ContentsOctober Articles Online
Coming Next Month:Classic Grapevine: Women In AAAbout Grapevine |
Vol. 65 No. 17
Editor's NoteDear Readers, "We are people who normally would not mix. But there exists among us a fellowship, a friendliness, and an understanding which is indescribably wonderful," Bill W. wrote in the Big Book. At the time, AA had 100 members from all walks of life across America. Today, AA has more than 2 million members from cultures around the globe. This growth seems all the more extraordinary considering the forces in the world that can militate against unity, and the searing loneliness and distrust alcoholics often feel. The stories in this issue celebrate the diversity and unity of AA at the same time they acknowledge, as "Inclusive, Never Exclusive" does, that "even though Tradition Three was generally accepted, putting it into practice was not that easy." That story looks at the difficulty some early AA groups had opening their doors to women, blacks and homosexuals before they experienced how closely our suffering brings us together. Other stories talk about individual AAs' struggles to feel as if they belonged. "Nothing in Common?" depicts the years of alcoholic horror a young black woman suffered because she could not see what she had in common with the "old white men" at a meeting. A decade later, sober, she goes to a meeting in a building flying a Confederate flag, trusting that the AAs inside "were the people who would save my life." "The Brotherhood" describes an Hispanic American's surprise at identifying with others in AA. He also makes it clear that it is more than surviving the shipwreck of alcoholism that unites us. "In the past," he says of the lifelong friends he made in AA, "we would dream of what might be. Today we wake up and join one another in asking God to light our path toward what is next." As the Big Book says, "The tremendous fact for every one of us is that we have discovered a common solution." — In fellowship, |
