Mail Call for All A. A.s at Home Or Abroad

No man has ever been known to live yesterday over or tomorrow before it becomes a reality. That is a sweeping generality, and usually those statements have one or two exceptions; but in the history of the known world I have never heard of the exception. And so when confronting new A.A.s (and some old ones verging toward the abyss) I have made this remark with implacable finality: "If you can tell me how I can stay sober TOMORROW and do it TODAY I will gratuitously support you as long as I live." No one as yet is being supported by me for that reason. It seems futile to harp on the 24 hour program, for there seems little left to say; but perhaps I can add something that might have been unsaid, or at least has not been called specifically to my attention. In the first place our emotions are the entities that usually run riot and cause the immediate upset; and they are controlled (or not) by our thoughts and will. And our thoughts are more or less developed by the exigencies of circumstances. Consequently we are never quite able to say today what may be our thoughts for the morrow. However, I will say that as long as we keep our thoughts (even 51% of them) constructive and positive our chances of being sober the next day are fairly good. It has always been my humble opinion that A.A. as a whole does not stress that factor sufficiently, nor does it even mildly importune its members to read some of the better and more constructive creations in literature. Most any individual is readily willing to change his unpleasant circumstances, but he or she is seldom willing to expend the effort to change their thoughts about them. And though thoughts may not literally be things it is only one's thoughts about a day that can give good or ill effects TO THE INDIVIDUAL, about that day.