Commonality

Eddie Money (born Edward Mahoney) was one of those post-World War II babies that grew up in Levittown, New York, on Long Island. He started out as a policeman, like his father, but left it for a career in music. “Baby Hold On” reached number 11, and “Take Me Home Tonight” topped out at #4. Ric Ocasek was a founding member of the Cars. He wrote most of their hit songs including “Just What I Needed,” “My Best Friend’s Girl Friend,” “Let’s Go,” “Shake It Up,” “You Might Think,” and “Drive.” Daryl Dragon was the Captain, who, along with his wife, Toni Tennille, stayed at number 1 more weeks than any other record in 1975 with “Love Will Keep Us Together”; they also had their own television show in 1976-77. Peter Tork was one of the four Monkees, whose recording of Neil Diamond’s “I’m a Believer,” stayed at the top of the charts for seven weeks in 1966-67—more than any other song for both years.

Doris Day has too many song and movie titles to her credit to list them all. Billboard’s nationwide poll of disc jockeys ranked her as the No. 1 female vocalist nine times in ten years (1949-1958), and she starred in 40 movies, including Pajama Game, Midnight Lace, and The Man Who Knew Too Much. Georgia Engel played the softspoken and likeable Georgette on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Valerie Harper was Mary’s sarcastic best friend. Carol Channing played on stage in Hello, Dolly! More than 5,000 times. Ross Perot ran for president in 1992. T. Boone Pickens and Gloria Vanderbilt were also wealthy beyond most people’s dreams. I.M. Pei designed the Louvre Pyramid. Toni Morrison was the first female African American winner of the Nobel Prize for her literature. Frank Robinson led the Baltimore Orioles to a World Series Championship and later became the first African American to manage a Major League Baseball team. Quarterback Bart Starr led the Green Bay Packers to victories in the first two Super Bowls.

What all these individuals have in common with each other is that they all died last year. So did a former Supreme Court Justice, TV news personalities, Sander Vanocur and Cokie Roberts, author Herman Wouk (The
Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War), and Andre Previn (multiple Oscar winner for his film scores). Emmy winning Tim Conway shuffled off last year as well. Even religious authors, Warren Weirsbe and Norman Geisler, went “the way of all the earth” (Joshua 23:14). So did Klaus Von Bulow, who was convicted of killing his heiress wife before that verdict was overturned. His future conviction will not be overturned. One thing that we all have in common is death—and eventually standing before the judgment seat of Christ. Money can’t prevent it; fame cannot stop it; athletic prowess gets no free pass. No amount of acting, singing, composing, writing—even writing essays of a religious nature, cannot deter us from our ultimate destiny. The best that we can do is be prepared (2 Cor. 5:10)—and help others prepare for it as well.

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