Why Recover? The Allure of the Onyx Flower

Ah, so then why “recover”? And how? After all, there’s nothing inherently unbecoming about substances, nor the euphoria they deliver to our faculties.

Imagine: you’ve shipwrecked, floated ashore a desert island, alone but with no recollection of the precipitating tragedy. You led a life once, sure – loved by many and having loved a few. But you are truly unattached these days, left only with the instinct to survive. You have no idea why, of course, and it never occurs to you to wonder. You simply…exist.

You meander the landscape in search of sustenance, experimenting with this and that. By chance, you discover a flower you’ve seen nowhere else on your island – beautiful, onyx, fragrant. You pluck its petal and place it on your tongue and it’s…what? Sweet? You’re not sure, but the word suddenly doesn’t matter much.

Your vision blurs a bit. Your fingers tingle, your head begins to feel light and that it may float from your body.

You like it.

This will be your new camp. You set up shelter near the onyx flower and, when the mood strikes, you indulge in its elating properties – grateful for its power to deliver you from your rote, mundane cycle of existence.

Now what, if any, terrible and immoral things have you done? Imagine further that you become drawn to the onyx flower. You depend on it in a way similar to your drive for food and water. Are you guiltless for your having become appreciative of this means of gratification? The answer:

No, you’ve done nothing “wrong”; yes, you are guiltless. Here’s why:

There is no society on this desert island. There is you and no one else. You have no obligation to honor the agency or personhood of anyone whatsoever. Your use of the onyx flower has effect on you alone – “good” and “bad” under these circumstances have no meaning.

The temptation to think otherwise comes from our experience – trauma, perhaps – with our own abuse of illicit substances or that of someone we love. Ah, but this wasn’t the scenario, was it? With no one in our “circle,” we are entirely off the hook so far as virtue is concerned. It just so happened the onyx flower bloomed on your island and that its path crossed yours.

Don’t kid yourself: this is no invitation to drink or use. Because you see, in reality, we all live our lives alongside others – many of whom we’ve invited into our “circle.” These include our children, our spouses, our coworkers and friends, even the municipalities and government authorities to whom we are beholden in legal ways.

So then, what will we do? Continue to use and threaten our connections? Feel free, by all means. But be assured: the alluring onyx flower can and surely will leave us deserted – in all the ways that matter.