JUNE 1
A CHANGED OUTLOOK
Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change.ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 84
When I was drinking, my attitude was totally selfish, totally self-centered; my pleasure and my comfort came first. Now that I am sober, self-seeking has started to slip away. My whole attitude toward life and other people is changing. For me, the first “A” in our name stands for attitude. My attitude is changed by the second “A” in our name, which stands for action. By working the Steps, attending meetings, and carrying the message, I can be restored to sanity. Action is the magic word! With a positive, helpful attitude and regular A.A. action, I can stay sober and help others to achieve sobriety. My attitude now is that I am willing to go to any length to stay sober!Construction
Couple of chapters back in the old life story, I sold welding supplies and industrial gasses.
It took me awhile to get that sales job because the management at the time, felt you needed to know all this technical knowledge about the different welding rods, welding machines and industrial gases.
So, in management’s infinite wisdom, I studied, and went to industrial classes on welding and equipment so I could qualify to sell welding supplies.
When I finally went out into the “field”, going to all these industrial businesses and speaking to their welders and shop foremen, I found out that that the endeavor for the most part was an incredible waste of time. The welders and foremen didn’t want to hear what I knew about welding, they were welding eight hours a day. They had forgotten more than I could ever tell them.
Fortunately, I was cruising through the sales information room and I found these boxes. Quite a few of them. Inside was this catalogue my company had published but never used. Not exactly sure why.
Hey, can I have these?
A couple of managers objected to my using them but I did anyway. In fact, what I did was, go through my territory and made sure every customer I had on my list got a catalogue. Even the non-welding companies, which included the hospitals and restaurants in the area.
In six months, I had the number one performing territory. How does this relate to Step 6?
None of you can fix my character defects. I must do that. I can ask a Higher Power to help but I cannot wait around for the old Higher Power to get around to it.
Thankfully, I got a catalogue too. A tool to work with.
Those are the meetings, literature, the many You Tubes and now even podcasts. That is the catalogue. And I must work on them every day, and NOW. I admit that’s the hard part.
But I think back to those days and there were lessons to be learned.
Back then, the management were people who got into a business that became more commercially viable after World War Two. Most of their qualifications for being in charge was that they had been in the business longer than the other guy.
About this time, I was also becoming involved in personal computers. I had people help me but I wrote some sales programs with computers but the management I worked for thought those PCs were for just games. They ignored them.
As the 80’s became the 90’s, young kids who were very computer literate all of a sudden got access to credit based on this new knowledge. Didn’t matter that they knew nothing of welding or industrial gases.
They knew how to put catalogues online. They were making calculations in minutes what the old management was taking a day or two to do with a paper spreadsheet, pencil and hand calculator.
Very suddenly in a three year period, most of that management I worked for was replaced. Some put out to pasture, some laid off, many took lower echelon jobs just to keep a job.
If I can relay that to sobriety and our Program what it tells me is that I cannot take all this for granted.
These days I have a habit of asking my Higher Power not remove my defects as much as keep them as sleeping dogs lie. But as I think back to those times selling welding supplies I know, I have to keep working at this. It’s painful but has to be done.
Contributed by John M.
“Mouse’s Corner”
A.A. member Dave Mc. curates a few selected readings from a variety of A.A. related publications each month. Dave is a life long friend of the editor and has been sober 34 years. His childhood nickname was “Mouse!”
Just as we get fleeting glimpses of God’s will for us, we get fleeting glimpses of our own spirituality. Our spiritual condition is always changing. All too often we think we are “unspiritual” because our conscious contact comes and goes, or because we still have unkind thoughts, or because we still act out in ways we wish we didn’t, even after many years clean. When we fall short, it doesn’t mean that we are not spiritual—it means we are human. After all, if we never fell short, we couldn’t practice our Tenth Step!
“God” Living Clean, NA Chapter 7
Contributed by Dave Mc.
June Birthdays… IF They Make It!
June 6th… Mark Q. celebrates 1 year
June 10th… Brian B. celebrates 7 years
June 12th… James S. celebrates 7 years
June 16th… Jeremy R. celebrates 1 year
June 21st… Matt E. celebrates 6 years
June 24th… Mark W. celebrates 37 years
If your birthday has been missed…. fill out the birthday form.
We really want to celebrate your AA anniversary because your birthday made ours possible!
Thanks everybody and apologies to you if you were missed or incorrectly noted.
First Wednesday… June 1st
Come join a review of Step 6 on June 1st (First Wednesday). “Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.”
John reviews the step corresponding to the number of that month on each first Wednesday. It’s a rewarding meeting with John outlining the step of the month, how he was challenged by it and how we tackle it ourselves, with and without success! Look for his monthly contribution in this edition!
Funny Papers
My First Meeting
Please be “of service.” If you’ve never contributed a “My First Meeting”, please help to keep this column going…we need you! What do you remember most of your first meeting? It can be one sentence; it can be up to two paragraphs. Could be funny, poignant or strickly “clinical”. Write what you want…you might have enjoy writing it!
