It’s April
21, 2016. I woke up this morning fully aware of this particular date. I dread
April 21 every year since 2007.Today was no different. I dreaded this day. It
was gearing up to be a disaster in so many ways. If I could have crawled back
into bed and not gotten out until April 22, I probably would have. But alas, I
got up and went about my day.
My students
were outside enjoying gym class and I got an alert on my phone. “TMZ reports
musical artist, Prince, dead.” WHAAAAT? I opened the link, immediately took a
screen shot, and sent it to my daughters. I felt like I needed to share this
with someone, and the one person I wanted to share the news with has her
Facebook limited with not being able to post to her wall. My oldest daughter,
wisely, said, “wait til someone other than TMZ reports it”, but I had this
sinking feeling happening. I was
floundering. Hoping this was, indeed, a cruel rumor running rampant through the
internet, I immediately began to ‘fact check’ if this was accurate. I did post
a status on my personal Facebook page declaring: “2016, You suck. That is all.”
Of course,
the typically positive and happy me was met with a combination of comments from
other ‘just as surprised’ friends and those who always expect me to be happy
and positive. Of course 2016 was good to me so far. My daughter got married and
my other daughter will be graduating from high school and starting college this
year, but let’s be real here folks. 2016 has been a CRAPPY year for people in
the entertainment business. Today, 2016 took from this world an incredibly
talented artist. And that makes me sad.
I remember
being 11 or 12 years old, sleeping over at my best friend Heather’s house, and
watching Purple Rain on either VHS or Beta (whatever
it was in ‘84/’85). I remember feeling so grown up, and yet like I was doing
something so illegal. It was the first time I’d ever seen sex and drugs on tv.
And it became a forever connection with my oldest, dearest, bestest friend of
about 40 years. Purple Rain. Whenever one of us heard that
song in a random place, we’d let the other know. It is our connection
song. I could belt out the lyrics and
sing it with heart and soul. When I got home from school today, I immediately
went to youtube to watch as much Prince as I could, starting with Purple Rain.
Prince. He
was larger than life. Eccentric. Talented. Gifted. He was PRINCE. I often
thought it was awesome that he could simply go by his first name (and yes,
people, his given name was Prince. Prince Rogers Nelson.). He was Prince! Even
when he went through the stage where he was a symbol and then the Artist
Formerly Known as Prince, he was PRINCE. Maybe I always felt the connection to
him and his music because of our obvious love of the color purple. Maybe it was
because I always appreciated that he was so unique. Maybe it was because his
songs always made me want to move. Maybe it was because as a pre-teen, he could
probably be credited for creating the rebel in me. Who knows. All I do know, is
that I truly feel the loss of this man, without ever meeting him (or him even
knowing who the hell I am in this universe).
2016 has
been a terrible year for the entertainment industry, and Prince’s passing is
just another to add to the ever growing list this year. Perhaps it is a sad
realization that I’m not as young as I thought I was and with that fact comes
the knowledge that I’m going to start seeing this trend in actors, musicians,
artists, entertainers as the years move along. As long as Springsteen stays off
the list, my sanity may remain in tact.
Until next time.....Think Thankfully
So sad, he was awesome !!!
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