I happened to notice while reading Beginnings: Notes on the Origin and Early Growth of SA that the “first issue of the SA newsletter with the ESSAY masthead” was printed November 15, 1981 (14). That means ESSAY is 30 years old this year!

ESSAY has changed a lot over the years—from the first issues pounded out on Roy K.’s old typewriter, to the desktop-published version we know today. Through the years it has had several different formats, from sheets stapled together to square booklets to the present rectangular version. It has evolved from a collection of notes sent to SAICO to actual “shares” written expressly for ESSAY.

Some early issues included inserts—often “works in progress” that were sent out to groups, inviting feedback. One such insert, the “White Paper” developed by the North Hollywood group in 1993, described how that group used strong sponsorship to address the problem of slipping. (I still remember the heated debate this caused at our local Intergroup meeting!) That paper later became the basis for the SA pamphlet “Practical Guidelines for Group Recovery” (1995).

In the “first issue” of ESSAY (I believe there were a few earlier newsletters), Roy speaks of unity and gratitude. Five months earlier, in June of 1981, the “Dear Abby” letter had “shotgunned” SA across the USA. Roy and Iris personally answered over 2,500 letters from readers who identified with our problem. In July, nine early members had come together for the first SA convention in Simi Valley (see Beginnings, op. cit.).

There were now 11 groups, with loners sprinkled all over the USA. The newsletter was a way of keeping in touch, of uniting them into one meeting. And so ESSAY was born: our meeting in print.

In that first issue, Roy speaks of being “welded together in a fellowship of recovery… becoming part of the healing process of each other’s lives.” That’s what ESSAY has meant to me over the years: a binding force that symbolically joins us together in one great fellowship.

In the spirit of gratitude for those early members, for Roy and Iris and all those who have gone before us, I’d like to share part of that historic first issue.

Originally published in ESSAY, November 15, 1981
(Volume One, Issue One)

UNION

The word from the S.A. members around the country is unity. We’re being welded together in a fellowship of recovery. Men and women are getting sober! Coming out of themselves into the light, and making contact with other members. Coming to. Becoming part of the healing process of each other’s lives. That’s good news.

And there’s more. New S.A. groups are forming. There’s cross-fertilization starting between groups. And the spouses have started their own Fellowship—S-Anon, patterned after the Al-Anon Family Groups associated with A.A. They’ve discovered they need a Program of their own. They haven’t remained untouched; ours is as much a family disease as alcoholism.

So much to be grateful for. Maybe I should make a list of my own; doing so has been known to keep me out of the “poor me’s.” What am I grateful for?

• For my sobriety. I would have nothing without that.
• For the sobriety of others in my life, even though they may be phone dollars away.
• For the Presence. A God of my very own. A faith that works.
• For the fact that most of the time I can now live comfortably with myself and others—one day at a time.
• For the joy of seeing others gain victory over the obsession and come to life.
• For the Fellowship this creates. I need this as much as anyone else.
• For the love of other recovering men and women—a bond that’s closer than anything I’ve ever known.
• That all my needs are met (not all my wants).

We look back on our lives, even the bad times, and it seems we’ve always gotten what we’ve really needed. All of our past is what got us here; and we’re grateful to be here. Think of where else we might be! Someone’s surely been looking out for us, in spite of ourselves. And it seems He’s more interested in our freedom and joy than we are.

I embrace you all and wish I could meet with you all each week.