I can’t say anything more or any better than what’s already been said, I can only speak to my personal experiences. Yesterday I woke up, checked the Internet and was met with the news that he’d passed. Surely, it was a hoax. David Bowie couldn’t just die. I figured I’d just go to his official site, certain that they would have posted it was a hoax, that Mr. Bowie was alive and well. I’d breathe a sigh of relief and get on with my otherwise uneventful Monday. Not so. More stories about his passing poured into my news feed. I was shocked, but felt reasonably okay until my husband came into the room and when I opened my mouth to tell him the news. The words came out, and so did the tears. They vanished quickly enough, but not for long. I did what a lot of people did, read articles, watched videos, listened to the music and remembered the time I got to see him in concert. Yesterday was a day when I was glad I work in a home office, and that my cats don’t judge me for crying.

For me, David Bowie was not only an incredible musician, but what made him special was so much more than the music. He was instrumental in showing me, and many others, that it was all right to be different. It was good, and important to push the boundaries of your art and to do so without giving too much or any thought at all to what others thought about it. Not only that, but he was able to speak to people individually through his art. Every fan of his took away something a little different, and that kind of connection is pretty magical.

So, even though he’s gone, to me, he is the kind of person who can never really die. Artists are lucky in that their art will always keep them around in some form. And while I’m profoundly saddened by this huge loss, I’m so very grateful for the amazing art that he shared with all of us; little pieces of himself that will never truly ever go away. Thank you, David Bowie, for everything.