I haven't been able to back-track to the source of that comment in the title, but it struck me as perfectly reflective of Charlie Sheen's present situation. He was shouted down by his audience in Detroit last night, many of whom demanded their money back. Others just walked out on him. The title of his travelling road show is "Violent Torpedo of Truth....Losing is not an Option". But, apparently he is indeed losing IT.....what? His freaking mind.
Have you noticed that we have a tendency to stare at car accidents when we are driving by...when common sense and even common decency indicates that it would be both better for us, and more respectful to the victims if we looked away. But, no, we gawk...almost unanimously. Perhaps we're just having a 'better him than me' kind of moment, or perhaps pathos is just so dramatic that we cannot resist scooping up an eyeful. But, in any case, we rarely resist looking. And, it feels like that is what we're doing as Charlie Sheen is spinning wildly out of control, headed for the wall.
A few years ago, the winner of the Daytona 500 crossed the finish line......upside down, backwards and ON FIRE. At the time, I thought to myself that nobody will ever top that for sheer drama....and it scored off the scale on my 'irony' scale as well.......because he was driving the Jack Daniels car. But, Charlie Sheen is not a car; he's a human being. His arrogance, gall, conceit, anger, truculence...all push us towards just watching as he goes down in flames. Maybe we even give in to the temptation to say--quietly under our breath, perhaps--"Well, he's brought this on himself." And, of course, this is true. But, as I listen to his over-the-top pronouncements, his wildly egotistical rants.....I am hearing the words and seeing the face of someone who really is losing his sanity. It may be hard to find a sympathetic place to view him from...but, we are watching a person whose mind is throwing itself against the bars of the cage that imprisons it. He has become ever more dramatic as the whole scenario unfolds...and rather than attribute it to his long-term addiction to alcohol and apparently drugs as well, I am sensing that those are merely exacerbatory, not causal.
This is a person who has met with sensational success in his professional life. He has been put on a pedestal by fans, and I am sure by the sycophants who surround him and make a handsome profit off of his career as well. Like Tiger Woods, in a very real sense--if you listen to what he's telling us--he has come to see himself as a demigod. His ego has become so monstrously inflated and hugely powerful that it will neither be subdued nor denied. So, he is on a wild ride....on the back of one bad-ass big lion. And, I personally am beginning to feel that I don't want to be looking when he hits the ground.
Just a thought.....
1 comment:
I just want to sit him down, hand him a blanket, and say, "It's okay, Charlie, an ambulance has been called." The man is crashing and burning in front of our very eyes. Poor Charlie. What's to become of him....
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