Whitney Houston's Death is Time for Optimism

Feb. 13, 2012 - PRLog -- The world and especially the entertainment and celebrity world is mourning the sudden and unexpected death of Whitney Houston.  We may not know the cause of her death for weeks, but it does not really make any difference.  For me her death is a time to celebrate optimism.  It is a time to applaud the gift of her life to all of us here on earth that had the chance to hear her music or will hear it in the future.  Fact is, her music and videos will be around forever.

We will not be able to enjoy her physical presence any more, and that is a loss for those close to her, but we can take her short life and see it live on.  Here are some suggestions for finding optimism at the time of her death:

   1.The Guiness Book of World Records cites Whitney Houston as the most awarded act of all time.

   2.She had two Emmy Awards, six Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, and 22 American Music Awards, among a total of 415 career awards in her lifetime.

   3. She sold over 170 million albums in her lifetime.

   4. She had a record seven consecutive Billboard 100 hits.

   5. She had the benefit of wonderful singing instructors including her mother, cousins Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick and godmother Aretha Franklin.

   6.She used her talents to glorify God with the gospel music which began with her first solo at age 11 at the Hope Baptist Church in Newark, N.J. where she sang  "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah".

   7.The Whitney Houston Foundation for Children is a non-profit organization that supports the needs of children worldwide including homelessness, children with cancer or AIDS.

   8. Houston’s performance of "The Star Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XXV on January 27, 1991 was released as a commercial single and video and reached the Top 20 on the US Hot 100, making her the only act to turn the national anthem into a pop hit.

   9. Houston was not perfect and admitted to Oprah in a 2009 interview that by 1996 doing drugs was an everyday thing.  She said she wasn't happy by that point in time, was losing herself.

   10. Why do so many creative and performing artists find themselves so unhappy?  John Belushi and Michael Jackson come to mind immediately, but this problem seems be an occupational hazard.  Perhaps it is time take some of that Hollywood money and invest it in the research needed to find the answer to this question.

Optimism comes from the ongoing chance to experience all the music and performance gifts she has left with us, and with the challenge to find a way to help these wonderful elite artists find and keep happiness on the inside without resorting to drug abuse.

http://www.optimismnow.com

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