I wonder if Amy Winehouse knew she was loved. Shooting star, indeed. Perhaps many of us proffies are not so different from her.
We shouldn't apologize for loving other people, or for saying so. Love is a good thing.
@TP: Perhaps you've saved more students than you realize.
Terry's post made sense to me, by itself and in the context of the blog (I saw it when it was fairly recently up, with 2-3 supportive comments). I didn't really follow Winehouse, but had some sense of her story, which did, indeed, strike me as parallel to those of some of the most intriguing and maddening college students. For better or for worse, the students at my present institution tend toward the extremely practical and down-to-earth rather than the artistic, but, reading through the bios in my undergrad class's 25th reunion report recently, I was reminded of the fact that somewhere between 30% and 50% of the members of our class who have died did so during or just after college. Some of those deaths were due to cancer or accidents, but we also had our share of "shooting stars" who did brilliant things in between bouts of battling drug and alcohol abuse, depression, anorexia, etc. Fortunately, there are others who faced similar battles who have, through some combination of hard work and good fortune, managed to evolve healthier approaches to life over the past few decades, while maintaining their creativity and unique perspective. How much anyone other than the student him/herself can shape an individual student's story in one direction or the other I don't know, but of course I want whatever small contribution I make to the process to be in the direction of nudging a student back toward a viable path, rather than helping him/her continue running full-tilt toward a cliff. Whether I can always tell the difference, I also don't know.
ReplyDeleteI saw it too. It was nice. It reminded me of just how crappy the late 20s are. Some people talk about a "Saturn return" at that age, which sounds woo-woo to me, but for a lot of people there is a kind of cracking apart and final emergence (or not) into adulthood. There was for me-- a final battle with crushing depression.
ReplyDeleteI could have done without the comment that the people of Norway were somehow more appropriate grieving choices because they weren't self-destructive.
Not sure why Terry decided to take the original post down. It seemed fine to me. Anyway, it is certainly sad. Another member of the 27 Club, I guess, which may speak to F&T's comment above.
ReplyDeleteThere was a hateful comment from "anonymous" and rather than wait for Fab to spot it I just didn't want it to stay up at all.
ReplyDelete@Terry
ReplyDeleteI apologize. My "hateful" message was actually spoofing what I thought was a ridiculous message from FML, who said he he/she had more sympathy for the poor kids in Norway who were victims of that shooter.
I don't think Caylee is any more deserving of our tears - she's as deserving as ANYONE, I'd suggest. And Amy is deserving of your respect, love and sadness, and I'm sorry I was a part of mocking that.
anonymous
Terry, I too thought it was a perfectly appropriate post. I'm sorry you took it down.
ReplyDeleteBetter to burn out than fade away?
No, I think not.