TRADITION ONE CHECKLIST
MY ANSWERS
Tradition One: Our common welfare should come first; personal
recovery depends upon AA unity.
1. Am I in my group a healing, mending, integrating person, or am
I divisive? What about gossip and taking other members inventories?
Well
now for the most part I pray I am a healing and mending person in the groups I
attend fellowship begins with one hand reaching out to help another I have been
to many group conscience meetings and have shared my experiences about a
subject and when it came to a vote I was in the minority but that’s what its
all about what the group feels is the best
2. Am I a peacemaker? Or do I, with pious preludes such as
"just for the sake of discussion," plunge into arguments.
This question gave me a
lot of thought after all who does not have these moments of time that we just
love to indulge in the pious just for the sake of an argument. Dangerous to do
when people are new and are just so willing to argue with you it takes
patience’s to let them ramble on this is where the peacemakers will step in to
help defuse a situation yes I have been a peacemaker in many meetings when they
go off the wall
3. Am I gentle with those who rub me the wrong way, or am I
abrasive.
Depends on who is doing
the rubbing at times you need to be abrasive to a real trouble maker whether
they are new or have long term sobriety. Many people just come into the halls
to disrupt the meeting like they need to be the center of attraction those who
are new and do not know how the meeting are run need direction not reprimand
kind and gentle is the way to help these people
4. Do I make competitive remarks, such a comparing one group with
another or contrasting AA in one place with AA in another?
I think we all do this
to some extent its like when we first get into the program we are told to
identify not compare when we travel to different parts of the country we do
compare the meeting to the ones we are used to this is normal and as we sit in
these new meetings although the format is different to what we are used to we
find the content is the same as any other meeting place people sharing their
experiences strengths and hopes
5. Do I put down some AA activities as if I were superior for not
participating in this or that aspect of AA?
For me being in service
work I found all AA activities are a benefit to the groups and to AA as a whole
do I attend all the events that are put on No but this does not mean I am
superior to the next person AA has many active members doing great things for
AA and my support will always be they if it is not hurting AA or any of the
groups
6. Am I informed about AA as a whole? Do I support, in every way I
can AA as a whole or just the parts I understand and approve of?
I am very much attuned to
the whole program and at time in some ways I do not totally agree with all the
traditions when they are taken out of context but I also know that with out the
traditions we would all be lost in total confusion I try to keep up with the
changes that have happen over the years in the AA way of life knowing more is
revealed to us every day
7. Am I as considerate of AA members as I want them to be of me?
The very intent of the
twelve step is to reach out and help others who suffer from our disease part of
that reaching out is to be considerate of the needs of others and yes I try to
be open and honest with all who I may come in contact with I have found a
little compassion a lot of unconditional love and understanding for others is
the same as I would want them to be to me
8. Do I spout platitudes about love while indulging in and
secretly justifying behavior that bristles with hostility?
I practice the
unconditional love that I try to give to all in recovery even when some rub me
the wrong way I hold no animosity towards anyone in or out of the program its
not my place to judge others or condemn their behavior this does not mean I
always approve of some behaviors but I try just to state my personal feelings
about how I would handle situations
9. Do I go to enough AA meetings or read enough AA literature to
really keep in touch?
Today I do not get to as
many face to face meetings as I would like to but yes I do keep up with AA
literature and reach out when I can health is not as good as I would like it to
be so its hard to go to a lot of face to face meetings thank God we have online
meetings they help keep me focused on my recovery
10. Do I share with AA all of me, the bad and the good, accepting
as well as giving the help of fellowship?
Sharing my own experiences
all of them helps to keep me right sized the very essence of this fellowship is
to show others thru my own example how to stay sober today I need the help of
other Justas much as I did the day I came into the halls after all it is a we
program that means given to others as well as taken suggestions from others.
© The checklist
is a reprint from June 1970 Grapevine
All E-mail Addresses are held in
Strict Confidence
