28...38...48

I started this post two weeks ago...on a Sunday where I woke up to 28 degree weather, at age 38, struck in an oddly profound way by Whitney Houston's death at age 48. I didn't realize that only 10 years older separated us. She seemed so mature and accomplished - certainly something that more than 10 years should earn. I suppose that some of that feeling for me is because she "made it big" at such a young age. Had we each been 10 years older when I first learned of her and she had first "made it big", I don't think it would have felt like such a huge gap between us. So considering how young we both were when she became famous and thinking about her life being so short, I began to feel incredibly unaccomplished.
Of course, this is a little natural (I think) when a celebrity dies. I mean, part of why these folks are famous is because they have some amazing talent and/or have accomplished something amazing. All the same, whenever I hear of someone's death (someone who I don't know) and all of the stories that follow - usually stories of wonderful things they have done in their lives told by people who loved them dearly - I naturally go down the road of "and what will be said about you when you die?" I know the things that I would like for people to be able to say about me. Someone else will have to tell me what actually gets said when we re-unite on the other side. But I loved what one reporter had to say about Whitney Houston's death and the stories that would follow. He said, "When the eulogies have ended let the memories rest in peace..." It was as if he was saying, "You're going to be tempted to pull stuff up from the past and try to fill in gaps and make up stories...or even tell unflattering stories...and I'm asking you not to." He went on to say how we needed to remember that to some she was just an actress and a singer and to others she was a mother, a daughter, a friend, a niece, etc... That statement made me think less of the 10 years that separated us and made me think that at the end of it all, we're all the same. We are not necessarily what we've accomplished, but we are who we are in relation to other people.