Whitney – What a Waste

Choices Made

We lost a true talent this past weekend when Whitney Houston passed on.  We really lost her more than a decade ago when she allowed herself to descend into the drug filled and indulgent lifestyle that apparently led to her demise.  She was never the same after she hooked up with Bobby Brown.  Anybody who’s read my blog before knows how I feel about America’s obsession with celebrity.  The celebrity cult has enabled people who are blessed with talent in a certain area, be it acting, sports, or singing to be afforded a status in our society that does not reflect their truth worth as people.  Houston is a perfect example of this as we now have to endure the breathless media coverage and speculation surrounding her life and death.  She was a "has been" who made some terrible choices in her life and she shouldn’t be lionized simply because she could hit some musical notes in her youth.  She is an object lesson in the excesses of the celebrity cult and rampant entitlement that accompanies it.  I was a huge fan of hers and truly marveled at her singing voice.   Despite this God given talent, as an adult, she chose to indulge in drugs that ravaged both her singing voice and her health.  I truly hope she has found the peace that apparently eluded her over the past years but she wasn’t a victim – she made the choices that led to her death.  America’s celebrity cult created an environment where this talented young person felt she could ignore laws and indulge in activities that would have landed an everyday person behind bars.  


Choices Ahead