Prince

It’s funny how we believe some people will just …be around forever.

Prince died today and one of the comments I heard over and over as I walked on the streets of New York City was “he wasn’t supposed to die.”

The death of the 57-year-old musical genius stunned just about everyone. He did a concert last week in Atlanta. A friend of mine went and called; said he was “the bomb.” My friend was exhilarated, excited, inspired and filled. She said she was ready to face the world.

She called me this evening. “How did this happen?” she asked. “I mean, not how, but why …I mean…what happened?”

I of course had no answers, but his death gave me pause. We take being alive for granted. We take being alive and being healthy …for granted. And we take it for granted that the people we love will be around for as long as we need for them to be. We will not venture into the reality of life – meaning, that if one lives, one will surely die, and nobody knows when. We act rather like little kids in many ways, who cannot see past their own selves.

With our celebrities, the people who make us smile at their humor, or weep because of their music, make us try harder because we honor their success and their talent, we kind of forget that they are human, and are subject to the part of life called death. We cannot bear it, really, so we ignore it. We absorb their gifts to us, always wanting more.

When Michael Jackson died, and Whitney Houston, we…well, I …was sad because they were gone, yes, but also because they would not be alive to make any more of the music I loved so much.

And now, Prince.

The passing of Prince makes me understand  how we take for granted the lives of those to whom we are close, and our own lives as well. It is not promised that we will see tomorrow,  or live through the day.

Maybe Prince’s death should jostle us and make us understand that he gave a lot in his life and that we should perhaps, even as we mourn, work on giving as much of ourselves and our gifts as we can, while we can.

Maybe that would be the best way to honor …the artist formerly known as ..and then was again …Prince.

A candid observation.