Friday, June 26, 2009

Weighing In

So yeah, why else have a blog if you can't state your most important opinion on one of the biggest news stories ever?

Here's mine:

Jackson's death was a shock, first of all. A surprise. A "your mouth is hanging open" moment. The Iran revolution, yesterday, was not a shock. Even Farrah's death, our lovely Farrah, even her death was not a shock. Jackson's death was a shock and a surprise.

And Farrah's death, although sad and somewhat of a relief, does not immediately take me back to sitting in Marcia Lee's Lazy Boy, away from parents, where I could sit by myself and watch Thriller. Farrah's death does not transport me immediately to my friend Lisa in her Beat It jacket and her one sparkly glove she wore everywhere, or to my group of friends practicing the moonwalk in our basement.

Jackson's death immediately takes each and every one of us (except for a few stone-hearted people) back to our childhood, back to his childhood, when we were all a little more innocent. He represents so much to each one of us individually, I can honestly say there is no one like that I can think of, besides him.

And I know there are many important things going on that deserve our attention, North Korea had thousands of people standing in one place screaming their hate for us, the confusion in Iran continues, kids die on our streets every day, I get it...where is their love?

But Jackson was a world-wide phenom, almost every human on this earth knows of him and probably danced to his music. This is no small thing, this isn't celebrity hubris, this is honest-to-goodness shock.

So to everyone who thinks its stupid and he was just a big penis grubbing pedophile, just let those of us who really were inspired and touched by him to mourn a little, to play "The Way You Make Me Feel" as loud as we can, to let the 38 year olds practice the moonwalk just one more time.

1 comment:

rachelle said...

Well said. No matter how you feel about the man, the music makes you remember very specific times in life. Each song bringing up different memories. That's what I find makes me the most emotional.. and knowing the man that can make us relive memories like that is gone.