THE LITERARY CORNER:
“A man who drinks too much on occasion is still the same man as he was sober. An alcoholic, a real alcoholic, is not the same man at all. You can’t predict anything about him for sure except that he will be someone you never met before.”
― Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye
The Wizard of Ouzo by L. Frank Baum
Dorothy Gale embarks on a journey to a strange and distant bar, the Emerald Shot Glass, alongside her three best friends in order to get the Great and Powerful Wizard of Ouzo drunk enough to grant her wish of bringing Greek liquor to dusty Kansas.
Gone with the Whiskey by Margaret Mitchell
In this classic tale of the American South, Scarlett O’Hara watches a civilization fall after the confederate army consumes all of their whiskey rations. Her troubles continue when her husband, Rhett Butler, leaves her after finding out that she’s been pining after an old county beau, Jack Daniel.
A Tree Grows in Bourbon by Betty Smith
Little luxuries are celebrated during Francie Nolan’s childhood of poverty. Although they do not like it, Katie Nolan provides her children with one glass of bourbon a day so that they can pour it down the sink and experience the privilege of being wasteful. The pain this daily ritual brings their alcoholic father eventually leads to his untimely death.
Absinth, Absinth by William Faulkner
Either Quentin Compson sits down with his neighbor Miss Rosa Coldfield to hear the epic story of the rise and fall of the Sutpen family empire in Jefferson, Mississippi or the whole thing is a hallucination brought on by a bottle of absinth which Quentin shares with his Harvard roommate.
For Whom the Bellini Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
American Robert Jordan joins a group of gritty guerrilla warriors on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War who appreciate a pink, peach flavored cocktail after a grueling day of blowing up bridges.
Tradition Six
An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance or lend the A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
Long Form
Problems of money, property, and authority may easily divert us from our primary spiritual aim. We think, therefore, that any considerable property of genuine use to A.A. should be separately incorporated and managed, thus dividing the material from the spiritual. An A.A. group, as such, should never go into business. Secondary aids to A.A., such as clubs or hospitals which require much property or administration, ought to be incorporated and so set apart that, if necessary, they can be freely discarded by the groups. Hence such facilities ought not to use the A.A. name. Their management should be the sole responsibility of those people who financially support them. For clubs, A.A. managers are usually preferred. But hospitals, as well as other places of recuperation, ought to be well outside A.A.—and medically supervised. While an A.A. group may cooperate with anyone, such cooperation ought never to go so far as affiliation or endorsement, actual or implied. An A.A. group can bind itself to no one.
Step/Tradition Parallel
The sixth step poses the question, how can I become entirely ready to have my defects of character removed? The answer is in the sixth tradition. In fact the sixth tradition describes my main character defects: the problems involved from seeking money, property, and prestige. The sixth tradition contains the solution to my problems of money, property and prestige: the more primary in my life carrying the message becomes, the less problems of any kind I have!
Therefore, observing the sixth tradition in my life by placing my primary purpose of carrying the message first, and not problems of my property, prestige or worthy outside interests, keeps me sober.
Inspired by George T. and the above was blatantly copied from Take The 12.
Our Trusted Servants Continue to Be:
The current Step 2 Men’s Group meeting schedule is 11:30am Mondays & Wednesdays at 3809 J St., Tuesdays & Fridays online, and Weekends at McKinley. Each of the gatherings is one hour. Great job men!
- Monday: Tim C.
- Tuesday: Mark W.
- Wednesday: John M.
- Friday: Brad W.
- Saturday: David K.
Want to add your name to the “Back-up-Help-Substitute Secretary List”? Just contact Group GS, Tom W., Treasurer Mark W. or any Monday through Sunday Secretaries and let them know!
Step 2 Men’s Group Believes…
“Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.”
We’d never presume that the 12 Steps are not clear. Nor would we imply that they need ‘improvement’. However…for purposes of assisting to keep the meeting pointed in an important direction each day, the ‘Step 2 Men’s Group statement is read as follows:
Step 2 Men’s Group is founded on the belief that spirituality is essential to our sobriety. Our group is non-religious, but we do not oppose anyone’s religious beliefs. We believe that respect for others and their beliefs is essential to our spiritual development. Accordingly we ask that avoid criticism of others or of their religion or lack of religion, their race, ethnicity, national origin, age, sexual orientation, physical appearance, trade or profession, length of sobriety, or personal beliefs. Our goal is to further our spirituality, our sobriety and our personal development, not to confront or belittle others. Always remember to be kind to others.
Extra Special Thanks Dept:
Thanks to John M. for “Construction”, Dave Mc. for “Mouse’s Corner”, Mark W. for Literary Corner, and to everyone who contributed something this month. We’re still waiting for YOU gentle reader…Why don’t YOU contribute a short “something”? Any length, most any AA related topic. Reply now and it will get included next month!
Men’s Gazette – May 2022
Men’s Gazette – July 2022