If You Are Inside the Jar

It was a regular meeting of lawyers in AA. The topic of the meeting was making amends, Step #9.

The first speaker started us off. He took an unusual tack. He commented on Bill Wilson’s rarely quoted observation that we could and should squeeze as much self-knowledge as possible out of the amend process when making amends.

In his story, while making amends, he gained profound knowledge of his defects. In making the amend and seeing what he had done, he was able to see more clearly his defects and character shortcomings; he was able to see himself more clearly.

The second lady to share said, “if you are inside the jar, you cannot see the label.”

We laughed, as we often do at her shares; she has a great turn of phrase.

But it was a serious point.

She elaborated, “I was stuck in my jar; stuck in my self-centred life; I could not see my label until I got outside the jar.

“In making amends,” she said, “we get outside our jar; maybe for the first time in our lives, we see our label.

“I think that is what Bill was talking about; when we make an amend, we get outside of ourselves; we get outside the jar; we see the label. And this works for both future amends and past amends. I can recall old amends, replay them and mentally step outside the jar and read the label.”

What a powerful observation.

Another aspect of episodes from our past becoming useful assets.