[We] Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
[We] Continued….
Here is the first Step that says it repeats previous action: “we continued….” This Step is considered a demarcation by some AA members: the last three Steps are labeled by them “maintenance Steps,” as though all three are continuations of previous action, but in fact they are not. Even this Step, using the word “continued,” is a slight discrepancy.
[We] Continued to take personal inventory….
The action being continued, “to take personal inventory,” has not been previously mentioned—at least, not in those terms. Neither the action “to take,” nor the adjective “personal” has been previously mentioned, and they are not used subsequently. Only “inventory” is a precise reference, from the Step Four phrase: “made a searching and fearless moral inventory….”
While the grammatical use of inventory been previously mentioned regarding Step Four, this idiomatic use was not: “to take inventory.”
“To take inventory” (take the inventory, take an inventory) is a more common use, probably, than “inventory” as a verb, or “to make inventory.”
Since many warehouses and outlets need to suspend transactions for the purpose, a business may announce: “We will close (be closed) for inventory on June 1st.” The phrasing is almost never “close to inventory,” or “close to take inventory,” and certainly not “to make inventory.” Likewise, it is equally rare to see, “close for an inventory,” or “close for the inventory.”
Nevertheless, staff who are involved in the process are likely to talk of “taking (the) inventory,” as much as “doing (the) inventory,” less likely “inventorying,” and most unlikely to say, “making the inventory.” Step Four’s phrasing is a departure from the most common idiomatic forms, although it is not obsolete. Step Ten returns to what may be the most common idiom.
Like the change in description between Steps Five, Six, and Seven, no reason is apparent for the change in description between Steps Four and Ten:
“Exact nature of our wrongs,” “defects of character,” and “shortcomings,” all must refer to the same, unless the Steps are not self-contained, self-referential. There is no evidence in their language to the contrary.
“Made a searching and fearless moral inventory,” and “continued to take personal inventory,” likewise refer to the same.
The instance of anyone performing these Steps one by one without knowing the next Step is unfathomable—which is to say everyone even attempting the Program of recovery will have read all Steps of it before completing it. Most will have read all the Steps before even beginning the process; ergo, the disparate descriptions for the same object or action form a composite, an elucidation, rather than discrete parts.
The view, at some point, must be to the coherent whole: “a Program of recovery.”
[We] Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong….
Not “IF we were wrong.”
Although “inventory” is a reference to Step Four, “wrongs,” plural, is used once previously in Step Five. There is more reference to Step Five:
[We] Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
The pronoun “it” substitutes for the clause “we were wrong.” Thus, “when we were wrong [we] promptly admitted we were wrong.” In Step Five: “[We] admitted…our wrongs,” the only other occasion where admit and wrong(s) are used in the same Step.
Within Step Ten is a reiteration of actions from two prior Steps, here combined, while not in strict terms a restatement of either. It is at this Step, then, that a less discrete and more complete view of the “suggested Program of recovery” must be taken to prevent definitions and references from becoming vague or confused.
For me, there was a clear-cut sense of relief at this Step, even before I’d gotten to it in its course. I read down the list and I could just sense that things were easier at this Step than they had been the first time. All that jargon about “exact nature” and “searching and fearless” was gone. This said to me, there’ll come a time when I’ll mess up and I’ll just admit it and move on.
Although I didn’t notice at the time, part of that relief came from the unstated: I won’t continue to make the kinda mess that requires restitution; there’s no mention of that. Just admit.