Sacrifice = Unity = Survival

 I get it: our survival depends upon having unity, and our unity cannot be achieved without personal sacrifice. ‘Sacrifice’ is, for me, a loaded word. My ego tells me that I’ve sacrificed enough for one lifetime, and now is my time to speak up and do things my way. Humility opens the door of honesty, which shows me that all those sacrifices were simply times when I didn’t get my own way. In fact, if I had made meaningful sacrifices, my life and those I’ve influenced would be quite different, and probably much better. 

I can’t indulge in ‘woulda, coulda, shoulda’, though. I can learn from past selfishness - which I interpreted as sacrifice - to understand how it lead to anything but unity. I can apply what I’ve learned in the rooms to ensure that the rooms continue to be available to all who walk through the door. Likewise, I can apply what I’m learning to my life outside of the rooms. If I want relationships with others to survive, we must have unity in our shared purpose and goals. To achieve unity, I’m going to have to sacrifice something, whether it’s a perceived need to be right, or simply what I want in the moment.

Sacrifice is not all-inclusive. On our chips is the wonderful quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, where Polonius says to his son Laertes “…to thine own self be true…”. Notably, Polonius follows this with “And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.”. Being true to myself, I can willingly subsume personal desire to the group consciousness, because we are all agreed to follow our traditions for the survival of A.A. as a whole. I can have my differing opinions, just as I am expected to honor those of others. 

When I sacrifice selfishness for a common goal, in or out of the rooms, I invite unity. When unity is achieved, survival is the natural outcome.