Reporter's Note: I write to President Obama every day. I'm sure he must be tired of it.
Dear Mr. President,
I imagine you were just as shocked and surprised as the rest of us over the death of Whitney Houston. To see such a young person with so much talent lost like that, it really does seem the essence of tragedy.
Can't say that I was a huge fan. I liked her singing and her overall star quality was simply unmistakeable, it's just that I never bought her music or explored it beyond the hits. To be frank, I really didn't know much about her beyond the magazine covers, and yet I am aware of her loss.
That's one of the strange things about celebrities. We all have sense of them, even if we don't follow them closely; we imagine that we understand their personalities, their challenges, their successes and failures. And I suspect we're wrong about almost all of it, because beyond the myths, they end up being people with sometimes extraorindary lives, but perfectly ordinary...and sad times...just as we all come to know.
Regards,
Tom