You DON'T want people to say this when you die.
Apparently, Anna Nicholas Something died today, possibly of a drug overdose, possibly of a leopard attack, reports are sketchy. Although I'm patently anti-celebrity, I always feel a little sad when someone in the public eye dies, because in a way, it sort of marks the end of an era. It's a milestone in my own life, kind of like when a pet dies. You realize that one by one, the names you hear while growing up are starting to precede the words "died today." Listening to the news commentary on poor Anna, however, something really disturbed me. Over and over again, I keep hearing a variation on the phrase "Why should we care?" What a depressing summary of a life. Here was a human being known for being known for nothing in particular. When you get right down to it, who, other than her decorator and various pharmaceutical companies, truly is better off for her having been on this Earth? Her now-motherless baby daughter? Her also-deceased son? The effeminate guy in a feather boa being interviewed on the news with the name "Bobby Trendy" flashing under him? Maybe I'm being maudlin, but someday, someone will put my name in front of the words "died today." My goal is to make sure the next sentence out of their mouth isn't "Why should we care?"