[00:00:04.500 – 00:00:05.100] Hi, folks.
[00:00:05.100 – 00:00:16.500] In AA, we have a principle:
[00:00:16.500 – 00:00:19.700] let’s live one day at a time.
[00:00:19.700 – 00:00:28.200] Tomorrow is gone, today is here, and the future is not yet with us.
[00:00:28.200 – 00:00:34.000] And in that trite little statement, there is a great deal of wisdom.
[00:00:34.000 – 00:00:44.000] But like so many of our familiar cliches, it doesn’t cover all the territory, and can still leave
[00:00:44.000 – 00:00:47.700] us rather cockeyed on the subject of time.
[00:00:47.700 – 00:00:57.200] I make this– these few observations as a backdrop on talking a little about the traditions.
[00:00:57.200 – 00:01:07.700] For example, clearly, if a person is all the time in the past, whether
[00:01:07.700 – 00:01:14.000] with guilt, whether with remorse, or wishing for the good old days when he could drink like a gentleman- …
[00:01:14.000 – 00:01:15.600] no progress at all is possible.
[00:01:15.600 – 00:01:21.800] And at best, he becomes a conservative who is against all change.
[00:01:21.800 – 00:01:31.800] On the other hand, if I live in today in a really absolute sense and
[00:01:31.800 – 00:01:43.000] forget about yesterday and think nothing about tomorrow, I become a creature of pure expediency, and
[00:01:43.000 – 00:01:43.900] you get nowhere.
[00:01:43.900 – 00:01:52.800] On the contrary, if I’m always pondering the future, I’m out of the reality of today.
[00:01:52.800 – 00:02:02.800] So that if you make these two fair divisions of time and label this one as good, the present,
[00:02:02.800 – 00:02:10.300] and the past is rather bad, and the future is not something to be concerned with, I think we’re out of balance.
[00:02:10.300 – 00:02:20.500] Actually, time is a stream of consciousness, and we came on it out of the past through the birth,
[00:02:20.500 – 00:02:22.800] and we go out into the future.
[00:02:22.800 – 00:02:28.500] Now then, what bearing does this have on the AA traditions?
[00:02:28.500 – 00:02:39.200] You know, at times we’re apt to congratulate ourselves upon those traditions as
[00:02:39.200 – 00:02:46.800] though it were a list of our collective virtues about which we wish to brag.
[00:02:46.800 – 00:02:50.800] We say, “Oh, yes, we put the common welfare first.
[00:02:50.800 – 00:02:55.000] Oh, yes, we’re a pure democracy.
[00:02:55.000 – 00:03:04.100] Oh, yes, we have no punishments, no rules, no regulations, a beautiful, benign anarchy in that sense.
[00:03:04.100 – 00:03:09.800] And we don’t get complicated with endorsements or alliances.
[00:03:09.800 – 00:03:18.000] And we keep ourselves as collectively poor as possible so as to not get messed up with dull, filthy lucre.
[00:03:18.000 – 00:03:27.300] And we have no professional slags.” You know, plumbers can do as well as anybody with AA.
[00:03:27.300 – 00:03:29.100] Only too true.
[00:03:29.100 – 00:03:30.600] We just don’t need that.
[00:03:30.600 – 00:03:32.200] And so on.
[00:03:32.200 – 00:03:40.800] We go through this list as though we were reciting a list of virtues very singular to us.
[00:03:40.800 – 00:03:46.600] Well, I submit that’s a rather dangerous and childish thing.
[00:03:46.600 – 00:03:57.900] Actually, these twelve traditions, which are before me here, are in reality a codification
[00:03:57.900 – 00:04:07.900] of the lessons of past experience that we got out of the school of damned
[00:04:07.900 – 00:04:17.300] hard knocks in the early days of AA, and which we continue to get.
[00:04:17.300 – 00:04:27.000] These are the lessons of experience, this list of hopeful dos and don’ts.
[00:04:27.000 – 00:04:35.600] Now then, I think about the origins of some of these traditions.
[00:04:35.600 – 00:04:43.100] I believe the theme of our upcoming conference is really the common welfare comes first.
[00:04:43.100 – 00:04:47.500] Without AA unity, there can be no recovery.
[00:04:47.500 – 00:04:50.200] That’s a frank recognition of the Sixth Tradition.
