Three At A Time

It always seems like famous people die in threes. One was an amazing person who helped others do amazing things. The other two made incredible art.

We've lost the great Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who made the world a better place through helping those who may have been shunned by those who didn't understand. I'm too young to honestly say I knew much about her before her death. But now I see who she was, a single woman who did so much to help benefit the disabled. From the descriptions of her that her family members offered at her memorial, I wish I could have met her! I only hope that more people come around that do things like what she did.

Then there's John Hughes. I couldn't believe it, he was only sixty. Before I had any idea who he was, he affected me. I loved 101 Dalmatians and Flubber when I was a kid. Before that, his movies were cultural phenomenons, and once I saw them, Ferris Buellar's Day Off and The Breakfast Club became two of my favorite movies. I told my mom about his passing, and I can't imagine how she must have felt, because his movies were not just movies that she loved ("Duckieee!"), but things she passed on from her to me. I wish I could have directly thanked him for what his work brought to me. He was certainly the voice of a generation, a generation I really wish I could have been around for.

Finally, there's Les Paul. While some may dispute the "voice of a generation" for John Hughes, no one can deny the impact Les Paul made on music. He made the electric guitar, for one. And the man knew how to play it, too. As the complete music geek that I am, I myself would be who I am without Les Paul. Nothing would be the same if he never made the guitar or played it. What would Jimi Hendrix do with an acoustic guitar? What would Pete Townshend smash? Would the Beatles be popular without their electrics? What would Kurt Cobain have been if he didn't have a guitar to play? Les Paul's influence was supremely broad, and he helped so many others become influential as well. I'm just glad that he, just like Kennedy Shriver and Hughes, lived a long, respectable, and amazing life. I hope all three of them live on in the hearts of the people who admired them like they'll be living on in mine.

In the simplest terms, and the most convenient definitions,
AJKazlouski