Everyone has a comment about Michael Jackson. I'm no different. So far I haven't reflected on his career, his talent, his amazing contributions to the world. I've been thinking about the person who had to live in his skin. The person who seemed to want to do right, regardless of the small or large mistakes he made. My first thoughts were so sad. I cried for his soul. I see him as the poster child for the most damaged adult child of a dysfunctional family/society(though I don't know anything about his family...guess I could read up on it pretty easily now). He's also the poster child to give us an image of cancerous materialism. I watched a slide show of his career on yahoo news last night. I cried that he is human yet seemed so uncomfortable in his own skin, so desperate to get out. I cried because someone so potentially beautiful had become such a horrible image. I don't know what we think we're doing in our society. We each have an idea of why we're here, what we're supposed to accomplish and give in our life time. For some it's simply a not knowing. A going along in the wave of energy that engulfs a soul and hides reason. Could this be it, riding waves of just going along and anything to mask the pain. I was just like the rest, obsessed with Michael Jackson for several years. I probably wanted to marry him. I don't remember. I memorized Thriller, the song and the video. But remembering that and thinking that his talent is gone from this world are not what bring tears. It's that this spiritual being suffered in a way most of us can not imagine because he shared his talent, did what he had a passion for, made his livelihood in front of us all and we judged him constantly. You are so great! You are so deformed! You are so sick! You are brilliant! Can he rest now, ignore the criticism and praise that have flared up after his unexpected death and be answerable only to a loving God. That's the way it's always been anyway.
Posted by heidi at June 26, 2009 05:35 PMSo very well said, and yet our culture thinks it was just him, not all of us collectively contributing to his destruction.
Posted by: Los Angelista at June 28, 2009 04:22 AMYou are right! I did like you blogpost! We are in sync.
Posted by: FlyLady at June 28, 2009 11:51 PMYou know, this is the first thing that I've read about Michael Jackson that I've actually been able to say "finally" to. Finally. Thank you for articulating what's been on my mind ever since he had that "rare skin disease". He was my first crush, and it's not really exaggerating to say that the liner notes on the thriller album (along with Simon and Garfunkle's Concert at Central Park) were what I learned to read with. But his genius was such a tragedy, it hurts to hear people talk about it. I hate the vultures with a passion, picking over his corpse and trying to squeeze every last sensational dollar out of it.
Posted by: Kem at July 5, 2009 07:40 AM