I’m grateful for small improvements. I’m grateful for that pink band on the horizon this morning. I’m grateful for finding “typewriter” mode on my writing app. I’m grateful for letting things work out. I’m grateful for people who make you better. I’m grateful to be sober today.
Since there is nothing better than starting your morning with a little bit of “Administrivia,”1 I’ll plunge right in. Our current mousetrap building project is pretty exciting. The basic idea is this: There are a group of us who got sober, are getting sober, however you want to say it, and we’ve found that sharing it, writing about it specifically, seems to be pretty important to our ever-expanding sobriety. As it turns out, sometimes what we share takes hold in someone else or helps them see something a little differently. Those are two pretty cool things and we’d like to do more of both. We’re looking to expand the offering and also organize it better, so that it’s more useful and more accessible. We’re re-launching the podcast, will be releasing a series of Big Book Study Guides, maybe even organizing an AA meeting on Zoom and even more. I don’t know if this comes through, but I’m pretty enthusiastic about all of this and greatly, greatly appreciate the opportunity to get to share with you.
I really do view this as a privilege and I fret a lot about how to get what we’re writing to you in a way that doesn’t overwhelm your inbox. We introduced the Saturday Gratitude Round-Up, so that there would be one easy, “catch-uppy” thing to look at once a week. We’re still in the process of sorting out what content is going to go where and all of that in the new world order, but one thing that will be happening is Jane will be taking over on Thursdays here, in addition to Mondays! You may not have noticed, but we hit you pretty hard on Thursday and Friday with three emails in 24-hours! So, Jane’s fantastic Growing Pains: Sober Girls Edition will take over the Thursday slot. In case you’re looking for something extra, I’m always over here, too:2
Speaking for the Band, we’re all very grateful to have found our way to sobriety through AA and that’s what we want to share with you. We realize that what worked for us may not be the answer for others and that’s very cool. I think the point of this is to lay out the teachings of the Big Book, share how we applied it in our lives and how our lives changed, and then let the power of attraction do its thing. None of us thinks that AA has a monopoly on recovery, mostly because the Big Book makes that point several times, pretty explicitly. We acknowledge there are lots of paths to sobriety, or whatever the goal is, and just want to see if we can help each other when and where our paths cross.
I think we all agree that AA can be kind of inaccessible sometimes; meetings can be very daunting, especially in early sobriety. I’m coming to see that, as hard as it for alcoholics and addicts to navigate recovery and AA, well, it’s even a little more mysterious and challenging for the people who have alcoholics or addicts in their lives. I know that’s a lot of people these days and one of the things that we want to do is make the AA program of recovery more available and accessible to the non-alcoholics who are trying to figure out what the f*** is this all about.
None of this is intended as a criticism of AA or the Big Book, there has been a tension in the Program since the very beginning between Bill W’s piratey instincts and Dr. Bob’s sobriety, but I think I know where I come out on that debate. My vision for all of this is based on the Long-Form of the Fifth Tradition:
Five—Each Alcoholics Anonymous group ought to be a spiritual entity having but one primary purpose—that of carrying its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
When I was flying to London after Christmas, I found this really great series:
I ate up all eight episodes.3 I thought it was really moving, it really stuck with me. I couldn't quite figure out why until yesterday, when it struck me that Julia Child's gift was showing people exactly how they could follow one of those previously-inaccessible fancy French cuisine recipes and make something delicious. She de-mystified French cuisine and culture and the language around French cooking and made it accessible to millions of people who were dying to do it, but just thought it was too hard, too complicated, required knowing words in another language and using ingredients that were previously unknown. Julia Child didn't invent Coq Au Vin, but she showed people in Keokuk how they could make it in their own kitchen.4
I think that’s what we’re doing. We’re not trying to invent some new form of recovery or to stamp our names above the title of the Big Book. We’re simply sharing how we managed to get sober ourselves and how we work to maintain, deepen and expand our recovery. Our aim is simple: Share the lessons we learned and the work we did. Julia Child’s brilliance was that she showed you precisely how she did it, showed you exactly how you could do it, and that sparked a lot of people to finally believe, “I can do this!” And then you get a chance to share what you just learned to do with a friend; and so on. That’s how AA works. Time for me to go make an omelette.
Thanks for Letting Me Share
Remember that phrase?
Don’t be hurt, but I write that one first.
How about that?
Keokuk is an actual town in Eastern Iowa.