br>
12% of the world population are atheists, absolutely sure there is no interfering god listening to prayer or granting sobriety to AA members. Many are proud AA members, using the Twelve Steps to get sober and considering their own success proof of the non-existence of god. Most nonbelievers have no axe to grind with believers about they should or should not believe. They simply want to be treated as equals and able to communicate without censorship. <br><br>
According to a 2006 Stats Canada report, THE 16% of Canadians who claim to have no religion in 2001 has quadrupled from 4% in 1971. Is this a short term trend? Not if youth is our future. In Canada fewer than half of 15 to 30-year-olds have religious belief or practices. We know 15 to 30-year-olds drink; some of them get sober. When this Millennial generation reaches the average AA member age of 47 years old, with half the country not believing in God, how many will be finding their sobriety from AA, if we don’t start expressing our principles in a language they understand?<br><br>
We don’t have 2011 data yet. Will religious belief be back to the era of the Big Book first edition? Will belief in God as an interfering/intervening power be in further decline? We will wait and see.<br><br>
THE FACTS ABOUT A STAGNATING ALCOHOICS ANONYMOUS<br>
What we know about 2011 is this was the year that Toronto Intergroup started forcibly reducing the number of groups instead of increasing the number. Specifically, Intergroup is going against the longstanding AA tradition (since 1975) of embracing agnostic AA groups and discriminating against them. Groups that are deemed AA by General Service Office are excluded from having a voice on the Greater Toronto Intergroup floor and being listed as a meeting for newcomers or visitors.<br><br>
While GSO is looking forward to talking about diversity and change as the catalyst of AA growth at the 2012 General Service Assembly, Toronto is voting against diversity or change. AA members in Toronto want the Twelve Steps for people who don’t believe in god. A divided Toronto Intergroup is saying, “Not in our city.” <br><br>
There is no rule against a group posting, reading or distributing agnostic steps in AA. But Toronto group conscience employs the narrowest possible view towards preserving AA integrity. A suburban Intergroup rep expresses a shared sentiment when he says, “It’s OK for members to be agnostic but they shouldn’t be allowed to have their own groups.”<br><br>
Is that fair? Is that true? Is that legal? It has been pointed out to the Intergroup Chair that some of the AA members in the agnostic community of Toronto have felt harassed since the Intergroup action and that according to the Ontario Human Rights Commission website, Intergroup is violating the law by not accommodating minority rights in AA. As far as I know, this information, this letter to the Chair, was not shared with other Intergroup reps. <br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/0c1e84a42999fb62539c50890d4a22b761998c08/original/ohrc-logo.gif?1380569603" class="size_orig justify_right border_" alt="" height="97" width="355" />According to the Ontario Human Rights Commission, agnostics in AA have the right to accommodation when requesting to adopt non-theistic Twelve Steps and these groups are rights-bearing equals on the Intergroup floor. Neither harassment of minorities based on theistic belief nor systemic discrimination is legal in Canada:<br><br><i>“It is the OHRC's position that every person has the right to be free from discriminatory or harassing behaviour that is based on religion or which arises because the person who is the target of the behaviour does not share the same faith. This principle extends to situations where the person who is the target of such behaviour has no religious beliefs whatsoever, including atheists and agnostics, who may, in these circumstances, benefit from the protection set out in the Code. <br><br>
“In either situation, creed must be involved – either because the person who is the subject of the discrimination is seeking to practice his or her own religion, or because the person who is harassing or discriminating is trying to impose their creed on someone else. In both cases, creed must be involved.<br><br>
“Discriminatory practices that fail to meet any statutory justification test are illegal and will be struck down” <br></i><br>
The fact that Toronto AA doesn’t have a human rights policy, a procedure for managing complaints or accommodating creed, race, gender or sexual orientation needs just speaks to how AA is not in step with the society it claims to serve in Ontario Canada. <br><br>
Since 1991, the Greater Toronto Area has more than doubled in population to over 5.5 Million people. Visible minorities collectively have eclipsed residents of European descent in a city that answers 911 calls in 150 languages. <br><br>
