Brilliant, gifted, talented or being deemed a genius are monikers that we think might prevent someone from making bad decisions. Gifted and talented people can make decisions that are life altering and often affect not only themselves, but those who love them. Bad choices can even negatively impact the best of us. With the passing of Amy Winehouse we are once again face to face with the impact of making decisions that can often lead to death. I do not profess to be an expert on addiction, unless you count too many pairs of sneakers, but I do know that we were all born with brains that allow us to make choices each and every day. How we live our life each day is a spider web of choices that we make and have to take responsibility for.
The list of people who have made more than their fair share of bad decisions that had terrible outcomes is probably longer than my arm. Famous, talented people have had shortened lives as a result of making bad choices forever. In spite of all these people leaving us way before their time we just don’t seem to learn. We focus on the sadness of the moment instead of looking at the choices they made to get to this point.
I dare say that I have made my share of questionable decisions, but I have tried to think before I act and have some kind of an appreciation or understanding of how what I do might impact others. Could I have made choices that included breaking the law, harming others, hurt others in one way or another, or put my body into a physical state that would make death very possible…..sure.
But most of us don't fall into this trap.
I refuse to fall into the media trap of glorifying these once talented people who killed themselves one way or another, and instead would like to encourage people to look more carefully at the lifestyle choices instead of the accomplishments of these people. The media is a powerful player who might be more useful in this process if they took the time to really focus on the pattern of bad choices that were made and open the discussion as to how we might avoid these types of tragedies. The idea that these kinds of things are inevitable is ridiculous.
We need to stop the glorification process and making memorials to these people and instead hold them up as examples of what they really are…….addicts who ingested more bad stuff than their body could stand and they died.
There is all kind of tabloid writing that talks about the age of “27”. Lots of talented musicians died on this day and it saddens me that instead of pointing out their accomplishment or talking about their talent, that we need to examine the life choices that they made. Young people need to lean an appreciation for actions and consequences and what better way to point out some of the horrible consequences that resulted from risky behaviors that resulted in death. The young gravitate to the famous and the talented and they can learn some valuable lessons from the journey of others that had more than its share of bad choice pitstops. The age of 27 is not important in this discussion. Not really. But if age is a factor then maybe the young are more into risk taking than their elders, so more bad things are bound to happen, so we have to know this as people helpers and help them through this rough age.
It is my hope that parents, the media, and people who can have an impact with their words and actions that they will begin the serious process of talking what is really important about people like Amy Winehouse……her terrible life choices! She did not die overnight. Her death was the result of years of personal abuse that finally ended with a final episode of abusive behavior.
Bad decisions have the tendency to grow like the proverbial snowball that rolls down the hill. Once it gets going it is virtually impossible to stop until it either runs someone over or crashes into a tree.
Good decision-making is a skill and all about making good choices that result in positive results. Think before you speak or act and you might find that you can stop that snowball before it even gets going. Learn your lessons well and encourage others to think before they choose and we will all be better off.
