Unlike many bloggers and journalists out there, I have really tried to not take a stance of wanting to understand what happened to Lauryn Hill because it's quite simple really: she just couldn't handle the pressure. It's this same pressure that cause people to caution would-be child actors about whether they are truly prepared to give their personas over to an insatiable public. Concerning Lauryn's abrupt fall, the thing to keep in mind is that most truly talented artists in the world are very, very sensitive. It is truly overwhelming to not only feel that you have something worthy of sharing with the world and then perform it in front of people who may criticize your vision and your feelings. Add to all of this the whole notion of whether or not you should be making money from sharing your heart and soul with other people, and you have a recipe for disaster.
When it comes to Lauryn's case, she was a woman ill-prepared for the possession that we felt for her. The same lyrics that were tinged with tears and pain and laden with Biblical scripture housed the same songs that we rocked to over and over again in 1998 and beyond. It does us no service to analyze a woman we will never truly know. Furthermore, it will do us no service to analyze her songs as clues to the "craziness" that lies/lied within her. Whether she is mentally ill or not, and whatever we may feel about her, trumps the life that she is now leading with her five children and her man by her side. On this August day, let's remember what Lauryn meant to us in those times when we most needed someone to lead the way, and not dwell on how she does not fit our image of what we feel she should be for us now. So while I am just as tempted to dig all up into her business when she pulls a stunt like this, and I so want for the L-Boogie to come back as I knew her and sing my pain away, letting Lauryn Hill go is a hard lesson that we have all had to learn. Ten years may have passed since Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, but all it seems that we collectively have learned is to be more in folks' business instead of minding our own, especially in our celebrity-obsessed culture. Maybe this is a lesson that Ms. Hill would like us all to learn. In the meantime, let's all remember the days when she represented strength, femininity, seemingly effortless talent and flawless beauty.
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[H/T: AB]
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