Mourning After

Where do I start? I'm still having difficulty wrapping my head around it. It's mind-boggling. It happens everyday, but only once in a lifetime. And when it happens, that lifetime is over. And how do you define and describe a lifetime? I keep thinking that the family is so lucky and blessed to have their son's legacy and life chronicled in pictures, videos and music.

I thought today would be the last day of my mourning. But when I sat down to write this, I realized what I had to say would encompass more than what most readers (even if there are only 2 of you!) would want to read in one sitting, so I'll have to make multiple entries. This may, and more than likely will, lead to the entry of blogs on the subject in the future. And to clarify, when I said "mourning" I wasn't referring to the full act of mourning. I have gone through different phases...phases of shock, disbelief, confusion, sadness. Experience these phases don't change anything, or make anything better to be honest, it's just a part of the process.

I've always wondered what major celebrity would pass away in my lifetime. I've also wondered what it would be like when a favorite celebrity of mine passes away. Obviously, many celebrities pass away each year. And many icons have passed away in my lifetime. But none on a tremendous world-wide scale, or none at a time in my life when I realized the impact a person's death had on the whole world.

I don't know exactly how to word this.

I love the entertainment industry as a whole. There are many people who advance it, many people who derail it, and of course those lucky few who do nothing to better or worsen the industry. There are plenty of icons, and to say there are 10 icons or 1000 icons would both be right. For me, up until around January of this year, there were few people in the industry who remain timeless in my eyes. Without a lot of study and thought, if you were to ask me to name the Top 5 Entertainers of all time I would have said, "The Beatles as a whole, Elvis, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and that's all I've got." However, it's clear I wouldn't have thought that answer all the way through.

Stay tuned for my next entry on why I was wrong.

Lots of love,