When I first met my husband, Larry, he said, "If Madonna was playing in my front yard, I would go out the back door and take a crap." Needless to say, he did not go with me to Chicago, July 2004, to see her in concert. While I watched her, I told my friend, Suzie, "My soul aches to know I may never befriend her."

Once in an interview, Madonna, talked about people that have been standing at her gate for twenty years, not listening to the lessons she was trying to get them to hear. These fans choose to disrupt her privacy and life, instead of appreciating and applying her experiences to theirs. I dont want to be a person at the gate; rather my soul yearns to know what she knows and what must be expressed. I am comforted by her creativity and respect this individual that needs to know more and continue to grow.

As we returned from dinner one night, I played Paradise Not For Me by Madonna. Larry said, "My God, that was great who was it?" The weeks that followed, I played more songs and we watched videos from her Madonna Video Collection 93:99. By spring 2005, Larry's Material Girl, sexually exploitive, irreverent opinion of Madonna was abolished. He is an advocate for her creativity, beauty of expression, individualistic talents and now says, "You know, Patti, people are going to look back on her and think, what we were thinking, we should have listened when she was living. She is amazing; everyone should pay attention to this girl."

You don't have to like her, understand her images or ideas, but you must listen and try to apply what you hear to your life and experiences. Like my Larry and Madonna, you too can change, grow and be better. Pay attention to this beautiful soul while we still have her.