Just a few hours ago, it was announced that Michael Jackson has passed away at age 50. Rumors are already flying, but as of this moment the "official" report states that Michael Jackson died from a cardiac arrest. All I can think of now is that his family must be devastated.
You can ask a hundred different people for their opinion of the pop star and you are certain to receive a hundred different answers with extremely different ideas and opinions of who Michael Jackson really was. One thing that everyone should agree on is that Michael Jackson was a human being with parents and siblings that must have cared for him very much.
I imagine that Michael was possibly very lonely. Fame can be a thrilling and fulfilling experience, but it can also be cruel. Try to imagine for just a moment what it must have been like to grow up in the public eye. Michael was just a young boy when he had his first taste of fame. He was an adorable little boy with a tremendous amount of talent and the whole world loved him.
I can't even begin to comprehend what it must have been like to be a young boy growing up with the entire world watching for any little mistake, any little indiscretion or slip-up. Once a person becomes famous their life is no longer their own, at least in the public's opinion. Michael never knew a "normal" life of just being an average guy with the freedom to come and go as he pleased or to make mistakes and learn from them in the usual fashion.
When someone becomes famous, especially when they happen to be considered a role model or even a teen idol, suddenly the entire planet expects them to be completely perfect and entirely without fault. The pressure must surely be overwhelming.
Michael went from being a talented little boy to being a teen idol in a very short period of time. The crowds that once cheered on the cute kid suddenly became screaming teens and fainting women all wanting to be close enough to touch the talented young star. Thousands of young men all over the world wanted to be just like Michael.
I was only eight years old in 1982 when "Thriller" rampaged off the charts. Nearly all of the children in my elementary school wore parachute pants, carried a Michael Jackson lunch box, and dreamed of getting to go to the concert soon to come to our local stage. I'll admit that I was never much of a Michael fan, but at eight years old, I was still a bit young to understand what all the fuss was about. If it didn't involve animated cartoons or Jim Henson's Muppets then I just wasn't interested, but all of my friends sure were.
Over the course of the next few years and into my teens there were pictures of Michael everywhere. In the department stores, you would see Michael belt buckles, posters, mugs, purses, sleeping bags, and single gloves with glitter. On MTV, it was all about Michael. In schools, well, you guessed it right... it was all about Michael there too.
The one thing that I noticed above all else is that Michael didn't look like Michael any more. In fact, each year he looked a little more odd to me. I also found his performances to be a bit over the top, but the public in general seemed to love him more than ever.
Soon, it seemed that every time I turned on the television or the radio there was something else about Michael. The public was obsessed with him. Michael wanted to be white, Michael was having yet another cosmetic surgery, Michael bought Neverland, and my personal least favorite.... Michael is a child sex offender.
As for judging Michael, I've never met the man one on one and quite frankly, I wasn't there. However, I do have a couple of questions. First of all, what kind of parent would leave their child unattended for even a second with this man? I don't know about anyone else, but when I look at Michael Jackson I don't exactly think of Mary Poppins. The man is a pop star, not a nanny. Nothing seemed quite right to me about that whole ordeal.
I do think that Michael made plenty of mistakes throughout his life, but God knows that I've made way more than my fair share of mistakes as well. In fact, I don't know of one single person who hasn't managed to make at least one or two major screw-ups in their lives, but most of us were fortunate enough to not have our mistakes plastered all over international news.
I don't know that it is really fair for any one of us to judge Michael who didn't know him personally. It's a shame that he passed at such an early age, but under the circumstances I have a feeling that the amount of stress involved in constantly being the butt of every joke and constantly having to defend himself must have taken a major toll. I know how stress can eat away at a person, even change their personalities. I only hope that Michael finds peace in his final resting that he was not able to find during his life.