Extracts
from the aacultwatch forum (old)
“Tenth/twelfth
Step Meetings” AA Grapevine March 1968 Vol. 24 No. 10
http://da.aagrapevine.org/
"Tenth/twelfth Step Meetings
We are not here to talk about. . .inventory; we're here to do the taking.
SEVEN
people, five men and two women, sit in a circle in a living room
behind closed doors.
The
leader speaks: "Since Joe is here for the first time, let me
explain how this meeting runs. This is basically a Tenth and Twelfth
Step meeting. Each of us is here to do three things: first, take an
inventory of how he is doing in his practice of the program; second,
invite the rest of the group to help him with the inventory by
pulling him up in areas where he is off the beam but doesn't see it;
and third, tell the group what he is going to do, with God's help, to
put right what he has been doing wrong.
"There
is no limitation on rough language. We say what is to be said the
best way we can, whether four-letter words are involved or not. Just
one caution--don't use this freedom to show off or make the ladies
blush. No one is going to be impressed."
The
leader continues, "The one basic rule of this meeting is that we
stick to the principle of rigorous honesty with ourselves and with
each other. There are twenty-three hours in the day for being nice.
In this hour, we drop that. Not that anyone here is trying to put
anyone else down. Quite the contrary. In this recovery game, it is
possible literally to kill with too much of the wrong type of
kindness. All of us are sick in the same way, and we all share the
symptom of being hardened, long-time self-kidders.
"We've
heard it said that the first principle in recovery is learning to get
honest with ourselves. Well, this meeting is a means to that end. We
have found that, especially in the tough areas--sex is one for me--we
often don't get the necessary degree of self-honesty without the help
of friends in this program who love us enough to tell us specifically
where, how, and why we are full of baloney. Also, we have found that,
as experienced self-conners, we too easily tune out one person who
tries to pull us up. We resort to some such monkey business as 'Yes,
but he doesn't understand. I'm different.' But when three or four
move in together and pull us up, it's harder for the monkey to cop a
plea. We have a chance to face and accept a tough truth that we would
otherwise have ducked--at the cost, very possibly, of our sanity,
sobriety, and lives."
The
leader ends his opening remarks by saying: "A couple of final
points: There are no observers in this meeting; everyone here is here
to participate. What is said in this room stays here; some of it will
be rough. We are not here to talk about how to take inventory; we're
here to do the taking. Finally, and most important, this process is
spiritual surgery and God is the surgeon. It's God as we understand
Him, all right, but it is, nevertheless, God. Truth is one of the
oldest names for the Higher Power. We are trying to find out the
truth about ourselves, however tough that truth may turn out to be,
in the confidence that, if we do our job thoroughly and sincerely, we
will begin, as the Big Book says, to discover that self-will has
blocked us off from Him. As a result of what we do here (to consult
the Big Book again), our spiritual beliefs will begin to grow more
into a spiritual experience. Spiritual growth through such awakening
is what this meeting is aiming at, and the rough language and loud
voices should never make us forget that."
The
meeting starts. The leader begins by discussing his own situation.
Then he invites the rest of the group to comment on what he has said
or any ways they have noticed him fouling up. One of the group may,
for example, point out self-pity in something he said. Another
touches on his selfishness in a difficult personal relationship that
he discussed. Their comments are specific. After some discussion, the
leader decides to make a moral contract with the group to follow a
certain course of action in the difficult relationship and to spend
time during his daily Eleventh Step work asking knowledge of God's
will and the power to carry it out in that situation.
Then
it's someone else's turn to discuss himself. He has a resentment
which he tries to justify. The whole group lands on him. At first he
bristles, but after a while he begins to see where he was hung up and
how to get clear.
One by
one, the seven discuss their own problems, confusions, and
shortcomings, open themselves up to the group, and tell the group
what they are going to do about the areas where they are falling
down. The circle is completed in an hour and twenty minutes. The
meeting is closed with the Lord's Prayer.
I have been sitting in on meetings like this for three and a half months now. They have added a depth to my sobriety, sanity, and spiritual growth which were never previously in the picture, despite the fact that I went into them with over two years of AA sobriety under my belt. In just these three-plus short months, I have seen these meetings have the same deeply positive effect on many lives other than my own.
In
addition to saying that I lack the power to communicate just how
helpful and great I think these meetings are, I'd like to say a
couple of things by way of clarifying what they are and what they
aren't. First, they are not,
I repeat not,
group therapy. They are God and group (in that order) therapy--and,
believe me, that's a far different kind of animal. Second, there is
really nothing new about them. They hark back directly to the
practice of the first AA members. In that sense, they represent a
renewal of the early spirit of the movement. For me, they have acted
as an antidote for the tendencies to which many of us are susceptible
as members of a Fellowship which is now thirty-two years old and has
a large membership and a good press. The tendencies are to get stodgy
and "respectable," to apologize for God and the Steps, and
to avoid an unsophisticated, head-on approach in carrying the
message. Just such an approach, the Higher Power, and the Steps are
the very things that made AA work in the beginning and, I believe,
still make it work today.
T. P.
Jr.
Hankins,
New York"
Cheers
The
Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)
PS
To use “comment” system simply click on the relevant tab below
this article and sign in. All comments go through a moderation stage
So, the Grapevine and the bureaucracy at World Service did not have sufficient insight, or will, to block this or criticize this in the Grapevine. Yes, AA survived but it shows a dangerous and disgraceful lack of judgment. A few years ago almost every Grapevine article seem to contain some praise of a sponsor as if that was the only tool in the AA bag of tools. That's minor compared to this and has passed but shows a lack of mature judgement on whomever is rotating editor there. Subscriptions off. I once maintained three, one for myself and two gifts. I now reluctantly maintain one for an older, many years sober, shut-in member of AA.
ReplyDelete