No Sole Vocation

The message an A.A. group carries is one drunk's experience given to another for nothing, and a paid helper cannot carry it, however kind. The Big Book's writers said so about themselves (p. 19): "None of us makes a sole vocation of this work, nor do we think its effectiveness would be increased if we did." A vocation is a full-time job. They meant the work would not get better if somebody did it for a living. What reaches a drinker is a man who drank like him and wants nothing back, not even a paycheque from someone else. Today that role is for sale. Programs hire recovery coaches and peer workers, put a recovery story on the résumé as a credential, and send them into rooms called A.A. to be the newcomer's first friend, on the clock. The drinker is no longer met by one alcoholic wanting nothing. He is met by staff with a caseload and an employer. The Long Form gives that job to the group (Big Book, p. 563): "carrying its message to the alcoholic who still suffers." A group whose first welcome is a paid one has handed its one purpose to a payroll. Test it tonight: ask who in your room is there because someone pays them to be, and who decides what they say.