Happy Birthday, Elvis, 2011!

This is a repost of a tribute I wrote about Elvis a few years ago. It's just a sampling of who and what he was and how he has shaped our lives. I think about him, as I think of all those I've cared for over the years who have gone on before me. Elvis was a normal man, who had an incredible career; he had virtues and flaws, and to paraphrase Marc Antony, ". . .the bad that men do, lives after them; the good, is oft' interred with their bones . . ." (I'm sure someone will get it precise, but it serves my purpose for now.)

What I'm railing about is how easily we try to destroy someone, in order to lift ourselves up. The following feelings, thoughts, and intent have not changed with time:

"Oh, you mean, like the guy who died in the bathroom from drugs." There is nothing inherently wrong with that statement. It is the truth, and it was spoken quite innocently and naturally by an 11-year-old child on November 27, 2005. The sad part was that it was spoken as the child was engrossed in a video game and half-listening to the conversation around him.

He had just had new strings put on a guitar and everyone was trying to think of a current performer he