Michael Jackson: Goodbye to an Icon

Wow, when I was watching the news last night and it broke through that Michael Jackson had been taken to UCLA Medical Center unresponsive…my heart dropped and I was stunned.

Think what you want about Michael Jackson.  I have my own opinions on that matter.  The simple fact of the matter is that he was a HUGE part of my childhood and teens!  I adored him to no end for the talented singer/songwriter/dancer and entertainer that he was.  My heart bled for the childhood abuses he had to endure at the people who were supposed to love and take care of him.  I recognized it myself and I saw early that Michael was never really an adult.  He remained locked inside his head and heart, a child.

When the shit started hitting the fan about his alleged sexual abuses of children?  I really didn’t buy it.  I saw it once again for what it probably really was.  Someone else looking to make millions off a very shattered man.  We will NEVER really know what took place behind closed doors.  But the father of that first accusor was on tape admitting almost exactly what I said above.

Did Michael contribute towards his eventual downfall?
Absolutely.  Going live with Barbra Walters and Diane Sawyer and admitting he had children in his bed and slept beside children – definitely NOT the brightest thing to do.  But even then, anyone with half a brain should have clearly seen, he was not your normal, average man.  When his first accusor came forward?  He should have stopped surrounding himself with children.  SOMEONE close to him should have then stood up and made sure he didn’t do that anymore.

In my humble opinion, as someone who has followed his career for pretty much all of it?  I saw a very fractured manchild who was, if anything, asexual.  I don’t really think Michael knew how to carry on an adult relationship of any kind.  Christ, he was surrounded by adults who only took from him since he was a little boy.  So it’s not completely unbelievable that he turned to children to befriend.  Children are innocent and pure and don’t want to hurt you, use you for their own benefit and give love freely.  I understood that.

It pains me greatly to see the jokes being made everywhere at his expense right now.  It pains me for his children and for his family.  No one should have to grieve in the public eye and then have to be hurt further by the press saying such horrid things.

One memory stands out firmly in my mind and as I’ve thought of it over the past 16-hours or so, I STILL get covered in goosebumps.  I’ve seen literally over one-hundred different performers.  But the single most awesome experience I’ve ever witnessed was at a Michael Jackson concert in the mid-1980’s.  To this day I have never experienced anything like it.  I was surrounded by people, men, women and children, ranging in ages from 4 – 90.  The complete emotional chaos and stunned amazement I witnessed all around me was amazing.  Young children, teenagers, young men and women, old men and women…grown men, big, burly, masculine men, all weeping, shrieking and fainting, openly,  at simply being there to witness Michael perform.  I can only, to this day, liken it to being in an arena and having God or Jesus stand on stage before you.  I have never seen a better live performer in my life and I know, I never will experience that again.

That’s the Michael Jackson I will always remember.  Goodbye Michael, thank you for the music you filled my heart, ears, mind and soul with. I know I will always start with the "[wo]man in the mirror" before I try to make changes in anyone else.