Autonomy

WHENEVER I read Tradition Four, "Each group should be autonomous. . .," the word that leaps to my mind is "spontaneity." As I grow older in the Fellowship, it seems to me that what I value most is the healthy and spontaneous expression of sincere feeling from my fellow AAs. We are accustomed to the unstudied behavior of pets and children, but adults often bear unusual and unnecessary burdens of inhibition that hamper the free communication of ideas and attitudes. In AA, we begin to find ourselves. We begin to discover that we truly are like others, but that each of us is unique. It is the same world we share, but our perspectives are various, and the lenses through which we view it are not all alike.