Mama Mia

While waiting in line to check out at the grocery store earlier today, I lamented over the fact that The Weekly World News is no longer published. I had relied on that esteemed periodical to inform me about who was an alien and who was not. While looking over the magazine section by the checkout, I noticed that People has a special issue about the 10th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana and LIFE has a special issue about the 30th anniversary of the death of Elvis.

I was reminded of a talk radio program I heard about a week ago. The host was discussing why people remember exactly where they were when they heard that Elvis and Princess Diana died. He wondered why none of the callers could remember where they were when Mother Teresa died. (Today is the 10th anniversary of her death.) The host seemed to imply that the priorities of society are a bit mixed up when we put so much effort into remembering the deaths of celebrities, but do very little to remember the deaths of saints.

I would argue the opposite - the fact that we put so much into remembering the deaths of people like Princess Diana, Elvis and JFK shows that we have our priorities in order. There are common elements to the lives and deaths of these three people. In spite of being very wealthy, powerful and famous, they struggled with personal demons. At times in their lives, the seemed to rise above those struggles to do some amazingly unselfish things. Then, without warning, they died at young ages.

So many people remember their deaths because they grieve for what could have been. Would Princess Diana have finally found stability and love in her life? What would JFK have accomplished in two full terms in the White House? What would have happened in Vietnam? Would Elvis still be singing in Las Vegas? We don't grieve for the loss of what these people did while they were living. We grieve for the loss of what they could have done if they did not die so young.

What more could Mother Teresa have accomplished in her life? Every fiber of her being sought to provide love and care to forgotten people. She accomplished so much in her long life. When she died, we had a sense of fulfillment.

In some strange ways, society shows glimpses of having priorities in proper order.