Janet CollinsLives Cut Short
January 5th 2010 23:14
Casey Johnson
There are lots of lives that are cut way too short but the recent deaths of celebrity Brittany Murphy and heiress Casey Johnson show that fame and/or fortune provide no buffer to mortality. In reality, does this prominence in society actually bring fate or death closer?
In fact, the story of Casey Johnson, heiress to the Johnson and Johnson empire, was a really sad one to me. Despite the wealth that she grew up with and many of us could never even imagine, her life seemed really sad somehow. Her difficult relationship with her family, her ongoing affairs and even the adopted daughter who had been taken away from her by her mother. All the wealth that most of us could never imagine did little to make her life easy or fullfilling.
We cannot forget that just over a year ago, our own Heath Ledger faced similar fate. Only last year, Michael Jackson passed away way before what anyone would think would be a “used by” date.
There are many among us who pass away much before our expected time. We all think that we will live into old age, survive our parents and just go off peacefully. This notion doesn’t always pan out in reality.
Death is not something any of us really understand or know how to deal with. I have always had a hard time dealing with the death of relatives, parents of friends or even more, the unexpected deaths of relatives, friends, acquaintances or anyone related to them.
When people of prominence pass away, their deaths hit the headlines. Some of them we take notice of. Others we dismiss. Princess Diana comes to mind. Her untimely death was felt by many. So was John F Kennedy jnr, together with his wife and sister who came to their fate in an aeroplane crash years ago.
We assume a lot throughout our lives. We think we will last forever – or at least survive our parents. That doesn’t always happen. Although deaths and dealing with them are really part of life, does a life in the limelight tempt fate more than a life out of it? Or do we just hear about these tragedies more than we would hear of lives cut short that are well out of the limelight?
What these untimely deaths do emphasise is that life is really precious, even though much of the time we don’t realise it.
What will you be doing tomorrow?
| 46 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
