Sympathy

As when any talented celebrity dies, there is tons of press surrounding the death of Whitney Houston. Today the funeral was on no less than 5 of my channels. Everybody comes out when there is a celebrity death: the relatives, even the ones most distantly related, the friends, the clergy and of course, the news stations, who have scrambled to pull files, sound bytes, photo, videos, rap sheets...anything they can get their hands on. They prattle endlessly, like they knew and cared about this person. When I began watching today, a minister got up to speak, and he was talking about how long or short his sermon would be, depending on audience participation. One got the feeling he was "warming up the crowd." He started telling some jokes, and the audience clearly enjoyed what he was saying. There were smiles, snickers and outright laughter. But do you know what I noticed? Two faces, sitting right behind him. The faces of Whitney's mother, and her daughter. These faces were not smiling or laughing. These faces were clearly in pain. These faces reflected sadness, grief and loss. I got the feeling the little daughter would rather not have all these glaring eyes upon her.My heart and sympathy goes out to the people who genuinely loved Whitney and are grieving, especially her young daughter. I hope she can appreciate the legacy that her mother left the world.