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My higher purpose is about as simple as I can make it…It is simply to be there and to participate in the human race. Even if I can’t do anything to help, I need to be there if someone needs me. If I am using, I am not there for myself, let alone anyone else.
Isolation and self-obsession kills the addict or alcoholic. We need an interest in something larger than ourselves, outside of ourselves, an “all-absorbing activity,” as Becker put it. A preoccupation, a “passion,” something that takes us outside of ourselves. We need a higher power. So, what might that power be?
There aren’t many words in our language to capture what the essence of “human” is, so I use the word “spirit”…I can only describe it as the action or the ability to see beauty, to feel wonder and to be in awe. But even though I don’t believe in the supernatural, I try to be as honest as I can about my spirituality.
