Brandon's Buzz

Whtiney Houston — “I Didn’t Know My Own Strength”
(from I Look to You) —

“…we are focusing on Whitney Houston because of talent and tragedy. I think most of talent this morning. Many of us, when asked what talent we wish we had, we say the ability to sing. Whitney Houston had one of the great voices, but we never know how to answer the question: What is your responsibility to a gift like that? How do you cherish it, how do you nourish it, how do you give it wings to fly? Perhaps only those with the gift can answer those questions. Whitney Houston had it, and in thinking about her dream and her death, I am reminded of what Ernest Hemingway said of his friend Scott Fitzgerald in A Moveable Feast: ‘His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly’s wings. At one time, he understood it no more than the butterfly understood it, and he did not know when it was brushed or marred. Later, he became conscious of his damaged wings, and of their construction, and he learned to think and could not fly anymore, because the love of flight was gone, and he could only remember when it had been effortless.’”

— the extraordinary Charlie Rose, speaking to his own (and my, and presumably all of our) conflicted emotions on the riveting life and tragic death of the one and only Whitney Houston, on Monday’s CBS This Morning. (Fair warning: I’m indeed still in a Whitney mood — if not a full-on Whitney daze — and that’s likely to be the case for at least the next few days, so if you take issue with that, you should likely avoid the Buzz for the next week or so.)

names dropped with reckless abandon: Charlie Rose, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Whitney Houston