Michael Jackson from My Point of View

I vividly remember watching Elvis' funeral with my mother. I remember the Challenger replays and the all day coverage when Regan got shot. I was watching when they broke in to announce Diana's accident and show live footage of the Station nightclub burning. More channels more, technology. more coverage for everything.

Michael Jackson both manipulated and was manipulated by the media and the light speed at which information now travels. Don't you remember watching when he was that cute kid on American Band Stand? I used to wait for The Jackson Five performances. When he hit The Wall I wasn't old enough to fully appreciate what it meant for the future of music and dance but twenty years later I was impressed enough to still remember Rock With You and be instantly teleported back to a room shared with my sister listening to the radio while getting ready for school. I admit to thinking he was cute when Thriller came around and I wished my parents would get cable so I could watch the videos everyone was talking about and emulating.

Bad was good but I thought Weird Al's Fat was better and it never would have existed without the former. I liked Smooth Criminal more than Thriller as far as videos go but then the song went to a whole other level when Alien Ant Farm recycled it into metal. Can anyone say they don't like the Free Willy song? I don't think so. Even if you don't know the words, and I don't, you know the music and the uplifting feeling it invokes as you catch the refrain of 'free me'. Scream and Leave Me Alone were the smallest bits of insight into what it must be like to be a Michael Jackson. If we had been paying attention it's possible the tragic turning of events and media frenzies might not have so quickly and completely colored our view of him.

And yes I was among the many who questioned the worth of Michael Jackson in the last years. You couldn't ignore the allegations, the trial, talk of pay offs, the riff over the intellectual rights to Beatles music, and most of all the extensive reconstructing of himself that was indicative of so much more than an outward appearance. Was it all enough to wipe out the fact that he put a human face and provided a sympathy that was previously lacking for the pandemic of AIDS when he befriended Ryan White? It seems forever ago amidst the maelstrom of bad press when we all believed We Are The World buying into his hope in humanity making it one of the best selling songs of all time. Where was that humanity when he deserved it?

There was no denying his musical genius, his lyrical prowess, his social relevance, his unique dance style, his philanthropic deeds, and yes even the psychosis that it took to hold the overwhelming burden of those things in one human. Try to put yourself in his shoes. It's easy to say you'd be different but would you really have the facilities? Imagine you could never just meet someone and have a real conversation. Imagine you had to trust hundreds of other people to shop for you, insure you, count your money, feed you, care for your needs because you couldn't go out in public and do it for yourself. Imagine the immense trust you would have to put in others you barely knew, they would be in charge of the day to day dealings of your life as if you mattered more than the paycheck. Could you do it? Could they? Many have proven incapable much to the heartbreak of Michael Jackson.

Imagine your life from the time you are five being completely consumed by the mass media machine, which was driven by the weight of providing for your family. Could you stand the strain of every fiber of your being completely submerged in never before comprehended creativity? You might be looking in on Michael and thinking how can anything be bad when you have everything. I'm willing to bet on more than one occasion Michael peeked out around the curtain separating him from the rest of the world and saw someone like you walk by and wished with his whole heart for one day of your life.

No we can't forget what he came to symbolize anymore than we can forget where he came from or what a large part of our lives, our generation, he was. Nor can we neglect what he will come to mean for future generations. In 30 years our grand children will be looking at Michael Jackson the way we look at Elvis, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Janice Joplin, and Jim Morrison. He was perfect in his imperfection the same way every other human being is. We are not in a position to judge him. We are not in a position to assume what we do not know about him. We are not in a position to ignore the impact he has had on this world.

So yes, yes there was a reason for the broadcast of a memorial to him. And yes there were things to memorialize and things to finally put away. And yes we should have watched and paid homage to the indelible mark he left on our lives and our world for now and into the future. And yes other famous people have died recently and heads of state don't garner as much attention but without exception none of them affected the world in the same scope and breadth as Michael Jackson.

His childhood was wonderment never ending, his talent was immeasurable, his vision was un-compromised, his soul rose above even the most heinous of allegations, his music is a testament to what is possible when you live without limits except for the sky. His later years seem tragic form our point of view but we are not his children and we are not meant to understand the grand scheme of the way things work. Our job is to accept that it works for all of us without exception and without our understanding.

So today I join the world in saying goodbye to someone I never met but who meant something to me nonetheless, though I can't explain what that is. He is part of who I am, part of where I've come from, part of my experience for as long as I have lived. He is part of what we all have in common, a single binding thread on the spool of the earth connecting things which seem unconnected and isn't that proof that there is something bigger than all of us working in it's own mysterious way? How fitting he join the pantheon of those I listed earlier, those we say were gone too soon. Today I am adding Michael Jackson to the list of people I'd like to meet in heaven and hoping that he is finally realizing the value of the Man In The Mirror.