After dinner this evening I was listening to music with our eight year old daughter. She was taking an interest in “my music” for a changeI’m not quite sure if the interest was genuine, or a ruse to stay up a little later. I decided to run with it anyway, and we worked our way through Howard Jones, Simple Minds, and eventually the Elton John “Live in Australia” album.
While listening, I scanned down the track listings, and spotted “Candle in the Wind”. Looking over towards the book shelves, a thought occurred to me. Our children love the cinema, and yet they know very little of movie stars, Hollywood, or real magic of “the movies”. I pulled a Life Magazine photo book off the shelf, and spread it across the dinner table just as the opening bars of Candle In the Wind started.”This is who the song is about. She’s probably the biggest movie star there has ever been.” (she turns the pages, nodding her head to the music)”Why did they make her change her name?”“What were the first letters of her new name?” “M.
M.”“And what does that spell?”(thoughtful look)”mmmMMMmmmm!”She carried on her journey through the book, looking at various photos, thinking whatever eight year old girls do when faced with Marilyn Monroe. “How old was she when she died Dad?”“36Then it struck me. I’m 36. It had never occurred to me before that she only lived this long. The anniversary of her death would have been August 5th. In a couple of years time it will be 50 years since she was found by her housekeeper, and yet her image still grace the cover of magazines. For many years when I was younger I had a poem written by her hanging on the wall of my roomI thought I might share it with you;To The Weeping WillowI stood beneath your limbsand you flowered and finally clung to me and when the wind struck.the earth and sandyou clung to me.