It feels cliché to draft a post about a certain American singer who left the world yesterday, February 11, 2012, however, my fingers somehow are hitting the keys.

Hitting the keys…now, didn’t she?

Last evening I heard a 40-to-50-something say that her “music was the soundtrack of our lives.”

Certainly, many of the lyrics that she sang have held their place in the minds of those of us who came into our adult selves in the late 80’s and early 90’s, while experiencing the meteoric rise of the Internet, mass media and American pop culture.

Like Britain’s Diana, her gorgeous, seemingly perfect image permeated magazines, TVs and computer screens at the close of the 20^th century, leaving students and addicts of U.S. pop culture feeling a strong connection with her.

For example, when she sang, “I’m Every Woman,” millions of listening women of all races longed to think that they might not be so different from the beautiful young woman who so effortlessly belted out the tune.

In the end, the reality of her life showed truth in those hopes.

She, unlike the captured iconic images of her, was not perfect.  She, in fact, was a real woman, who experienced ups and downs, achievements and disappointments, love and loss.

Without doubt, her quick and untimely exit yesterday has left those who personally knew her deeply saddened.  But, what about those of us who only knew her star image and her music?  What’s missing for us?  What’s newly lost?

Has a mile-marker of our lives been knocked down somehow?  Is a certain time period that was already finished somehow over yet again?

Whitney Houston the woman is gone, but her voice, which is being referred to by so many today as “The Voice,” remains.  And, no doubt, as time goes by, there will be countless Casablanca-like requests to “play it again.”