My Hero of the Week...Charlie Sheen

Charlie Sheen has been everywhere in the last two weeks from crazy radio spots, to news programs and late night TV, to baseball practices and TV studios, it has been difficult to not witness what has been going on.  Basically the man has been partying like a rock star again and it has caused his #1 TV show to be cancelled for the season.  Now here is why he is my hero for this week...because he is who he is and he shows the hypocrisy in all these other people out there in the media.  Part of me thinks he may be far out there since he is coming off of alot of cocaine but at the same time he seems very calculated with what he is doing.  I get very frustrated by TV shows and media that talk about people who struggle with drug problems and are in and out of rehab because they make people's destructive misery into entertainment for the viewing public which is pretty disgusting when I think about it.  There are flip sides to that thought but having lived and experienced it, that form of entertainment is cheap, false, exploitation of tragic human experience.  If you have ever known someone who was going through addiction, and were there when it was bad, it is not entertainment, it can be tragic, the success rate is very slim.  Someone like Lindsey Lohan is only important at this point because of her rehab stints, it's a joke.  Charlie Sheen is my hero here because he tells it like it is, he likes to get high and doesn't see much wrong with it and you know what???more power to him.  I am a believer that if people have freedom then they should have the personal freedom to do whatever they want to their bodies, including take substances that change the way your body feels, this is OK by me as long as it doesn't hurt someone else.  This country is very backwards with their stance on this because they allow you to take tobacco and alcohol(the most dangerous substances on earth) but restrict your freedom to use other drugs.  Charlie Sheen is using that freedom and now that it seems to be effecting others, like his kids and coworkers he has been getting clean (or moving on to more illicit designer drugs that not alot of people know about but educated drug users would now) and trying to make a change.  The only reason he is as famous as he is right now is because everybody wants to witness his downfall and destruction---how sick but how true, like the Lady Gaga song "Paparazzi" America loves to see you fail.  What I also love about Sheen at this point is that he is not failing at this time and the media is so frustrated by this that they spin it around to seem like he has lost his mind when he is just being himself and taking on everybody else's judgment.  You can't say things like "Can't is the cancer of happen" if you are completely out there and not doing something different.  We all don't know Charlie Sheen or what it is like to be Charlie Sheen so really it is none of our business what he does, thinks or becomes.

The other part that I find interesting about all of this is that because he is choosing to get clean in his own way he is all of a sudden not serious about getting clean-again judgement.  There is no cure for addiction flat out and as someone who works in the field, many people get sober in many different ways, what works for some people doesn't work for others.  Charlie has been through it so many times that some of the basic info and knowledge about substance addiction he already knows and at this point in his using career, Charlie probably has more knowledge about this than the Dr's he has been treated by, he has a lifetime of experience and still uses so at this point it sounds like he needs and wants something more to cope with his high speed thought process and I can relate to that.  As an addict alot is searching for what is next and my life today is no different.  I find myself constantly looking for something new, greater, different...I am constantly learning to curb this enthusiasm which is addict behavior and when looking into some form of treatment again it is no different.  Since there is no cure and the American Medical Association and AA and all the others have ideas but no sure way of how to treat this disorder, searching for something to treat it can be helpful-do whatever works.  His statements about "winning" and "plan better" are basic thoughts and actions about choosing a different life that more suits your existence and when you are "banging through 7 gram rocks" in an evening and surviving to become as successful as he is, I would feel like I had fucking Tiger Blood too.  3 grams of cocaine in an hour is the technical lethal dose.  We should all take our actions with the attitude of winning and planning better, those are basic concepts of life.  Also, every drug test he has been taking has been negative for all use of substances and someone who is using that much is not doing 5:30am workouts that would put an athlete to shame. 

I am hoping for a positive outcome from all the Sheen craziness.  I think it would be great to shove all that judgement back into the media's faces and show that people can get off drugs in different ways and people should be allowed to be who they are.  In my mind drug use is not morally wrong if it does not effect others.  Many cultural, religious and spiritual groups use substances as a higher form of learning, understanding, experiences and consciousness.  Alcohol itself kills more people every year than all other drugs combined so why judge cocaine use alone.  I believe people have the right to do what they want to their own bodies.  In no way should someone else's pain ever be your source of entertainment, that is sick and I feel sorry for you if that is how you get your entertainment.  I will be anxiously waiting for the return of a show I never watched just to see him succeed.  We should all take something from Charlie Sheen in this case and live our lives passionately.  We should be more about "winning" and "plan better" with our lives as most of America doesn't plan for shit and that is evidenced by the debt that our nation carries.  Take control of your lives and actions because if anything Charlie Sheen at this time IS doing that...are you???