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Islands of People (Cross posted from DA and LJ)
16 years ago
General
Excuse me as I join the herds upon legions of people that make their posts regarding Michael Jackson today and yesterday but I'd be lying if I said he didn't influence me or inspire me in any way.
Way back when I was drawn into Michael Jackson and his music when Moonwalker and Smooth Criminal came out. I had in turn seen the video when he danced with Spike the Rabbit. For a good while, whenever I saw his videos, for whatever reason, it meant that something big and awesome was about to happen. To this day I still listen to his music. I actually have a collection of Vinyl including the Thriller album and Diana Ross presents The Jackson 5. That's right, I have music that dates back from the beginning because for the longest time I was a Michael Jackson fan. Hell, back in 4th grade I read the book his mom wrote about the family and their past.
So with this said, I've seen that it's pretty easy to crack a joke or two regarding him. He's become the punch line to so many jokes. In some or a lot of cases he had brought it on himself. With very few exception however... no one really knew him. He had family and maybe some friends. But to many, including myself, he was simply an idea. Idolization does that. People become something else, not more, but they transform into ideas, we project what we want them to be. What it is we want out of people maybe, or what we wish we could see within ourselves. Even maybe we wish it could be true that something of Olympian stature could really exist among us. But like most or all of us, Michael was a person. Parents lost their son and siblings lost their brother...
This age of undeserved entitlement we seem to live in now a days where in which we feel we deserve things that we don't have, which somehow is a defense mechanism when we want something. Being so reliant on material things for status and fulfillment we forget the actual fulfillment of having people we know and who know us.
Michael seemed to unfortunately be the man so immersed by the culture of celebrity that he couldn't find his way out. While he had his family, the amount of people that knew him and friends he had were very limited. Most of them of which seemed to be either people that wanted to use him or people that liked the celebrity side of him. And he may have never truly had a chance to grow or know the man he was or could have been because of this.
It's stuff like this that makes me grateful for the friends I do have. That while I do not have many friends I do have few good friends that do know me. While we do know that there are many people out there, many of us refuse to open up to someone else, much less ourselves, quite possibly out of fear.
So I suppose the best way I can really wrap this up is that Michael did in fact bring something good to this world. But please understand that there is quite enough lonliness in this world. Try to get to know the people around you, or enjoy the time you have with the friends you have, and on occasion let them know that you really enjoy being around them. We mull around our lives being islands of people not willing to share what little we have to offer. Don't be afraid to share your life.
I suppose I rambled but whatever. Take what you like from it.
Way back when I was drawn into Michael Jackson and his music when Moonwalker and Smooth Criminal came out. I had in turn seen the video when he danced with Spike the Rabbit. For a good while, whenever I saw his videos, for whatever reason, it meant that something big and awesome was about to happen. To this day I still listen to his music. I actually have a collection of Vinyl including the Thriller album and Diana Ross presents The Jackson 5. That's right, I have music that dates back from the beginning because for the longest time I was a Michael Jackson fan. Hell, back in 4th grade I read the book his mom wrote about the family and their past.
So with this said, I've seen that it's pretty easy to crack a joke or two regarding him. He's become the punch line to so many jokes. In some or a lot of cases he had brought it on himself. With very few exception however... no one really knew him. He had family and maybe some friends. But to many, including myself, he was simply an idea. Idolization does that. People become something else, not more, but they transform into ideas, we project what we want them to be. What it is we want out of people maybe, or what we wish we could see within ourselves. Even maybe we wish it could be true that something of Olympian stature could really exist among us. But like most or all of us, Michael was a person. Parents lost their son and siblings lost their brother...
This age of undeserved entitlement we seem to live in now a days where in which we feel we deserve things that we don't have, which somehow is a defense mechanism when we want something. Being so reliant on material things for status and fulfillment we forget the actual fulfillment of having people we know and who know us.
Michael seemed to unfortunately be the man so immersed by the culture of celebrity that he couldn't find his way out. While he had his family, the amount of people that knew him and friends he had were very limited. Most of them of which seemed to be either people that wanted to use him or people that liked the celebrity side of him. And he may have never truly had a chance to grow or know the man he was or could have been because of this.
It's stuff like this that makes me grateful for the friends I do have. That while I do not have many friends I do have few good friends that do know me. While we do know that there are many people out there, many of us refuse to open up to someone else, much less ourselves, quite possibly out of fear.
So I suppose the best way I can really wrap this up is that Michael did in fact bring something good to this world. But please understand that there is quite enough lonliness in this world. Try to get to know the people around you, or enjoy the time you have with the friends you have, and on occasion let them know that you really enjoy being around them. We mull around our lives being islands of people not willing to share what little we have to offer. Don't be afraid to share your life.
I suppose I rambled but whatever. Take what you like from it.
And yeah, I could care less for how a lot of people reacted to the news. Jackson gave up having a normal life and provided a lot of entertainment for us. He was a big influence to a lot of people, and an extremely versatile musician--both in terms of style and content. He gave a thousand times more than 99.9% of people complaining about him or celebrating his death.
but, naw, i feel you. I always have Mike on the iPod. I love his shit! If it wasnt for him I wouldn't have learned how to pop-lock.