Outside the rooms of AA, Canada’s population is very different than it was in the 1970s. Inside AA’s rooms we look and behave pretty much the same now as we did then – predominantly Caucasian 40+ males of Judeo/Christian descent. Stagnate demographics are a tell-tale sign that systemic discrimination is present in an organization like ours.<br><br>
Canada is growing. So is alcoholism. But AA is staying the same. Assuming that the laws of nature abhor a vacuum, are we more likely to grow or decline if we refuse to accommodate the needs of today’s alcoholics? <br><br>
In 1965 Bill W wrote in the AA Grapevine:<br><i>“Let us never fear needed change. Certainly we have to discriminate between changes for worse and changes for better. But once a need becomes clearly apparent in an individual, in a group, or in A.A. as a whole, it has long since been found out that we cannot stand still and look the other way.<br><br>
“The essence of all growth is a willingness to change for the better and then an unremitting willingness to shoulder whatever responsibility this entails.”<br></i><br>
Change is risky – what if it doesn’t work out for the better? AA is self-correcting. When we try something and it doesn’t work, it goes away all by itself – be it god’s will or natural selection. AA has never needed to enforce rules or govern meetings or members. Many feel we would no longer be AA if we did draft and enforce rules for members or groups.<br><br>
Once there was a man. He had a message. The message started a movement. The movement created a monument. If the fluid, flexible message becomes a reified, cast in stone monument, growth is impossible. The movement starts to decay. The next stop is the mausoleum, where our children will learn about AA in the museum. <br><br>
It’s not the fault of the founders that we canonized their memory and reified their words as the alpha and the omega of AA lore. It seems to me the founders told us to keep changing. Is it too late to change? It all depends on us. It all depends on our attitude towards AA stewardship. Are we to enshrine our past and run this jalopy into the ground, or will we prepare our fellowship for the needs of the still suffering alcoholic to come? <br><br>
Sources<br><a target="_new" href="http://www.statcan.gc.ca/search-recherche/bb/info/3000017-eng.htm">http://www.statcan.gc.ca/search-recherche/bb/info/3000017-eng.htm</a><br><a target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Canada">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Canada</a><br><a target="_new" href="http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/policy-creed-and-accommodation-religious-observances/creed">http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/policy-creed-and-accommodation-religious-observances/creed</a><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/130488
2011-12-27T07:05:00-05:00
2021-10-09T13:18:15-04:00
The role of reading in maintaining mental and emotional fitness
<b>“Books are carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. They are engines of change, windows on the world, lighthouses erected in the sea of time.”</b> Henry David Thoreau<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/63023/d85d5ca32be6315c6f5ad5d22afb3e17dda6e234/original/Reading.jpg?1380569603" class="size_orig justify_right border_" alt="" height="372" width="289" />I am curious to see how the word “book” evolves in our everyday lexicon. Is a book the paper and binding or is it the organization of thoughts inside the covers? Old words like desktop, file and page have survived through alterations in definition. A desktop was once a surface on a piece of furniture that we worked at. It is now carefully crafted 1s and 0s. <br><br>
So will the word “book” be with us for many more generations, even after they are no longer made with paper and binding or found in libraries or book stores? Will book refer to the collection of organized thoughts, the story, the thesis and/or the creativity?<br><br>
People are musing about a new style of future-shock where we digress, not evolve. The multimedia varieties for consuming information are considered a risky proposition. Could we be dumbed-down by the ever encroaching image? More people can read than ever before. The new illiteracy is born of a population who won't read. When we do read, we turn to 144 character tweet over a 3,000 word feature article.<br><br>
Watching and listening is more passive than reading. Does watching and listening make our brains flabby? Is the titillation of all these mediums vying for our attention making us act like a nation of Attention Deficit Disorder patients? Who can read an instruction manual anymore before turning the gadget on? How many of us read the paper before we check for texts, emails and voice-mail or surf the web? Not me.<br><br>
Some people get recovery-lazy too. The seduction of living recovery inside a 164 page border is that “experts” wield mastery over novices indefinitely. No continuing education is needed. When I got clean and sober, I was seeking. I was asking some big questions and owning up to my lacking. I wanted to know, I felt compelled to try something new. Do I still seek with the same zeal? <br><br>
