Death can be a tragic, heartbreaking thing. Grasping the concept that someone whom you have come to know and love is now gone forever is a hard pill to swallow. Whether or not you're religious you know that you won't get to physically see or experience this person anymore (at least "not in this life.") The emotions that someone has after experiencing the loss of someone they know... well, it's quite easy to understand why that individual is upset. Why, though, do we tend to feel upset when someone we've never met passes away. With the recent death of Prince, I find myself feeling really down. I have even cried. I'm experiencing loss, but how could I actually "lose" someone who I did not know?
I started remembering the footage of people crying and freaking out when Michael Jackson died. Most of them didn't know him. Some have probably never even been to his concert, yet something in our mind recognizes these celebrities as one of our own.
Can we look back on shared memories of this person? Probably not. Conversations? Not really. We didn't know them, so why are we so negatively impacted when they die? Do we freak out every time any individual anywhere dies? If so, we would be freaking out in perpetual sadness at a rate of about every 30 seconds.
I started to think back on why Prince, someone who was practically a stranger to me, was someone whose death I cared about so much. I loved his music. It spoke to me. It changed me. It made me more comfortable with myself as a musician. His style and his redefinition of masculinity taught me to express my creativity and that being different was a part of being great. He spoke his mind.
I can't make accurate claims about memories of conversations. However, I can remember the critical moments in my life when I heard Prince's music, watched his films and listened to his interviews. I remember how I felt before experiencing him and how I felt after. I have memories of being inspired and changed for the better. I know how he taught me self acceptance. I can envision how Prince unintentionally helped me and various others who were seen as "different" come to know and love themselves like he did.
I lost a hero. I lost a distant mentor. I think when someone, anyone impacts your life (especially in a positive sense,) whether intentional or not, you tend to have this gratitude for them. This gratitude, I think, is enough to justify the sadness of losing a legend.
I think that Prince represented this freedom, this art and this ability to constantly reinvent constructs and break them that a lot of people needed. He was a one of a kind and I guess people like that, whether you know him or not, well, it's justified for him to be missed.