A Note About Celebrity Deaths

As 2016 comes to a close I sit here with the knowledge that three additional greats have left us.  As many people said, these come in threes- starting with George Michael, moving onto Carrie Fisher, and now Debbie Reynolds.  

And as we peruse our social media pages looking for more information, old clips...solace even, someone undoubtedly posts; don’t we have bigger issues to read about?  (Although I have to be honest my page is full of more “Save Betty White” than anything else!  But seriously go check on her.)  

To that I have two things to say; first the death of someone, no matter how big they are, is never a small thing, and two isn’t it possible to care for both?  

Can’t I worry about the future of education in this country, while recognizing, and dare I say grieving, that a well loved celebrity who tore off the closet door has left us?  

Can’t I cry over Aleppo, and also mourn that a strong woman who taught me that looks don’t make the girl is gone too soon?

Don’t I have enough tears to spare?

I don’t see myself, or my friends, as shallow.  I find these people, and all people really, in love with something.  In love with stories.  Every movie, every book, every song, tells a story.  And we revere those storytellers.

And why wouldn’t we?

Earlier this year I wrote (in the sad little four posts I wrote) that we need art.  And seeing that storytelling is an art, it bears repeating.  Storytelling keeps us going.  

All the awful things that happen in the world, where do we find our escape?  

In movies about galaxies far, far away, and in songs that are so tied in with the holidays that they bring up memories without even trying.  

In tales about magical lands, or a little town in Alabama.  

In comedy that changed the genre, and people who blazed a trail.

Storytelling keeps us going.

Mourn for those storytellers that are no longer able to tell their stories. And DON'T be that person on social media making fun of people upset over Princess Leia, or Bobbi Adler. It isn't a case of celebrity, it's a case of storytelling. And we all need a story now and then.