Thinking about it now, I have seasons of seeking. There are times when I coast and times when I roll up my sleeves and search. I think there is a time for reflection and a time to engage the world; a time to take in and a time to put it out there. Constant self-absorption would not be healthy living. In the same way, resting on my laurels indefinitely wouldn’t be helpful to me, or helpful to others either. If I stop reading, I am no better off than someone who can’t read. I expect that I would get overinvested in my beliefs if I don’t expose myself to new ones. <br><br>
I think a beliefs or a current world-view is like a snake’s skin. They protect us and make us feel safe but they also constrain us. The snake’s continued growth is dependent on shedding the old skin and it is a chore to wrestle out of the old skin. If my beliefs don’t periodically get pushed out of the way by new ideas, I won’t grow either.<br><br>
Struggling through a new book that isn’t pleasant can be like the snake wrything out of her or his skin. It takes time, I would rather be doing other things, but my growth depends on it.<br><br>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/129301
2011-12-19T11:10:00-05:00
2011-12-19T11:10:00-05:00
Some previous musings from Rebellion Dogs
<span style="font-size: large;">12 Steps, Over 300 Disorders, and Recovery in a Mad, Mad World</span><br>
How will you do your next Step 4? Do you use the AA Big Book list of resentments, fears and sex- conduct? Or will you us the newest version of the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). The first one in 1952 was 150 pages and 180 disorders. The current on DSM-IV is 900 pages and 365 disorders. DSM-5 will come out in 2013 and, while some insist that there is plenty of neurocognitive evidence to broaden definitions even further, critics see it as pharmaceutical cash cow that will help create a pill for everything.<br><br>
Consider that OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorders) weren’t even part of our language when Bill Wilson wrote about how we work the Twelve Steps. The latest survey suggested that 60% of AA members are double winners, blessed with a psychiatric diagnosis as well as addiction. Chances are the new DSC check up from the neck up will increase that number. In the Globe and Mail on July 9th, Ian Brown ponders how much today’s science will look like quackery in another 100 years.<br>
More… <a target="_new" href="http://www.intherooms.com/addiction/12-steps-over-300-disorders-and-recovery-in-a-mad-mad-world/">In The Rooms Addictions Magazine<br></a><br><span style="font-size: large;">The Recovery Freethinker Chronicles, the ongoing history of alternative beliefs in a Twelve Step world</span><br>
“More than 2,000 years ago, whoever wrote Psalm 14 claimed that atheists were foolish and corrupt, incapable of doing any good. These put-downs have had sticking power. Negative stereotypes of atheists are alive and well. Yet like all stereotypes, they aren’t true — and perhaps they tell us more about those who harbor them than those who are maligned by them.” These are the words of Gregory Paul and Phil Zuckerman, from their April 29th Washington Post article called, “Why Do Americans Still Dislike Atheists?” Is this true and do anonymous 12-Step programs have attitude about their members of no theistic faith? Should we regard a faith in the same apathy we would his or her favorite color?<br><br>
If someone shares our favorite color we might gasp, “Oh wow, me too!” and share a small bonding moment but if someone discloses in a meeting that they prefer a different color, we wouldn’t try to change his or her mind. The fact is that from the original few dozen members who stuck it out in early AA, atheists and agnostics were staying sober without having to accept anyone elses belief or deny their own. Today, the chapter “We Agnostics” doesn’t tell the story of most recovered non-theists. Some agnostics, atheists, Buddhists and Apostates find the chapter condescending or spiritually arrogant.<br>
More… <a target="_new" href="http://www.intherooms.com/addiction/the-recovery-freethinker-chronicles-the-ongoing-history-of-alterative-beliefs-in-a-twelve-step-world/">In The Rooms Addictions Magazine</a> <br><br><span style="font-size: large;">The Recovery Free-thinker Chronicles, Bill W Relates to Non-Believers</span><br>
In my last column, I explored some misconceptions that I have seen causing friction in the fellowship, specifically between atheists and God-conscious members in 12 Step programs. Like any society, variations in our heart-felt beliefs can make a mosaic out of community life or it can cause tension; it's all about love and tolerance. Today, I reflect on the deep empathy Bill Wilson felt for those alcoholics who's views differed from as to how the universe is unfolding. Bill learned a spiritual lesson from an Atheist doctor and he pondered how to, or how not to, talk AA with non-believers.<br><br>
