Twenty five years ago, Whitney Houston was only 23 when she recorded “The Greatest Love of All,” a song that hasn’t left my head since hearing of her death last weekend. I was nine years older, age 32, when I remember how it empowered me and made me believe that yes, the only real love is inside. Today, I did a little research to learn the lyrics’ history:
“The Greatest Love of All” was written by Michael Masser and Linda Creed and recorded by George Benson for the 1977 Muhammad Ali biopic, “The Greatest.” Creed wrote in the midst of a struggle with breast cancer words describing her feelings about coping with challenges, being strong, and passing courage on to children to carry with them into their adult lives. She succumbed to the disease in April 1986 at the age of 36. At the time, her song was an international hit by Whitney Houston. The partial lyrics are as follows:
I decided long ago never to walk in anyone’s shadows. If I fail, if I succeed, at least I’ll live as I believe. No matter what they take from me, they can’t take away my dignity. Because the greatest love of all is happening to me. I found the greatest love of all inside of me.
We can only leave children a legacy of inner strength if we exhibit it ourselves through behavior and expressions like writing. The tragic truth is that Whitney’s daughter, just like me, lost her mother at age 18. Whatever Whitney tried to teach her may have an impact, but sadly, her recent examples are not ones that any daughter should emulate. In this case, we only can hope that Bobbi Christina Brown sees in her mother’s short life why self love, not that which comes from lovers, fans or quick fixes, really is the greatest love of all.
Janette Quinn