Reading the Words

It's very difficult wrapping my limited human consciousness around the idea of eternity and vastness, limitless space, endless time, the actual size of one trillion of anything.  Don't believe me?  A trillion seconds is almost thirty one thousand years.  30,800 years!  It's not possible to logically understand the concept of "forever" or to logically picture what life in another dimension might look like.

I pray for calmness and engagement.  I pray for a release from restless energy, from pure restlessness.

The dude who led the meeting yesterday read the line in The Big Book that included the word "conviviality."  He could not pronounce the word and, as I was sitting next to him, it was difficult for me not to jump in and help him out, and not in a desire to show off my vocabulary skills but to ease his path a little.  He actually looked the word up and read off the definition.  It made me think of a couple of members I've known who couldn't read very well but sat in their chairs and labored through a paragraph or two when it was their turn at a literature meeting.  I was so impressed by this.  I mentioned to Mr. Conviviality that Bill W was an arrogant pain in the ass half the time.  He never passed up the opportunity to use a five syllable word when something simple would have sufficed.  The flip side of the coin, of course, is that we needed a man brimming with self-confidence to promote the fledgling A.A. Program.  Someone who couldn't read would have not made the same impact talking in front of a group of wealthy professionals.  

Still . . .  I think I'll  buy him a copy of The Plain Language Big Book.