12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all these Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities. ~ OA 12th Tradition

Refusing to be identified by surname or photography?
The spiritual foundation of the Traditions?
Is that what “anonymity” means? Not all of it.
An anonymous person in a crowd, one of a sea of faces,
a single voice blended with ten thousand,
the face so lacking in distinguishing characteristics
it could be a symbol of all faces, all beings, all types.
Impersonal. That’s another definition for anonymous.
Large, featureless, lacking personality. That’s closer,
at least that ties in with “principles before personalities.”
One among many…a true democracy, the ancient Greek kind.
Lacking a structure, a leadership, an authority.
We come as neither Democrats or Republicans,
neither Jew nor Catholic, neither Pentecostal nor high church.
We can equally concoct our own higher power,
nobody dictates a diet or prohibited foods.
The spiritual foundation of all the Traditions,
the rock on which this structure stands.
And we stand on it, with equal footing,
defeated by unmanageable lives, powerless over life.
Dependent on the foundation that comes from blending in.