I really enjoyed your essay and related to a lot of it. I too was shipped off (from NYC) to Minnesober in my 20s, my family purchased me a one-way plane ticket and wished me the best. Nine months later, I decided to keep my warehouse job in St. Paul, find a sober roommate, and maybe not go racing back to New York City for a while. I’m 61 now, and life has worked out great for me. But you’re not wrong about the whole life purpose part.
“We’re brimming with life-force and we need to channel and direct it. Treatment for addiction can’t solve that equation for people. Treatment and therapy and medicine can all help, but there’s a part of recovery that still comes from deep within us.”
That’s basically because nobody ever really got sober in rehab. We may or may not succeed there in arresting our active addiction in that safe secluded time out from life we call treatment. That’s about all we can accomplish in a contained setting. But recovery happens afterwards... basically in community, where life is messy and distracting and the stakes are much higher. And that’s where the life-force part kicks in - for better or for worse. I was lucky, I was surrounded by others, also new in sobriety, and also brimming with energy and irreverence and looking for more out of life, seeking better futures, and so forth. I think everyone’s energy and appetite for a bigger life ignited mine; and vise versa. So yes, that part of recovery was deep inside of each of us, but accessing and bringing that part of me to the fore was impossible without others being very involved in my life. I needed others who’d messed up their lives just like me to, well, just like me.
The reported stuff is all excellent too, definitely don’t want to go from reporting to think pieces, but this essay hits the sweet spot between personal reflection, journalism, and creative nonfiction.
I really enjoyed your essay and related to a lot of it. I too was shipped off (from NYC) to Minnesober in my 20s, my family purchased me a one-way plane ticket and wished me the best. Nine months later, I decided to keep my warehouse job in St. Paul, find a sober roommate, and maybe not go racing back to New York City for a while. I’m 61 now, and life has worked out great for me. But you’re not wrong about the whole life purpose part.
“We’re brimming with life-force and we need to channel and direct it. Treatment for addiction can’t solve that equation for people. Treatment and therapy and medicine can all help, but there’s a part of recovery that still comes from deep within us.”
That’s basically because nobody ever really got sober in rehab. We may or may not succeed there in arresting our active addiction in that safe secluded time out from life we call treatment. That’s about all we can accomplish in a contained setting. But recovery happens afterwards... basically in community, where life is messy and distracting and the stakes are much higher. And that’s where the life-force part kicks in - for better or for worse. I was lucky, I was surrounded by others, also new in sobriety, and also brimming with energy and irreverence and looking for more out of life, seeking better futures, and so forth. I think everyone’s energy and appetite for a bigger life ignited mine; and vise versa. So yes, that part of recovery was deep inside of each of us, but accessing and bringing that part of me to the fore was impossible without others being very involved in my life. I needed others who’d messed up their lives just like me to, well, just like me.
One of your best
wow thanks so much; that's great to know!
The reported stuff is all excellent too, definitely don’t want to go from reporting to think pieces, but this essay hits the sweet spot between personal reflection, journalism, and creative nonfiction.
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