"Two things can spoil group unity - gossip and criticism. To avoid these divisive things, we must realize that we're all in the same boat. We're like a group of people in a life-boat after the steamer has sunk. If we're going to be saved, we've got to pull together. It's a matter of life or death for us. Gossip and criticism are sure ways of disrupting any A.A. group. We're all in A.A. to keep sober ourselves and to help each other to keep sober. And neither gossip nor criticism helps anyone to stay sober."
I like the use of the word "nor." Very Victorian.
Gossip: Idle talk about someone's private or personal matters, especially someone not present.
Criticize: To find fault (with something).
A good rule of thumb for me: never say something about someone that you wouldn't say with that person standing right in front of you.
"We are like the passengers of a great liner the moment after rescue from shipwreck when joyousness, camaraderie, and democracy pervade the vessel from steerage to the Captain's table." Big Book P. 17. (Ed. Note: Yeah, I wonder where the daily meditation book got this idea of passengers in a lifeboat . . . . )
"Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends on A.A. unity. Without unity, A.A. dies. Individual liberty, yet great unity. The group must survive or the individual will not." 12&12 P. 9.
"We should try to be grateful for all the blessings we have received and which we do not deserve. People do not care much for those who are smug and self-satisfied or those who gossip and criticize. But people are impressed by true humility. So we should try to walk humbly at all times."
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