Yup - I'm single (divorced so long ago that I don't use that word to describe it any more), and have gotten stuck in the "who cares" place many a time. I live alone. I was a quiet and well-behaved drunk who just sat on the porch with my glasses of wine and my smokes, watching the trees and thinking. Who cares...?
Interestingly, right now my adult daughter is living with me. She has struggled with addiction and alcoholism issues for years now, and our contact has been sporadic due to her addictions. She lives in another state. To make a long story short, her life blew out due to her addictions and in that moment of complete despair and demoralization, she knew of one person who loved her and who was clean and sober and might know how to help her.
That's me.
If I were living my old "non-harming" alcoholic lifestyle, I would not have been available to her in this moment of crisis. My sobriety primes me for a sudden availability to anyone who needs me.
I don't know how her story will unfold. But I do know that on that day, a month ago, if she had called me with her crisis and I had sat on the porch drinking wine while I talked to her, she would have had no reason to come to live with me and try to get sober.
The universe works in mysterious ways. It could be that it "doesn't matter" that you are sober (to anyone but yourself) for months or years, and then one day there might be a moment in which someone needs you - emotionally or physically - to throw down and help them, and BECAUSE you are sober, you will be ready and able to do just that...