Whitney Houston's Passing

I've waited a few days to say anything about Whitney Houston's death. Death is always such a harsh reality to deal with, and in the moment, people say things that they sometimes don't mean. I wanted to avoid that here.

Obviously, I didn't know Whitney Houston. To say that I knew of her is to mean that I had heard her songs, saw a movie or two with her in it, and saw her life dragged in the newspapers and media, about her drug use and her tormented relationship with Bobby Brown.

And just like we do when someone famous dies like this, we wonder how it could happen to someone so famous, so rich, and with every advantage to think of in life.

Money doesn't buy you happiness, yet it can buy you choices. However, if those choices are poor ones, then money can't really help you. There is a saying that I think all wealthy people should take a course in before amassing their wealth and that is...

"To much given, much is expected"

Celebrities who think that they are "just" an athlete, or "just" a singer or actor, or that what they do for a living isn't being in the public eye, think again. If much is given to you, then much will always be expected in return. -Regardless of what you THINK should happen.

In this case, Whitney Houston made poor choices. She surrounded herself with people that she chose. And choose them, she did. For whatever reasons, she made these choices, and this is the cost of those. Artists like Michael Jackson and Amy Winehouse who have recently passed away due to horrific choices in their lives, and now we add yet another example of that in Whitney Houston.

I would hope that people can understand that money does not mean that everything is better. In fact, in many ways when it is abused, money makes things worse. All the money and fame in the world can still be useless when it comes to being human in it's simplest forms.

And I would think that Whitney Houston was no different in that area.

Just because we are talented in one area that brings us fame, fortune and power doesn't mean that we maintain balance for being a human being. When that balance is gone, our lives become unworkable and often we feel that it is unmanageable. Tiger Woods is a great example of this, and there are countless more like him.

Perception is the common denominator that leads us to what we think is truly real in our own world. Yet, if we were to alter that perception with another one, you would see a completely new reality. 5 people who see the exact same car accident have 5 different views of what they saw, creating 5 different realities, right?

Wrong.

There is no "reality" as we think there is. There is only what is so, and then there is the story that we attach to it.

I think Whitney's reality became completely unmanagable to her, which caused her to make really poor decisions, and ultimately, it took her life at a really young age. We all look at this as being a tragedy when someone talented and famous dies, yet all that is certain is that is it what it is. It's up to us to see this in our own lives, or simply look away and think it was a tragedy that shouldn't have happened...

At any rate, whatever you choose, that will become your reality.