Thursday, April 10, 2014

my sympathies


You know that thing where you hear sad news, sad news that doesn't really affect you, but it's still sad news?  And you are going about your day and you keep wondering why you feel so hazy and then you remember that sad news...?  That's happening to me.

I feel a little silly.  I really truly do not go in for all that celebrity gossip crap.  I don't.  I don't read the magazines, I don't watch the gossip- y shows, it sometimes takes me forever to hear that so-n-so married so-n-so or divorced so-n-so... But somehow, on Monday, I heard the news that Peaches Geldof had died just right away.  I'm guessing that there's a lot of Peaches who? questions right now...  I don't know that much about her truthfully, all I know is that she is the daughter of a man I have admired and adored for most of my life.

As I said, I don't go in for all that celebrity stuff, but when I was 13 years old I discovered Bob Geldof and I have loved his music, admired his politics and humanitarian efforts, and I have been in awe of the high road he has taken in his personal life, his tragic personal life.  A few years ago I had the utter privilege of seeing him perform and I can honestly say it is one of the top 10 experiences of my life...it lived up to everything I could have imagined where he was concerned.

the set list i swiped from the stage after seeing Bob, live, here in Austin a few years ago.

Shoot, I even named one of my foster dogs after this very daughter of his a few years back...

So, as silly as I feel, posting about celebrity gossip, I find I can't help it.  For the last three days I've had a sad cloud over my days...I don't know if I expect to learn something from this sadness or if I expect to enlighten anyone with this post, or if this is just a purely selfish, diaryesque kinda purge on my part...I don't know...

Maybe I just want to extend my sympathies in the only way I can think of...

There are no words, no flowers, not even any prayers that ease this kind of pain.  And I cannot imagine a pain worse than the pain of losing a child.  So expressing sympathies seems a bit, I don't know, futile.  But I want to say I'm sorry.  I want to wish her family peace.  I hope that grief shows them mercy...

Godspeed Peaches Honeyblossom.