The resounding Voice Unforgettable

In the afternoon on Saturday of February 18, Whitney Houston memorial service was held at her old Church of Hope in Newark, New Jersey and lasted over four hours. This signified a life and death of an artist and human being who will live long in our memories with her strife for life and beautiful songs. The FNC broadcasted the event in its entirety. We watched it from the beginning to the end.

She is reportedly died of drug overdose. She was only 48. But her funeral was somber  and celebration of her accomplishment. Though she is dead, her business will remain flourishing for a while -- Who knows how many years. The CD record sales have reportedly increased after the unexpected sudden death. Meanwhile, there seem to be disparaging eyes among some toward her, because she had been scandalous of drug addiction. Certainly this was her weakness. She paid dearly for it by death.

I am not familiar with her personal life. But I remember her resoundingly beautiful voice which filled the whole air of the world when she sang the Star Spangled Banner at the beginning of the Super Bowl XXVI. Her young frame was fit for the most beautiful dress in the world. She was a world's great musician -- a pop artist in history.

I understand how hard it was for her to maintain once reached top level. She might be seduced to follow Michel Jacken, Elvis Presley, and many other predecessors and resorted to drug only to succumb to death. It is not clear to me whether her struggle was for her fame or artistic achievement. Since she is gone, this argument could be at best speculative. Regardless of the verdict, the usage of drug can hardly be justified.

The cause of death is in my humble opinion the pride in the Biblical term. Why could she not think what she had accomplished is already good enough for everyone she cared about including herself? She had talent. She had beauty. She accomplished fame. She had money. But she might have been stuck with instability lurking in her. She was intelligent enough to realize nothing she had achieved is forever to keep.

The life is more then meat. The body is more than raiment. The life is more than fame and wealth. She  might have felt the prime of her talent and bodily beauty is in wane. She could not accept it as a fact. We are all mortal. Mortality looms as reality to a septuagenarian like me. Even, kings, queens, princes, princesses, nobles, rich, and famous could not escape from mortality. Death is our last enemy. The only person in history who claimed victory over death was from Galilee in Palestine 2000 years ago. He said only the sacrificial love can conquer death and showed it himself on the Cross. Hope becomes reality in love. He is risen.
(February 19, 2012, KYP)