"Keith is a Shrink, and Glenn is Crazy" is Not The Title of This Book
Glenn Beck and Dr. Keith Ablow learned the hard way today that it doesn’t matter if you appear on The Today Show before Imus in the Morning or afterwards. Either way, you’ve upset the I-Man.
“I really hate them,” Imus said, which was fortunate, because Ablow, a psychiatrist and the co-author with Beck of The 7: Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life, was eager to address these negative feelings.
“I think it’s a defense against overwhelming love,” Ablow said. Or, it’s the physical manifestation of Imus’s motto, “I’m not happy until you’re not happy.”
Though Imus thinks it would make good sense for Beck, the hyperactive Fox News host, to have a shrink by his side at all times, the two men wrote The 7 because at one point in time, not too long ago, Beck was even crazier than he is now.
One night back in 1995, Beck was huddled on the floor in a fetal position, contemplating suicide, when he suddenly had an epiphany. “I got off the floor, and I said, ‘Okay, I can’t live this way,’” he recalled. “And I’m not going to kill myself. So what am I going to do?”
He made a series of changes, like quitting drugs and alcohol, and becoming, as Ablow put it “more authentic,” but the journey was long. Had he known the road would lead to frequent guest appearances on this program, Beck lamented he might have stayed put on the floor.
The insights Beck used to change his life, Ablow said, “are the same ones I strive for with patients.” He looked at Imus. “And you’re already thinking something evil.”
Actually, Imus was not even listening, so distracted was he by his guests’ upcoming appearance on The Today Show next hour. So, in his anger, Imus inquired about the origin of The 7’s cover, which he called “a poster for the man-boy love association.”
Ablow, however, wanted to explore this quip. “I don’t know if it’s the first time you’ve felt that way looking at a couple of guys,” he said. “We might as well leap right into this.”
Instead, they leapt back to the topic of substance abuse, namely Imus’s, which got to a point where he used to speak at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings while he was still drinking. “My life got better the day I really did stop drinking,” he observed.
Beck had a different experience. “I probably got more depressed,” he admitted. “I was a happy drunk. You were—I’m just guessing—even more delightful then you are now?”
Since that’s obviously not possible, Imus tried to bring his guest down, wondering if it bothers Beck that he took some heat for the shootings in Tucson, Arizona last weekend from people accusing him of using violent rhetoric.
“You get angry, and then you kind of go dead inside for a while,” Beck said. “Here’s the best thing: this year I have a company that is completely debt free; we operate with values and principles that I think are above board; I can sleep at night; I have my family with me; and I’ve put in my bank account enough where I could go to New Zealand today and live the rest of my life, and pay for my kids college education.”
He added, for effect, “I don’t give a flying crap.”
Because, as Imus pointed out, “It’s all about the money, Glenn, isn’t it?”
That, and The Today Show.
-Julie Kanfer
Reader Comments (1)
Julie:
As I have said over and over.....your essay's are fantastic..
pls pls pls....don't let Imus turn you into my "former" journalistic hero
Helen Thomas .....as years go bye and Imus gets some natural food....disease.
Doug from Canada