I have been in AA and sober for over 18 years and a worker-owner at a Northeast business for 11 plus years. The experiences in AA have only helped in my cooperative business life. I have learned the lessons of placing principles before personalities. At work, this translates into putting the business interest in front of any petty personality conflicts I may have with other co-owners.

It also helps to keep me focused on what we are doing here. I can sometimes get caught up in the mundane at work. But, when I think about the bigger picture (primary purpose), I remember that I am part of something bigger than me. I am part of a group that is helping to transform lives; customers, co-workers, and families of co-workers. Everyone touched by a worker-coop is usually empowered to believe that the a part of something good and that good can continue to happen.

The same things happen in AA. People help people to overcome their dependence on alcohol. They see their lives as being a part of something good and meaningful. They continue to do the work of AA and the cycle continues one day at a time. It’s a lot like my life at work.

I’ve heard it said that the steps of AA are remarkably similar to the suggestions by many religions on how to effect change. These steps are the fundamental roadmap.

For me, it kickstarted a path and pattern of growth which – owing to the severity of my dependencies – removed the luxury of getting off the elevator at any given floor. The disease moves sideways and loves to relocate so at best I can only hope that by staying present I can be aware of where it wants to go, and by continuing to grow mentally, physically and spiritually I can keep it in check.

In business it has been a blessing and a curse, mostly the former. You begin to see the disease in other people and – as you know – the trades can be a very popular place for alcoholism and addiction. You recognize the patterns and develop boundaries in dealing with other alcoholics including sober ones as well. The principles of honesty and responsibility have been my greatest allies in the business arena and were instrumental in building trust and integrity. I learned these principles through the steps of AA and listening to the experience of others while at meetings.

My sponsor sent me to Al-anon after a year’s sobriety. There I learned that it’s often preferable to be happy rather than right. And I learned the importance of letting go . . .with love and compassion of course.

That same sponsor called me on my tenth anniversary and I thought, how nice he remembered, but in the conversation that followed he told me that he started using again and he hadn’t remembered. A year later he was dead. I’ve buried a lot of people in AA and it gives me gratitude for what I have. It’s the gratitude that gets me through, and I can turn a particularly rotten day around by celebrrating what I have to be grateful about.

Enough said. The neighbors dog has stopped barking, the coyotes are hiding from the rain, it’s 1:30 am, and I’m going to bed.

At another level, Janine Benyus, of Biomimicry fame, says, ” I think fossil fuels were discovered before our consciousness had evolved enough to know what to do with all that energy. We’ve been mesmerized by internal combustion, enthralled by fire. It’s given us almost supernatural powers, multiplying our muscle power by thousands and enabling us to move mountains.” Powerful substances give us the illusion of being able to do that; fossil fuels give us the actual ability, which is even more frightening.

The readiness lesson is strong. Once, about 30 years ago, a group of us, with the help of an alcohol counselor, did an alcohol intervention with a valued colleague of ours who was rapidly destroying himself. The intervention was successful; at the end of the day he was checked into re-hab and has never had a drink since. Some years ago I talked to him about it, and remarked that the intervention process was a very powerful tool – look what we were able to do with it! “It is,” he said, “but only in very limited circumstances – 1 in a 100 at best. You happened to catch me at the exact moment that i was hitting bottom; if you’d done it any other time it would have failed.” As you say, it was his work. We just set the table.

First, this is a community that has deep, uncompromising experience with no bullshit change. Maybe some of the hardest and most difficult change human’s confront. Hard because of the insidious power of addiction (the analog being our addiction to what cheap energy has allowed).

The most important lesson for me from their experience is that you can only meet people at the threshold of their readiness. No matter how crafty the negotiation, how persuasive the rationale, how evangelical the persuader, dramatic change requires the personal commitment and revelation of the other.

So the work is to set the table for change. Its easy to mistake the inevitable good sense of your own revelation for the imperative you imagine it must be for others. But in the end its their work.

So we do best to open the door and offer a warm greeting. Then we turn and point inside. There it is. The table is set. “Are you hungry?”