January 2016

I don’t know about you, Alanoclub.com readers, but I often find the grey days of January to be the most taxing of times to stay positive. Winter seems endless, as if nothing will be green again. Each day dawns as grey as the day before and it takes more energy to tolerate the petty grievances of the moment. It feels easier to take each day as it comes and shrug off little aggravations when the sun is shining and the world glimmers with possibilities. In winter, it takes perseverance to tough it out and keep on going. Perseverance and patience, patience with others and with myself. The grey may get us down but we persevere and remember that this too shall pass and to let go. Soon enough, the grievances give way to gladness, the grey gives way to green, and the winter gives way to spring. Enjoy your month, fellow readers, and remember to take it one day at a time.

The Laughter and Learning Corner
Two great white sharks, swimming in the ocean, spied a ship in distress.
“Follow me, son,” the father shark said to the son shark and they swam to the ship.
“First we swim around the people in the water with just the tip of our fins showing.” And they did.
“Well done, son! Now we swim around them a few times with all of our fins showing.” And they did.

“Now we eat everybody.”
And they did.
When they were both gorged, the son asked,
“Dad, why didn’t we just eat them all at first? Why did we swim around and around them?”
His wise father replied, “Because they taste better without the crap inside!”

Did You Know: The Origin of Calling It The “Big Book”
A printer in Cornwall, NY, named Edward Blackwell, had been highly recommended to Bill Wilson. Blackwell was the President of Cornwall Press. So Bill and Hank Parkhurst (author of the personal story “The Unbeliever” in the first edition of the Big Book) went to Cornwall to see Blackwell. There they were told that the book would probably be only about four hundred pages when printed. That seemed a bit skimpy for the price they wanted to sell the book at, and they were concerned people might not think they were getting their money’s worth.
They picked the cheapest, thickest paper the printer had, and requested that each page be printed with unusually large margins surrounding the text. This made for an unusually large book. Thus, the book came to be nicknamed the “Big Book.”