The Greatest Love of All

I have to confess, I never liked Whitney Houston's music. I found it to be cheesy and rather mundane and the kind of stuff I would never listen to ever unless subject to it on the radio. Even then, I'd usually change it.  I just wasn't a fan.  As far as I am concerned, the best thing the woman ever did musically was set up a situation where Dolly Parton would get more money.  Dolly wrote "I Will Always Love You" and did it far better.

So it isn't as a fan that I say I find the woman's death and the circumstances leading to her death to be very tragic. In the song "The Greatest Love of All," she sang the lines "no matter what they take from me/they can't take away my dignity." As I think about her death, it pains me to think those lines proved to be false.  Due to drug use, a very public life, and some bad choices, it seems that Houston did lose her dignity.  In the public eye, she became, as so many other female pop singers do, a joke.

Even now, it seems that on Facebook, I see as many people writing horrible things about her as sad and respectful things. Lots of people are making crack whore comments, some of them even questioning why her family would be shocked by the situation. On a personal note, that last part offended me the most.  I knew my grandmother was about to die when she did, but even still, her death was very shocking to me.

I feel no personal connection to her, but I do wish her life could have continued. As much as "The Greatest Love of All" gets on my nerves, I wish the song could have been true for her. I wish she could have decided to love herself and embrace who she was, live with dignity, and be whole and happy. It kind of kills me to think of how she felt about that song as the years passed. I hope she didn't cringe when she considered how far her life was from it.  I hope she just promised herself she'd try harder . . . even if part of her knew she wouldn't.

She didn't do music I liked, but even I can't deny her voice.  For the type of ballad stuff she did, it was powerful, beautiful. I know that a lot of people loved her work and she influenced a lot of the female artists who came after her. And she was loved . . . by her family, her friends, and her fans.  She was loved. Goodbye, Whitney, if they let you read social media in the next life, try to ignore all the snide comments. Haters gonna hate, girlfriend. Let it slide.