[00:04:50.200 – 00:05:00.600] But as you look at the traditions one after another, you see that all of them are directly or
[00:05:00.600 – 00:05:06.200] indirectly related to this subject of the common welfare.
[00:05:06.200 – 00:05:12.900] And you see this idea in great strength in this last tradition.
[00:05:12.900 – 00:05:22.100] Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
[00:05:22.100 – 00:05:32.300] Well, that, I think, is a spiritual statement of the idea of the common welfare.
[00:05:32.300 – 00:05:38.300] Take tradition two.
[00:05:38.300 – 00:05:48.400] In the early days of AA, we weren’t placing principles ahead of personalities all the
[00:05:48.400 – 00:05:48.800] time.
[00:05:48.800 – 00:05:52.300] There wasn’t any such thing as a group conscience.
[00:05:52.300 – 00:05:53.500] Dr.
[00:05:53.500 – 00:05:55.800] Bob and I were schoolteachers at heart.
[00:05:55.800 – 00:06:05.400] And as we– our leaderships were gained in strength, uh, we began to think very well of ourselves.
[00:06:05.400 – 00:06:15.600] And it was a very long time before we realized that those in positions of leadership are biased by considerations of power, prestige,
[00:06:15.600 – 00:06:17.700] money, and the like.
[00:06:17.700 – 00:06:19.400] That’s how we started off.
[00:06:19.400 – 00:06:27.700] But the time came little by little and through many bitter experiences, and I’ve undergone some, and Bob has, and any old-timer has.
[00:06:27.700 – 00:06:34.700] The group conscience began to say to us, “The common welfare comes first.
[00:06:34.700 – 00:06:37.800] We don’t want to have these biases.”
[00:06:39.400 – 00:06:45.600] Let us say first of the general welfare, and after that, let’s see where the leadership stands.
[00:06:45.600 – 00:06:55.800] So we turn up as leaders who have not power in the usual sense, not prestige in the usual
[00:06:55.800 – 00:06:55.900] sense.
[00:06:55.900 – 00:07:06.000] We turn up as genuine servants with the discretion from the group conscience to act with them,
[00:07:06.000 – 00:07:07.900] and that’s our faith here.
[00:07:07.900 – 00:07:09.400] The general welfare comes first.
[00:07:09.400 – 00:07:14.100] Take another which may at first glance seem a little remote.
[00:07:14.100 – 00:07:22.800] At about year two of the Akron group, a poor devil came to Dr.
[00:07:22.800 – 00:07:25.700] Bob in a grievous state.
[00:07:25.700 – 00:07:29.300] He could qualify as an alcoholic, all right.
[00:07:29.300 – 00:07:32.000] And then he said, “Dr.
[00:07:32.000 – 00:07:34.400] Bob, I’ve got a real problem to pose you.
[00:07:34.400 – 00:07:47.400] I don’t know if I could join AA because I’m sex-deviated.” Well,
[00:07:47.400 – 00:07:51.500] that had to go out to the group conscience.
[00:07:51.500 – 00:07:58.900] You know, up to then it was supposed that, uh, any society could say who was going to join it.
[00:07:58.900 – 00:08:06.200] And pretty soon the group conscience began to seethe and boil, and it boiled over.
[00:08:06.200 – 00:08:14.900] And under no circumstances could we have such a power and such a disgrace among us, said a great many.
[00:08:14.900 – 00:08:25.200] And now, right then our destiny hung on a razor edge over this single
[00:08:25.200 – 00:08:26.300] case.
[00:08:26.300 – 00:08:36.800] In other words, would there be rules that could exclude so-called undesirables?
[00:08:36.800 – 00:08:48.300] And that caused us in that time, and for quite a time, r-respecting this single case, to
[00:08:48.300 – 00:08:58.500] ponder what is the more important: the reputation that we shall have, what people
[00:08:58.500 – 00:09:01.700] shall think, or is it our character?
[00:09:01.700 – 00:09:09.000] And who are we, considering our records?
[00:09:09.000 – 00:09:14.100] Alcoholism is quite as unlovely.
[00:09:14.100 – 00:09:23.900] Who are we to deny a man his opportunity, any man or woman?
[00:09:23.900 – 00:09:34.500] And finally, the day of resolution came, and a bunch were sitting
[00:09:34.500 – 00:09:35.000] in Dr.
