Forget former manager "Cuss" D'Amato's death, chewing Evander's ear and saying he wants to eat Lennox Lewis' children... or rape and prison, or Robin Givens, or divorcing Michael Steele's lil' sis' or Don King's machinations. The crux of Mike Tyson's odyssey squeaked from his own lips in James Toback's 2009 documentary 'Tyson': "Unless you have an addictive personality," he self-diagnosed, "you can't understand how someone can throw away three or four hundred million dollars. I must either exist at the top of the world, or at the bottom of the ocean."

Perhaps he's swimming out of the abyss, towards some equilibrium on the surface. Mike Tyson claims the mountaintop of insanity is in the past. I'd like to think he's now bobbing on the waves, off shore... indeed waving to us on the beach. And astonishingly, we're turning from our own kidney-punching and below-the-belt shots about politics, money and culture, to wave back.

In his documentary, Toback featured Tyson as oddity, animal and trainwreck. Yes, Mike shared sweet dreams and family life. Yet he also bared appetites with Hannibal Lecter-esue (sorry, Evander) candor. But he was always contrite and, ultimately, revealed the beginnings of self-realization, even wisdom. Self-realization's a rare element on Capitol Hill, on Fox News, and in Hollywood, so it's disconcerting when Mike Tyson shows more adult tendencies these days than our leaders and the news media. From trainwreck, Mike now grows into self-parody. He's shown he's grown, because you can't parody yourself unless you understand what makes you ugly, and, that, ironically, that makes you funny. Examples: Mike's amusing cameo in the 'The Hangover.' Just a week ago, he gave Jimmy Kimmel's post-Oscars show some of its highest ratings in weeks with a send-up of 'The King's Speech.' Yes -- Sir Michael Tyson.

Now he has his in his own reality show. 'Taking on Tyson' debuted on Animal Planet last week -- not E!, Oxygen, BET, TVOne or Bravo. Nothing garish like Keisha Coles' mama on 'Celebrity Rehab,' or Atlanta 'Housewife' NeNe strengthening her "brand" on 'Celebrity Apprentice.' This show's about raising and racing pigeons on Brooklyn and Queens rooftops. There are no celebrities anywhere near this show, unless you mistake one of Mike's racing gumbas for "Silvio Dante" (Little Steven Vansant) or the uncle of some 'Real Housewife' of New Jersey. The videography, the narration, the settings, are all austere -- even charming. Mike even describes it as a "mini-documentary," not a reality show. No comment from my Discovery source as to how much he's being paid. She would not tell me how much Mike is getting but would say: "Its not as much as you'd think, as these show go." It's certainly like a grain of sand compared to Mike Tyson's fight purses of the '80s and early '90s.

The show's only harsh critic seems to be PETA; Tyson counters that these creatures are his enduring love. Mike Tyson got into his first fight at age 11, when a thug murdered one of his birds. The only twist is that racing pigeons is new. As a kid Mike only captured and cared for them, and watched them use their homing skills to return to ramshackle coops, the roof and sky, as an escape. As his font of dreams. The allegory's not lost on Mike, who'll readily spout a professor's knowledge of how messenger pigeons steered world history and world wars. In his recitations, Tyson assures us that for him, the show is about tranquility.

Mike Tyson -- tranquil? Well, he's now slated for 'The Hangover 2,' and 'Men in Black 3.' Will the self-realization and wisdom protect him from re-exploitation? The posse and sycophant corps disappeared when the cash did; Don King and golddiggers have evaporated. Mike has children to feed, one of whom has started college. He claims to have solid (read, yuppie?) financial advice, so there's no Wesley Snipes moment coming (again, we hope not). And the appetites that commanded him to pummel men in the ring, and devour women out of it, appear blunted, withered.

"That Mike Tyson is dead and went to hell a long time ago," he told Entertainment Weekly before his show debuted on March 4. The new Mike -- the kid who happily communed with his birds on the roof -- is neither at the bottom of the ocean, or the top of the world. For now, at least, he's just bobbing languidly, watching the pigeons soar and dip. I pray that doesn't change.

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Chris Chambers is a professor of Journalism at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and an regular on-air commentator on Russian TV's North American network, RT America. He's also a published fiction and graphic novel author, and a regular contributor on media, race and culture issues to MSNBC's TheGrio and The Root.