{"id":5830,"date":"2016-04-22T09:58:05","date_gmt":"2016-04-22T13:58:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/?p=5830"},"modified":"2024-09-03T14:50:42","modified_gmt":"2024-09-03T18:50:42","slug":"5830-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/2016\/04\/22\/5830-2\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n<\/figure>\n

I\u2019ve always secretly made fun of those folks who get all emotional when a public figure dies. No matter what effect their work had on your life, I didn\u2019t understand how an actor or singer or whoever dying would cause you to show public grief.<\/p>\n

I think I understand those people a little more today.<\/p>\n

Yesterday sadness for Prince\u2019s death slowly grew within me. I spun his tunes, I listened to the two SiriusXM stations that had his songs on repeat and were taking calls from fans, I watched MTV – which had his videos in constant rotation – and VH1 – which was showing Purple Rain<\/em> on repeat – and checked in on the news channels to catch parts of their pieces. I read tribute pieces online and watched the handful of videos of his live performances that he could not get removed from YouTube. All that slowly combined to make me pretty damn sad by the end of the night. At one point I was reading tributes that other celebrities had posted. While scrolling through those, \u201cThe Cross\u201d came on my iPad and it was almost too much. Watching the performance of \u201cPurple Rain\u201d at about 12:10 AM with some bourbon in my system was not a dry-eyed moment.<\/p>\n

I thought about how silly that was. Yes, I was sad that a man who meant so much to me had died suddenly. But why? I had not bought an album of his in nearly 20 years. The last album of his that I put in high rotation was *Diamonds and Pearls* in 1991. The majority of my best memories of Prince came from 30 years ago.[1]<\/a> Those songs, videos, and movies are not disappearing with his death. I\u2019ve been listening to them again all morning. <\/p>\n

So why do we get sad when a person we never knew dies?<\/p>\n

I guess a chunk of that sadness is actually our way of saying thanks. Regardless of your view of what happens to people when they die, I think being sad is a way of sending out signals that you appreciate what that person did when they were alive to contribute to your happiness.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s probably some kind of yearning for our youth wrapped up in it, too. But since I hate that kind of discussion, I\u2019ll skip it.<\/p>\n

Our own, personal grief certainly gets wrapped up in it as well. I never saw Prince live. I was supposed to back in early 1998, but came down with the worst case of the flu I\u2019ve ever had and sold my ticket. I was so sick I went to my mom and step-dad\u2019s house for two days and she brought me Advil and Sprite and chicken noodle soup while I laid on the couch moaning. I was thinking of that last night, and remembered that concert was about six weeks before my mom died. I\u2019m sad my step-dad is gone, too.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t help but pull these moments that are specific to your life into this larger, universal moment of sadness.<\/p>\n

I was comforted that, through Facebook, texts, emails, and regular conversations yesterday, I saw that so many of my friends were having similar feelings. Well, I\u2019m not happy so many of my friends were sad, but you know what I mean. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never felt that way I do now after someone I admired, but was not related to, died. In a weird way, I guess there\u2019s no better tribute than that. <\/p>\n

And now, \u201cSometimes It Snows In April\u201d just came on and I think I need another minute to myself.<\/p>\n

\nI used to cry for Tracy because I wanted to see him again\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
    \n
  1. \nThe ones that stood out the strongest: seeing the \u201c1999\u201d video for the first time; hearing \u201cWhen Doves Cry\u201d and \u201cLet\u2019s Go Crazy\u201d constantly in the summer of 1984; the first time I heard \u201cRaspberry Beret\u201d and, like so many people, not appreciating its genius immediately; watching the \u201cKiss\u201d video with my classic rock loving uncle, who hated every second of it.  ↩<\/a>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I\u2019ve always secretly made fun of those folks who get all emotional when a public figure dies. No matter what effect their work had on your life, I didn\u2019t understand how an actor or singer or whoever dying would cause you to show public grief. I think I understand those people a little more today. Yesterday sadness for Prince\u2019s death slowly grew within me. I spun his tunes, I listened to the two SiriusXM stations that had his songs on repeat and were taking calls from fans, I watched MTV – which had his videos in constant rotation – and VH1 – which was showing Purple Rain on repeat – and checked in on the news channels to catch parts of their pieces. I read tribute pieces online and watched the handful of videos of his live performances that he could not get removed from YouTube. All that slowly combined to make me pretty damn sad by the end of the night. At one point I was reading tributes that other celebrities had posted. While scrolling through those, \u201cThe Cross\u201d came on my iPad and it was almost too much. Watching the performance of \u201cPurple Rain\u201d at about 12:10 AM with some bourbon in my system was not a dry-eyed moment. I thought about how silly that was. Yes, I was sad that a man who meant so much to me had died suddenly. But why? I had not bought an album of his in nearly 20 years. The last album of his that I put in high rotation was *Diamonds and Pearls* in 1991. The majority of my best memories of Prince came from 30 years ago.[1] Those songs, videos, and movies are not disappearing with his death. I\u2019ve been listening to them again all morning. So why do we get sad when a person we never knew dies? I guess a chunk of that sadness is actually our way of saying thanks. Regardless of your view of what happens to people when they die, I think being sad is a way of sending out signals that you appreciate what that person did when they were alive to contribute to your happiness. There\u2019s probably some kind of yearning for our youth wrapped up in it, too. But since I hate that kind of discussion, I\u2019ll skip it. Our own, personal grief certainly gets wrapped up in it as well. I never saw Prince live. I was supposed to back in early 1998, but came down with the worst case of the flu I\u2019ve ever had and sold my ticket. I was so sick I went to my mom and step-dad\u2019s house for two days and she brought me Advil and Sprite and chicken noodle soup while I laid on the couch moaning. I was thinking of that last night, and remembered that concert was about six weeks before my mom died. I\u2019m sad my step-dad is gone, too. You can\u2019t help but pull these moments that are specific to your life into this larger, universal moment of sadness. I was comforted that, through Facebook, texts, emails, and regular conversations yesterday, I saw that so many of my friends were having similar feelings. Well, I\u2019m not happy so many of my friends were sad, but you know what I mean. I\u2019ve never felt that way I do now after someone I admired, but was not related to, died. In a weird way, I guess there\u2019s no better tribute than that. And now, \u201cSometimes It Snows In April\u201d just came on and I think I need another minute to myself. I used to cry for Tracy because I wanted to see him again The ones that stood out the strongest: seeing the \u201c1999\u201d video for the first time; hearing \u201cWhen Doves Cry\u201d and \u201cLet\u2019s Go Crazy\u201d constantly in the summer of 1984; the first time I heard \u201cRaspberry Beret\u201d and, like so many people, not appreciating its genius immediately; watching the \u201cKiss\u201d video with my classic rock loving uncle, who hated every second of it.  ↩<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9,129,83,133],"class_list":["post-5830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-music","tag-news","tag-personal","tag-prince"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5830"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13829,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5830\/revisions\/13829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}