Creep or genius?
I think there are two sides to this story.
When I was a few years younger than I am now, I remember seeing Michael Jackson on the news, holding his baby over a railing like he was in the Lion King. I thought to myself..this guy clearly has some issues to work out. Sure I loved dancing to Thriller now and again, but I saw him as the guy who got surgery so he could change his skin color, and then got a nose job, and then he just looked weird. This is one of those cases of "don't judge a book by its cover". I heard about his court trials for child molestation, and I didn't question what I was hearing because, well..he didn't make a good image for himself in the public eye. And I didn't hear anything other than what the tabloids made of him.
When Michael Jackson died on June 25th, I thought..how could he die so young? And then I remembered hearing about all of his drug abuse, and I thought..he deserved it. Wrong. I never really took the time to acknowledge what he had done in his lifetime, because I never knew about it. I just took what I already thought of him and left it at that. But then one day, a friend of mine posted a YouTube video onto my Facebook. It was a documentary made in 2003, reflecting on the child molestation charges, and discussing the instances where he had children in his bed. Now, making a list of the things that he's done, would create a list of some pretty shady-looking stuff. But when I watched that part of the documentary, a little thing inside of me understood him.
In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, it is said that in order to enter adulthood, there must be a loss of innocence. Now, Michael had been in the public eye since he was just shy of 10 years old. When you're a child star, you have to learn to be a public figure; you grow up much faster than someone who gets to sit at home, have family dinners, and go to public school. He mentions that he had children under the covers with milk and cookies, and read them a story. Interviewer Martin Bashir asks him about this issue as if he has done something very wrong. I truly believe that he had a good heart, and good intentions - but that the mature, public eye saw that as something that could and would become dangerous. Did Michael never lose his innocence? Or did he lose it too quickly, and he wanted to help children to retain their innocence?
He also mentions that children don't have dinner with their parents every night anymore. This claim..is very true. I can't speak for America, but I think the majority of us can agree with that statement. I think that in his heart, he saw what he was doing as helping kids to have a fuller childhood. Many kids don't get read to every night. Michael sought out to change that. And not only did he love children, he wrote some pretty powerful lyrics.
So read this again if you need to. Maybe your opinion didn't change at all. But the King of Pop had a truly special heart, and as many mistakes that he did or did not make..he created a new era of music and music videos. Many people started to dance because of him. I really hope that people don't judge him based on rumors and foggy stories. Because that's what we all fear will happen to us, isn't it?
Peace and Love,
yourgotogirl
In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, it is said that in order to enter adulthood, there must be a loss of innocence. Now, Michael had been in the public eye since he was just shy of 10 years old. When you're a child star, you have to learn to be a public figure; you grow up much faster than someone who gets to sit at home, have family dinners, and go to public school. He mentions that he had children under the covers with milk and cookies, and read them a story. Interviewer Martin Bashir asks him about this issue as if he has done something very wrong. I truly believe that he had a good heart, and good intentions - but that the mature, public eye saw that as something that could and would become dangerous. Did Michael never lose his innocence? Or did he lose it too quickly, and he wanted to help children to retain their innocence?
He also mentions that children don't have dinner with their parents every night anymore. This claim..is very true. I can't speak for America, but I think the majority of us can agree with that statement. I think that in his heart, he saw what he was doing as helping kids to have a fuller childhood. Many kids don't get read to every night. Michael sought out to change that. And not only did he love children, he wrote some pretty powerful lyrics.
So read this again if you need to. Maybe your opinion didn't change at all. But the King of Pop had a truly special heart, and as many mistakes that he did or did not make..he created a new era of music and music videos. Many people started to dance because of him. I really hope that people don't judge him based on rumors and foggy stories. Because that's what we all fear will happen to us, isn't it?
Peace and Love,
yourgotogirl
No comments:
Post a Comment