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Monday, July 25, 2011

Dust

Someone posted the following on Facebook the other day: "Anyone else not care about Amy Winehouse? Or am I a freak? Or both...." Several people gave the post a thumbs up.

How sad. But I imagine it represents the average response of the masses when anyone they don't really have a connection to dies, especially when that person succumbs to their own self-destructive nature. There is a lot of "tsk, tsk" and "they brought it on themselves." Funny, we don't say that about cancer victims or people killed in auto accidents (unless they were driving under the influence).

It's not that I knew anything about Amy Winehouse other than what I'd read in a few scab-picking articles about her addictive nature. Imagine that. A talented celebrity with a substance abuse problem.

Thing is, humans seem to have all become callous and have lost the ability to be compassionate unless the misfortune they face is close to home. Do you really have to know Amy Winehouse to care that she died so young? I don't think so. Death may be inevitable for us all, but there is still something tragic about it being accelerated and then ignored.

Maybe it is one more of the many wrong things about Facebook. Several hours after commenting that she didn't care about Amy Winehouse, the same person posted a photo of a salad she'd made out of vegetables from her garden. Several people gave that post a thumbs up as well.

Sigh...



2 comments:

Kyle said...

Isn't that disgusting? I never cared for her music myself, but it's never easy to watch someone fall out like that, even if only vaguely and through the eyes of the media alone. No one, famous or otherwise, becomes a substance abuser because their life is easy and happy. No one. But outsiders just like to compare and judge and it's stupid. Just stupid. But, here I am, comparing on some level... :/ It is awfully sad though.

Nachtigall said...

Thank you for this. Such a great reminder that compassion should be universal. And Kyle, you are soooo right. Substance abuse is not something people put on like a clever affectation. There is a reason for it.