It Wasn't Wrong to Mourn Bowie's Passing

Today, January 10th, 2021, marks the fifth anniversary of David Bowie’s passing. I’ve already written about the effect his life and death had on me and others in my Mix Tape post, but there was one aspect of what I saw around that time that always gets me thinking.

The outpouring of grief over Bowie’s passing on social media was both upsetting and heart-warming at the same time. Even the most hard-hearted of people would have seen just how much he meant to people and how much his work and music made a mark on people’s lives.

But there was one post that still sticks out in my memories of the events back then. This unnamed person just couldn’t understand why people were paying such glowing tributes to Bowie. They just couldn’t understand why people were grieving for someone they had never met.

And that’s the thing that really got me. This person really didn’t understand why people around the world who had never met David Bowie were so upset that he had passed away.

I understood perfectly. Even though I had never met the manI knew him through his work, through his films, and in particular through his music. His songs had almost become second nature to me, a part of the soundtrack of my life that will always be there.

I admired the man and what he’d accomplished in his life, and I considered myself a life-long David Bowie fan. Which is why I grieved for him and why I mourned his passing. You don’t need to know someone personally to be upset when something happens to them. I’ve felt grief countless times during my life when someone I was a fan of passed away.

So if someone tells you it’s wrong to show grief when a celebrity passes away ignore them.