One year ago today, I was having any regular Thursday. I mozied (sp?) around the house, got dressed for work, had lunch with a friend at a nice Asian restaurant, then headed on to work.
I fell in love with Michael Jackson when I was a baby in a little place called Bahrain, which later in his life, he popularized. I remember listening to 'Smooth Criminal' in my room while embracing a pillow and saying out loud, "I'm going to marry Michael Jackson; I'm in love with him, I love him!" I was three.
Such behaviour continued for years to come. Sleeping next to a pillow and hugging it became a habit, a subconscious one, nonetheless. On the night of his passing, I found myself clutching this pillow like I did from one of my first memories. I was completely devastated.
It's interesting how someone you've never met can affect you in such profound ways and surely, I might be crazy, and if so, I am crazy like millions of people around the world. The main reasons I admire and love this person so much can be classified in many ways. He is someone everyone can relate to, on human level, and that of fantasy. He is someone countless people around the world grew up closely watching and listening to. He is someone politicians and other world figures globally admired and called upon to bring light to subjects such as social injustice, poverty, disease, inhumanity and other forms of crisis. He was someone who was prominent through numerous milestones within the last forty years. Because of his immense fame and recognition- we felt like he was ever-present, and invincible.
It was his other-worldly presence which maintained his stature in this world. He may have been eccentric, and bothered by various demons and let-downs, but he was unbeatable in his art and incredible talent. Beyond the appearance and powerful presence was a man who was human, like all of us. He was a prime example of someone who was so profoundly electrifying and unique that some people felt the need to bring him down to their level. It is people like this who can not deal with the existence and success story of someone who simply was just different.
After his passing, members of the media, especially our beloved Fox News, decided it was probably an opportune time to change their tone about Michael Jackson. People realized, or perhaps
decided, that he truly was victimized and bullied throughout the last twenty years of his life. People around my age grew up mainly hearing and reading about how deranged this man was; clearly, our support and admiration still prevailed. Though within these last years of his life, he did not release much music, but he was still diligent about his work, constantly perfecting everything he touched. Admittedly though, and people have come to realize this: Michael Jackson outdid himself and everyone else early in his career. He was futuristic and ahead of game, but this, oddly enough, was a curse. In the new millennium when all kinds of music was going through what seemed to be (and still seems to be) an awkward transitional phase; Michael Jackson perhaps felt the need to conform, or even, shape his music to fit the current times, hence the release of 'Invincible'. Michael Jackson was not current; he was either the best ghost of music past or the best part of the future. Music is still awkward today, and many artists have taken his passing as an opportunity to take his place, but we all know that that is simply impossible. When we hear a wicked base line, drum beat, high-pitched vocals or anything fabulous; we associate it with Michael Jackson. Our minds, and the that of the generation beneath us are already conditioned.
I really don't know what else I can say about Michael Jackson that I have not already professed throughout my life. I was just a baby with big dreams of marrying him, or even just shaking his hand. I am now an adult, a woman, who loves him as much as I first remember. My first memories are of MJ, and I hope to never lose them.
What an unbelievable day, when we lost someone so magical. What an unbelievable life he shared with us all.
Posted via email from shaheera's posterous
