Are We Passing It On? When people met Bill W. for the first time and expressed their gratitude, his usual response was "Pass it on." This became the title of his biography and has also become a slogan in A.A. Sadly, we can pass on bad ideas as well as good ones.A number of us feel real guilt over the bad things we've passed on while we were drinking.Some are sicker that others, of course, and some of us have done terrible things while others of us have mostly injured ourselves, for the most part, I guess.But the truth is that very little good is passed on while we were drinking. In A.A., we have the opportunity to pass on principles and actions that can be of real use to others, including people we will never meet.If we create active groups that really carry the message, we will be passing on things that will endure long after we're no longer in the picture.If our A.A. experience enables us to take responsibility for our family's well-being, our family member will benefit and so will society as a whole.When we "pass it on" we are also paying any debt we might have to the people who carried the message to us. How do we pass it on in A.A. terms?One of the best ways is to keep the group functioning as a place where newcomer can find hope and recovery. This means that future newcomerspeople who Bill W. called "the million who still don't know"--can find the same recovery that was presented to us. What is your personal view of passing it on?
