Tradition 12 · December 23

Glad He's Alive and Can Serve

Daily Traditions · December 23

The threat today

There is a counterfeit humility loose in the rooms, and it talks the loudest: the competitive wreck, the share that is really a ranking of one's own worthlessness, the apology that circles back every week like a favorite song. It looks like the Tradition and it is the Tradition's opposite — the self still center stage, lit differently. The real article, from an old-timer with no poetry in him (Experience, Strength and Hope): "Not much, just a little. Not the humility of sackcloth and ashes, but the humility of a man who's glad he's alive and can serve." Sackcloth is a costume; gladness is a condition. Father Ed Dowling, watching from outside, located the engine (Big Book, p. 572) — A.A. "is natural at the point where nature comes closest to the supernatural, namely in humiliations and in consequent humility." Humiliation is what happens to you; humility is what you build from it. The counterfeit performs the rubble. The real thing shows up glad, useful, and on time.

Sit with

The counterfeit performs the rubble; the real thing arrives glad and able to serve. When I talk about being nothing, who is the talk actually about?

Grounded in: Experience, Strength and Hope; Big Book p. 572 (Father Ed Dowling).

Tradition 12

"Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities."

Read the Long Form (pp. 563–566). The short form on pp. 561–562 is the one everybody quotes — but the Long Form is where the Traditions actually say what they mean. Tradition 3's "no other affiliation" clause, for instance, exists only in the Long Form. That single clause is why no treatment centre can own an A.A. group. Most of what circulates online skips it.

And a distinction worth keeping straight: the Traditions are governance, not theology. They bind A.A. groups and the Fellowship — not individuals, and not outside businesses. They were adopted in 1950 to keep A.A. from being owned or co-opted. They are not a rulebook for your personal life.

What the Traditions actually say → The Long Form, p. 563 → Search the Big Book → Every day this month →

Ask Recovery Einstein about Tradition 12 → Get the app →

← December 22The Day We Join A.A. Tradition 12All of December December 24 →Two Motions

Daily Traditions is an independent educational resource from Recovery Starts — not official A.A. literature, not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, and not medical advice. The Twelve Traditions are the property of A.A. Page references are to Alcoholics Anonymous (the Big Book), 4th Edition: short form 561–562, long form 563–566. If you're in crisis, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline).