What Makes Someone a Good Person?

It’s not always easy to understand how much work I’ve actually done to be where I am if one doesn’t understand what I’ve been through to get here. Here are a few poems I’ve written over the years based on addiction:

• Addiction (2000)

• An Alcoholics Prayer (2023)

• The Sex Addict (2024)

Not long ago, a friend asked me: “What makes someone a good person?”

Although I’m no expert, I told my friend that to me a good person takes responsibility when they mess up. They don’t deflect blame. They take ownership of their actions and they use that pain—that shame, that humiliation—to shape them into a better human being.

This is why I believe those who are in the recovery community today will be amongst the future leaders of our planet. This type of lived experience ain’t for the weak, and it certainly can’t be achieved by the corrupt. It takes an incredible amount of humility and courage to own up to the ways we’ve done wrong (to both ourselves and others), and to use that shame as a foundational building block so as to ensure we never repeat that same action.

I speak on this as an individual in recovery, however as many things go: As Above, So Below. It’s not just individually, it’s also societally. When we learn we’ve been wrong, we as a country and planet need to take responsibility and change that. True shame isn’t in messing up; it’s in denying and hiding that fact. It’s in not allowing the shame to run its course so as to shape us into better family, friends, lovers, employees, bosses, and overall members of our local and global communities.

Art, Writing, & Poetry by Amy Frank