As Time goes on I find myself untilizing the AA Traditions in my own life more and more, they are good sound "rules" for Life, No Politics or Religion, being open minded, but realizing our group welfare comes first, paying our own bills, attraction not promotion, this list goes on and on and these are all good "rules of Thumb" for dealing with those around me on a personal level

Let's Take Tradition 7 for example, my experience with it was much the same as Bill Wilson's

Mainly unwilling

Bill planned on getting rich from publishing The Big Book, he doesn't talk about his experiences surrounding that time too much but Historians and Clarence, and others do, what happened was it didn't turn out the way Bill planned, and after being dragged kicking and fighting to "don't mix AA and Money" Bill ultimately saw the wisdom of that, the moment we mix money with anything, it changes things, the moment someone gives or loans us money, they feel compelled, nay obligated to give us advice and tell us what to do and how to do it, AA's experience and my own resounds with examples of this

Alcoholics are certainly all-or-nothing people. Our reactions to money prove this. As A.A. emerged from its infancy into adolescence, we swung from the idea that we needed vast sums of money to the notion that A.A. shouldn't have any. On every lip were the words "You can't mix A.A. and money. We shall have to separate the spiritual from the material." We took this violent new tack because here and there members had tied to make money out of their A.A. connections, and we feared we'd be exploited. Now and then, grateful benefactors had endowed clubhouses, and as a result there was sometimes outside interference in our affairs. We had been presented with a hospital, and almost immediately the donor's son became its principal patient and would-be manager.

So AA's answer was to be self supporting, to not have our hands out and ask people for money, we do what we do for free and for fun, and we pay our own way, as The Big Book says this is an altruistic movement

Bill Writes (years later):

Tradition Seven

"Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions."

SELF-SUPPORTING alcoholics? Who ever heard of such a thing? Yet we find that's what we have to be. This principle is telling evidence of the profound change that A.A. has wrought in all of us. Everybody knows that active alcoholics scream that they have no troubles money can't cure. Always, we've had our hands out. Time out of mind we've been dependent upon somebody, usually money-wise. When a society composed entirely of alcoholics says it's going to pay its bills, that's really news.

Probably no A.A. Tradition had the labor pains this one did. In early times, we were all broke. When you add to this the habitual supposition that people ought to give money to alcoholics trying to stay sober, it can be understood why we thought we deserved a pile of folding money. What great things A.A. would be able to do with it! But oddly enough, people who had money thought otherwise. They figured that it was high time we now--sober--paid our own way. So our Fellowship stayed poor because it had to.

Money comes with a price tag, somehow somewhere, someone is going to pay.

So, If I earn my own money, pay my own bills, and pay my own way, no one has power over me, and frankly I don't piss anybody off, If I announced I deserved people to give me money to further my own 12 step work, I would be laughed out of my Home Group

For me, Not only was I powerless over Alcohol, Alcohol gave everyone around me power over me, The Law, Police, Judges, My Spouse, My Boss, with no self esteem, and no integrity, and constantly breaking the law, I was powerless over everything and everybody, no wonder my life was unmanageable.

In Step 3 we feel new power flow in, we get our power back, for me Tradition 7 (and Tradition 12, with anonymity being the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions) that cycle is complete, If I pay my own bills, earn my own way, stop having my hand out, I stop giving my power to those around me, and it stays between me and God, the way it is supposed to be.

Quotes from 12 Steps and 12 Traditions


-- Edited by LinBaba on Friday 29th of October 2010 07:29:09 PM