Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I think I'm guilty of repping you today.. you said something in one of the posts that was good.
Thanks Roselvr...but I never rep just for the sake of "paying back". I always rep when a post makes me laugh...or if they say what I wanted to before me.
Agreeing (or not agreeing) with the poster's previous posts is not a factor in my decision to post. And....I always sign my name.
No. In fact, the idea of crying or getting more than mildly upset about someone who is a total stranger to me I frankly find quite bizarre, just like I have with any such extreme interest/obsession/idolizing/hero worship/ad nauseum with celebs. Extremely bizarre, even scary, regardless of who it is about (ie my feelings in that way have nothing to do with the celeb themselves).
I understand what you're saying - I truly do. Although it really hurt and numbed me when Karen Carpenter died, I have to question whether I would still react that way today....and to be frank, I don't think I would. It's been 26 years since she died, and I'm 26 years more mature now - so I see things differently than how I did back then. I realize now it is a tad bizarre to get so worked up over the death of someone I never knew, and I do believe it borders on idolatry to put these celebrities up on a pedestal. Michael Jackson's death has no affect on me whatsoever. It's not that I'm being disrespectful in saying that, as my condolences go out to his family. I'm not his judge to say anything about what he did/didn't do in life. I simply wasn't a fan of him.
That all being said, I can understand how people might feel a sense of loss and even deep sadness at the passing of a favorite celebrity - because for as much as we may not know celebrities personally, they still make themselves a part of our lives by virtue of what they do....they share part of themselves with us openly and publicly. An artist...any kind of artist, whether it be a singer, actor, writer, sculptor, painter, etc...has the very real ability to influence our lives by what they do. A writer's words can offer us hope and a new way of seeing things in life that might help us to grow and become better people. A painter can give us something beautiful to look at which helps transport us to a different place, which can take our minds off the ordinary woes of life. A singer's songs may provide more than entertainment for us - they can also provide inspiration. Music itself touches our souls in ways we don't completely understand. When you combine the right lyrics with the right melody, it can have a profound impact on you. If you take away the source of the continued enrichment that artists provide, you feel a loss.
So while I think it's a bit nuts to be an obsessed, "fanatical" fan of an artist, and even worse to idolize them, I can understand crying over the removal of a gifted person from our world if you somehow felt they aided in enriching your life in some way.
I personally don't find anything bizarre about feeling for a person you didn't know. I think for people who cannot understand this, they do not have the emotional capacity to strongly connect with something on that level.
No, we're just capable of separating a person's work from the person himself. ie his music didn't die; he did. You can still connect to it all day long.
PS note that I'm not saying I don't get people connecting to his music and therefore being sad that he died, or being sad because he died (relatively) young and unexpectedly, etc. It's when it's taken to an extreme that I find it odd and frankly annoying, as it indicates a severe lack of perspective and a reminder of the over-the-top "worship" people have for entertainers/etc.
Not celebrities, but I cried when the mother and young daughter had to leave a message on the answering machine telling her husband the plane was hijacked and they weren't coming back.
It hit one of the Twin Towers.
Oh I definitely cried over the victims of 9/11. I mourned for weeks.
I was 11 when JFK was murdered. It rocked my innocent world. I cried for days and for years remembered the day with some quiet. When RFK died I remember the raido coming on to wake me up for school and talking about the shooter. I didn't make it to school that day.
When John Lennon's life was taken, it took a part of my life too. I was sitting in my car, getting ready to go in the house after getting home from work and had to wait awhile before I could go in.
But the saddest and the most honorable was the death of a gifted Canadian folk singer named Stan Rogers. I and my bf saw his last performance on the west coast a few days before he got on a plane to go home. This was 1981. The plane caught fire on the runway. Stan could have saved himself but went back and forth, grabbing people and throwing them out of the plane. But his music stopped that day. I heard the morning on the way to a satuday class and cried for days. But I am honored by his death as well for at least a dozen people lived and went home because of his sacrifice.
It was hard to listen to Farah's last days. I spent every night with a friend online who was caring for he mother, dying of lung cancer. We went through all the details of dying together and I did not feel sad for Farah, for she is at peace, but for those who loved her and the grief and loss they must live with.
No tears for Michael Jackson. He had a sad sad life. There seemed to be no joy in it and to me he exceeded the line in his relations with young boys no matter what he didn't admit to. And as it looks like a perscription related death, it is sad that his talent is gone, but sadder that he and those around him probably made it enevitable with his use of drugs. If there is any real lesson, it should be that it needent have happened. Who is the next victum of perscription drugs and doctors that do not respect their oath to not do harm.
Twice that I remember.
1-John Lennon-everyone in the room cried
2-Lynyrd Skynyrd--maybe it was just my Southern pride. But part of me felt like they represented our Southern way of life.
I did cry when JFK died but I think I started crying when I saw my mom crying.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
