Posted by Bo S on April 27, 19102 at 15:29:18:
In Reply to: Loving and Caring Fellowship posted by Rob A on April 27, 19102 at 08:11:06:
Thanks Rob,
I always enjoy your articles. One of the ways I have preserved my
sanity over the years - one day at a time - is to believe that there
is a program practiced by many addicts within NA that is loving, caring
and attractive. It is spiritual in every positive sense of the word and
lives up to our written program of recovery. When a person gets a taste
of what is possible through personality change, they want more. These are the
positive people who attract suffering addicts to NA. There are a great many others
who don't really buy our way of life but enjoy the benefits. So, the stop using, go
to meetings and look for a hot date. Or they sell insurance to newcomers. Or they get money
for prospecting new comers into a particualar treatment program. They may feel bad on
some level for doing this but it doesn't stop them. Then, when they run into people who don't do these things,
they are reminded of their unworthiness and find ways to diminish and deprecate those
who are struggling with recovery issues. I recall an instance where a man shared he had
spent a job deposit on drugs and later heard a woman repeating the story out of the rooms even
though the guy was clean by then and doing fine sub-contracting work. That is a real violation.
We knew when we were finalizing our work on the Basic Text that a great many people would suddenly be struck with an
overwhelming desire to help the poor dope addict by getting a job at WSO. Many of these people who were polyester fabric clothing
and come to us from another Fellowship. They would have little or no knowledge of our history or Fellowship but they
would look good on paper. In time, we knew the would try to shut down our spiritual Fellowship in lieu
of 'good business practices.' We knew in any contest between money and addict feelings, they would always find for the money
It is easy enough to rationalize how poor dope addicts don't really know what they are doing and there is a cult in our country
of people who 'know better.' Our way - my way - of fighting back against this wall of ignorance is the generate written materials
that speak to the real love and gratitude that keep NA alive. The attraction comes from the positive members, not the negative. We have to
be generous to the negatives because in time many of them will come around. I guess we have to step out on faith and keep doing the will of
our Higher Power and let the chips fall where they may. Sometimes, I think the price of miracles is the faith to keep going even when there
is no recognition or praise. Perhaps we would be less than we are if we were to require that for what we do. We know in our hearts our gratitude,
surrender and love. That is enough to authenticate our personal desire for recovery and that is probably what keeps many of us going.
Perhaps there will be a plateau of learning sometime in the future when we will gather again as a worldwide Fellowship and produce another
major work to make a lasting peace in our Fellowship where members can learn truths that will last more than a few years.
In July, right after the Atlanta World Convention, I will celebrate twenty-eight years clean. During the week of the WCNA in Atlanta, I will get to
visit with members supporting our work on the Way of Life book from all over the world. This will be our biggest chance to visit one another face to face.
Looking forward to this gathering makes me happy and lets me feel that Higher Power has a good plan for us. The certainty of heart that is required to
keep up a work like ours through all the changes of the eighties and ninties is a token of our sincerity.
Understanding and accepting the fact that many members accept the corporate model of NA just because they don't know any better is the first step to peace
in figuring our NA politics. Really, anything else would be a miracle, wouldn't it?
In Loving Service,
Bo S.