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From: [email protected]
Category: Category 1
Date: 07 Feb 2000
Time: 15:27:08
Remote Name: ip4.atlanta.ga.pub-ip.psi.net
Where the oldtimers go.
Sometimes there are conflicts that develop between members who have been clean a while and those who are new and have not learned some lessons yet. This is no ones fault, exactly, but we need to allow for it because otherwise, it develops the power of a real break or conflict. And it should not. These problems rise and then fall, rise and then fall. Because someone who has been clean longer than me, they challenge me and my accustomed ways. They can seem like the enemy. I stand with furious glances thinking I have won some battle then notice my opponent wished only not to harm me and was forced to become remote. It was not their only option, but you can see where in their love and gratitude, they wished only to help. I have to remember this when I approach others and apply it to myself.
That is why I am driven to this work, the writing of the NA Way of Life book. It is a way to fight back against the frustration and isolation caused by time and distancing. When something seemingly worthwhile comes to me in meditation, sleeping or going about my daily life, I note it down and pass it on in many ways. I made many mistakes along the way and feel sure there are that many ahead if I do not follow God's guidance with care. But each failure I survived is a lesson you may benefit from, if your desire for recovery is great. There have not been so many caring folk before us who were able to write about it.
An illusion has grown up that our wisdom is vested in the NA City called WSO or now, NAWS. If WS whatever is Fellowship, let it disband the corporation retaining the files in Fellowship homes or offices. If it is not Fellowship - i.e., bound entirely by the Twelve Traditions - let it simply be understood to be a corporation. Misleading people by thinking everything is bright and well is a corporate illusion. Hey, may they live long, prosper, make bunches of money and know all things well. They are us, not strangers. I get my best stuff straight from the Higher Power like all who work the NA Twelve Steps. We need world service for certain functions, but it is more like making coffee and printing local meeting lists run out on a grand scale. Not mysterious or amazing like the miracles in the rooms are. The Office rose because members of good faith were called together under the World Service Conference and given a way to work together in an orderly manner. Everyone was for the book. The WSO wanted it, the Board of Trustees, the WSC and the Fellowship, every member and meeting in the world. That is the kind of support we had and that kind of energy got results. We had esprit de corp and bonds of trust and faith. All were equal as members and all were privy to details and processes to whatever level of interest they sought. In time this got twisted but the book stands as a reminder of what we can do when we really pull together.
Remember, everyone gets what they pray for ultimately, and some people pray for jobs at WSO. Do you think God can not hear their prayers? I am doing my best to remind NA members that the miracle is really in the rooms and not to fall into a deep trance when it comes to thinking. Simplify, and you will realize suddenly that the answers you need are already close to hand. All that is lacking is the faith and the action. God has got plenty of vision.
Pardon me for being so candid with you, but that is how it is. And I talk about all this stuff with many members anyhow, so it is important that we working on this great book are clear, clean and open with one another. No one should ever be coerced to write material in this book. It is spiritual in the sense that it should not be violated. All who work on it can look back to their moment of helping make it better and realize they crossed a line into real faith. If they stay, they watch the book grow and take form.
How will it all turn out? You know damn well that written things endure and take on a life of their own. The ‘baby' that is this book is born! We have only to nurture it to adulthood and it will take care of itself. At least that is all that God is telling me right now. I consider it disrespectful to those coming to work on this book to hold back some of these things so I don't upset someone. We need to be a little upset. Ask questions, get answers, check the facts, verify details and conclusions by writing them down and comparing notes with other members involved. This basically, is how we can become VERY INFORMED as a body of people. And the great dream of NA going forward as a program that goes beyond helping with early recovery can come true.
We talk about getting jobs, family concerns, the stuff that comes up after we have been clean awhile. Somehow, we get enough answers to make it through and those who don't are deemed to have somehow stopped working their program. Whether they do or not is not within our realm of judgement. Our place it to freely share what was freely given to us with others. This book it the format for that sharing. When we were writing the Basic Text, we compared it to a Scout manual. We wanted to put in all the stuff someone would need to go camping, canoeing and the other stuff that you need to know in unfamiliar territory. How to pitch a tent, make a fire or hang out the groceries between a tree in bear country. Addicts getting clean need to know certain things and these things get shared out in recovery meetings. What we know today is greater than it once was but the systems to collect and disseminate information have collapsed. This book is an effort to do that.
Publishing, media (what it is published on: paper, magnetic tape, computer screens), the notion that we need money to do things: all these are in a state of flux. What if you owned Barnes and Noble and someone sat you down to describe a technology where you could go to school, learn a job, call a special person, and read any book all on your computer screen. Does this spell the end of publishing as we know it? Be glad God has made our problems smaller. We can always fund World Services with a check and our goodwill. They got it made! So, lets go forward, make as few waves as we can, and get the typos out of the NA Way of Life book. As the material literally ‘shapes up' you can see what is needed more easily.
We have some fantastic people writing on it now. I am able to play the role of technician and helper more often and it gives me a real happy feeling to sit back and watch it all happen. Take a quick look: imagine, if you will, setting up a committee to have workstations in members homes all over the world. Thousands and thousands of workstation computers who can communicate, read, send messages, ask questions, print out material twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week for a few years. If each workstation costs a thousand dollars, many cost more, a thousand workstations is a million bucks. If these thousand members spend ten hours a month for a year, that is 120 thousand hours a year. I mean, only God could have come up with this. Just as WS is subsiding into its proper, corporate role, the Fellowship is rising to a height that almost no one saw coming. One way to understand how all this miraculous stuff is happening is to remember, or allow for, all the fantastic prayers among NA members for the last twenty years. Maybe God is really answering our prayers. Hey, God! Keep it comin'.
In Loving Service,
Bo S.