For my self & my exp. its what its all about people helping people with the same common problem of the disease alcoholism.

Step 12 work - carry this message, those who do have a life that is enriched beyond measure!

Maybe we could discuss this responsibility in the context of Chapter 7 in the BB:

http://anonpress.org/bb/Page_89.htm

The whole approach is really quite different from what we do here.

Nemo...problem with that comparison is that this is a generic forum of support for all alcoholics. Can't even expect the most dedicated AA member to adhere to Chapter 7 100%.

But the discussion might be interesting...

This is something I wrote a while ago regarding responsibility and gratitude in relation to AA:-

Responsibility:

Think about your own journey in AA:
Did you call the telephone office? Was someone there to answer the phone?
Did your call get passed out to your local area? Was there someone on the Twelfth Step List to make contact with you?
Did they come and see you or take you to a meeting?
Who had responsibility for making sure the meeting happened and ran properly?
Who made your cup of tea, put out the chair you sat on, arranged the speaker for the meeting, ordered and set out the literature etc etc?
Did you speak to people before and after the meeting? Did they try to help you instead of focusing on themselves?
Do you have a sponsor?
Do they take time to help you?
Do all the above things and plenty more still happen for you?

What would have happened if these things hadnt been available for you or me or anyone else in AA? No one to answer phones, run meetings, offer help and sponsorship and all the other things we take for granted?

What if the people in AA before us had got happy and sober and got on with their lives saying, I just dont have time to go to meetings, do service, help others now that Im sober and have got my life back together?

The short answer is we wouldnt be sober, and probably we would be locked up, permanently insane or dead.

We owe our sobriety to a Higher Power, who we found through the Twelve Step Programme; but without AA, which is made up of all its individual members, we have no access to this solution we cannot find sobriety.

As members of AA who have recovered from alcoholism through a Spiritual Awakening this is now OUR RESPONSIBILTY. If we do not do service in AA, who will? Can we really say we have had a spiritual experience if we are not taking our part of responsibility for making sure AA and the Programme is here for the next alcoholic who needs it.

Next time we think about not going to a meeting or doing some service, because we are considering what we will get not what we can give, we should ask ourselves what would happen if everyone did that? The newcomer arrives to find no meeting? We dont get to share our experience, strength, and hope with someone whose life depends on it also remember our life depends upon it too!!? etc. etc. Whose responsibility is all of this if it is not ours?
Remember the pledge

When anyone, anywhere, reaches out for help, I want the hand of AA always to be there, and for that, I am RESPONSIBLE

Gratitude:

A key spiritual principle is gratitude. If we have recovered from alcoholism through a spiritual awakening we will surely be grateful.

Gratitude is not just a feeling it is ACTION.

We express it through service. Service is GRATITUDE IN ACTION.

To say we are grateful means nothing we have to show we are grateful through the actions we take.

If we are not grateful and willing to take action to demonstate this we should reflect upon the quality and depth of our spiritual experience. Are we really in fit spiritual condition?

Remember, Faith without works is dead and willingness without action is fantasy!

Julie,

What I'm hoping is that non-AAers might get some background into why we interact the way we do with newcomers and those who are still drinking.

Hey Nemo, could you share some of your experience with working with newcomers as per ch 7 - it would be very interesting - thanks.

Very interesting Nicki...Today I came to AA strictly thru the internet. Specifically I came FIRST to this website and after chatting with people decided to give AA a shot. I then did ALL my research on line. Never lifted the phone. Found a group near me and went. There I did get a phone list...newcomer package a a woman gave me her card. I never called anyone. After a meeting face to face asked my sponsor to sponsor me. I did feel a need to call her...once. At all other times we communicated via e-mail!!!!!

Funny...times have changed...now instead of phone numbers we exchange e-mails. Its actually more comfortable for me...I hate the phone...seldom call...but I'm on line often and like the freedom of it. Just my experience. Pretty soon I guess it will all be via texting!

nicky,

Maybe better, I'll share one ofmy experiences with an AA member working withme, and how & why it ultimately worked.

When I was hitchhiking around Litchfield County, CT in my last full winter of drinking, I was always glad when a certain gray Chrysler came into view. The owner's name was Chip and he was sober in AA. But by his own account, he was also certifiably insane, and used to brag that he had his citation of psychiatric discharge from the CIA framed and mounted on his wall. When he would listen to the news on the car radio, he would inform me that the voice of George Bush, Sr. was being beamed through a tiny transmitter that the CIA had planted in his skull. Hey, I'm not kidding, and neither was he!

I truly enjoyed Chip's company in those days, for here was just about the last person on this planet that I could feel superior to. But on one bitterly cold March day, right after I climbed into his nice warm car and said my usual hellos, he didn't respond. Instead he was silent for about 30 seconds and then he suddenly blurted out, "You DISGUST me!"

"Wh-why"? I stammered, surreptitiously sniffing my clothes to find out if they were any smellier than usual.

"Because you're drunk, goddammit," he snapped.

We drove on in silence, and for the first time ever, I was only too glad to get out of that car. It would then be another nine months before I took my last drink, but that remark cut me to the bone and haunted my dreams, and every drink tasted more or less like warm kerosene after that.

When I was finally ready to go to a rehab nine months later, I called everyone on my list of easy touches for a ride. Everyone but Chip turned me down, and he came many miles out of his way to drive me over, lecturing me all the way on the perils of rehab romances and the importance of eating well.

Do you see why I say that owe my life to that man? Do you see how he helped me in a way that no one else at that time could or would?

no offense.....i have never and will never attend an AA meeting.

responsibility? we live our lives. thus the rules are laid down.

personally..........my responsibilities are just that. responsibilities to put others before self and never let them down. as for self?


judge me as you will............i play chess with the "Master".....and He let's me cheat to lose...............why? because there is a lesson. not to be preached to others...........but a personal lesson to be learned.