How Will I Know?

It's always kind of weird when a huge celebrity dies, especially ones that have kind of fallen by the wayside. The way I got the news, and this is probably true for a lot of people, is through status updates on Facebook or Twitter. Social media really does rule the roost when it comes to breaking news. I don't watch much live television, and I usually get my news through the internet, so it's pretty selective the things I'll hear, except for what comes through social media. It's how I found out about Osama Bin Laden, and it's how I found out about Whitney Houston yesterday.

The reaction that some have to celebrity deaths is interesting. I remember when Michael Jackson died a friend of mine didn't think much of it, even saying something like, "so what? The world is rid of another pedophile, good riddance," kind of thing. Others post tributes to that person and really lament that loss. So why do people mourn the passing of such flawed people?

I think it has mostly to do with the final realization that the person has utterly and completely wasted his or her talent. We do have some level of personal investment in these people because maybe Michael Jackson was the soundtrack to your youth, or Whitney Houston expressed what you couldn't in her cover of I Will Always Love You. There is some level of involvement, personally, that we have with these people, even if they are in every other way so completely distant from us.

So when we see them floundering and struggling through their trials and demons, we look at them often with scorn and disappointment, but the actual passing brings an end to the person who just couldn't ever turn it around, and that should be a sad event. It's not only of a life, but of talent and promise that could have affected many people in lots of good ways, but was left unfulfilled. That is definitely a sad thing to behold.

Anyway, I'm sad for Whitney Houston. Hers is a very tragic story. She has a lot of really great songs, but this one was always one of my favorites. I used to go to an 80s night with a buddy and we always really loved when this one would come on. It's just fun and happy. Here you go: