One of the most important characteristics of A.A. for me can be called The Lifeboat Effect. In fact, this phenomenon is described in so many words in The Big Book. The idea is that when the ship is going down everyone gets in the lifeboat and that's that. The captain's there, the staff is there, and the guests are there, rich or poor, important or not, smart or stupid, everyone's in the lifeboat and they damn well better get along.
In my recovery the practical result of this is that often I'm mixing with people with whom I wouldn't ordinarily mix. This can be extraordinarily irritating and this can be profoundly powerful. Generally, as an active drunk, I didn't hang out with people who disagreed with me. While this saved me a ton of irritation it also deprived me of wise counsel in those instances where the crowd I was hanging out with was way off base.
So I here I am - struggling with the politicization of Alcoholics Anonymous, at least to my way of thinking. Not a good thing. I better get over this.
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