Higher Power

Boston AA's deliberately open name for whatever a recovering addict surrenders to: "It’s suggested in the 3rd of Boston AA’s 12 Steps that you turn your Diseased will over to the direction and love of ‘God as you understand Him.’" — and "You get to make up your own understanding of God or a Higher Power or Whom-/Whatever" (p. 442). The openness is real: "Four-year White Flagger Glenn K.’s personally chosen Higher Power is Satan, for fuck’s sake" (p. 352); the "God" of the slogans is "just shorthand for a totally subjective and up-to-you ‘Higher Power’" (p. 366); and Gately, ten months sober, admits from a podium that he still has "no real solid understanding of a Higher Power" (p. 442) and prays anyway.