And I don’t understand why its changed…
When I walked into my first meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous the folks who were already members didn’t adapt AA to me or for me. They went about their business as they had been doing all along before I arrived. They also didn’t tell me I was the most important person in the room because they knew we are all important persons! Equal!
So why have we developed this “new version” of Alcoholics Anonymous today to the extent that we adapt AA each and every single time a newcomer arrives??? “Let’s have a first step meeting…”
This past Saturday night I watched as the group’s chairperson brought up a topic at a meeting and it was immediately “suggested” that it would be more appropriate to have a “First Step” meeting because there was a newcomer in the room. The person making the suggestion was not a member of this group. So, everyone “caved in” and we had one more First Step meeting which was as much a First Step meeting as all the others like it - everyone had the chance to practice their next talk for when they’re asked to speak at a speaker meeting instead of really getting down to powerlessness and unmanageability.
Maybe I’m wrong but we have apparently decided that it is an easier, softer way to simply have a First Step meeting than have to “pry” a meeting topic out of the folks who have attended. You can just “see” the collective “sigh” as someone says “we have a newcomer, First Step” as all relax and neglect the real deal!
This is a Twelve Step program of recovery! We are adapting to people who have no clue what the he** is going on. They show up everywhere and we adapt everywhere. Talk about watered down???
What has happened to beginners meetings? Are they too much trouble to have? We aren’t encouraging newcomers to ask questions, we are encouraging them to hide, escape, like usual…
Cosigning bs.
BTW - the “newcomer” last Saturday night had, at one time a few years ago, had 18 months clean in NA. He wasn’t truly a newcomer… but nobody bothered to find that out until after the meeting.
Tags: 1st-Tradition, 3rd-Tradition, alcoholics-anonymous, Common Sense, Living SoberShare This
