‘Take what you liked and leave the rest’ –
The above statement is read at Al-Anon meetings as part of the ‘Suggested Al-Anon Closing’.
It gives people the freedom to decide for themselves what they found helpful from the meeting, and not to have to worry about anything else. Perhaps most importantly, it gives people permission to think for themselves, and encourages them to keep an open mind.
The enormity of this can easily be lost in recovery, the freedom to be able to have an open mind, and decide for yourself how to interpret other peoples experiences.
All 12 Step Fellowships produce their own literature, and all have one common factor – the literature is meant to represent the experience of that fellowship in all areas of its recovery, from when it first started.
This means that people can tap into that undiluted experience directly and decide for themselves how to use it.
The book Alcoholics Anonymous was published in 1939, and at the time of its writing, there were only two AA groups in the world, one in Akron and one in New York.
The main reason the book was written was to collate and share the experience of the early members of AA so that anyone, anywhere in the world could read the book and use that experience themselves to get sober.
This established the principle of what is called conference approved literature, as outlined above.
