Not a Word Changed

Before Tradition Two was written, the people around the table overruled the man writing A.A.'s book, and the Twelve Steps are better for it. Just before the manuscript was finished, four of them sat in an office in Newark, still arguing over the Steps. Bill W. remembered (A.A. Comes of Age): "All this time I had refused to budge on these steps. I would not change a word of the original draft". His draft used the word God throughout, and in one place had alcoholics praying on their knees. Henry, who had worked on the book with him, fought it hard, sure it would scare drinkers away by the thousands. Little by little the others came around to Henry's side. The words that came out of that fight are the ones in the Steps today: a Power greater than ourselves, and God as we understood Him, with the Steps offered as suggestions. Bill called it "the great contribution of our atheists and agnostics." Nobody pulled rank. The writer held the pen, and the room still decided. That is Tradition Two before it had a number: no single person, however much they have done, holds the last word for the group. Test it tonight: when your group next decides something, ask whether the member who disagreed most was actually heard, or only outnumbered.