Michael Jackson is Dead and It's Weird

I grew up along with Michael Jackson. Oh, not in the sense that I knew him personally or anything like that but we were close to the same age so he was sort of a peer of mine. He was just a couple of years older than me and he was always on TV so I felt like Michael Jackson was almost a member of the family because he was always on television or in the news. I knew more about Michael Jackson than I knew about some members of my own family! He was like one of those cousins that you know you have but you don't get to see them much and yet you know all about their lives.

Of course I was a huge fan. Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5 sang some great songs. I always watched any show they were ever on and when I was older, I got the magazines so I could learn everything about Michael that I could. I even liked the Saturday morning Jackson 5 cartoon!! I loved it when Michael went solo. Not because I didn't like the rest of the Jackson's but because Michael Jackson was so cute and I really had that crush thing going on!

I loved watching Michael Jackson's music videos. I'm not too embarrassed to say that I still do. There was just something special about his talent. The songs were great and he had those great dance moves and he did some very fine music videos that were such great fun to watch and sing along with. And just try to sit still through one of them; it's very hard to do!

As Michael Jackson got older, he did start getting a bit strange which I didn't like but I did my best to compartmentalize my thinking about him. He was a musical genius went into one compartment, which I could still enjoy, and his personal life and oddities went into another compartment that I tried not to think about. Whatever Michael Jackson was, and unfortunately there's evidence that some of his habits were unsavory, his musical genius can't be denied.

Michael Jackson was larger than life. He had so much talent and we are fortunate that he shared it with the world. Quite a few of his songs are some of the best music I've ever heard and that dancing, wow, he had some kind of awesome dance moves, didn't he? Michael Jackson was a musical legend whose talent will live on forever, thanks to video recording technology.

As long as I've been alive, Michael Jackson was a part of the same world that I was. And now he's gone, just like that and at only fifty years old. Michael Jackson is dead and it's weird. It just feels weird.