Just a thought… You can take away a man’s show; you can’t take away a man’s voice. [David Letterman]
Welcome to a new week, and a holiday if you’re lucky enough to have it off today. An event to come in a few days has had me reflecting a lot on my own life, and wondering if perhaps you can relate, not only to me, but to an internationally known TV personality.
As you are aware, this Thursday is the final new episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. After nearly 11 years, the talk show host will say his good-byes on CBS. Who will be his guest on the finale is still a secret, but my best guess is that during a week off a while ago, he not only travelled to Chicago to sit down with President Barack Obama, but went to Rome to do the same with Pope Leo. As a devout Roman Catholic who wears his heart on that well-tailored sleeve, it is not just ironic but insulting that the far right lunatics decry a moral man for calling them out on their bullsh*t. But I digress…and again, Pope Leo is just a guess.
It’s a done deal. CBS has bowed to their Golden Piggy and removed Colbert from the network. And it’s not a desperately failing network’s boneheaded move that has me thinking. No, it’s what’s next for a man I admire but have never met.
When I left CHFI of my own volition in December ten years ago, it was for deeply personal reasons. Rob and I had to start a new life and, for us, that meant pulling up stakes and moving as far west as we could go in this glorious country of ours. It was not an easy decision and we knew we were leaving family, friends, a career and a life behind. But we had set our GPS for the future, and that’s where it led us.
Now settled into our third home since packing too much stuff into vans that would make their way across most of five provinces and a part of an ocean, life is making more sense every day.
But it has taken me almost an entire decade to finally let go of the work dream: that I’d return to radio or continue to be doing what I loved. That desire and need have morphed into a gentle satisfaction in doing two podcasts: my sleep stories Drift with Erin Davis (now closing in on 500,000 listens) and the weekly joy Lisa Brandt and I call Gracefully and Frankly”(which is nearly at 240,000). These, along with this journal, will have to be the way I share myself and my stories. And the emails and messages I get keep me connected. Thank you!
From what I’ve gleaned, taking on retirement is a job in and of itself. Not just in filling the hours – far from it: there are always volunteer positions and freelance that people can seek.
But, psychologically, it comes with a process that is a lot like the grief cycle. Normally (whatever that is) the yearning continues for 3-12 months, and even up to two years.
It’s the loss of your professional identity. The social connection. The structure and routine.
Experts recommend seeking counsel, or just allowing yourself to grieve. Rebuilding your identity with different hobbies, pastimes and activities, and creating a new structure and routine. Goodness knows (as I found out first-hand) having no structure can mean it feels like a Saturday night and get-out-the-Grey-Goose every danged evening. And that’s not good for anyone.
For Mr. Colbert, the future is bright: he’ll land wherever he wants and is already diving into co-writing a new Lord of the Rings film. But it’ll take time (and plenty of that in a shrink’s office, no doubt) to deal with the pain of what has happened to him as America takes on an increasingly fascist air, particularly where comedians and truth-tellers are concerned.
I wish him only the best in whatever this newly-turned 62-year-old plans. Yes, there are plenty of people who’ve been turfed from their jobs, but this is a different case and anyone who says otherwise doesn’t want to recognize it. The Colberts won’t need a GoFundMe to keep going, or to start downloading coupons for groceries, like so many who have been fired must do. Perhaps because 23 years ago I experienced myself what it feels like to lose a public position, his firing resonates loudly with me. But more likely because he could be the biggest canary in the coal mine where media control is concerned. For that matter, CBS has already signed its own death warrant. I care more about the fate of the historic Ed Sullivan Theater than I do about what’s left of the network.
May he follow in the footsteps of David Letterman, and do only what he wants and when he wants to do it from here on in. I wish him even a fraction of the joy he’s given us, and none of the consternation he caused among the worst of them.
As Letterman himself said the other night (quoted above), “You can take away a man’s show; you can’t take away a man’s voice.” Hear, hear. And that goes for women, too.