Back in 1961, while AA's 300,000 sober members celebrated its 25th anniversary, their founder agonized over how AA could be a better program along with more welcoming to newcomers. Here is an excerpt from the April 1961 Grapevine article, written by Bill Wilson: “Though three hundred thousand did recover in the last twenty-five years, maybe half a million more have walked into our midst, and then out again. No doubt some were too sick to make even a start. Others couldn't or wouldn't admit their alcoholism. Still others couldn't face up to their underlying personality defects. Numbers departed for still other reasons.<br><br>
Yet we can't well content ourselves with the view that all these recovery failures were entirely the fault of the newcomers themselves. <br>
More… <a target="_new" href="http://www.intherooms.com/addiction/the-recovery-free-thinker-chronicles-bill-w-relates-to-non-believers/">In The Rooms Addictions Magazine</a> <br><br><span style="font-size: large;">Rev. Ward Ewing, the best friend a nonbeliever could have</span><br>
If you are new to Addiction Magazine blogs, welcome. I don’t believe in God. I feel about as welcome here as I do anywhere. I have found myself in the middle of AAs attitude adjustment about faith with tempers flaring on both sides of the God language in AA. In time we will have better language that expresses how we are 98% the same but until then, some of our language divides us.<br><br>
The AA nonbelievers’ friend on the inside is certainly our fellow non-theists. Fellowship and cooperation with like-minded fellows is critical. But culturally critical to the sober atheist is the believer who says, “You belong, you are equal, I have much to learn from you.” <br><br>
One of these great friends is Ward Ewing, Class A trustee and Chairman of our General Service Board.<br>
More… <a target="_new" href="http://www.intherooms.com/addiction/rev-ward-ewing-the-best-friend-a-nonbeliever-could-have/">In The Rooms Addictions Magazine</a> <br><br><br>
Joe C.
tag:www.rebelliondogspublishing.com,2005:Post/124933
2011-11-23T18:55:00-05:00
2011-11-23T18:55:00-05:00
"Keep me safe in the company of those who seek truth and safe from the company of those...
<span style="font-size: large;">... who claim to have found it." </span><span style="font-size: medium;">I wish I knew who to credit for this quote.<br><br>
I remember a columnist who wrote a book called, Often Wrong, Never in Doubt. I wish I had thought of that. I have lots of experience with being absolutely sure. I have even more experience being bedside myself with doubt. Neither state improves the odds of me being right about whatever it is I am on about. I often told my son as he was growing from boyhood to manhood, "Doubt may be a higher level of consciousness than certainty. Of course, I can't be sure."<br><br>
In her book Waiting: A Nonbeliever's Higher Power, Marya Hornbacher describes doubt as being at the heart of the spiritual experience. She says, "When we doubt, we learn to accept that we may never know. When we question we learn to accept that there may be no answer. When we shout our doubt out into the universe, we learn to accept that we may be met with silence we do not know how to read...And the paradox is this: to accept this not-knowing - to accept doubt, a lack of certainty - is to accept the very nature of life as it is."<br><br>
MORE MARYA (<a href="http://www.thefix.com/content/marya-hornbacher-takes-god9165?page=all" target="_new">interview about WAITING</a>)<br><br>
Did god create humans in his, her, its, their image or was it the other way around? <br><br>
I don't have any proof of an interfering god that grants serenity, recovery, wisdom or second chances. But I do have proof that I prefer assurance to chaos; I like protection more than vulnerability. So, it is reasonable, the way my mind thinks, that if no one before me created a god-concept, I would at least fantasize about one, if not craft a narrative about how it is likely to exist and any doubt I had was merely that power's way to test my faith in him, her, it or they.<br><br>
I love seekers, I truly do. They are open, curious, vulnerable and willing. People who know what's best, know what secret message the lessons of the past are trying to tell us or have unwavering certainty about what's best for the next generation, these people scare the shit out of me. I would like to enjoy a good laugh at their expense but I wonder if they are dangerous.</span><br><span style="font-size: small;"><br>
Beyond Belief Daily Musings for 12 Step Life is 365 daily reflections that starts with a great quote and considers its application to recovery and addiction. Beyond Belief the book will be launched as an eBook December 2012 and the physical book will be available for purchase early in 2013</span><br><br>
Joe C.