Missing the Best
(Photo from Wikipedia)
“Good gosh, sometimes speaking about someone in the past tense is the hardest thing on earth.” – Janis Ian about the death of Tina Turner
Our worth is not solely about what we do, even for someone as accomplished as Tina Turner. Our worth is also about who we are.
Tina Turner was a survivor. She emerged from her first marriage to escape from an abusive husband with almost nothing other than her stage name and her awesome voice. At first she didn’t get anywhere in her efforts to rebuild her career. She kept at it until she succeeded. Oh, did she ever succeed!
Did you know she is the only person ever to have a music Top 40 hit in the UK in each of seven consecutive decades? (The last was a recent remix of What’s Love Got To Do With It?) From almost nothing, she clawed her way back up to do that and more.
She became the face and voice of the indomitable woman, the one nobody can hold back or keep down, the one you can’t help but admire and cheer on to the ends of the earth and back.
She died Wednesday after a decade of health problems. She had become a Swiss citizen and lived there. There is no better country to be in if you seriously need medical care.
But losing the indomitable woman shakes people. When we heard her sing, we heard more than her voice. We heard her determination and power, her spirit, her very soul. We heard not just what she did but who she was.
In the flood of reaction to her death, I didn’t see anyone put it quite this way, but what I heard between the lines was… If even Tina is mortal, we are reminded that we are too.
Well said!