Sunday, February 12, 2012

Compassion & Humanity & Whitney Houston et al

Was just sitting here as usual and pondering on why some of us have to be so down on others who express sadness that a celebrity has died.  Psychologists understand how people identify closely with celebs, and why we feel sadness when one of our 'idols' (or whatever) dies.
 
I understand too, and the sadness we feel does NOT in any way detract from how tragic are the deaths of the ordinary people in our lives.  By ordinary I mean not 'stars', just the people around us who are part of our everyday life.  There are people who admire sportsmen and women and follow them and their careers, never missing a game, or a swim etc.  There are others who are admiring of a  movie star, for their talent, their looks, their nature or any other trait. this is not a bad thing, not really.  It often gives young people a goal in life, and an important role model.

And of course there are millions of us who have been given so much joy through song and most importantly, the singer.  Whitney was one of those who brought something special to many of us.  Her voice was one in a million, and when she sang it lifted us up, and made us soar.

It doesn't matter why, or where, or how she died.  The fact remains that she was a young woman, and she should never have left the world.   If I may quote myself:

Well here is granma. Drugs, cigarettes or alcohol yes? I will quote to you what a nurse said to me when I was in hospital with pneumonia (from smoking). There was a young woman (alcoholic) opposite me, with a 9 year old son. She was dying. She hit crisis and the crash team was called in. A nurse stayed with me, which was nice as it was pretty hard to see such a young person in that state, right? I said to the nurse - is it from alcohol? and her reply? "Yes. We all make poor choices in our lives, even though at the time we choose we do not realise it".
I just want those who rant about not having time for people who are on drugs etc to stop a minute, and think quietly before they condemn out of hand. We ALL make poor choices of some sort or another. I will not judge anyone - but for the grace of god or whoever, there go I.
A young woman has died, no matter who she is, and she should never have died. That is really what it amounts to.
This is not a rant or a criticism ladies, just granma being me.

ps forgot to say that the reason I am dying from COPD is because I made a poor choice. 

To those who rant because of a death caused by drugs etc., I say - try compassion instead, a little humanity eh?   You obviously have absolutely no understanding of what addiction means, how vicious it is - if you did you would not be making the sometimes quite venomous comments about the death of anyone who is addicted to any substance.  Whether it was drugs that killed Whitney is neither here nor there.  At base - she has died, and that in itself is tragic. 

Unfortunately, I often see a death like this being commented on, and then the judging starts - at my end of life the loss of any young person is sad enough for an ocean of tears.  One person's death does not overshadow or make trivial another's.   Oh, and we DO mourn our fallen soldiers, sailors and airmen.  We DO feel for their families and comrades.   It is not the case that nobody cares, not at all.
  

Yes, the media will go overboard with this, as usual, and we know that the reason for that is to generate sales and therefore money.  That publicity does NOT mean that your loved one's death was unnoticed or that people didn't care - it is purely that Whitney was a huge public figure for so long, was known the world over, and there will be an awful lot of pounds and dollars made because of her death.

Would you really want your family to have to go through the disgusting circus that will now ensue for Whitney's family?

I know that when my brother died at age 16 the last thing we wanted on this earth was any type of commotion.  All we wanted was time and peace in order to try to come to terms with the fact that he was gone forever.

No comments: