“1. Each member of Alcoholics Anonymous is but a small part of a great whole. AA must continue to live or most of us will surely die. Hence our common welfare comes first. But individual welfare follows close afterward.” (Tradition One)
“3. Our membership ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism. Hence we may refuse none who wish to recover. Nor ought AA membership ever depend upon money or conformity. Any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an AA group, provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation.” (Tradition Three)
“If what we have learned and felt and seen means anything at all, it means that all of us, whatever our race, creed, or color are the children of a living Creator with whom we may form a relationship upon simple and understandable terms as soon as we are willing and honest enough to try.” (page 28, Big Book)
The two levels I am to view people are these:
(a) We are all one: children of a living Creator, united
under God.
(b) We are all individuals, created to fulfil a particular
purpose.
The unity comes first; the individuality comes second.
I get into trouble when I group people together in my mind,
by race, nationality, sex, or other parameters. In thinking of ‘us and them’,
I’m denying both unity and individuality.
I am best off viewing us all as a unified whole, whilst secondarily recognising the individual, indispensable contribution each person has to bring.