I have grieved the death of Whitney Houston. I have had close friends and family say they have grieved her too.
I have grieved her death more so than other celebrities of past years.
I think the reason we grieve her so is because her humanity was so tangible. We could identify with her humanity in a way that we couldn't with other celebrities and people of renown.
Sometimes people become famous and they don't seem quite as human to us. They seem remote, distant, reclusive, or eccentric. But somehow Whitney didn't seem to become more distant with time and fame; she only became more real and relatable to us.
So today I join with others around the world who remember her voice, her life, her pain, her struggle. We remember and celebrate her because as we do so, we remember and celebrate the complexity of our own humanity. She was one of us.
