Friday, June 26, 2009

Losing the King!!!

For the first time in my life, Al Sharpton said something and I found myself agreeing with:

'All these people are going to be writing these amazing things about him, like they were his best friend' he said 'but so many used him and broke his heart- Where were they yesterday?'

It really got me thinking, not about the people who chose to avoid him as he became a scary predator, but all those people along the way who made him who he became.....

One never wants to judge the living or the dead but there are nagging questions that perhaps we should ask ourselves:
- What family produces the Jacksons we see today?:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-524313/Operation-lookalike-The-bizarre-world-Jackson-family-nose.html

The most obvious body disatisfaction was seen in MJ, but the whole family has had some pretty messed up stuff done as well
* LaToya skin is ever lightening and she has had so many nose surgeries there is barely any nose left (think an older sadder Lil Kim)
*all the other sons have chemically straightened hair and have had procedures done too
*Janet has also had multiple nose jobs, a pair of ribs removed to narrow her waist, a boob job etc.

I guessed they started with the man/woman in the mirror but instead of just changing his ways, they changed his face too.

This may be nothing and this may be everything.

Family is where one learns a lot of their emotional intelligence- how to love and accept oneself-warts and all, and how to healthily love other people. When one looks at a whole clan and it is littered with emotional cripples one begins to wonder if it didnt all start from the very beginning-the family.

You may chose to say it is the stage dad and entering the world stage too young. Yet Joe Jackson is not the first nor will he be the last stage parent out there. Many a parent has taken it open themselves to shape the talents within their children. Those families have managed to produce some of the gems of our society without ruining the individuals themselves. Tiger Woods' father gave him his first golf club at 3, and recently when asked who he would like to be his dream partner in a golf game he mentioned his deceased father with tears in his eyes.
My point here is that for every Britney there is a Beyonce. For every MJ there is a Tiger

How are some families successful in producing well adjusted child stars where others fail?

Imagine then the life that this severely lonely, emotionally crippled, human being had to live. Too sensitive for his own good, without a healthy childhood to prepare him for not just a normal adulthood but an extraordinary one. An adulthood where he would be soooo famous that a little girl from Accra, Ghana would watch him every Sunday with her grandma after Sunday lunch.

And you know the entertainment industry is cut throat. You will be on the top one day and everyone will love you and cry tears of joy when they see you. Industry heads will all tell you what you want to hear. Everyone will say they want to be your friend.

This brings me to my next question.

Was there not a single friend who saw that everything was not okay? Was no one there to say 'yo my bro, perhaps you should get therapy, instead of another nose job'.....

All these 'friends' were there when the going was good, cos you know every one loves a winner, but underneath that fabulous winner was a lonely sad man whose best friends were a rat named Ben and a monkey named Bubbles.

Of course then his star begun to fade and with it all the friends. Where were you yesterday when MJ needed you?

The last thing I always wondered about were the parents of these little boys with whom MJ had his alleged engagements.

Maybe not the first parent, because we did not know then that MJ was a sick, sad freak. But what about the second and third and the fourth time? Was that $10,000,000 payout so attractive that you were willing for your child to hang out alone with Michael?
I am not a parent or a genius but I am pretty certain that I would not let my child hang with a 40 year old man who owns a children's amusement park and has been recorded on tape saying 'There is nothing wrong with little boys sleeping in my bed and sharing the love'
-You knew he was sick and you were there feeding his sickness.

Of course nothing said here is meant to exonerate him of his considerable sins. Irrespective of what happens in life, one must own ones decisions, even the King himself. But at least we can acknowledge that sometimes even when we cannot agree with an action we can understand why.

Rev. Al said something else that I think cuts to the heart of the matter-
'Michael's poor heart was broken long before it gave out today'. That may have been it. his broken heart could not keep his shell of a self going anymore. He was alone, used and abused by most of the people who he had trusted.
It says something about the tragedy of his life that the overwhelming sentiment of most is that maybe finally his poor tortured soul can be at peace. For some hell is a place on earth.

The legacy he leaves behind for me is so complicated.
His videos were the first music videos I saw- I remember watching 'Smooth Criminal' with my deceased grandma and trying to do the Michael lean. Gosh I was a STAN for him. Yet in his later years he became impossible to love. He was a freak trotted out every so often for countdowns on how not to do plastic surgery. He was allegedly a child molester. He was Whacko Jacko.

Yet through all that he was still MJ- the child prodigy.

The music speaks for itself. Smooth Criminal will always bring back happy memories. And we will continue to see him in the little MJs trotting around the world- the Ushers, and Breezys and JTs. This is the part of MJ that I will choose to remember.

Long Live the King of Pop!!!!

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