Thought on Michael Jackson

I watched the memorial to Michael Jackson yesterday and was reminded of the humanness of the famous star. I have thought about his unexpected death a lot and wanted to share my final feelings about him.

Thoughts on Michael Jackson
by Katherine Ari July 8, 2009

I have spent many hours thinking about the unexpected and untimely death of pop star Michael Jackson since June 25. It was sudden and unexpected but yet not surprising that he died young. But I am saddened by it.

I personally really liked his music and his performances – though I never saw him in person. He was extremely talented, energetic, and entertaining. I saw his videos and his performances on TV. I watched some of the interviews over the years. I saw the pictures in the tabloids. And I looked in his eyes as he talked. I saw a loving and kind child – no, not a man. The rest of what was said about him including the accusations and trial was all influenced by the observer or writers. I do NOT know the truth because I never met him nor talked to him. I had my own interpretations of what I saw but they are colored by my own beliefs systems and experiences. I unknowingly talked to a couple of pedophiles over a period of a few weeks. There were similarities between them. I didn’t see that in Michael’s eyes.

There used to be this woman living in my neighborhood that was a gossip and busy body. Behind her house was a rental house. A lady was living there for a while and she had frequent late night visitors. The gossip lady decided she was dealing drugs and called the police on her. My interpretation was that the woman may have been doing something illegal but it wasn’t drugs. She moved away.

The next renters were a family with children. The children acted strange and out of control. Their mother never came out of the house. She stayed hidden. The gossip didn’t understand why she was so reclusive and so she decided to call the police again and told them she was dealing drugs. If she didn’t understand the behavior, they were dealing drugs. I had another interpretation myself. The mother was mentally ill but not in treatment. I had worked with children of mentally ill parents before and they acted the same. My point is that when the gossip woman didn’t understand something she judged it based on her own fears and judgments – not on facts. And that is what the media did about Michael Jackson. They, like the busy body, form opinions based on limited knowledge and then put it in print. No one could ever understand what being as famous as he was from a young age was like. There have been several people who did know Michael Jackson personally. But when they talk to the reporters, they have different stories too. The fans, and I was a fan, will never know and it is a loss to the world of entertainment. The jury did not completely believe that he was guilty.

I know something else. I am married to an extremely gifted artist. He is different. If I had met him sooner when he was a child and if we had known then what we know now about believing in ourselves, my husband could have become a famous artist. But if he had become known the world over and famous, I doubt if we would still be together. He couldn’t have handled attention from fans and the media. He is probably not famous because he really doesn’t want to be. I refuse to project my beliefs on what Michael was or wasn’t, but I know because I live with a highly sensitive and creative person that he couldn’t have handled fame with that kind of recognition nor could he have handled hundreds of millions of dollars. If he had created at the level that Michael Jackson created with his talent, he also would have died young or ended up in a mental hospital.

Edgar Allan Poe died young. Elvis died young. Mozart died young and he was probably considered the greatest musician and performer of his time.
As Elton John sings, “their candle burned out long before their legend ever did.” There is a writer, Linda Schierse Leonard, Ph.D., who has written several books in including The Call to Create and another Witness to the Fire. In the latter book, she has researched several famous creative people. Some of them met their inner demons, overcame drug and alcohol addictions and became better at their art or talent. And some of her subjects did not overcome them and died young.

We can get an idea of how hard it was to be Elvis or Michael Jackson but we can never understand just how extremely hard it was. Having what society and psychology books say are normal lives did not exist for them. And there was no one that could help without their own belief systems and projections and they weren’t famous. We think that kind of fame and fortune might be exciting but we really have no idea the things they had to sacrifice that we take for granted. They had to be that famous. It was what they were here for.

I admire what Michael Jackson accomplished and that he lived to the age of 50. He had a very difficult journey and he was good at his job. Whatever mistakes or errors in judgment he made are none of my business. I wasn’t there and I could not walk a mile in his moccasins. I am sad for the three children and his family. I honor his talent. There was nothing like it.