Americans don’t contemplate these big questions much. Reflection is especially rare in the celebrity culture, where “there is no such thing as bad publicity.” Time in rehab ”” drug, alcohol or whatever ”” has become a veritable rite of passage for the young and famous. Indeed, telling the story of one’s rise from the ashes of addiction has become a career-extending strategy for those past their prime.
With all the pictures of stars happily leaving the clinic, young people may assume that there are always nets to catch their fall. They forget those who didn’t make it into rehab. Not everyone gets a second or third act.
Although AP wrote the Spears obituary purely for business reasons, it may have also done the star a service. Like the mock Korean funerals, the obituary could shock Spears into imagining her extinction ”” and thus mend her ways. In a similar vein, a court ordered troubled young actress Lindsay Lohan to work in a morgue following a drunken-driving incident.
Perhaps all those who indulge in high-risk behavior should be presented with their obituary, dressed in funeral robes and placed in a coffin. Sounds morbid, but that could be the most important thing that ever happened to them.
As the psalmist wrote, “Teach me to number my days, O Lord, that I might present to Thee a spirit of wisdom”.
Treatment for substance abuse/addiction sometimes involves patients writing their own obituaries, planning their funerals, even shopping for a coffin. I’m not sure how effective such interventions are, but “memento mori” is, indeed, a good idea for all of us.