Death and Taxes

I've read a lot of conflicting views on Amy Winehouse and I find it interesting to read them.

Some have said she deserved it... I don't think this is fair at all as in no way did she deserve to die.

She did however make some choices that led her to her ultimate demise and I think this is a sad waste, not of talent but of life. But make those choices she did... Drugs, drink... whatever the vice we, as individuals, have the option to either indulge or back away.

I pass no judgement either way but I do ask this...

Would you pity the down and out man found cold and blue on a park bench, a needle hanging out of his arm..?

Probably not... You'd see a down and out who you think probably derserved it.

You wouldn't think to ask yourself how he ended up where he was, what stresses led him to be so low down in society's eyes... You wouldn't know that whilst he worked the twenty first night shift on the trot just so he could keep a roof over his wife and four kids that very roof was burning around them, long after all five had died of smoke inhalation.

Yes, Amy had stresses to contend with, we all do...

Some of you may have ended up in the public eye due to a career choice, autographs to sign when you'd rather just be left alone, people thinking you'll do whatever they ask because you're that person in that show, or her who sang that song... I fully understand that you didn't ask for the attention that came with the job but come it does... I really sympathise with that lack of privacy.

Some of you may have lost family, spouses or children in a way similar to above or in a car crash or from a diesese that you'd never expected... truly the unthinkable for any person.

Most of us will live somewhere between those two extremes... Where we work every hour God sends just to ensure that at the end of the month we can still be overdrawn once the bills have gone out... We'll work in jobs that allow others to demean our very character so we can then thank those same people for putting dinner on our plate... We'll blink and realise that our children are growing up yet we hardly see them due to the hours done to keep them clothed and fed...We'll panic about where the money is going to come from for that new boiler we need before next winter sets in...

We all have a stress to bear but still we all have that choice to make...

Do I face my stress or do I hide from it using whatever vice I prefer?

As I say I do not judge, but personally I choose to face the stress... It helps that I am surrounded by a wife and children who love me whatever the situation... For that I am thankful and I feel for those who don't have the same.