God bless Ned Christopher

Sometimes those that seem the happiest are the saddest, that seem the most carefree have the most hang-ups, and that have it all together are falling to pieces.

Wealth and beauty don't protect people from personal pain, it just gives them ways to conceal it.

But there are also those those hold it together

I don’t follow popular media much anymore. I know the big train wrecks, but not the little derailments that cable news networks obsess over.

 

I remember instead famous people from my youth that had personal challenges they shared to raise awareness.

Child abuse came out of the closet when I was a boy (Mommie Dearest and a host of others, and that was a good thing). So did alcoholism and drug abuse. In those days, people went to the Betty Ford Clinic (whose namesake struggled with alcohol for years); those few that checked themselves in publically were considered tarnished heroes and applauded with “so sad” head shakes.

Not like today, where rehab is an obligatory right of passage for spiraling celebrities..

The one person I remember best from my youth who shared his private challenges was William Christopher (Fr Mulcahy on M*A*S*H). He had no bouts with the bottle or the paparazzi. He had an autistic child, Ned, whom he spoke publicly about to raise awareness.

He wrote a book on the subject with his wife, Barbara Christopher, called Mixed Blessings >

William Christopher Discusses Autism in 1985

 

[2013-01-17]

 

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