Al-Anon

Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me. ~ Carol Burnett

Addiction free but sandwiched between the alcoholism of her parents and the struggles of her daughter with drug addiction, my first thought for the title of this post about comedienne Carol Burnett was The One That Got Away, no punctuation.

Immediately upon typing the words I realized my mistake and added the question mark, embarrassed that even for a moment I had forgot that no one escapes from the pain, loss, and tragedy of an addicted family member. Carol Burnett may have escaped catching the family scourge, but there is no doubt that she still suffered the consequences.

I had chosen Mrs. Burnett as tonight’s topic in response to reader feedback on a previous William Shatner/Al-Anon post asking for more stories of the same persuasion. The TDA reader, in a relationship with an alcoholic, is also suffering the consequences that include stress and preoccupation draining the creativity and ambition from her work. So I thought it would be both extremely appropriate and a personal pleasure to extend a TDA Salute to Carol Burnett who not only survived, but is still flourishing in a creative, artistic career and has been a pioneer of recovery advocacy.

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“Captain, that’s not logical.” Dr. Spock said it often to Captain Kirk, but Leonard Nimoy also said something similar to William Shatner before his wedding.

He said just one sentence, 'Bill, you do know that Nerine is an alcoholic.' I'm not sure what Leonard expected me to say. 'I know she is,' I told him. 'But I love her.' Leonard didn't speak for a minute and then he said, sadly, 'Well, Bill, then you are in for a rough ride'."~ The Age

Nimoy was not channeling his Vulcan character, as a recovering alcoholic he knew first hand the potential pain Shatner could face. Nine years later Shatner came home to find his floating face down in the pool, dead from an overdose of alcohol and valium.

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