Ted Williams' Mother

The theme for this week surrounds mistakes in our past that utlimately end up in a negative in our lives.  This week the world was introduced to Ted Williams, a man with an incredible voice, who ended up homeless due to drug and alcohol addictions.  He was reunited with his Mother yesterday and they appeared on The Today show together this morning.  Williams' Mother is elderly and I am sure she endured emotional, financial stress and devastation due to her son's addiction.  One of her responses to her son was, "Don't let me down this time." She also expressed embarrassment that her son was standing on the street with his sign and it was broadcast to the whole world.  They talked about him telling her that he was going to be someone because of his voice and her response was, "I've heard that before."    Honestly, I think Meredith Viera did not know how to respond.  She was expecting an encouraging Mother who was just happy to see her son alive.  I could tell that this man's new found happiness was dampened a little by the reality of his Mother's doubt and trepidation.  I wonder if she saw that. 

Unfortunately, I can understand where her cynicism comes from and the problem with media, gossip websites and most media phenomenons is we only see snapshots of their lives.  We haven't seen the years of humiliation, devastation and emotional pain she endured due to her son's addiction.  At some point you have to develop some sort of shell to survive dealing with the disappointment and the pain of seeing a loved one suffer. I understand her embarrassment even though the video has ultimately created incredible opportunities for this man.   

Fortunately, I haven't had to directly deal with an addiction of that magnitude.  I watch Dr. Phil (ha ha), I read about it and I know people that have been through this and at some point you have to let them hit rock bottom so they can recover.  I feel for his Mother and anyone that is exposed to the national spot light to that extent.  She isn't trying to be politically correct and she doesn't have to answer to anyone for her comments.  Mrs. Williams came from a generation where you say what you think and where family issues are private issues.  Sometimes, I wonder if we coddle and encourage a little too much.  Our children need to learn how to deal with downs that life can bring because we can't always be there to rescue them.    I could see that Ms. Viera didn't know how to respond because the world is filled with so much politically correct bullshit right now.

I was kind of irriated with Perez Hilton when he felt the need to post Ted William's arrest reccord.  HELLO!  He was homeless because self-admittadly he had a drug and alcohol problem  Why are you trying to squash his opportunity to pull himself out of the hole he dug for himself?  That was just mean.

Here is a man who went from being homeless to many incredible opportunites within hours.  He is dealing with lots of regret, optimism and emotions and he is doing it in the national spotlight.  That can't be good for anyone.  I hope that in addition to the opportunities he is also receiving guidance.  I'm sure we will see judgement from others on his Mother's reactions to all of this.  Don't judge--we don't know where she is coming from and I could see that he loves her and he wants her to be proud of him.  I would hope that all of us want our parents to be proud of us but most of all we want them to love us.  Sometimes, that love can hurt the one that loves you more than the one being loved when you see them being self-destructive.    Maybe I have rambled a little too much but the intense media scrutiny becomes too much.  Let it go and let him and his family recover in private or I fear his story will not end well.