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Michael Jackson and the Great Sadness
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Not so many moons ago, there existed a society of high, egalitarian ideals. This society proudly and violently possessed a beautiful and bounteous land of mountains and plains, forests and rolling hills painted languidly in broad swaths beneath the dying rays of the setting sun.
In that land there lived those who benefited more from the fruits of society and those who benefited less, as is the way of things the world across. In this particular society, at that particular time, those who benefited less had few options in life between the extremes of abject servitude and outright rebellion against those who benefited most. The Earth wept for the people there, for their society had been birthed in blood sacrifice and christened in tears.
The Great Sadness of this land and these people was that they were being deceived by those who owned and ruled. Tricked into believing that they were more different than alike and that black, brown, red and yellow were less human than white. This Great Lie was the key to economic enslavement as petty squabbles and prejudices led to the unmitigated repression of the entire society and an underlying fear that pervaded the land and all of its Institutions.
Even though all in that land served the will of the few, the plight of those who served in chains was singular in that their physical appearance marked them as different from the majority population. Stolen from their homes and families far across the ocean, their anguish was lifted only by the gifts of the spirit and the promise of better days to come. For more than a century they served in chains until freed by blood sacrifice to continue their service in a capacity more in line with the stated ideals of that stolen land.
That freedom rankled many of the Privileged – who saw those who served as less than human - and laws and rules were put in place to restrict the formerly enslaved and their children - and their children's children - from gaining access to the wealth of the land they had all worked together to exploit. Those who had set the chains and wielded the whips still retained power and it took another century and another period of blood sacrifice – this time, of cultural and political leaders and icons - for things to change irrevocably.
In that time of change, the Sky smiled down upon the progeny of the Privileged as they sought to remove the shackles of the Great Lie from their minds and spirits and embrace the tenets of human dignity upon which their society had been founded. It was a time that pit father against son, mother against daughter, family against community. But despite the difficulties, a grudging experiment of inclusion was implemented and those who served were lifted to equal status by the letter of the law.
It was in this context, in the late 1960s, that the Jackson Five burst upon the world scene and Michael Jackson began his meteoric rise toward a celebrity status that surpassed all who came before.
For those who served, observing the trajectory of Michael's life was pure joy, the melodic flights of experience he crooned tore holes in hardened hearts and brought sunlight to the darkest corners of our own, personal disfunction. As the times changed and the victories of the Civil Rights Movement solidified, Michael's continuing relevance and ability to encapsulate the human condition within song served as a clarion call of human equality.
The thing about Michael is that he left us. He left us knowing that he had more to give, more to share. Knowing that, despite the scandal-seeking sycophants that continuously nipped at his dancing heels or the hoards of vampires who attempted to drink his blood, he remained pure at heart, even as his light was eclipsed by the sheer preponderance of darkness. Through his vocals, his songs, his heart, we knew that we were not alone. That someone else felt the way that we did; that there was no separation between souls.
The songs he sang ran the gamut of human experience and transcended genre to capture the spirit of the world. Such greatness comes but once a generation. He was the King of Pop, the King of Videos, the true King of all Media.
His gift was in his ability to integrate the boy and man – as well as the male and female - within and manifest the spontaneous genius of childhood throughout his life. The kinetic ability to sync mind and body that is both innate and honed by adulthood coupled with the boundless creativity of a child were crystallized by a heart filled with love and sung with an angelic voice.
His empathy made him sensitive but his assurance made him strong. He was born with brown skin but died with white. His tastes were as extravagant as his star was bright. Making sense of his decisions required a broadening of our own perspectives and opened up doors of possibility where only walls had stood before. A contradiction in every way, he made perfect sense. He was the tale of American culture told to the World, refracted by eyes, hearts and minds that felt his pain, our pain, and the way in which he expressed it with exquisite skill and ability.
He lived the life we all live. His emotional and mental anguish mirrored our own. His personal life had its share of pain and joy, love and beauty, heartache and dysfunction peculiar to his life-circumstances, as do each of our own. Our personal dramas are played out on the stages of our lives, our neighborhoods, jobs and cities, while his played out on the stage of his life. That stage was his neighborhood, his job and his city and he played for all the world to see.
Even his enemies respect his talent. Even those who thought that they no longer cared for Michael found themselves close to or in tears at the news of his passing. No matter what is said about Michael Jackson in this time immediately following his demise, those who knew his soul as one with their own will always know who he was and what he represented. He embodied the world in all of its variegated shades and hues of possibility. We felt him and will continue to feel him until our own time comes to transcend this mortal coil.
Since G-d is Love, Michael was an avatar of that encompassing and total love descended amongst men and he left us like he found us, gasping in wonder at the sheer breadth of probability inherent within the diversity of the human experience.
And in the presence of his genius, even if only for a short while, the Great Sadness lifted and we knew that there was no happy without sad, no good without bad. We danced and sang with him and continue to observe his trajectory as he soars out past the strato, meso and exo-spheres and into the Infinite. The sound of his voice echoes through our lives like a soft, gentle lullaby, reminding us that we are the world indeed and that the love he shared was the love we live bound one to the next by a rising and majestic song.
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