Tradition 1 · January 21

Like People in a Sinking Ship

Daily Traditions · January 21

The threat

The common welfare comes first because of the people who are not in the room yet, and the Big Book says where they are. Chapter 11 (Big Book, p. 152): "Near you, alcoholics are dying helplessly like people in a sinking ship." Near you, tonight. That is the weight behind the Long Form's second sentence (Big Book, p. 563): "A.A. must continue to live or most of us will surely die." Not a club that would be missed. A lifeboat. A group is one of the boats that goes out to the ship, and a group that sinks itself in a fight is one boat fewer. The fight is never about the drowning. It is about who chairs, whose format, whose literature, whose turn, and for the weeks it lasts the room is busy with itself. Nobody calls back the number on the list, because nobody is sure who has the phone. The man who walks in on the worst night of it hears shouting and decides he was right to stay away. Today's version is a room so taken up with its own business that the drunk becomes an interruption. Test it tonight: ask what your group's last big argument was about, and whether the drunk still out there came up in it once.

Sit with

The group comes first because alcoholics are drowning near it tonight. Has my group ever been too busy with itself to notice?

Grounded in: Long form, Tradition 1 (Big Book, p. 563); Big Book p. 152 (A Vision for You).

Tradition 1

"Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity."

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 1 → Get the app →

← January 20At His Destination Tradition 1All of January January 22 →Those Damned Traditions

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).