Summit Wellness: "Guitar in Hand"
By Marc Lee Shannon - Summit FM Feel Better-ER Host
Since I was a 14-year-old skinny, lonely kid, who dreamed of being a basketball player for the Lakers or Celtics, but unfortunately lacked the talent to back it up, I have had one steady, unwavering friend.
The Guitar.
It took me to high school dances, with my shag haircut and bell-bottom jeans that covered my silver spray-painted platform shoes completely. It stood by, plugged in, and tuned up, as I played for the first time in front of friends, and new hopeful fans, of my rock and roll dream. It comforted me with an unfamiliar confidence that a kid from a divorced Catholic family had never known before.
For the first time, I had a warm sense that I could be somebody in a nobody town; I could find a way up and out into the world, where, for once, I could gain positive attention and maybe, just maybe, finally learn to like myself a little.
Later, that friend took me to school, a music school I barely qualified for in LA, and in the years to follow, watched as I became a 2nd string Hollywood session musician. He was there with me as I played in bands with major label record deals, and along the way, also developed a substance use problem that, together with some mental health issues, just kept growing past my 20s, 30s, and beyond.
Even after I came back to Ohio, and found my way to the corporate world, with the success symbols of the big house, fine foreign cars, and the ease of never having to worry about the right side of the menu at a restaurant, that friend watched as I could not fix my addiction stumbles on my own. Finally, in my mid-50s, that faithful pal was there when I hit the bricks at the bottom of the well of lost hope, and entered a detox facility.
I was going to be okay, but it was treatment, and a community of believers that tossed me the lifesaver, put me in the boat, and rescued me from the sea of despair.
That was ten years ago, on June 2, 2014.
It was to be some time before I would begin a string of continuous recovery, but that old friend was constantly there with me as a sidecar of support, urging me to play on.
The Guitar.
It was never in the plan to use that friend for anything but musical ambitions, but it turned out that the universe, higher power, fate, or whatever you want to name that magic wand of complete restorative transformation, was using that friend to put me back in the game like a Texas Leaguer hit in the 9th inning: an unlikely curveball, and a complete surprise.
You see, these days, I am certified as an OhioMAS Peer supporter and a recovery coach. That friend, the guitar, now goes with me when I visit the detox wards, the behavior health treatment centers, the presentation halls, and the banquet centers, where people gather to hear my story of a path to discovery along the road to recovery. It is the songs, and the readings, from my book Sober Chronicles, that help me help others who are saying for the first time, “Please. Help. Me,” in those notes played on the fingerboard, that are shaped by a voice of experience that I share and pay back to those that came before and so willingly and gracefully helped me stand up after so many falls. It is that guitar that lifts the head, and maybe the spirit of the soul, that has tried everything, and lost faith in a future life different than they were certain to occupy.
That gracious friend who has helped me through so many days of despair and desperation, has now turned into the facilitator of a life only dreamed of, but always desired, by that 14-year-old kid from West Akron, who had a tough start, but now is redeemed in the songs of hope, played on a six-string miracle worker that rarely fails to turn a head and lift a heart.
The end of the story may still be out there. But I have a feeling it will be told...Guitar in Hand.