It has been exactly one year today that Michael Jackson passed. It being a weekend, of course, radio stations are doing Michael Jackson marathon tributes.
My first thought was who cares? At the end of his life, Michael has become practically a non-human iconic status bordering on the absurd and the unreal.
Listening to old Jackson-5 music up to and including "Thriller," there were a lot of good music, including "Captain EO" at Disneyland. After that, it got a little dicey, I think. Maybe it was the injuries suffered filming the Pepsi commercial, or the result of that living? He could not read music, I bet he could not write a check, either. A victim of his own commercialization, and probably led to his eventual death - since the only way he knew to deal with pain was more powerful pain relieving medication.
Sometimes you have to learn to cope with pain, no matter how much it hurts. It is part of growing up. But if you grow up surrounded by people that cater to you, you lose that opportunity to learn.
It also happens to be the same day that Farrah Fawcett passed too. To me, she is always Farrah Fawcett-Majors, but reading Wikipedia, apparently that marriage was maybe only 6 years long. She is characterized in being couragious at the end, fighting cancer, etc. It is true. But on the other hand, I remember reading reports that she was not accepting of it, and kept trying experimental drugs, etc, that consumed the rest of her life. That is when she should have enjoyed living. And taking care of her son, Redmond (?). He seemed neglected during that time - he was in jail when she died. Ryan O'Neil, who is no winner himself, said on recent interviews that his son is turning his life around after the death of his mother, but without those lessons in coping, his life may still slip again, when tragedy or heartbreaking moments happen again.
Our society wants us to not cope with the stress of life - the mourning of a loss, or other "sad" moments. But if we accept them, and learn how to deal with them, we should be able to enjoy life instead.
Just some thoughts.
