Whitney WHITNEY!

What happened?

God not YOU!

This one is too special Dear Lord!

This one really hurts…….

This one took time away from our lives because of the shock of it all. You took Michael but now Whitney?

If we were supposed to live to eighty-five years old then we can only expect to live to seventy-two. THIS is how bad the news of Whitney Houston’s death is affecting us!

How can it not?

She was an icon whose presence was stitched all through the fabric of our lives and took all of the strange scraps of cloth that represented our various phases of life and held it together for one big beautiful quilt!

Now for those who were of the same age group as Whitney for which I am one of them who was born in the same exact year of nineteen sixty three (1963) that she was born, it makes for a strong parallel where we see our lives on the same course regardless of the fact that most of us are regular working Janes and Joes.

She has been our generational shining star who epitomes the peaks and valleys of our path through life. Whitney put a voice to our exuberance and enthusiasm as we stepped out into the world as young adults. Fresh. Pretty. And dammit may I say PERFECT with her clean non-sexually explicit beauty as the anti-Nicki Minaj of today.

Whitney didn’t need any gimmicks.

She didn’t need to have her image blasted across the media diaspora to brainwash us to loving her, it came natural and the more we saw of her was the more we wanted. That perfect smile that almost seemed so shy endeared us to her in the way your little baby girl knew how to smile at you to get the last bit of pocket change out of you for the ice cream man who blared his music down the block on those hot summer days.

Whitney’s charm wasn’t a hustle and it wasn’t a manufactured gimmick that was engineered to generate sales until the public caught on that they were fleeced and dropped her cardboard cutout Photoshopped gig.

No, Whitney was one of US and she never tried to be anything that she wasn’t.

Good times or bad.

Now we all know the struggles that she had and this article is not about all of that stuff because when it is all said and done, Whitney Houston from Newark New Jersey was a gift from God almighty Himself! And we all need to remember her as such instead of all of this dirt slinging because it is THIS world that did her in and NOT the other way around.

What do I mean by this?

Hell! Let me take the gloves off and make myself perfectly clear, Whitney just wanted to sing and be loved but this world never reciprocated. This might be merely my opinion but I have a personal saying that states that YOUR opinion is really actually YOUR fact!

The business of music can be a very cruel place to be in and an even more monstrous space to linger in for a lifetime. The ever present sharks that swim in those glittery waters do not have a soul.

The scheduled appearances that one must make when this world deems them a star. The constant traveling when deep down you may just want to be home with nothing to do. The hidden agendas and secret motivations of those who want a piece of the illusion that is not even you yet they shadow your every move as though their life depended on it. Everyone wants a piece of the star yet no one can sooth the pain and isolation brought on by the fame.

Many were in shock that she chose Bobby Brown as her husband. I wasn’t. and while I will admit that I too didn’t feel that ol’ Bobby may have been the best choice for a husband, nonetheless Whitney chose him because she could. She bucked the establishment that had her life planned out for her like some Hollywood movie script.

She made a bold statement that she would this one time make a decision for herself all by her lonesome even if it had disaster written all over it. She just didn’t want the glossed over Hollywood hunks of the day. She merely wanted someone who may have been like the dudes that she was told to stay away from when she took a walk to the corner store by herself – the men who made her feel at home…….flaws, imperfections and all.

I could imagine how lost this down to earth ’round the way girl felt receiving the Diva treatment and being put up on a pedestal, while most women would give their left titty to live the life of Whitney Houston from as far as they could see, they never could see the pain of being disconnected from being that little girl who could be free before the demon of stardom came along long before any pharmaceutical temptations came along to do the job that a good support structure could do far better.

Bobby treated her like the “neighborhood back home” Whitney and it had to feel so good to her for a little while before the issues arose between them almost immediately after shocking the world with their doomed from the beginning marriage that did not get the blessings from Hollywood’s elite power brokers.

Imagine, after starring in The Bodyguard with Kevin Costner, she had the whole world in the palm of her hands! She didn’t through it away if you ask me, she just never wanted it in the way it came to her in the first place. She didn’t want the special treatment that the world gave her in an ever increasing abundance. She couldn’t walk to the corner store no more and that is comparable to caging up a deer who was born to run the woods freely without restriction.

