One Less Icon on Earth - Whitney Houston - Dead at 48.

If you disagreed with my previous post about the loss of meaning through over-exposure that has occurred lately with the word icon, I have one more thing for you to consider. In case you are still in the anything can be an icon if I wanna make it so camp, and like being there, I have reason to persuade you that it can be a dangerous place to be.

Yesterday the big news of the day was the untimely passing of Whitney Houston. With all due respect to the iconic star, we all suspect her life of battling substance abuse contributed to her death. But it was her fame as the queen counterpart to the king of pop, Michael Jackson, that ultimately brought her to that early demise. The impossible burden of living up to impossibly high expectations, when inside one is an ordinary, flawed human being, with an outsized-once-in-a-generation-gift, is, in the end, that which may destroy.

The album we all knew and appreciated

If you insist on elevating someone/something to the level of icon, then be prepared to lose her/it, because icons tend to die young. I'm sure you can can think of many examples: John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson and now, Whitney Houston--all at the top of that list.

The latest book on JFK is a glimpse into his own reckless pattern of behavior which may have, in the end, contributed to his early death.

Tiger Woods is a living example of someone who undoubtably achieved iconic status already as a young man in the world of golf, partly because of that youth, and his skin color; but then, he self-destructed needlessly. His career is probably forever compromised--only time will tell. He roundly lost again today at Pebble Beach.

My theory seems to reflect the old idiomatic saying, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. The 9/11 twin towers once again come to mind...

I come out of a sub-culture that discouraged members from getting too big for their pants. Today I am re-thinking the wisdom of that notion in a new way. (Not that I am in any danger of ever achieving iconic status).

(By the way, iconic should be used as an adjective. Some say icon status, another abuse of the language which I find annoying).

Anyway, my axiomatic thesis rings true--do you not concur?

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With the death of Whitney Houston we have hit the mother-lode of iconic references in the media, including all the references to the song "I Will Always Love You" which seemingly cannot be referenced without attaching "iconic." Whitney is probably more deserving than most for the label, but still, my point about the proliferation of the word is illustrated.

Two more icon alerts: Clint Eastwood, referenced after his 2012 Super Bowl commercial appearance and Paul McCartney, even though his Grammy Awards performance tonight was sad and excruciating to hear. He was (painfully) on pitch, and that is the best thing I can say about his singing. Okay, the Beatles were iconic in my life, maybe even epic! That's it. I'm done with this theme and the use of these words in posts.