[00:09:35.000 – 00:09:40.300] Bob’s living room arguing what to do.
[00:09:40.300 – 00:09:50.500] Whereupon dear old Bob looked around and blandly said, “Isn’t
[00:09:50.500 – 00:09:57.800] it time, folks, to ask ourselves, what would the master do in a situation like this?
[00:09:57.800 – 00:10:05.100] Would he turn this man away?” And that was the beginning of the A.A.
[00:10:05.100 – 00:10:15.200] traditions, that any man who has a drinking problem is a member of AA if he
[00:10:15.200 – 00:10:17.000] says so, not whether we say so.
[00:10:17.000 – 00:10:27.000] Now, I think that the import of this on the common welfare has already been stated
[00:10:27.000 – 00:10:36.300] because it takes in even more territory than the confines of our fellowship.
[00:10:36.300 – 00:10:39.500] It takes in the whole world of alcoholics.
[00:10:39.500 – 00:10:48.800] Their charter to freedom to join AA is assured.
[00:10:48.800 – 00:10:53.500] Indeed, it was an act in the general welfare.
[00:10:53.500 – 00:11:04.600] Then we got into, very naturally, into
[00:11:04.600 – 00:11:12.800] this question of how we were going to relate ourselves to other people in the field of endeavor.
[00:11:12.800 – 00:11:18.600] How are we going to relate ourselves to the public at large?
[00:11:18.600 – 00:11:28.900] And again, the same question: the public welfare or the AA welfare,
[00:11:28.900 – 00:11:30.200] the general welfare.
[00:11:30.200 – 00:11:41.300] And we came up with the view that we had better stick to our last.
[00:11:41.300 – 00:11:51.400] We had better– We, uh, could offer our principles to the whole world and offer the whole world everything but AA’s name, which we would like to
[00:11:51.400 – 00:11:56.600] have stand for certain principles.
[00:11:56.600 – 00:12:02.100] And this, you see, has served the general welfare.
[00:12:02.100 – 00:12:06.000] Now, there was a terrific amount of deviation, you see.
[00:12:06.000 – 00:12:16.100] All this time, letters were pouring in after the Saturday Post piece into the office, and naturally, we were getting married through
[00:12:16.100 – 00:12:25.800] the microphone, through books on anonymity, to all sorts of enterprises, some good, some bad, some indif-some indifferent.
[00:12:25.800 – 00:12:27.600] So the lesson was borne in.
[00:12:27.600 – 00:12:37.500] We’re not cri-criticizing endorsements in society around us, but we damn them.
[00:12:37.500 – 00:12:42.500] Kids, not that we’re afraid.
[00:12:42.500 – 00:12:43.700] This is just a plea.
[00:12:43.700 – 00:12:50.000] It’s good sense, and we’ve already seen what’s happened when we start to do this.
[00:12:50.000 – 00:12:56.300] And so it broke down through this whole list of traditions.
[00:12:56.300 – 00:13:06.300] In the early days in public relations, the AA thought, “Well, I’ll get
[00:13:06.300 – 00:13:07.500] myself on the radio.
[00:13:07.500 – 00:13:08.300] I got connections.
[00:13:08.300 – 00:13:15.700] I’ll get my name and picture in the paper like what everybody else does.” But after a few had fallen on their-
[00:13:16.500 – 00:13:21.600] After doing this, we began to see that it wasn’t for us.
[00:13:21.600 – 00:13:31.800] So as I’ve said, our tradition is a list of the lessons of yesterday.
[00:13:31.800 – 00:13:42.200] So that as you read the traditions with a sense of history and information about it, you
[00:13:42.200 – 00:13:52.300] will relive our past and you will see how we have brought forth from the past on its time stream
[00:13:52.300 – 00:14:00.400] the lessons thereof and have tried to make estimates about the future.
[00:14:00.400 – 00:14:09.800] We are not absolutely fixed in all of our principles.
[00:14:09.800 – 00:14:13.500] There is room for change.
[00:14:13.500 – 00:14:24.400] On the other hand, we shall not lightly cast away these hard-earned principles
[00:14:24.400 – 00:14:34.000] which bear on our unity, on our survival, on our growth under God’s grace.
