How do you feel when someone younger than you dies . . . usually a celebrity? I’m 68, and of course this is happening more and more. It just makes me sad that they were robbed of the additional years I’ve enjoyed. And it makes me more aware of my own mortality, gives me a kick in the ass to do more in my life.
And then there’s Donny Hathaway, who was born on the same exact day that I was . . . and took his own life when he was only 38. I wonder what music has not been composed and performed because of his early death. I also think of all that I’ve experienced since that age.
Thankfully I don’t recall any celebrities younger than me dying in recent years (I’m 25) but I was strangely affected by Peaches Geldof’s death as she was only a month older than me and died two days after my birthday. I guess it did make me realize that my life up to this point has been incredibly short and it’s horrible that she’s done, that’s it.
He didn’t die during my life time, but when I was in middle school and high school I went through a punk phase and was really into the Sex Pistols. I think it’s nuts that I’m now four years older than Sid Vicious. He really crammed a lot into such a short life.
It propels you to consider mortality as a real thing. I had a Sunday School classmate to die before becoming a teenager along with others in my age group before I was in high school. It made an impression about the fragility of life early one, and I still have heavy thoughts about that whole thing. Younger people dying early is tragic (in most cases) but it’s just a part of Life, when you boil it all down.