Practically Never

Tradition 10 is kept first inside the room: a group that never argues these fights in private will never argue them in public. Bill W. passed on what one old-timer told him (A.A. Comes of Age): "Practically never have I heard a heated religious, political, or reform argument among A.A. members. So long as we don't argue these matters privately, it's a cinch we never shall argue them publicly." A cinch means a sure thing. Akron remembered the same habit from the early 1940s; Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers sums up how Joe P. recalled the local thinking: "If you had something wrong with you, that's what you talked about; you didn't talk about sports or politics." That is not a gag. It is a room with one subject: the drinking, and the way out. And it is why Bill could say that "Our fellowship never has taken sides publicly on any question in this embattled world" — a world full of fighting. A newcomer from any side of any fight could sit down in those rooms and hear nothing that told him to leave. Today the news walks in with every phone, and the shares drift toward it. Test it tonight: count how many minutes of your meeting are about drinking and recovery, and how many are about everything else.