[00:14:34.000 – 00:14:45.700] As Herb left us, I think that
[00:14:45.700 – 00:14:49.800] we stepped out of one epoch into another.
[00:14:49.800 – 00:14:59.800] During his tenure, the last basic modification was made in our structure, the
[00:14:59.800 – 00:15:09.300] racial change, in which we assumed full responsibility as a fact for the conduct of our world affairs.
[00:15:09.300 – 00:15:16.600] This perhaps was the last great change in basics.
[00:15:16.600 – 00:15:26.800] And as I remarked this afternoon, or this afternoon session, I made
[00:15:26.800 – 00:15:36.500] the remark that now it is a question of preserving what we have, of improving its functions.
[00:15:36.500 – 00:15:40.000] You can always improve its functions.
[00:15:40.000 – 00:15:48.200] But I don’t think I nailed our propositions down.
[00:15:48.200 – 00:15:56.000] I think I made it seem as though everything was going to be clear sailing from here on out.
[00:15:56.000 – 00:16:04.700] And when Tommy Breen got up to keynote this thing, we have a keynoter now, you know, probably will ever after.
[00:16:04.700 – 00:16:10.300] I’m going to lose my job, I can see that.
[00:16:10.300 – 00:16:17.800] Anyway, Tom got up and he said, it’s all very well that we have the structure.
[00:16:17.800 – 00:16:19.600] It’s very well that we have the tradition.
[00:16:19.600 – 00:16:25.600] It’s very well that our functional structure seems adequate.
[00:16:25.600 – 00:16:32.700] But let us be vigilant.
[00:16:32.700 – 00:16:42.800] The problems and the difficulties of the future can actually be greater than those we
[00:16:42.800 – 00:16:44.000] have already survived.
[00:16:44.000 – 00:16:50.900] Let’s not be pessimistic, but let’s be realistic.
[00:16:50.900 – 00:16:53.000] This, in effect, was what he said.
[00:16:53.000 – 00:17:03.400] And after all, we are living in
[00:17:03.400 – 00:17:06.300] a most dangerous world.
[00:17:06.300 – 00:17:16.300] We are surrounded by behavior that is set opposite of that by which we
[00:17:16.300 – 00:17:19.100] must conform to survive.
[00:17:19.100 – 00:17:28.400] In other words, minorities are able to say, we are the most important.
[00:17:28.400 – 00:17:32.300] The general welfare has to wait upon us.
[00:17:32.300 – 00:17:43.000] And the world is going through the same cycle on what apparently,
[00:17:43.100 – 00:17:49.100] from a poor alcoholic’s point of view, is one hell of a dry bender.
[00:17:49.100 – 00:17:52.700] A very, very dangerous one.
[00:17:52.700 – 00:18:02.800] So that life may, in the next 10 or 20 years, be a very dangerous one for each
[00:18:02.800 – 00:18:03.300] of us.
[00:18:03.300 – 00:18:07.300] It may be dangerous for our whole society.
[00:18:07.300 – 00:18:14.600] Certainly we have little fear of religious schism.
[00:18:14.600 – 00:18:24.400] But let us never underestimate the vast forces which are tearing the world apart.
[00:18:24.400 – 00:18:34.800] Have you ever sat down and seriously thought what we’d do if we were given underground?
[00:18:34.800 – 00:18:44.900] Have you ever seriously thought how
[00:18:44.900 – 00:18:47.500] we would be affected by firing squads?
[00:18:47.500 – 00:18:51.600] These are common everyday.
[00:18:51.600 – 00:18:56.100] Don’t suppose I’m pessimistic.
[00:18:56.100 – 00:19:00.200] I’m hopeful.
[00:19:00.200 – 00:19:09.600] No, vigilance is going to be the price that we pay for unity.
[00:19:09.600 – 00:19:20.600] And the love among us
[00:19:20.600 – 00:19:21.700] and for each other.
[00:19:21.700 – 00:19:27.300] That indeed, everything considered, passes all understanding.
[00:19:27.300 – 00:19:37.400] These are the things that under God’s grace, I am certain, will sustain us through
[00:19:37.400 – 00:19:40.900] all calamities, no matter how formidable.
[00:14:13.500 – 00:14:24.400] On the other hand, we shall not lightly cast away these hard-earned principles
[00:14:24.400 – 00:14:34.000] which bear on our unity, on our survival, on our growth under God’s grace.
