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| Don Cornelius poses with fans at the 40th anniversary of his TV show Soul Train in 2010. (Photo from Wikimedia Commons) |
I currently work a part-time internship at the Women's Southern California Golf Association in San Dimas, CA, helping manage and update its websites and social media pages. After I get home, I usually take a small catnap before continuing with the rest of the day. When I woke up from my nap Wednesday afternoon and checked the news online, I was shocked to read that Don Cornelius, the creator and original host of the long-running TV dance show Soul Train, was found dead in his Mulholland Drive home in Los Angeles at the age of 75 from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Although an official coroner's investigation is pending, it's very obvious Don committed suicide.
From its beginnings as a local show in Chicago in 1970 to the end of its history-making syndicated run in 2006, Soul Train was a trailblazing, trend-setting vehicle for black music and culture. More than just a dance show, it was the first show on a national scale which featured African Americans in a positive light. Every week viewers were treated to "The hippest trip in America... 60 non-stop minutes across the tracks of your mind into the exciting world of soul" with black teens showing off their best dance moves, wearing the flashiest clothes, and cheering on the biggest and upcoming stars in R&B, funk, disco, smooth jazz and hip hop. Don's driving purpose for Soul Train was to portray blacks in a positive light, which was sorely lacking on TV in the tumultuous late 1960's.
As a little boy in the 70's, I and my family always gathered around the TV every Saturday afternoon to watch Soul Train, American Bandstand and ABC Wide World of Sports, which all aired back-to-back in Los Angeles on KTTV and KABC. (I guess you could say it was our weekly dose of our vitamin C's: Cornelius, Clark and Cossell.) I knew of Soul Train long before Bandstand, and while I later became passionate fans of both shows, I always innocently wondered, as little kid would, why Soul Train was all black, Bandstand was all white, and Soul Train had the better dancers. AB eventually caught up when disco overtook the show in 1979 and the dancers exponentially improved with the music, but I digress.
As a child, Soul Train was my first exposure to blacks and black culture, and it was a positive one. When white singers like Elton John, David Bowie and Gino Vanelli performed on the show, it impressed on me that music transcends racial and ethnic barriers and can be enjoyed by everybody. While people may chuckle about the endless ads for Ultra Sheen, Afro Sheen and Fashion Fair from longtime sponsor Johnson Cosmetics, I remember Soul Train for showing me it was cool to be a person of color, be proud of who you are, and not let anyone (especially The Man) take that away from you.
Which makes it all the more tragic that Don Cornelius committed suicide three days ago. Nobody saw it coming; it just came out of nowhere. In an interview on CBS This Morning, Don's son Tony, who worked with his father on Soul Train for 15 years, said that Don was a very private man and that it was very hard to know what was going on in his mind unless you actually stepped into his shoes. Sherrie M. Williams, an African American psychologist and author, wrote at CNN.com that as one who lives with depression, she saw all the symptoms of the disorder in how people described Don: silent, private, guarded, all business, added with the mentality that one doesn't ever speak up about their struggles. She said that while that may have saved blacks' lives back in the slavery days, it's now killing them in a day where so many mental health resources are available to help.
Many big names in the R&B and music industry are openly shaking their heads asking why. Why would a man with so much success, who did so much for African Americans, who gave countless performers their first big break, and who was looked up to as a hero and role model for positivity and greatness--why would he blow his brains out?
Without understanding the spiritual aspect of the human condition, it makes no sense at all. In Matthew chapter 16, Jesus spoke to His disciples about making the choice between dedicating one's life to God and living only for the trappings of this world:
If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? (Matthew 16:24-26, New Living Translation)
If you only live for self, to die with the most toys and bling, to grab all you can in this life and hold on to it because this is all there is, in the end it will only bring emptiness, misery and despair.
Solomon, who had denied himself no earthly pleasure, achievement or riches, wrote in Ecclesiastes that he found it all in the end to be "meaningless", or "vanity of vanities" as the King James Version puts it.
Some people work wisely with knowledge and skill, then must leave the fruit of their efforts to someone who hasn’t worked for it. This, too, is meaningless, a great tragedy. So what do people get in this life for all their hard work and anxiety? Their days of labor are filled with pain and grief; even at night their minds cannot rest. It is all meaningless. (Ecclesiastes 2:21-23)
But then he realized that it was all a gift from God to whose who follow Him and are pleased to serve Him:
So I decided there is nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction in work. Then I realized that these pleasures are from the hand of God. For who can eat or enjoy anything apart from him? (verses 24-25)
But if Don Cornelius suffered from clinical depression, we must also keep in mind that mental illness is real. It hits everyone, Christian and non-Christian alike, because we live in a fallen world that has been cursed with sin and death ever since they entered the world back in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). And thankfully, God has provided wonderful Christian pastors, counselors, psychologists and psychiatrists to help us overcome depression and be well again to serve God at our best.
In the end, if we live only for earthly gain and the praise of men, then that's all we're going to get. Both are temporary and fleeting, and someone else will always come after us to steal the fame and erase us from memory. And if we are looking for the world to fill the deepest needs and longings of our soul, they will always fail to deliver. That God-shaped void in our hearts can only be filled by God Himself, because He made us that way. I can only hope that despite his personal problems, Don found some peace with God before he passed on, and I offer my prayers to his son Tony, the Cornelius family, and my fellow Soul Train fans worldwide.
In parting, I echo Don's famous sign-off, wishing you Love, Peace and Soul. Any may you find it all in Jesus Christ, the lover of your soul.
