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From: [email protected]
Category: Category 1
Date: 07 Feb 2000
Time: 15:32:41
Remote Name: ip4.atlanta.ga.pub-ip.psi.net
Night Stuff 3
When I share my mind and heart with you, you are hearing someone who can recall the day word went out to send no more money to the WSO until the spring WSC 1982. This came from Chuck Skinner, the chairman of the Board of Trustee (WSB). The issue was Jimmy Kinnon, then manager of WSO and long regarded as founder of NA saying that the book, the Basic Text, would be finished when he said it was finished. This made Chuck really mad and he was never one to hold back feelings. He came back two weeks later, spent a great day with Jimmy and when he broached the subject, Jimmy still reasserted that the book would be done when he, not anyone else, said so. Chuck brought up the thousands of members writing on the book. He had attended Conferences of the World Lit Committee. He went straight home and called every region in NA. He said he was acting non-officially but recommended that no more funds be sent to make clear that NA was in the hands of the Fellowship, not a WSO manager, even if he was founder of NA. Every region followed this recommendation. The WSC was really something in the 1980's. They got a lot done, not the least of which was building the Fellowship from a few hundred meetings to thousands and thousands. The WSC did that by empowering, involving and informing the Fellowship. The system worked.
I felt sadness and may have shed a tear or two. It was clearly the end of an era for us. I think this atmosphere contributed to the idea that Jimmy had really been locked out of the Office when a new manager was installed at the recommendation of the WSC that spring. Also, his friends wouldn't tell him what was going on. So, Jimmy was caught unawares by many of the changes and we never got a chance to explain things to him. I was even turned away from the door of Jimmy's house, along with others who had known him a long time, the last time I went to see him. Someone should have said something. No one did.
So, I know many, most, of you don't recall these things and can't feel the neutrality I do. I am mainly interested in my recovery, staying clean on a daily basis and growing spiritually. The rest is debatable. You figure it out and let me know all about it. I do what I do because I am driven to help in some way. It is literally part of my Twelfth Step. OK?
Many of the oldtimers see divisiveness set in, the ‘rules' of decorum or policy abridged in some way, or the general feeling of being called to something special and sacred being dissipated, and they stop coming back due to lack of interest. Really doing something to help others is an energizing experience and its puts us back in touch with the reality of the spirit. Without it, all our good energy would dissipate and we would become mere remnants of a great Fellowship. Sharing real recovery experience in writing and audio cassettes has helped carry our message to the world. I believer we will use video cassettes soon for VCRs and on the NAnet as technology inches towards being able to stream videos to home computers. Just as a single member (or more?) can tell their story in Istanbul from Montgomery, a group can share even their facial gestures and body language along with the spoken word - on a large screen tv. You could have members taken turns, like at the podium!
I know I suffer from a disease that doesn't like it when I think this way. I know that my actions arouse anger and resistance in others who cannot yet surrender and go the places I go because they are blocked spiritually. I am not trying to upset them. I am just - free. There are others like me who are less conspicuous. It takes what it takes. For me this is it. To stay clean, I must do whatever I can on a daily basis. Otherwise, I feel that certain feeling someone on an iron lung feels when the nurse sweeping the floor steps on the oxygen cord. Hey, hey there, I need more air, damnit! One great satisfaction to me is that we have all these members, meetings and the free exchange of ideas allowed by the world wide web. Personal contact, my home group and my new friends (some of whom are old now, like me!) still occupy the primary focus of my recovery but it is great to be in touch with members everywhere.
Oh, yeah! I was taking my bath when the thoughts started coming and I sit here jotting them down. One other thought concerns the progress of the writing. A certain Rose from Montana has contributed a real nice second step edit. It reads much better. She is very gifted. And Shelly has written in some input and the result is now on the table at nawol.org. Yellow Eyes is moving back to Virginia but may be in Dalton this weekend. Dalton is meeting in Conference during a storm to continue the great typo hunt. We may make it through several more chapters. We read the principle on open-mindedness last night in my home group and it reads well. It won't take much work. A light edit of the first ten or so Principles may mean that we have about ten chapters signed out for editing with half of those back in and on display right now. Dalton has also been working on step one. The others are out to solid people who will get to them shortly. All have been contacted recently. So, we are closing in. Work is underway on nearly half of the chapters. I think there are only ten or fifteen that will take any major work. Kermit says the existing service material reads like, "How to hate WSO.", so his rewrite should be interesting... Graphics wise, I put 2000 Form where Y2K used to be. It was starting to seem hokey. Any others ideas and suggestions will be acted on wherever possible.
In Loving Service,
Bo S.