Chasing Amy … By Whitney Farmer – Un Pop Culture

July 28, 2011 Whitney Farmer 10 Comments

Whitney runs a rock music venue on the beach in L.A.. She has an M.B.A, and has had a 28^th birthday, and others beyond.

Amy Winehouse died at home on July 23^rd, alone in London.  The cause of her death is under investigation until toxicology tests are completed within the next few weeks. Because of Amy’s troubled history, there is more than one candidate for what stole her voice and breath.  Her use of crack cocaine and tobacco led to some signs of the early stages of emphysema. Her associated severe weight loss commonly leads to heart damage and arrhythmias, and other unexpected threats for someone so young. Her family believes that her death might have been caused by a seizure from stopping all alcohol consumption immediately rather than letting her body adjust gradually through tapering.

In death, Amy has joined the 27 Club, a troubling gathering of musicians who died in their 27^th year.  She is in the top five of the most famous – joining Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Brian Jones, and Janis Joplin – at the top of the list which includes not less than 40 other lesser known artists.

What deepens tragedies such as this is that death often comes after someone has made a choice to fight for life. Heroin addicts are at greatest risk after rehab because their bodies have been freed from dependency, but old habits carry a memory of a capacity for using that has now become a lethal dose. In the midst of a relapse, the mind remembers how much to give from the past and loses the future.  This is what happened to Brad Renfro. Alcoholics can come to the point where their bodies have been trained past accommodating being able to hold their liquor and have entered the realm of needing it to prevent the violent physical reactions of DTs such as seizures.

Judgments have no place in times such as this.  Everyone who said “I told you so” has won the argument but has lost the war. The best reaction includes grief, but also compassion and reflection on a life that went wrong. This is not to draw distinctions between the good people and the bad people because we all lose and become indistinguishable when we make the same choices.

God gave commandments to spoil humanity’s party in the same way that a parent yells “NO!” when a child wants to play stickball in the street with oncoming traffic.  Only a living child is one that can be angry and disappointed. All parents who have buried one of their little ones would rejoice if they had another opportunity to have their child pout or misbehave again.

Scripture warns against practicing sorcery.  Our urban myths lead us to inaccurate, Harry-Potter themed definitions of what this might be. The lure of having unnatural powers or to see mysteries seems so interesting. Whatever it is, there are dangers to doing it frequently enough that we can become good at it.

If you look at the original texts that lead to our translations of ‘sorcery’, there is something to learn. The Hebrew word conveys a meaning of whispering magic that opens. The Greek word is phonetically pronounced ‘far-ma-KI-a’ and is roughly spelled ‘pareia mageia’. It is the word that becomes ‘magic’ in our modern tongue.  It is also the word that connotes ‘pharmacy’.

Using drugs does open the mind and spirit and become magic. We say “Come in” to whatever is outside. The doors of perception are open, but how many of us would celebrate the choice if we left our homes unlocked for anyone who wants to come in who happens to be walking by? With the sorcery of substance abuse, what is locked up inside can be exposed, and what is outside can come in.  But barriers to entry – whether deadbolts or a peephole or a firewall on a computer – are not just a wise idea, but necessary for survival.  Whatever comes within striking distance can do the most damage.  And whatever can come inside of you can be difficult to remove without killing yourself in the process.

Whatever was chasing Amy caught her. And now we have lost her.

Quote of the Blog, from Sigmund Freud:  “Woe to you, my Princess, when I come…you shall see who is the stronger, a gentle little girl who doesn’t eat enough, or a big wild man who has cocaine in his body…”