Here's to you Michael Jackson, Salute

I have at least six sessions of pressing importance that I want to get onto the web. I have at least a dozen personal matters to attend to.

Me wasting time wandering on the web is nothing new, but I keep being drawn back to Michael Jackson and his recent passing. Farah Fawcett's death struck me too as something... but it was a death of a famous person who I had only the smallest exposure to, even via media (though she seemed like a very nice person there, God bless you Ms.Fawcett).

Michael Jackson was something different. What he meant to me I'm not sure. He was a legend (his official Youtube channel if you need proof). I listened to his music on occasion, Billie Jean probably was the song that seemed most Jackson-esque to me, though Thriller would probably be what I'd think of first. Still, I wasn't a major Michael Jackson fan, indeed for Smooth Criminal, I prefer the Alien Ant Farm version to the original.

Maybe his eternal child image did mean something to me.

Maybe that scene from Three Kings rang a degree of truth.(The shooting script, search "Michael Jackson" to find what I'm talking about)

Maybe, to me, he was a symbol of dreams gone wrong or of dreams denied or of something... maybe he was a symbol of the United States of America, a country I love dearly...

I can't really say. I know this though, even though I can claim no great faith in Michael Jackson's defenses against the various accusations leveled against him, I always thought, or maybe just hoped, that he would end up alright. That his next act would be one of redemption and even musical renewal. Or maybe just personal renewal, where he could finally set his house in order and dismiss all the bizarre dilemmas that often seemed to come from his own hands. And now he's dead, and now we won't get to see that last act. (Roger Ebert has summed up this angle far better than me on his site)

But we shouldn't act as if his life was a tragedy, or at least not a pure one. He made magnificent music, and influenced generations. Even if I might say generally his is not my genre, I have to admire the music and I have to admit that his influence has brought out the best in many of the artists I listen to daily, and it has brought so much joy and inspiration to so many, and...

That all makes me wish he had ended his life in a happier time, at the very least, his way of passing, a heart attack was very normal and very quick, but still...

But still, he deserved better from the world and from himself and now his moment on the earth has ended...

but there is still the world to come. Whatever Michael Jackson's rights or wrongs, it at least looked like he was a man filled with anxiety and pain, but the Lord can take that away, and in the Lord's love, all of Michael Jackson's...

well, no eye has seen, no ear has heard.

But I will offer this prayer:

Please Lord,
Help Michael Jackson to put away his pains,
Remove his sins,
And guide Him to your ever lasting Love,
Amen.

God bless you Michael Jackson.