MAGIC AND LOSS: RIP DAVID BOWIE

 We all lost someone close to us yesterday, and are still struggling  to come to terms with it. Someone whose incredible career touched all of our lives in one way or another. Who showed us it was okay to express our weird side, to be different and creative, to inhabit a realm outside the norm, to re-invent and experiment and play with life and art and make magic. 

David Bowie's immeasurable cultural influence spanned the worlds of fashion, music and art, and his magic touched us all in such a deeply personal way. Those of us who had never met him almost felt like we knew him. We grew up with him, his voice is ingrained, we know every word by heart, his iconic imagery still pinned to the walls of our teenage bedrooms.     

I happened to be in New York yesterday when I heard the news. I decided to find out where he lived and go there to pay my respects, but mostly to be among other people who were grieving the same loss, and to try to find some sort of comfort in that. By the time I got there around 10am there was a crowd that spanned all ages. There were flowers and handmade cards and people crying and hugging.  Even the hardened New York reporters had tears in their eyes. 

To say that he was universally loved and will be universally missed is an understatement. 

David Bowie truly brought magic to life and that magic will live on well after his death.  The man who fell to earth is back up there in heaven now, or the cosmos, or floating in a most peculiar way. And the stars look very different today.