Magic & Loss
When someone famous dies, it’s common practice to see social media fill up with a deluge of tributes and memories. A downside to this are…
When someone famous dies, it’s common practice to see social media fill up with a deluge of tributes and memories. A downside to this are the folks at the ready to criticize for public grieving. Earlier this year Camilla Long, film critic at The Sunday Times took to Twitter to criticize social media posts that followed the passing of David Bowie.
There’s a point visible somewhere up there on her high horse. Some anecdotes related to the passing of an icon can tend towards the self-serving or vapid. But that says more about the source of the stories than about public grieving. The skilled storyteller knows how to write in a fashion that is personal yet feels universal.
Which brings us to the passing of Prince. I’ll be upfront, I wasn’t a rabid Prince fan. I owned copies of Purple Rain and Sign ‘O’ The Times as well as a The Hits/The B-Sides. Knew the big hits in passing, a casual fan at best.
I appreciated Prince for the aura of mystery he cast and for his eccentric ways. Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Story about Prince on Chappelle’s Show remains a beloved favorite. Or Kevin Smith discussing his time spent with Prince.
I’ve read many more stories in the wake of his death. Questlove has a great one about Prince roller skating.
What I found most remarkable was how Prince, like Bowie earlier this year, provoked a response such a wide range of people, each grieving in their own way. Posts about discovering Prince and feeling less alone. He gave them a template; a way of being in the world.
It’s those posts that sharpen and hone the grief because there’s nothing I can do or say to lessen their pain. It’s a fuller understanding of the depth and breadth of the sorrow.
There is worth in public mourning, a reminder, as Vonnegut wrote, “Many people need desperately to receive this message: ‘I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone.”
Those remembrances are a reminder that yes, your feelings matter. Yes, this hurts. I feel the same hurt, can we dull the pain by talking about how much they meant to us?
Music is about connection, whether it’s one person listening alone or a packed arena. To see so many people connecting over the music and responding with nobler impulses, why even in death Prince made the world a better place.