Gutter Bravado p501-511

Good evening Folks,

This week we will be reading & discussing Gutter Bravado p501-511. 

One of the great joys of my life is hosting this Wednesday night meeting of which I've had the privileged to serve for some time now. So it gives me a great sense of satisfaction whenever I hear someone, especially a new comer, say that there is something special about our meeting. To me it means that the same something-ness with which I fell in love with is still there. 

Last week, Fred brought up an article originally written in the July 1976 issue of "24 Magazine". In the article, the unknown author compares the quality of someone's AA program to Strong/Medium/Week Coffee.  See the article here: http://www.barefootsworld.net/aagreshamslaw.html It's a bit long but well worth the read (kind of like my e-mails!! lol). 

Basically it describes how the rapid growth of AA in the early 40's created a situation in which you could begin to distinguish 3-types of AA programs:

1. Strong AA was the original, undiluted, dosage of the spiritual principles. Strong AA's took all twelve of the Steps - and kept on taking them. They did not stop with the admission of powerlessness over alcohol, but went on right away to turn their wills and lives over to God's care. They began to practice rigorous honesty in all their affairs.
   
2. The medium AA's started off with a bang, pretty much like the strong AA's, except they hedged or procrastinated a bit on parts of the program that they feared or did not like - maybe the God Steps, maybe the inventory Steps, depending on their particular nervousness or dislikes.
   
3. The weak AA's were a varied lot. The thing common to all of them was that they left big chunks of the program totally and permanently out of their reckoning right from the outset - sometimes the God Steps, sometimes the inventory Steps, often both. 

It's a fine line we walk when describing the steps, as it does in chapter 5, as "suggested" only. To be clear, the steps are suggested in the same way it is suggested you open your parachute when jumping out of a flying airplane!!! However, we all know the skittish-paranoid-skeptical-twisted perception some of us came here with (no offense - if you're new!), that is precisely why chapter 5 is written in a soft velvet-glove tone. 

I'll be the first to admit I probably wouldn't be here if it hadn't and I have no doubt countless others feel the same. I started out with medium-coffee and gradually moved toward strong-coffee. However, I know from past experience that instead of graduating to strong-coffee I could've just as easily slipped back into active alcoholism. In my experience, I had no spiritual awakening, no complete psychic change, until I tried the strong-coffee option. 

Remember "No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines." 

Happy 24hrs,

David t.