Life and death

Carmen and her baby sister

Congratulations to my step-daughter, Anna, her boyfriend, Ross, and their daughter, Carmen, on the birth of their new baby girl (as yet unnamed) yesterday. I am pleased to report they are all well and I can't wait to visit them later today. As the due date approached, it crossed my mind to buy a copy of a newspaper on the birthday for posterity; I changed my mind. Sleep does funny things. I was woken this morning after dreaming about witnessing an airliner plunge into the sea while I was walking on the beach. When I woke my first thoughts were to wonder what on earth the Sunday newspapers would have as their headline news, the plane crash, the horror in Norway or Amy Winehouse. I didn't even consider the nurse in Stockport or the dozens of people killed in a train crash in China (which surely would be the headline news on most days). Thankfully, the dream was not real but, very sadly, everything else was.
It's not my place to announce my thoughts about Norway here. It is completely beyond comprehension. Sometimes when we hear news stories of some atrocity Jane will ask 'How can someone do something like that?' and I am relieved that I cannot even begin to imagine. The best thing that can happen is for the killer to spend the rest of his life rotting in a cell covered with indelible images of all the families of those whose lives he destroyed. His name should not be remembered.
I vaguely remember my parents being shocked when, on the drive home from a family holiday in Dorset, the radio announced that Elvis Presley had died. My strongest memory of John Lennon's death is the girls in art class, the next morning, crying and I couldn't understand why. I remember being disappointed, almost betrayed, when Ian Curtis committed suicide - what would now happen to Joy Division, the band I still consider to be my favourite? Kurt Cobain meant nothing, I just considered it stupid. Michael Jackson was a bit of a shock. But, despite her obvious problems, the death of Amy Winehouse really did shock me. Musical taste is personal and I understand that she was not everyone's cup of tea. Her musical style did not really fit in with my usual taste, but I could listen to 'Frank' and 'Back to black' almost endlessly - she just had a way of making every syllable interesting. One might argue that Adele's voice is just as good, but I am already bored of her albums and I don't own them. If you want to disagree, fine, it would be a very boring world if we all had the same taste.
One thing that surprises me is the number of people complaining that news of Amy Winehouse's death has diverted media attention away from Norway.  Both are very tragic. Norway is horrific and I hope that nothing like it will ever happen again, but I find it difficult to understand the mentality of people who have crawled out of the woodwork to slag off a troubled, but very talented young woman because of the timing of her death.
At the moment, the people of Norway and the family, friends and fans of Amy Winehouse might be thinking that they wish the world could end right now. It won't be tomorrow, it may not even be next month, for some people it may take years, but one day they will see that life goes on.....