Hi Paul

There is an old saying that "imitation is the highest form of
flattery." Such seems to be the case for the common expressions and
catchphrases in AA today. Slogans and other sayings will eventually
spread through AA if they strike members as notable and useful.

Discovering primacy in terms of where catchphrases originated is by no
means easy to do with confidence due to the autonomous and anonymous
nature of AA. Plus there is just far too frequent reliance by members
on dubious anecdotal and ambiguous sources that are much more the
product of fertile imagination rather than well researched factual
information (e.g. the recent posting on "90 meetings in 90 days").

While there are history books and articles maintained by the
Fellowship (e.g. AA Comes of Age, Grapevine articles, etc.) local
history documentation is quite a hit or miss affair. It might be
possible to get an approximation of when particular sayings started in
certain locales, but pinning down the origin location is, at best,
very difficult.

The earliest documented sources I can find thus far for the
"take/leave" catchphrase are from 1962 and 1985 Grapevine issues:

June 1962 Grapevine article "The Twelve Steps Revisited/Step 8" by J E
from Guilford, CN.

"Take this thing cafeteria style I was advised. Select what you want
and can digest, and leave the rest until later."

September 1985 Grapevine article "Your Move" by V F from Eureka, KS.

"Though I didn't agree with all the opinions expressed, why should I
expect 'our meeting in print' to be different from any other meeting?
Take what you need and leave the rest."

As far as I have been able to determine to date, the Big Book was
never intended to be the "final word" or the be-all and end-all source
that so many members make it today. If it were, the 12&12 would not
have been written (by the same author). Also the parsing of a
particular catchphrase will vary quite a bit among members,
particularly when it comes to reading things into a sentence that are
not expressly written there. It's one of the things that makes AA so
interesting and enjoyable.

The "half measures" citation reputedly owes its origin to the 1931
book "The Common Sense of Drinking" by Richard Peabody. It
strengthened the concept of alcoholism as an illness and contained the
statement "Half measures are to no avail." The book was a prominent
reference source in the early AA Fellowship. Peabody died drunk so the
catchphrase did not appear to serve him very well.

Cheers
Arthur
-----Original Message-----
From: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Paul S.
Sent: Thursday, August 17, 2006 7:51 AM
To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] "Take what you need and leave the rest"

Hi everybody

In another cyberforum came up a discussion about this AA motto or
saying.

Something like "Take what you want and leave the rest."

It is widely used and can (in my opinion) also be dangerous.

(It seems to me that it is wiser to remember the motto, which comes
straight from the Big Book, p. 59:
"Half measures awailed us nothing")

Question: From where comes this sentence? Is it just one more of those
things which appeared somewhere and just started being repeated,
without anybody ever knowing where it came from?

And BTW: Thanks for this interesting-informative forum and its
excellent "search-machine." (This time it however
"failed.")

All the best

Paul S. aka soberfinn









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