(Old timer 40 yrs. or more)
By Snow P.
When I think I can stand the heat, I go to a meeting in a small church room with no air conditioning here in south Florida just to see God’s colorful treasure box in action at what is always an “unorthodox” meeting. It’s folks in varying stages of life, mostly unemployed and a bit beaten up by our disease, but the meeting has such a life of its own and is amazing. Although I am old school program, I know I’m not to interfere and be one of those bleeding deacons, but just to sit and become one of many. Sometimes someone will raise their hand and start singing as a song seems appropriate to them for the topic, and no one will shut them up. Backtalk, crosstalk and yelling across the room and lots of laughing are part of the tempo. One time a 6’5” man raged out of the room and I was sure homicide was imminent, but when I returned two days later, he came walking in calm as can be to read the preamble. I was truly shocked that he was not in jail for life. When a toothless man who stutters raises his hand to talk, everyone patiently and kindly listens for as long as it takes him to say whatever spiritual message he has to deliver. When they read “we are like men who have lost their legs, they never grow new ones” you look around the room and see there is more than one man sitting there limbless.
It’s obvious to me God attends every meeting at victor-e and I am to keep my mouth shut and participate as inspired. Sometimes it’s hard for me, but I practice. Yesterday I sat next to a woman who was texting on her cell phone the entire meeting. I mean the entire meeting. All I could do was keep repeating to myself, “It’s not your business, you’re not her sponsor, and we don’t have AA police, just keep your mouth shut.” I wanted badly to just lean over and whisper something about “not texting” into her ear, but that would break my own rule about talking during meetings. I told myself that if after the Our Father I were holding hands with her, I would say something about it. As it would unfold, I was holding hands with someone else at the end. I told myself again to shut my mouth and just go home. I said nothing and left the meeting. The same girl, whom I had never seen before, came all the way to the end of the parking lot to find me as I was getting into my car. That was about a large a sign to put mouth in gear as I could possible get. Poor thing only wanted to introduce her to me and didn’t hear all the conversations I was having in my head previously. After the pleasantries, I told her that texting during the meeting was very distracting. She apologized and said she has trouble remembering things and wasn’t texting just taking notes. I told her “Then get a paper and pencil. It’s not about you, it’s about the message we give to the newcomer.” She burst out in tears would not let me hug her, console her or talk to her at all and ran away crying as I called out her name.
As I thought about it this morning, texting during meetings is about more than distracting the newcomer from hearing the message of hope and recovery, it’s about anonymity too. If someone thinks everything they are saying at a meeting is being broadcasted via text, our critical privacy is violated and our sense of safety broken. AA is the last thing I tried and the first thing that worked. There is no place left for people like us to go. We have flourished with church- like privacy and it seems it is a necessary component of our society. It’s a place where movie stars, criminals, and all manner of high profile people can come for the same message and feel and be “safe” in the rooms. Imagine what would happen if someone like Mick Jagger or any other celebrity came into the program, and everyone was texting everything he said during the meeting to a website. We would finally have corrosion from within as Bill predicted. I have seen snippets of this as people have texted live from a meeting onto Facebook about a boring speaker. It has already begun.
We are raising younger and younger alcoholics as they come into recovery and sponsors have to make sure the basic elements of our program don’t melt away in wake of the fast paced technology we have all so readily embraced. We jumped from pagers going off during meetings to cell phones ringing to text bells pinging in no time at all. Sponsors have new Sober Etiquette responsibilities that did not exist when the Big Book was written. Our program at 75 years old is still in its childhood and we have to make sure it grows old along with us.
So you know texting abbreviations WHEN YOUR ARE NOT IN A MEETINGS:
AAP - Always a pleasure
ADP - Any Day Now
AFAIK - As Far As I Know
AFK - Away From Keyboard
ASAP - As Soon As Possible
A/S/L - Age/Sex/Location
ATM - At The Moment
B/F - Boyfriend
B4 - Before
B4N - Bye For Now
BBIAF - Be Back In A Few
BBIAM - Be Back In A Minute
BBL - Be Back Later
BC - Because
BF - Best Friend
BFF - Best Friends Forever
BFN - Bye For Now
BOL - Best Of Luck
BRB - Be Right Back
BTW - By The Way
CU - See You
CYA - See You
D/L - Download -or- Down Low
DIKU - Do I Know You?
FWIW - For What It’s Worth
FYEO - For Your Eyes Only
FYI - For Your Information
G/F - Girlfriend
G2G - Got To Go
GB - Goodbye
GL - Good Luck
GR8 - Great
GTG - Got To Go
HAGS - Have A Great Summer
HF - Have Fun
HRU - How Are You?
IAC - In Any Case
IANAL - I Am Not A Lawyer
IC - I See
IDK - I Don’t Know
IIRC - If I Remember Correctly
IM - Instant Message
IMHO - In My Humble Opinion
IMNSHO - In My Not So Humble Opinion
IMO - In My Opinion
IRC - Instant Relay Chat
IRL - In Real Life
JK - Just Kidding
JKBNR - Just Kidding, But Not Really
KIT - Keep In Touch
L8 - Later
L8R - Later
LMAO - Laughing My Ass Off
LOL - Laughing out Loud
LTNS - Long Time No See
M8 - Mate
MF - Male or Female?
MYOB - Mind Your Own Business
NBD - No Big Deal
NM - Never Mind
NMP - Not My Problem
NOYB - None Of Your Business
NP - No Problem
OIC - Oh, I See
OMG - Oh My God
OMW - On My Way
OP - On Phone
OTL - Out to Lunch
OTOH - On The Other Hand
OTW - Off To work
PLZ - Please
POS - Piece Of Excrement
PPL - People
RL - Real Life
ROTFL - Rolling On The Floor Laughing
RSN - Real Soon Now
RTFM - Read The F-bomb Manual
SPST - Same Place Same Time
STR8 - Straight
TAFN - That’s All For Now
TBD - To Be Determined
THX - Thanks
TMI - Too Much Information
TTFN - Ta Ta For Now
TTYL - Talk To You Later
UL - Upload
WB - Welcome Back
WK - Weekend
WTF - What The F?
WTG - Way To Go
WTS - What the Shizzle?