By Colby Malsbury
Did you ever know that you’re my hero
And everything I would like to be?
I can fly higher than an eagle
For you are the wind beneath my wings
So went the refrain to Bette Midler’s maudlin anthem, which nonetheless resonated with Baby Boomers to such an extent that it has become a popular hymn at their funerals thirty-some years after the song’s release. Boomer influence has been such as to allow no other outpouring of emotion than the turning on of waterworks and the fraudulent enthusiasm of excessive flattery whenever a death occurs, as I made mention of in a previous article. This is especially true when one mourns the death of a celebrity. And when the celebrity happens to be an uber A-lister like recently deceased basketball Baal Kobe Bryant, well, you might as well shut everything down and declare multiple months to follow to be official periods of mourning. The unceasing bewailing of images that once flickered on your tee vee screen has been decreed to be therapeutic, doncha know.