Celebrities, whether acting, singing, reality, or other, fit into easy categories for us. We either love, hate, or couldn’t care less about them. Yes, to varying degrees of each.
So, why then does their death hit us harder, with all categories? I’ve been stunned and deeply saddened by their deaths. I’ve been ‘eh’ about their passing. I’ve read quite a few angry opinions for the attention given. Why?
We’re united by these individuals whether we want to be or not. We’ve been entertained by their talents or personal lives/troubles. We’ve been surprised/shocked/amused/even angered by the amount of attention given because they’ve simply changed a haircut or gotten married when little to no attention is given to someone who’s developed a cure for something or some other accomplishment.
Sometimes, like today, a local actor’s death from Covid-19 just hurts. I didn’t know his name before now. Can’t even remember seeing his acting. The news of his health problems kept popping up on my social feeds. He’s from my home city. I learned his mom taught at my high school, yes, she was one of my teachers.
We were all cheering for him and his young family. We wanted…needed…him to recover. He was our…hope? We’ve all seen the numbers of infected. The numbers of deaths. The numbers who have recovered. We all have different views on what to do or not to do regarding this disease. Whats and Whys regarding openings and closings. This man united all of those differences. His wife and young son took root in our hearts. We recognized them even as we didn’t see those in our home cities.
He was from my home city and I didn’t know until he was fighting for his life. Six degrees of separation be damned. His death hurts.
