Charlie Sheen, the man with the golden voice and the movie Country Strong are all weighing heavy on my mind tonight.

I heard yesterday that Ted Williams, the homeless man with the golden voice left treatment and is out in L.A. doing tv spots. I’m not sure of the validity of the tv spots but I would imagine alot of media people are encouraging him to take advantage of all the opportunities that are coming his way right now and go to treatment later. That’s how insane it gets. Money comes first, sanity comes second.

He doesn’t necessarily have to go through treatment to stay sober. If he’s got himself surrounded by solid AA sponsors and a home group, he’ll be okay. He can keep it together………but I suspect, or maybe fear is the right word, that that’s not how this is going. I think alot of people including myself, held our breath in hopes that he’d be okay and I’m still holding out hope that he’ll make it.

Tonight on the news they said Charlie Sheen’s back in the hospital and that was another reminder of how cunning this disease is. I hope he doesn’t have to go down the same tough road that Robt. Downey Jr. had to go. They are both so talented. It breaks my heart to see this happen to people.

Then today I saw the movie Country Strong with Gwenyth Paltrow and Tim McGraw. I did not know going into the movie that it was about an alcoholic. I thought it was about a country western singer……..period.

She sure did an excellent job. I’m surprised she didn’t get some kind of nomination for her role. It’s one of those movies that hangs with you for hours and hours. I keep thinking back to certain scenes. Parts were very tough to watch because she reminded me so much of my own alcoholism. The belligerence. Horrible guilt and remorse. Oh yuck. I hate it.

But I do have to say she put on one heck of a concert towards the end of the movie. She was fantastic. I’d go again just to see her do that. She was great. So were all the actors in this movie. It was really good.

I’ve been on both ends or all ends of the alcoholism b.s. (yes, that’s right. b.s.) I’ve been the codependent willing to do any crazy thing in order to get the alcoholic to stop drinking or taking drugs. I’ve walked in the shoes of the alcoholic and always had great intentions of never drinking again, but then forgot about those intentions when the hang over was gone.

It is in insidious, sucky disease and I am eternally grateful for my sobriety and the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.

One day at a time…

Echo