How can A.A. best assure
its continued existence?
Answer
Since the beginning of
recorded time, many societies and nations of
civilizations have passed in review. In those
great ones that have left their mark for good,
in contrast with those who have left their mark
for evil, there has always been a sense of
history, a true and high constant purpose, and
there has always been a sense of destiny.
In the societies which failed to
leave a bright mark in the annals of the world,
there was always a false or boastful sense of
history, always a mistaken or inadequate purpose
and always the presumption of an infinite, a
glorious and an exclusive destiny.
In the societies that left their
mark of goodness on time, the sense of history
was not a matter for pride or for glory; it was
the substance of the learning of the experience
of the past. In the purpose of such a society
there was always truth and constancy, but never
a supposition that the society had apprehended
all of the truth - or the superior truth. And in
the sense of destiny there was no conceit, no
supposition that a society or nation or culture
would last forever and go on to greater glories.
But there was always a sense of duty to be
fulfilled, whatever destiny the society might be
assigned by providence for the betterment of the
world.
This is the crossroads at which
we in A.A. stand. This is a good time to
re-examine how well we have looked upon our A.A.
history and how much we have profited by it,
what false insights or false glories we may have
been extracting from history - to our future
detriment. It is a moment to examine the purpose
of this Society. Indeed, we are very lucky to be
able to state as the nucleus of that purpose a
single word: sobriety.
Quite early we saw, however, that
sobriety in abstinence from alcohol could never
be attained unless there was sobriety and more
quietude in the false motivation that underlay
our drinking.
When the Twelve Steps were cast
up - without any real experience and therefore
under some Guidance, surely - we were given keys
to sobriety in its wider implications. We have
been blessed with a concrete definition of
purpose but, for all its concreteness, we could
still abuse it and misuse it in a very natural
way.
Some times we begin to think that
perhaps, according to Scriptural promise, the
first shall be last and the last - meaning us -
shall really be first. That would indeed be a
very dangerous presumption and never should we
indulge it. If we do, we shall compete in
history with other societies who have been
ill-advised enough to suppose that they had a
monopoly on truth or were in some way superior
to other attempts of men to think and to
associate in love and in harmony.
We may look out upon our destiny
with no violation of our principle that we are
to live one day at a time. We mean that,
emotionally, each in his personal life is never
to repine upon the past glory too much, in the
present, or presume upon the future. We shall
attend to the day's business but we shall try to
apprehend ever more truth from the lessons of
our history, not the lessons of our successes
but the lessons of our defections, failures and
the awful emotions that can set us loose upon
us. For these, indeed, are the raw materials
that God has used to forge this still rather
little instrument called Alcoholics Anonymous.
So we may look at destiny and we may ask
ourselves about it and speculate upon it a
little - if we do not presume to play God.
(G.S.C., 1961)
