Emotional Dynamite

A fellowship of drunks was supposed to blow itself apart, and Tradition One is the reason it didn't. Bill W. remembered what the experts said when A.A. was new (A.A. Comes of Age): "This fellowship of alcoholics is emotional dynamite. Its neurotic content can blow it to bits." Neurotic means ruled by fear and nerves. The early members were asking the same thing: "would we blow up or could we stay together?" The Long Form gives the answer they found (Big Book, p. 563): "Each member of Alcoholics Anonymous is but a small part of a great whole. A.A. must continue to live or most of us will surely die. Hence our common welfare comes first. But individual welfare follows close afterward." Read the order. The group first, because the drunk who calls tonight needs a room that is still standing. The member close behind, never thrown away. The danger was never one person with an opinion. It was a room splitting into camps until nobody was left to answer the phone. Today the charge is often lit from outside: a program wants the meeting, and the members split over whether to let it have it. Test it tonight: if your group blew apart tomorrow, which piece would the next drunk still find with its doors open?