When making life decisions, no other decision affects you more than the person you marry. Nobody can exercise control over your finances, environment and happiness than the person with whom you choose to spend the rest of your life.
Whitney Houston is a good example of a marriage decision gone bad. By all accounts she was straight laced until the fateful night at the "Soul Train" awards where she met and fell in love with Bobby Brown. I am sure she was attracted to the bad boy, aren't we all? As a self proclaimed "good girl", I was attracted to many a bad boy in my time. In fact, I once came home with a boy that smoked, had a handcuffed earring, and we had to jump into his car through the windows like "The Dukes of Hazard." That pretty much did away with any black hair my father still had as he banned me from getting back into that car. I will admit, that was not my smartest move ever, but I got it out of my system and chose a responsible, compassionate and caring man to marry.
Whitney Houston chose to marry Bobby Brown and then we watched the downward spiral that resulted in her untimely death this past weekend. She had an amazing gift that we have never seen the likes of before and probably won't again in my lifetime. Her rendition of the Star Spangled Banner will go down in history as the benchmark for all who follow. She made one of the hardest songs to sing look easy making the rest of us feel like we should be able to do it, too.
On top of "The Voice", she had charisma that you just can't teach. She looked like someone that I would like to talk to over a cup of coffee, you know, if I drank coffee. Time after time we are hearing from singers who said that the highlight of their career was when Whitney would encourage them in their craft. She was an inspiration to an entire generation of vocalists.
It is just such a waste. We will never know if she would have discovered the life of drugs if she hadn't married Bobby Brown. I do know that if she had never gotten involved with him she would have had a better chance of sharing her gift with generations to come. Instead, when I told my 17 year old nephew that she died, a kid that has been introduced to a wide range of music in his life, he did not know who she was. She is not even relevant to the kids in high school. My generation has lost the two biggest musical icons of our time. Both of them have been drug related. Can we please let this serve as a lesson to everyone? Can we please end this senseless death? There can be no good ending with drugs. It is a road paved with tragedy and pain. You might survive, but you will not be unscathed.
I said it before and I will say it again. What a waste.
