Now that I have rotated out of general service, I find myself asking the question, “What is general service?”. From the A.A. Service Manual, I infer that general service is service work done within the general service structure. I personally like to say that “general service is service work done outside of the group level”. That description thus also includes intergroups, central offices, conferences, conventions, roundups, and all the other independent service entities that are not a part of the general service structure yet are an integral part of Alcoholics Anonymous. I have learned though that general service is so much more.
General service is a spell, a spell of protection. When you make yourself available for a general service position, that act of selflessness casts a spell that will (assuming you suit up, show up, and do your service position to the best of your ability) place you in the middle of the A.A. herd. It’s a long story that I won’t attempt to cover in its entirety here, but a little over a year into my first general service position as Webservant for the Puget Sound Central Service Office, tragedy struck when my wife unexpectedly passed away. Because of making myself available for that service position, I was, at that time of my greatest life challenge, immersed in Tacoma A.A. and able to let you all take care of me. We got through everything without needing to take a drink, one day at time.
General service is also a spell of connection. At the beginning, the magic of making yourself available for a general service position will connect you with people from all over your city/county. You will meet people that go to other meetings than you usually do, and thus people you might have never met without general service. If you keep going in general service, the spell will grant you friendships all over Western Washington, the United States, and the world. In my first fourteen years of sobriety, I never developed really close friendships like I had back in grade school and college. But making myself available for general service has granted me several friendships that are just as close as those of my childhood best friends.
Most of all, general service is a spiritual path. In yogic philosophy, it would be called Karma Yoga, the path of selfless service. The goal of Karma Yoga is to do service without any attachment to the results, turning all results, good and bad, over to God. But if you’re anything like me though, you will bring your ego and character defects along with you on your journey of general service. If you’re like me, you will have enormous trouble in letting go of the results of service work. But that’s OK. Someone once told me, that we come into A.A. as unpolished gems, and that the act of us all doing service together creates tremendous friction. And it is that very friction, while very uncomfortable, that eventually polishes us and makes us shiny, beautiful gemstones.
In my case, this last rotation I managed to create so much friction as to completely self-combust. But as an old Buddhist poem states, “Be happy. Your barn may have burned down, but now you can see the moon.” The ashes of my combustion have proved to be the most effective of fertilizer when processed through the twelve steps. Thank you so much to all of you that have supported me over the last decade on my service (and life) journey. God willing, I’ll be back in general service sooner or later, hopefully a little less attached to the results. And I’ll hopefully still have the moon firmly in sight, but we shall see, it’s so easy to get distracted 🙂
Jacob E
Home Group Member, Fellowship Group
Tacoma, WA
