I’m grateful for another Friday morning. I’m grateful for the chance to put a life back together. I’m grateful for the way the garden is growing. I’m grateful for the peace and calm I wake up to and grateful for the Program that got me here. I’m grateful to be sober today.
Happy Friday! It feels as though spring finally arrived here in New York City. I personally think that New York’s spring is pretty underrated. It’s probably just my eye, but I very much like the combination of urban and spring flora
Before I dive in to whatever I’m going to dive into today, I would like to bring you up to-date on things around here. Substack has introduced their own version of something like Twitter, it’s called “Notes.” Given the difference between audience sizes, Notes has more of a yelling into a well feel to it, but it’s early. I think it’s a lot less clunky for interactions and discussions than the whole “Thread” thing. Here’s pitch number one:
Download the Substack App!
The app is really great and I will tell you this newsletter and the other ones you might read here—all look even better when you use the app. Plus, the whole thing with Notes works a lot better, too. I receive no compensation from Substack for pushing this—I just think it’s a great way to read all of the great newsletters on Substack.
Pitch Number Two: On the subject of compensation.
Substack’s business model is predicated on kind of a cool idea— writers should get paid to write. As a consequence, they push pretty hard to get newsletters to set up pay walls and sell subscriptions. There are lots of different approaches to monetization here, from pretty aggressive pay walls to completely voluntary and unobtrusive tip jars. We decided to put up what we have, after a couple of you very lovely subscribers made us aware that Substack had put a “pledge” button on our emails by actually pledging money to us! I will tell you —that was a very, very moving show of support and we appreciate it very much!
So here’s where we came out:
This is all completely voluntary, of course. Please note the text around the “free” option above. We haven’t set up pay walls for any of the content here, but I’m also not sure we can back up any of the marketing claims. This is, for sure, a labor of love, but we do put a lot of work and effort into this. If you’d like to contribute, any amount is completely cool (I think you can become a “Founding Member” and fill in any amount). The alcoholic in me can’t resist an opportunity to be slightly self-righteous (another classic Big Book-identified symptom):
It would be really cool if you helped support us.
You have heard me share about some of my aspirations for this and we are getting very, very close to launching the official Thanks for Letting Me Share website. I’ll go on and on about that as we get closer, but all of that requires support. Here's a way to think about it. As an alcoholic, I spend quite a bit of money on coffee and candy. I believe those purchases help build the bulwark against that first drink. Just a random data point, a skim Cortado at one of my preferred coffee spots here in New York is roughly $5.19.1 If I were to drink only two of those in a month, I would have spent more than our monthly subscription price.2 Again, all of this is completely voluntary and we are going to continue to make all of this available for free, because we're more interested in reaching people than monetizing people--but when you support us, you help us reach more people, and so on. Hope that wasn't too hard a sell!3
I think since we’re on the subject, we’ll just keep rolling.4 When I share some of my thoughts and aspirations around AA and what I think this could be and how it could help and be self-supporting (like all good AA groups), I often get this quote thrown at me:
What about giving away “what had been so freely given me?”
This is another of the misconceptions that has grown up in AA meetings, doesn’t have a foundation in the Big Book, is completely contrary to the vision that Bill Wilson had, and frankly, contributes to the horrifying statistic that only about 7% of the people who suffer from addiction will ever even seek help. The “freely given” crowd, had they been in power back at the beginning, would probably have prevented the publication of the Big Book.
Bill W. was a very committed capitalist and a zany, often successful entrepreneur. Bill W. had a variety of schemes to raise money and get the Big Book published and distributed. Here’s an illustrative story. At some point, one of the early acolytes of AA was going to be interviewed on a very popular radio show and Bill W. saw this as an opportunity to carry the message. He went out and sold promissory notes on behalf of the foundation to raise $500 which was used to send fliers to lots of doctors promoting the Big Book and the Program of Alcoholics Anonymous. It didn’t work out the way Bill planned, but that’s not really the point. The point is taking the 5th tradition seriously and not being content with it being just us sitting on the folding chairs.
Bill W. wanted to raise money and start specialty rehab hospitals dedicated to treating alcoholism, he wanted to have paid ambassadors across the country promoting AA to those who needed it. On the other side were the folks that Bill called the “Go-Slow Boys.” They were trying to respond to the challenge of nurturing a budding movement with a very unorthodox, pretty unstable, Ouija-loving, psychedelic-experimenting founder. Bill W. could only see the still sick and suffering and the “Go Slow Boys” were only trying to build a stable foundation for the Program that had saved their lives. The “Go Slow Boys” weren’t quite sold on the idea that a book was really necessary. They actually argued that “the man from Galilee'“ had done quite well without marketing and a book.
Ummmm, you can check this out on Sunday, but the Man from Galilee does have a book and it’s been for sale for a long time.
The point of all of this:
Each AA group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
That’s what we’re trying to do here. We’re not connected to a treatment center, we’re not trying to push anyone anywhere. We started doing this because it helped us get sober and stay sober and, consistent with Bill’s hope, we hoped:
Perhaps I could help some of them. They in turn might work with others.
Big Book, p. 14
I’m just glad you’re here. I get excited every time we add a new subscriber and you support us plenty by reading and sharing and telling your friends. We just want to carry the message that helped us so profoundly to as many people as we can—and we’re really, really glad to be doing this with all of you.
Admittedly, this is the land of $20 pancakes, too.
Note: My actual consumption is perhaps 30x higher.
If you wanted to look at it this way, $10 divided by 30 daily gratitude lists comes out to 33 cents per day. I think that’s less than the price of the Des Moines Register in 1974. Have I ever told you about how many people faced with a $1.65 per week newspaper bill in 1974, insisted on getting that 35 cents back in change? From the ten year old who delivered newspapers in the dark.
Or perhaps this was always my plan and I’m just trying to make if feel more spontaneous?
Awesome 👏