Wow. I woke up for breakfast at our summer cabin in the Finnish countryside, only to be told that Michael Jackson is dead. Very weird.
He's been all over the music video channels for the last few days, and I can honestly say I never realized how much a part of my life he really was. I grew up during the high times of his career. I was, after all, born in the year that Thriller was released. His music was all around me through my entire life up to now, and it's only now that he's dead that I realize that.
I can truthfully say I always felt a strong sense of sympathy toward him. Sure, at times he seemed to be crazy, and I never could figure out why he started out black and later became white. Apparently he had vitiligo and lupus, but it's not like any of our media ever wanted to tell us that; they had a field day selling us "Wacko Jacko".
Having read about how he was abused as a child by his father, and realizing that the guy started working at the age of eight, you have to figure there's no way he's going to turn out like the rest of us. Behind it all there was a massive talent for music and dance, and watching it, even on just a music video, was a priviledge.
The high point of Jackson's vilification to the world was the child abuse trials. As he was acquited of all charges, I've never seen any reason to believe that the trials were anything but a massive exercise in cynical exploitation and money-grabbing by the kids' parents.
In so many ways his life was a tragedy, from childhood abuse to being turned into a freak by the world's media. That's what makes it all the more moving to watch his videos and listen to his music, and to understand that after and during all that, his music is filled with a positive message about us people getting along with each other. The fact that he went through what he went through and came out of it believing in mankind is testament to a great man.
**
At some point I had the audacity to come up with an epitaph for him.
He was black. He was white. It didn't matter.
We'll miss him.
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