As I started to work on the 12 steps in my life, despite myself I started to grow spiritually. I became more tolerant of those who were sicker than me. A little love expressed by finding something good in the other persons character, won many of those people into recovery. A newcomer I had met 6 months ago was at a function I had attended. He told me of how the kindness and love of AA and Alanon had helped him to rebuild his family and stay sober for the Christmas season. My wife and I used to glean info about this couple and reinforce their positive character traits.
People in AA are other centred people. They rarely talk about themselves. I always heard things like: "How are you?"; "How are you doing?";"You looking good, recovery is working." We always had a newcomer in the car with us. He would keep our recovery fresh. When I got busy, I got better than I expected.
"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.
"I am reminded in this connection," he continued, "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 might be quite painful or obnoxious to others. No one of us wishes to do anything which might act as a deterrent to the advancement of another-and a patronizing attitude can readily slow up this process.
"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 which is vastly important-is, in fact, a prerequisite to the successful termination of any line of search, whether it be scientific or spiritual.
"These, then, are a few of the reasons why an attempt to acquire tolerance should be made by each one of us.""
