Whitney Houston (R.I.P.)
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Ms. Houston and Joe Paterno Remind Us That We are All Human
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Today, Whitney Houston died. While it has not been reported yet, it is likely that the direct or indirect cause of her death was drugs.
My only brush with fame, aside from knowing myself, was holding the door for Ms. Houston at the Berkeley Carteret Hotel in Asbury Park, New Jersey some 25 years ago. It was 4 seconds I’ll never forget.
I would not even begin to state how good a voice she had: just YouTube her songs and realize for yourself.
But Ms. Houston was human, and with such status came not just an extraordinary voice but also a weakness: drug abuse.
The last 10 years saw her succumbing to erratic and somewhat incoherent behavior that can only be attributed to someone who was under the influence of unprescribed substances.
In a sense, we can say the glass was more than half full in that she passed the magical death age of 27 years for many pop stars: she outdid Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison, amongst others, by 21 years. And music, as well as our lives, are all the richer for such. But in the end, despite a voice and talent to use such that made her stand out from the rest of us, she contended with and lost to the same demons that many of us face.
As Joe Paterno also recently reminded us, being super-human in one aspect of life does not necessarily make us perfect in all others. We must be careful as not to deputize our “heroes” for more than they can handle, as the disappointment to ourselves can be more than we wish to bear.
In Ms. Houston’s iconic song “Greatest Love Of All”, she sings “Everybody searching for a hero, People need someone to look up to, I never found anyone to fulfill my needs, A lonely place to be, So I learned to depend on me.” Perhaps she was (unknowingly) telling us that the best hero is not the one who is the reality show star or someone whose indiscretion went viral on the internet resulting in an undue fame, but someone far closer to home: ourselves, if we are willing to rise to the occasion.
Thank you for all of the musical pleasure you brought and may you finally rest in peace, Ms. Houston.
-I.M. Windee