We were the ones who were guilty of crushing this beautiful flower from a suffocating grip so selfishly tight because we thought that we would lose it if we handled it gently. How cruel of us! Whitney was a gift that was made to be experienced and NOT contained! It is like kicking your loving and trusting pet puppy in the head really hard for no reason. Imagine the look on the puppies face when the ones who claim to love it so much are the very evil entities who have inflicted so much pain on someone who merely wanted to love the world with the gift of their song.

We are the ones who kicked Whitney when she was down and she didn’t know how to deal with it. We kicked Whitney Houston in the face every time we picked up a gossip tabloid to read about her fall from the peak of the mountain of fame that we so eagerly placed her atop against her deepest blessings.

We built her up just to tear her down.

Now because of our heartlessness, we can look forward to another episode of E! True Hollywood Story with Whitney being the star. This isn’t anyway to treat someone who had feelings, dreams and aspirations to live a normal life like you and I regardless as to her obvious star power.

When she married Bobby it seemed as though the mainstream entertainment industry turned their back on her because she took on an outcast. But do understand that even though Bobby Brown may have been an out of control past his peaked drugged out rebel child star who followed the Hollywood script of growing up into a walking tragedy who was over the hill and drugged out before hitting the age of thirty, he still gave Whitney something that no person in Tinseltown could ever supply…….to be treated like a normal person.

So now we have the world making fun of her because of her addictions and the pain of rejection is fueled by being with a mate who happily welcomes you into the mindset of a industry rebel. She had tons of money “out the anus” and an even bigger supply of “yes men and women” who were there to help supply her with the intoxicants that SHE funded and they indulged in at HER expense!

Talk about a recipe for disaster!

Now we cry.

Now we understand what she meant to us and now it is too late.

Who are the Whitney Houston’s in our lives now?

We have to identify them and take that walk with them to the corner store. No cameras or autograph seekers. No limousine ride there. No makeup or makeovers necessary. Bodyguards? Why? The people on the corner love them just the way they are long before Hollywood so hypocritically embraces them, pasteurizes them, homogenizes them and gets them prepared for mass production for world consumption.

It’s dead wrong but we eat it up.

We subsidize it and possess a twisted and almost demonic lust to demand more of our so called stars and never see the tear that lives in the corner of their eyes as they dance and sing for approval never knowing how disconnected from the same very people who claim to love them so much.

Isn’t that so sad?

So in actuality right now it doesn’t really matter how Whitney left on out of here, the fact of the matter is that she is gone and we didn’t do our part to keep her here with us just a little longer.

You see, when you do not pay your car note, the repo man comes along and takes the car back in order for the bank to sell it to someone who can appreciate a nice ride and be responsible enough to pay on time for it. Our Creator gave us the gift of Whitney and had full right to call her back home especially since we weren’t responsible enough to appreciate her for what she was which is an Angel!

Same concept. Don’t cry now.

You should have appreciated her when you had her.

We are no better than that abusive boyfriend who regularly beats his woman in public yet behind closed doors can be heard begging her back. You should have thought about it when you had her in your arms! We are no different when it comes to Whitney Houston and for all of those who will now play songs over and over until your ears hurt, how many can say that they truly sympathized with her and prayed that she had the strength to hold on to the divine teachings to which she was raised up under in the church but still gossiped like there was no tomorrow when it was apparent that she was self medicating her pain with those deadly illegal substances.

You see, Whitney Houston may have gone on to glory much too early for our carnal reasons but in the end her presence on this planet was a lesson to us all that we should never take a good thing for granted because it can disappear from sight in the twinkling of an eye!

I sincerely thank you dear Lord for the gift of Whitney Houston, hopefully we all won’t take the next Angel for granted and understand that we need to enjoy our gifts while we can because when it’s all said and done, all we can take with us are the memories.

…….thank you for “Saving All Your Love” for us Whitney. It’s a pity that we were too stupid to ever realize that.

Rest In Peace my beautiful Queen!

There will never be another one like you…….