Well, we seem to be on a roll for celebrities passing away. Prince was only 57. He had much more to give.
I've written about this before, like when Bowie passed, but it's worth repeating. Other than the natural grief anyone would experience at the passing of someone like Prince, what always strikes me in this moments is a lesson I learned from, of all places, Kung Fu Panda. Which is this: be the best possible you, you can be. Prince was not the best artist (whatever that means). He was not the best man. What he was, was the best possible Prince. He was the best at being Prince that anyone could be. He was kind, he was compassionate, he worked hard, but most importantly he was always, unfailingly, Prince. He did not try to be Michael Jackson. He did not run for Congress. He didn't advertise for Geico. He just rocked faces, dressed like a crazy person, and partied like it was 1999. Nobody would ever confuse Prince for somebody else. When you heard his music, you knew it was Prince. There was just something indefinably Prince-y about the guy. And all my favorite celebrities are like that. Chuck Klosterman. John Linnell. Edward Snowden. These are people who are unique. Most of them work hard at being their unique self. They make sacrifices. They turn down opportunities others of us might jump at, just because it's not who they are. They take less, work harder. And yet all of them are, in the end, successful, not in spite of their uniqueness but because of it. That is what I find inspiring. Yesterday I was speaking with a friend about a business idea she has. She said that it was a good product because it filled an unfilled need. I agreed with her, but I pushed her a bit: Given that this should exist and someone should make it, what, I asked, makes *you* the best person to deliver this product? How is this a unique expression of who you are? She has business talent and a drive to teach yoga; that's a pretty unique combination. So I agreed with her that this is what she needs to do. The universe, if you will, needs her to do this, as a unique expression of her her-ness. As another example, most of the people who will read this could not imagine riding their bicycle across the United States. I can't imagine *not* doing so. That doesn't make me better than anyone else. It just makes me better at being me. Which is all any of us can do.