Dave: "25.... Those were my traveling years. India, Nepal, you know. If I could have sat myself down at a table I woulda said:
"Listen Mate, what you're looking for isn't out there. You're not going to fill that 'hole in the soul' by seeing the Taj or doing a three day chant at some temple. I know you'll go anyway and I hope you have a damn good time but you're life's still going to be a bloody mess when you get back."
Kate: "So what did fix it?"
Dave: "Pain. Desperation. Finally using the last ace-card up my sleeve that I throught would fix everything. And then you're just left with pain, which kind of strips away all the things you think you are and leaves you bare-assed as you actually are. So I went to an AA meeting, and found a sense of spirituality."
Kate: "I didn't know AA was a spiritual kind of group."
Dave: "Well it's not spiritual in the religious sense. It's more like a philosophy. You know the serenity prayer? 'God give me the strength to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference'. It's about that.
I can't control people, places or things. And it drives me mad so I drink. Most alcoholics are like that. Lots of CEO alcoholics. We all want to control the world. But all we can control is our behavior to it.
I don't believe in any G.O.D. Except for my group of Grand Old Drunks-- my AA meetings. But I have found that the Serenity prayer and the spirituality that comes with it fills that "hole in the soul" so that alcohol doesn't have to."