Lessons from MJ: Why Can't We Look at the Man (or Woman) in the Mirror?

Michael Jackson taught us many valuable lessons in lyrics and in life.

Please note: These are some of my personal musings about one of my favorite entertainers of all-time, Michael Jackson. There may be a few spots where I do the Felix Unger thing and "assume" some stuff about him that may or may not be so. It's just that I was one of his many fans who took his loss very personally and would like to share my spin--but it is just one gal's  take on the Michael Jackson phenom, situation or whatever you want to call it.

 Michael Jackson: RIP. I know what it is like to be weird and different. People just can’t as my husband  says, dig that. They want us all to conform to what society thinks is normal. Normal is boring.  Michael had a beautiful and sensitive artistic soul and spirit. He endured years of abuse from his father. He had compassion and empathy for other people. I don't think that a horrible person can write songs like Heal the World, We are the World and Man in the Mirror.

Man in the Mirror is all about making a change and realizing that it has to start with you! I’ve shared this song with my students. Even ten year olds are not blind to its magical message--don’t wait for the world to get better, do whatever you can to be kind to yourself and others.

I will now proceed to what we call in school as making a "text to self" or "text to world" connection. I’ve also noticed that people are always looking to blame other people for their own flaws, mistakes or inadequacies. The Blame Game is featured everyday everywhere--watch it  in the work place, on the street, just about anywhere and anyplace.  Wouldn’t it be cool if everyone “fesses up” when he or she screws up instead of looking to blame someone else? It’s all about taking responsibility for one’s own actions. A very valuable lesson for kids and kids of all ages.

As far as Michael Jackson goes, I’ll quote my hubby again (gotta give credit where it’s due) when he says, society gives people labels. You are this or that—one way or another. MJ was just like us. Not perfect. He made mistakes. We all do. We are all shades of grey. But there are very few of us who make the world a better place like MJ did. He appeared to have so much angst inside because it seemed he was not kind to himself. He kept having all of these surgeries to make himself something he was not. Seemed like he was trying to change into something that he thought society expected.  Yet all that did was make people talk about how weird he was. All of those  judgmental people who think they know everything. 

The media. They build up celebrities, put them on pedestals just to rip them apart later. Disgusting. We love this. We watch Access Hollywood and even crap like TMZ. Don’t know how people who work at a show like TMZ sleep at night—stalking other people. Vultures. Even I contribute by reading things like Star Magazine. It is a bad habit I have had since a kid and can’t break. I actually once stopped for a few years after they wrote a horrible story about John Lennon.  My students read a book called the Kid Who Ran for President by Dan Gutman. It’s a fantastic satire of the entire presidential campaigning process. Written for kids but I think grown ups “get it” even more. In the Kid, a sixth grader, Judson Moon is running for the president of the United States for the “lemonade party.” All of the media loves the twelve year old celebrity. But then when a “scandal” hits—it’s revealed that Judson threw another kid’s history paper about the constitution down the sewer—it looks like it may be all over.  A newspaper reporter warns Judson, “Nobody out there is your friend. Everybody wants a piece of you. To sell newspapers or magazines. To improve their TV or radio ratings. To make money. All I’m saying is be careful. Don’t trust anybody. America chews up celebrities and spits them out. And America is about to clear its throat with you, Moon!”

Michael Jackson was constantly being eaten up and spit out. One moment he was celebrated for his music and the next he had every nook and cranny of his personal life examined under the microscope. There were many allegations made against him. And he's done "interesting things" (to say the least) like dangling his infant son outside a window to show him off to the world. He never should have stated publicly that he allows children to sleep in his bed. Who knows what actually happened. But society can’t handle that. It’s weird and different. 

But that voice—especially when he was a kid. It was so strong, innocent, powerful and pure. Michael was Mr. Peter Pan. Never grew up—living in Neverland. At first, everyone thought that was so cool. A ranch with an amusement park and zoo animals which he shared with his pet chimp and the public. Sometime later, the chimp was gone and he lost his ranch. But nothing is forever not even Neverland and sadly the King of Pop left us before his time. But maybe it was his time to go. I guess we all move on to the next chapter when it’s meant to be. But most of us will never leave so many musical gifts to the world that MJ did.

Poor Michael. Had a s--tload of money which everyone wanted a piece of.  He just gave it away. So innocent and trusting of other people. Yet he seemed to be surrounded by so much greed and folks who used him. (Actually, he was greedy too when he bought the Beatles catalog, betraying his friend, Paul McCartney).

Sorry MJ got addicted to pain medicine. Maybe he was trying to make all of the hurt inside go away. So much humiliation. Yet I think that people can say whatever they want. Weird. Bad. The fact remains MJ is the one of the greatest entertainer that ever lived.

 

I am so sorry Prince, Paris and Blanket lost their dad while they were so young. It can’t be easy to be MJ’s children—paparazzi at every corner.  And for a while, the media said that they may not even be his biological children (even look like him). If by some chance they were not biologically his offspring, they will always belong to him. After all, they shared so many special times and moments with each other.

I remember how Michael and Brooke Shields used to be such good friends, especially when they were teenagers. I guess they both had very controlling parents and were two sweet child stars, forever in the public eye connected. People used to think Brooke was weird, too. Well, mostly her stage mom who did not seem to let her daughter breathe yet let her take on some very adult roles at a young age (Blue Lagoon, Endless Love). But look how well Brooke turned out. A Princeton grad, successful television and theatrical star, wife and mom to two daughters. Brooke Shields’ speech at MJ's memorial was o honest and from the heart. She "got him." They seemed to share  such a special friendship.

The jury convicted Conrad Murray  of involuntary manslaughter in the accidental overdose of MJ. Okay fine. Blame the doc, if you want. But I think if Murray didn’t give MJ the drugs he wanted, he would have found a doctor (or someone else) who would have given him all the Propofol he wanted.

Yes, it’s sad that Michael Jackson was planning a world tour and we could all be sad that he could have given us more great music and yes, it’s so sad that his family lost a son, brother and father. I’ll always remember the little boy with the sweet voice singing, I’ll be There. Smokey Robinson said that little MJ sang, Who’s Loving You better than he did (and Smokey wrote it!) We’ll always remember the moonwalk, the Thriller video and the Dancing Machine video with the brothers doing the robot. But to me, it’ll always be about the Man in the Mirror. Or in my case, chick in the mirror. Gotta keep self-reflecting and trying to be honest with myself. Everyday is a constant struggle to keep evolving, trying to make myself a better person and taking steps to make the world a little bit brighter.