On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts

by James K.A. Smith

And also—this is the thing—when you get the things your culture tells you you should be doing and you experience them now you know you can stop chasing the carrot ’cause you’ve had a bite out of it and it’s like, “Hold on a minute: this is bull——.” It’s a hard one to learn because anything that’s got an orgasm at the end of it, you know, there’s a degree of pleasure to be had. But it takes a while to recognize the emotional cost on me, the spiritual cost on other people, the fact that it’s preventing me from becoming a father, from becoming a husband, from settling, from becoming rooted, from becoming actually whole, from becoming a man, from becoming connected. It takes a while to spot that. I think a lot of people don’t get the opportunity to break out of that pattern. I would never have spotted it had I not first been a heroin addict and gone, “Hold on a minute, you’re doing that thing again.” Same with fame and same with celebrity. . . . Because I had the template and experiences, “Ooooh, this is addiction; you’re expecting this thing to make you feel better.”

Russell Brand :)