Is "keep your side of the street clean" in the Big Book?
In short:
- Nearly. The 1939 program text says "sweep off our side of the street" (p. 77). "Keep your side of the street clean" isn't in our sources in those words.
- The line is in Chapter 6's directions for amends (Step Nine), about one hard case: going to a man you hated, who may have done you more harm than you did him (p. 77).
- In context, sweeping your side of the street is something you do, face to face where you can: admit your own wrongs and your old ill feeling, without criticizing him or arguing, and "never trying to tell him what he should do" (pp. 77–78).
- Heard as "mind your own part," the saying fits the text: "His faults are not discussed. We stick to our own" (p. 78). But the phrase itself, in the book, names an action in making amends, not a general rule for staying out of other people's business.
Where it is
All our sources were searched for "side of the street," "clean my side," "sweep off" and "own side." The only match in this sense is in Chapter 6, "Into Action," on p. 77. (One story in Experience, Strength and Hope uses "one side of the street" for a couple ringing doorbells for work, which isn't the saying.)
The passage, read in full
Chapter 6 takes up Steps Eight and Nine on p. 76. The list of people harmed was made during the inventory, and "Now we go out to our fellows and repair the damage done in the past" (p. 76). The aim is to "sweep away the debris which has accumulated out of our effort to live on self-will and run the show ourselves" (p. 76).
Then the book turns to the hardest case, "how to approach the man we hated" (p. 77): - He may have done us more harm than we did him, and we may still not be keen to admit our faults. "Nevertheless, with a person we dislike, we take the bit in our teeth" (p. 77). - "It is harder to go to an enemy than to a friend, but we find it much more beneficial to us" (p. 77). We go "in a helpful and forgiving spirit, confessing our former ill feeling and expressing our regret" (p. 77). - "Under no condition do we criticize such a person or argue" (p. 77). We tell him only that we'll never get over drinking until we have done our utmost to straighten out the past. - "We are there to sweep off our side of the street, realizing that nothing worth while can be accomplished until we do so, never trying to tell him what he should do" (pp. 77–78). - "His faults are not discussed. We stick to our own" (p. 78). - The result: "In nine cases out of ten the unexpected happens" (p. 78). Sometimes the other man admits his own fault. But if he throws us out of his office, it shouldn't matter: "We have made our demonstration, done our part" (p. 78).
The same idea elsewhere in the program text
The line isn't alone. Looking at our own part, not the other person's, runs through the inventory and amends: - In the resentment inventory: "Putting out of our minds the wrongs others had done, we resolutely looked for our own mistakes" (p. 67). "The inventory was ours, not the other man's" (p. 67). - At home: "We ought to sit down with the family and frankly analyze the past as we now see it, being very careful not to criticize them" (p. 83). "Their defects may be glaring, but the chances are that our own actions are partly responsible" (p. 83). - With his own family, a newcomer should concentrate "on his own spiritual demonstration," and "Argument and fault-finding are to be avoided like the plague" (p. 98).
What the saying gets right and what it leaves out
The saying keeps the core: your job is your own part, not the other person's. What the short form can lose is how active the book's version is. In the text you don't just keep your side clean by staying out of trouble. You go to the man you resent, in person where you can (others get "an honest letter," p. 83), admit your wrongs and your ill feeling, and sweep your own side, whatever he does about his. The book also sets limits on it: amends are not made at the cost of harming other people (pp. 79–80), and some people "need not, and probably should not" hear about our spiritual life on the first approach (p. 76).
See also: How does the Big Book say to make amends?
Read it yourself
- Chapter 6, "Into Action" (pp. 76–84): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt6.pdf
- Chapter 5, "How It Works," the inventory (pp. 64–71): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt5.pdf
- The full book, Alcoholics Anonymous, is sold by A.A. World Services: https://onlineliterature.aa.org
Sources
| Source | Pages | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 6, "Into Action" | 76–83 | 1939 |
| Chapters 5 and 7 | 67, 98 | 1939 |
| Alcoholics Anonymous, whole fourth-edition text (searched) | — | fourth edition 2001 |
Big Book page numbers are from the fourth edition. The Preface says the program chapters have been "left largely untouched" since 1939 (p. xi).
Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book is © A.A. World Services, Inc.
These pages answer questions about A.A. from A.A.'s own published literature, read in full, with every quote checked word for word against the page it cites. Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. What we read, and when each source was written.