No compassion.

My wife and I recently had a discussion involving the tragic passing of Amy Winehouse and the lack of compassion that people were showing in their online commentaries. I was blown away by the lack of humanity I saw regarding her death. She was a human being. She had problems. She had struggles. But she still had worth–just as much as anyone. To be insensitive about her death is shameful and cowardly. Who are we to judge her? “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” It breaks my heart to see that her struggles led to an unfortunate end.

I do feel sympathetic toward her—I have not walked where she has walked. I don’t know the circumstances surrounding her addictions and struggles—no one could ever know everything.

I don’t know what it is like to fight off an addiction to hard drugs—I am sure it is much harder than people would guess. Rehab is great, but it isn’t always a cure-all. People struggle greatly with a lot of things that are difficult to overcome: depression, anger, weight, cigarettes, alcohol, pornography, etc.

I agree that her choices are unfortunate and seem to you and me to be obvious in their destructiveness, but the day I lose my compassion and sympathy is the day I lose my humanity and the love I am entrusted to share with others. I truly wish Amy Winehouse could have overcome and been a testament to other people with similar struggles, encouraging them to win their battles. That’s what we all should do with our shortcomings and failures—learn, grow, share and encourage.