The Twelve Steps help members of Narcotics Anonymous take responsibility for their recovery and the Twelve Traditions ensure our efforts as members are directed towards mutual aid. Without the Twelve Traditions, our future as a Fellowship would be lost because the Traditions are ‘the ties that bind us together’. Is it a natural conclusion that if we became a ‘better’ fellowship, that would aid our cause? What would a ‘better’ fellowship look like? I imagine everyone would have an opinion about what could change to improve things. Thankfully, we have Tradition Eight to protect us.
Narcotics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
Narcotics Anonymous, Twelve Traditions
There are a lot of ways of defining professional. I like to think in terms of responsible, respectable and reliable. The combination of all three would summarize my idea of professional conduct or someone who is professional. The program says we are ‘simply addicts of equal status helping each other’. It is easy to admire the professional. Often, I find myself admiring someone for their skills in social interactions, health, self-awareness or financial expertise. I have found myself envious or jealous of someone’s abilities that are lacking in myself. Any form of professionalism can be attractive. Members who maintain abstinence often act in a professional manner but there is a danger. Staying clean is a miracle and not an accomplishment. Step Eleven reminds members to ‘give thanks for God’s Grace’. A member who is clean is no better or worse than any other member regardless of how professional they appear. Clean time can be a shell game. Members pick based on where they think the marble is, but a good magician can make anything seem like reality. We are warned that strong personalities can take charge ahead of principles. There is a great danger in the professional addict.
The longer I am clean, the more I am inclined to put opinions ahead of experience. It is difficult to separate opinions from facts. I have seen members who are illiterate struggle to complete a reading, week after week. It is a beautiful experience to watch an entire group of addicts patiently give witness to the transformation of individuals as they progress in their recovery. My brain says that the readings should be done clearly to best serve the group, but my heart sees more than my brain ever will. Professionalism leaves little room for God’s will and the wonderful language of empathy that can only come from the heart. Structures and rules better serve the Fellowship outside a Home Group, outside of Narcotics Anonymous and in our Service Centres. Tradition Eight allows me to be flexible in all my affairs at work and in my personal life. Tradition Eight is what allows my heart to do what is right rather than what my brain is thinking.