Seaweed

Malcontent: A person who is not satisfied with current conditions; a discontented person.

A group of discontented members has broken away from one of my morning meetings, after an extended period of bitching about it,  and started a new meeting - at the exact same time as the old meeting, ironically enough.  I started to use the word "malcontents" but opted to use what I thought was the kinder, gentler "dis-" prefix instead, finding out after the fact that they basically mean the same thing.  Anyway, I'm not opposed to this move at all.  The original group is too big, in my opinion, which tends to favor the more aggressive, confident members as well as the blowhards who simply like the sound of their voices, the lonely hearts who may or may not be alcoholics but obviously love the opportunity to talk at length about themselves before a mostly attentive, polite audience, and the occasional deranged individual who should be in a supervised setting taking the appropriate psychoactive medicine indicated to quiet down the demons in their heads that are running the show.  The group, located in an urban environment, home to the homeless and mentally ill, is a little messy, in other words.

Imagine that - a messy meeting full of alcoholics.

The breakaway group has siphoned off a bunch of the older members.  I get it, I do - it can be hard listening to people talk who don't have a very polished message.  And if you're new you're probably going to wallow in The Problem instead of gravitating toward The Solution.  I had so much shit going on that I needed to get off my chest when I was getting started that it was hard to see anything positive, solution-oriented, in the world.  I'm sure I wasn't the preferred speaker for many of the older members.  I'd love for each share to be wise and profound, full of nuance and understanding.  I'd also prefer to be driving a Ferrari instead of my current car, currenlty worth about 17% of a used Ferrari engine.

I went to the original meeting today.  Attendance was down about 25% and it was a GREAT meeting.  I had to laugh at the topic for this book study: Tradition One, group unity.  Frankly, I felt a sense of release that the judgmental, irritated folks had gone elsewhere - I would cringe when one of the less-polished people would begin to talk, feeling the disapprobation begin to rain down from the rafters.  I got to hear a bunch of people talk who didn't normally share and I didn't have to listen to any of the missing old-timers who can get preachy and teachy some of the time.

That being said I'm definitely going to add the new group into my regular rotation.  I do like to hear from solid members with a lot of experience.  Just not all the time and not at the expense of the new folks.  If I don't hear any good solution stuff my Program will suffer and if I don't hear the rawness oozing from the new people my Program will suffer, too.

I'll be interested in seeing how the new group shakes out.  Sometimes we overestimate our opinion, believing that the way we feel is the way everyone feels.  Many years ago a similar splintering occurred and some malcontents took their ball and went somewhere else to play.  That meeting is still in existence and it is still a fraction of the size of the original group.

Little of this, little of that.