“If our turn comes to speak at a meeting, we again try to carry A.A.’s message.” (Page 110, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions)
One can carry AA’s message only if one knows what it is from experience.
The opportunity to share is not an open mic to talk about one’s history, to profile oneself, to complain, to entertain, or to narrate. It’s also not an opportunity to speculate on what the Step might bring by way of experience (so, ‘I’m not on this Step yet, but …’ was not an ideal start to a share). I did a lot of this when new, and it did me no favours. It was ‘suggested’ that I change tack and go with AA experience instead. I was advised, until there’s a message to carry on the topic in question: introduce oneself, identify with a single point already shared, and stop; but I was also advised that, as I was starting to take AA actions, I had relevant experience to share at meetings that did not have a specific topic.
Experience comes first. Insight comes second. The present is very different than anticipated in 20th-century television programmes about the future.
A friend of mine from Australia says, “Sharing is a privilege, not a right.”