[00:14:34.000 – 00:14:45.700] As Herb left us, I think that
[00:14:45.700 – 00:14:49.800] we stepped out of one epoch into another.
[00:14:49.800 – 00:14:59.800] During his tenure, the last basic modification was made in our structure, the
[00:14:59.800 – 00:15:09.300] racial change, in which we assumed full responsibility as a fact for the conduct of our world affairs.
[00:15:09.300 – 00:15:16.600] This perhaps was the last great change in basics.
[00:15:16.600 – 00:15:26.800] And as I remarked this afternoon, or this afternoon session, I made
[00:15:26.800 – 00:15:36.500] the remark that now it is a question of preserving what we have, of improving its functions.
[00:15:36.500 – 00:15:40.000] You can always improve its functions.
[00:15:40.000 – 00:15:48.200] But I don’t think I nailed our propositions down.
[00:15:48.200 – 00:15:56.000] I think I made it seem as though everything was going to be clear sailing from here on out.
[00:15:56.000 – 00:16:04.700] And when Tommy Breen got up to keynote this thing, we have a keynoter now, you know, probably will ever after.
[00:16:04.700 – 00:16:10.300] I’m going to lose my job, I can see that.
[00:16:10.300 – 00:16:17.800] Anyway, Tom got up and he said, it’s all very well that we have the structure.
[00:16:17.800 – 00:16:19.600] It’s very well that we have the tradition.
[00:16:19.600 – 00:16:25.600] It’s very well that our functional structure seems adequate.
[00:16:25.600 – 00:16:32.700] But let us be vigilant.
[00:16:32.700 – 00:16:42.800] The problems and the difficulties of the future can actually be greater than those we
[00:16:42.800 – 00:16:44.000] have already survived.
[00:16:44.000 – 00:16:50.900] Let’s not be pessimistic, but let’s be realistic.
[00:16:50.900 – 00:16:53.000] This, in effect, was what he said.
[00:16:53.000 – 00:17:03.400] And after all, we are living in
[00:17:03.400 – 00:17:06.300] a most dangerous world.
[00:17:06.300 – 00:17:16.300] We are surrounded by behavior that is set opposite of that by which we
[00:17:16.300 – 00:17:19.100] must conform to survive.
[00:17:19.100 – 00:17:28.400] In other words, minorities are able to say, we are the most important.
[00:17:28.400 – 00:17:32.300] The general welfare has to wait upon us.
[00:17:32.300 – 00:17:43.000] And the world is going through the same cycle on what apparently,
[00:17:43.100 – 00:17:49.100] from a poor alcoholic’s point of view, is one hell of a dry bender.
[00:17:49.100 – 00:17:52.700] A very, very dangerous one.
[00:17:52.700 – 00:18:02.800] So that life may, in the next 10 or 20 years, be a very dangerous one for each
[00:18:02.800 – 00:18:03.300] of us.
[00:18:03.300 – 00:18:07.300] It may be dangerous for our whole society.
[00:18:07.300 – 00:18:14.600] Certainly we have little fear of religious schism.
[00:18:14.600 – 00:18:24.400] But let us never underestimate the vast forces which are tearing the world apart.
[00:18:24.400 – 00:18:34.800] Have you ever sat down and seriously thought what we’d do if we were given underground?
[00:18:34.800 – 00:18:44.900] Have you ever seriously thought how
[00:18:44.900 – 00:18:47.500] we would be affected by firing squads?
[00:18:47.500 – 00:18:51.600] These are common everyday.
[00:18:51.600 – 00:18:56.100] Don’t suppose I’m pessimistic.
[00:18:56.100 – 00:19:00.200] I’m hopeful.
[00:19:00.200 – 00:19:09.600] No, vigilance is going to be the price that we pay for unity.
[00:19:09.600 – 00:19:20.600] And the love among us
[00:19:20.600 – 00:19:21.700] and for each other.
[00:19:21.700 – 00:19:27.300] That indeed, everything considered, passes all understanding.
[00:19:27.300 – 00:19:37.400] These are the things that under God’s grace, I am certain, will sustain us through
[00:19:37.400 – 00:19:40.900] all calamities, no matter how formidable.
