ON BEING HOOKED ON DRUGS AND ESCAPING -- SING A SONG OF SMITHERMAN

In Friday's Star, Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman admitted
that for five years in the 1990s he was addicted to street
stimulants. He said: "I feel like I've closed the door on it -- been
there, done that, wish I hadn't, ain't going back, too much else to do."

We thought that sounded like lyrics to a country song, so we asked
versatile blues/roots songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Chris
Whiteley to pen us a little ditty using Smitherman's words. It goes like this:

The Courage to Come Back

Courage is a word you hear,

Almost every day

You think of heroes saving lives,

Or soldiers far away

Sometimes the bravest deeds of all

Don't end up on a plaque

From deep despair, redemption's found

The courage to come back

It doesn't really matter

Why I started in to use

The pain I felt seemed far away

Through a haze of drugs and booze

Though each of us must overcome

The struggles that we face

For me, escaping chemically

Was easy to embrace

I kept up all appearances

I made it in to work

Though I was high much of the time

I didn't go berserk

My days were spent in agony

Trying to look clean

My nights were used to feed the flame

Out on the party scene

To look into the mirror

And take an honest view

Was probably the hardest thing

I've ever had to do

I knew how far I'd fallen

And I knew I had to change

That with help and self-forgiveness

I could start to re-arrange

Doctors, friends and family

All rallied by my side

I will say there were certain friends

I had to leave behind.

I feel as if I've closed the door

Been there and done that too

Wish I hadn't, ain't going back

I've too much else to do.

Chris Whiteley performs June 3 at Hugh's Room. See hughsroom.com for details.