I recently finished reading a drug addict memoir and when I closed the book I realized I was angry and I couldn't at first understand why. After all, he told us all the bad stuff he did on drugs and how he's clean now and he's got a new wife and kids and a great job and it is a success story about beating his way back from the abyss so why was I angry?
And I sat with myself and realized it was because he seemed not to realize how much deep damage he had done to other people nor did he ever once talk about amends and restitution. I just can't connect with an addict's success story unless it is about amends. Addicts eventually reach a point of genuine suffering, but getting there? It can be a lot of years of good times getting there. While everyone around the addict hurts like hell. We take every betrayal and unkind word and every criticism straight through our hearts, without narcotics to buffer the pain.
If an addict's facebook page isn't humble, then there's something missing. In my opinion.
Gratitude. Humility. Amends.