February 26
A Very Good Reason
We pass along an unflattering story about someone and explain that we are concerned. There may be genuine concern. There may also be satisfaction in having information, an old resentment, or a wish to make our own conduct look better by comparison. A good reason has arrived first and introduced itself as the only reason.
Inventory makes that certainty less comfortable. Mixed motives are ordinary enough that finding one need not turn every decent intention into a fraud. We can care about a person and enjoy talking about them in a way that does not help. Seeing both gives us a more useful choice than defending our purity or condemning everything we do. Perhaps the concern belongs in a private conversation with someone able to help, without the details that merely entertain. Asking God for honesty includes becoming willing to discover what our explanation left out, especially when the explanation sounds generous.
What other motive might be traveling alongside the good reason I have given?
Concern deserves a more careful conversation.
For the A.A. nerds: As Bill Sees It, No. 17, “Toward Honesty.”