Sponsorship

I love talking about sponsorship. From time to time in a meeting, I will climb on a sort of soap-box and talk about sponsorship, the importance of it, what it looks like and how it had a strong finger on the hand that saved my life.
I have some very clear ideas on what sponsorship is, and what it is not. Most, if not all of these ideas have been passed on to me by AA members I trust and respect.
From time to time I am witness to some young sweet thing that comes to AA looking for help. Within months she has a male sponsor.
Now let me say, I do not live in a community that has one meeting a week, attended by a dozen or so people. There are 20 meetings a week where I live, and a healthy percentage of women to choose as a sponsor. There is also a healthy percentage of women who have long term sobriety, are willing to sponsor, and try to practice the principles in all their affairs. If I lived in a meeting a week community, I might not feel so strongly about same sex sponsorship.
But I live in a diverse, recovery community so why complicate our already messy lives with opposite sex sponsorship?
When I sat and went through the steps with my sponsor, some very intimate things emerged. We talked about sex conduct. I personally cannot imagine doing what I did with a male sponsor. I would have held back. I may have been mostly honest, but not rigorously honest.

Its not that I lack understanding.
I tried to get Lou to be my sponsor. He said no, and when I explained that women didnt like me and I didnt really like them either, I certainly didnt trust them, he gave me direction.
And because I trusted him, I did as was suggested.
Even though I thought I would rather die!
I was instructed to hug every single woman at every single meeting I went to for the next two weeks.
Gulp!
But I trusted him.
So I started my hug campaign. And I am not....wait, scratch that, I wasnt a hugger. Im a hugger now.
And I have a couple of handfuls of really great, intimate female friends now. And a female sponsor. And female sponsees.
That I dont have to censor myself with. That I did a complete inventory with, including sex conduct. That understood the nature of shame in regards to beings an alcoholic mother.
Was I uncomfortable doing all these things with a woman? Hell yeah!Did it go against my nature of distrust for other women? Did it ever!
But since when is recovery about staying in our comfort zone? Because my perception is way off base, what I think is a lovely comfort zone eventually begins to look like a coffin, or a jail cell or a padded room.
Thankyou, but I'll do uncomfortable.