RIP Michael Jackson

Being 3 girls, with very different personalities in my family, there was a deal that we each would have our idol/favourite artist. Not that the others weren't allowed to like the icon as well, just they were YOUR favourite.

MJ was one of these. The hours of fun and dancing that this artist brought to our house are some of my favourite memories!
Over the years I guess our idol fell off his pedestal quite badly. I mean it's hard for even the most die-hard individuals to ignore accusations of kiddie-fiddling and weird tales of "Jesus juice"? How do things even become as sordid as the stories that filtered out of an estate called Neverland...?
Will we EVER fine out what really happened behind those gates, or to his nose, or to his skin? The questions and even urban legends around MJ seem endless! But was it just me or did the music always seem to wipe the weirdness away?
It could make you believe that you too could do the moonwalk (yes you, the geeky kid in the corner! I know you practiced!), sing passionately that Billy Jean was not your lover and also that we'd all finally realised we are the world, that black and white definitely should never matter. That last song may have become cheesy, but damn, as a young South African now having become adult (ok... more like a kidult I guess) I still love it.

Maybe he was wacko jacko, maybe he truly was an innocent
lost boy from Neverland happy in his fantasy. Maybe he was horribly lonely even when he had all the wealth and things his heart could imagine?
There have been times where I was completely convince he was sick and maybe we were supporting someone who needed help not acceptance?
There have been others where I've thought along the lines of Gareth Cliff's post this morning

@GarethCliff I'm so very sad about Michael Jackson. The world treated his sad genius very badly. I think he died feeling quite lonely. He deserved more

I guess only his family or those close to them could possibly ever know the real man, and even the small group who could be close to him seem to disagree in opinion.

The one thing we can and should all say though is this : THANK you for all the songs, the boogies and the beats, and I hope that he realised that he'd live on forever with some of us.


He was anything but "normal", thats for sure.




Michael Jackson sample map:
(via @lebogang_nkoane)

@Deepak_Chopra A Tribute to My Friend, Michael Jackson http://bit.ly/tYis4