Are You Waxing--Or Working--The Program?

PROBABLY the one basic essential, necessary for getting sober and staying sober through the AA program, is sincerity. The word is used so much in the practice of the program that it might be interesting to indulge in a little research into its origin. As I understand it, at one time the Romans sold marble building stone to the Gauls. Even then they must have had sharp business practices, because occasionally the Gauls would discover that the Romans had concealed blemishes and defects in the stone by filling them with wax. Then the heat of the sun would melt the wax, thus revealing those defects, sometimes after the stone was already in the wall. In order to protect themselves against this practice the Gauls had a clause inserted into the contract, to the effect that the stone was to be delivered without wax. In the Latin language of the contract, "without" was written as sine; "wax" as cere.