I used to look at everything in AA and find the flaw in it.
I could take anything anyone said and prove it was the opposite of what the Big
Book said.
I've been taught by people ahead of me on the spiritual path
that this helps no one.
I've been taught instead to look at the positive.
Ordinary discussion meetings can be weak on the steps, absolutely.
But often I find a cheerfulness, a kindness, and a tolerance in such meetings that
can be lacking in some Big Book meetings, where, technically speaking, not a
foot is put out of place.
Now I try to see the positive, I find a lot more sources of
learning, which help me to grow in effectiveness.
The fun thing with the unofficial slogans of broader AA is
to see where they do actually reflect the principles set out in the Big Book.
It is not, after all, the actual words contained in the Big
Book that are the solution: it is the ideas the words point to and express, and
the actions they suggest. Just because something is worded differently does not
mean the same idea is not being expressed, any more than the Big Book
translated into Hungarian is no less the Big Book.