Yeah, ”I Wanna Dance With Somebody!” I always have wanted to dance with somebody who loves me. Imagine dancing with someone who doesn’t. Sometimes I can’t watch certain movies because of the pain or sadness that may ensue. Any Whitney Houston bio of any sort is always heartbreaking. And Naomi Ackie certainly made us feel her true existence. Whether you loved Whitney or not, she didn’t want to be a prisoner of our imaginations of who she was. She just wanted to be herself, and still be loved. What’s wrong with that? Always note where people are born and raised. Remnants of that existence may remain buried until they burst through the colors of their life. Whitney was one of those people. And even when people grow up after being raised with certain values that they don’t appreciate, you will still see another part of them that reflects the opposite of what was taught or accepted.
I would like to blame Bobby Brown, her brother, her father, her mother, the wind, the people who booed her, the people who sold her the drugs, the devil, I blame them all. But, whose fault is it? You must know that life’s pressures cause people to break. Life’s hurts and pains cause people to break. And some people won’t accept that they are breaking until they are broken. Yet, Whitney drowned in her sorrows from a drug addiction, and then her daughter joined her. It’s the most brokenhearted, a parent or anyone, who actually loved her, could be. I think when Black people realized the gem that she was, they finally changed their tune receiving what was undeniable. But I was a fan from the very beginning. Whitney and Mariah would battle each other via stereotypical reviews on Black Radio and Whitney would win, cause she was more celebrated as a Black artist at the time. “Mariah just screams,” I remember someone saying on the radio. Nothing could be further from the truth. Both ladies were in their own prime. Both ladies are talented beyond belief. Whitney’s own daughter aspired to sing, after all, weren’t both her parents singers…? What a crown she would have had to wear.
I’ll tell you, you better know who you are. You better know what you want for yourself in life. Cause if you don’t, someone will take you by the hand and lead you on their journey for you. Till one day you wake up confused as to who or what you actually are. When just before the other day, you knew your vital statistics and you knew those vital statistics were yours and yours only. And now today, it could be anyone’s.
The only thing I know for sure is that Whitney’s entire existence was a witnessing of God’s gifts upon us. I remember watching the Mozart movie years ago, Amadeus. Remembering, how jealousy was portrayed as the demise of this immensely talented man child. Well, just like we don’t pick our parents, we also don’t pick our talents; they emerge as we go about life. In the case of these two artists, Whitney and Mozart, as depicted, neither of them seemed to cope very well with life’s realities. They offer you a feather in your hat for your brokenhearted dreams and expectations of lives not our own. They send you away, numb and cold. Warmth left at their deathbeds from their body’s heat, and not from concerned or ordained hearts. Truly concerned or ordained hearts would have been able to save them from the shadows in their lives. Truly concerned and ordained hearts would have met death at the door and turned it away…The truth lies in what you believe. And if you’ve ever tried to save someone….
Oh, My Jesus…
The Rant Bar – Commentary by Darlene M. Fenrick Washington, Copyright DMWBooks.com/DMW Publishing 2023 All Rights Reserved
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