Why Marilyn is still relevant today

She had the face of an angel, the body of a goddess and the soul of an artist, but those aren't the only attributes that made Marilyn one of the immortals of the world.  It was much, much more.  Some of the things were her relentless ambition, her courageous, almost ferocious climb to the top of the business despite her miserable circumstances.  And her long, painful struggle to be taken seriously touched all of us, even her detractors.  You couldn't help but admire her desperate need to better herself, to become a good actress, to matter, to leave something of substance behind.  She yearned for recognition and not as the world's greatest sex symbol but as an actress of value.  The tragedy of her life is that she became just that but she never knew it.  She died thinking we thought of her as a joke, a sexual thing.  Fifty years after her death we finally recognize what a good actress she was - this vulnerable, much maligned actress who has become a legend.  Would nominating her for the Oscar she so richly deserved for "Bus Stop" have saved her life?  Nobody can say but it would have given her infinite joy, some of the joy she gave others throughout her brief career.  She paid a high price for immortality but immortality she achieved.  The world will never stop talking, worshipping and remembering Marilyn Monroe and she will continue being discovered by future generations to come when we are all gone.  Perhaps that was her real mission in life, this magical actress the likes of which we have never seen again and probably never will.