May 23
We Were Here at the Beginning
The early days of the group remain vivid: a time when it could barely pay the rent. We made the calls, brought the coffee, and wondered whether anybody would come. Years later, someone who knows little of that history suggests a change. Before considering the idea, we want them to understand what it took to build the thing they are so ready to rearrange.
That history deserves a hearing. It may contain a warning the group needs, or explain an arrangement that otherwise makes little sense. But having helped something begin does not give us permanent ownership of its future. Tradition Two describes the difficult growth from a founder’s direction toward a conscience shared by the group. We have something valuable to contribute to that conscience. We also have something to receive from people who arrived later. Gratitude for the past need not require everyone to keep reproducing it.
Am I offering our history as useful experience or as a claim to the final word?
The beginning belongs to our story; the group belongs to all of us.
For the A.A. nerds: Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, Tradition Two, pp. 132–135.