From Tradition One: "The A.A. member has to conform to the principles of recovery. His life actually depends on obedience to spiritual principles. If he deviates too far, the penalty is sure and swift; he sickens and dies."
From Tradition Nine: "Unless each A.A. member follows to the best of his ability our suggested Twelve Steps to recovery, he almost certainly signs his own death warrant. His drunkenness and dissolution are not penalties inflicted by people in authority; they result from his personal disobedience to spiritual principles."
Bill W understood both intuitively and from his own personal experience that alcoholics don't listen to instructions. We just don't. This is why each important point is made over and over and over again. The first Tradition is about the importance of unity in our Program; the ninth warns us about organizing in a way that gives any individual undue power. Pretty different concepts, yet the idea surfaces in both of them that if we don't adhere to basic principles we die. That's a pretty heavy penalty.
Die! Kill you dead!
If you insist on running into heavy cross traffic after repeated warnings from your mama you might get run over. If so, your grievous injuries are not due to your mama's influence or authority . . . you ran into traffic! The car hit you, not your mama's rule! It's not her fault and it's not her rule. It's A Rule.
"Great suffering and great love are A.A.'s disciplinarians; we need no others."
That's a hell of a mix, a hell of a combo.
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