Dog…
You posted the best statement in the beginning of this thread.
“this is a genuine question”
In fact it is in my opinion the best question a person in your position could be asking.
Like I said before, I believe that this “insight” or “spiritual awakening” is an inside job. It didn’t come from the outside in, but from the inside out. It was in me from the moment of my first breath. I just wasn’t availing myself of it until things got real bad. Then like a falling man, I clutched at what I took to be a feather.

Dog, I stand before you as someone within whom something fundamental has changed. I don’t spend a bunch of time trying to identify exactly what changed in me, who how it changed, I am just so very glad that it did.

I am also with you on the question of suffering in the world. It is truly full of more sadness and heartache than we can ever know.

But here I’m gonna bust your chops a little bit.
Yea, the world is a grossly imperfect place. It always has been and it always will be. But if you use that pitiful fact as an excuse to do nothing, then I think it is your fear of change, your fear of the unknown, your fear of spiritual action that is the real motivator. It is not some poorly formed rational about lack of perfection that holds your feet.

I’m glad that your quitting alone is going well, I am happy for you. This program that I am so fond of isn’t the only way to get and stay sober. Not by a long shot. Many men succeed in this getting sober business in a myriad of different fashions. But, and this is important, very few of them do it alone. We get better together.

On the road to the good stuff,
Richard S.