Judged Wrong
Yesterday’s memorial for Michael Jackson brought back a lot of memories for me. I loved his music and could easily find myself tapping my foot or singing the lyrics. But then the whole child molestation charges came against him and I quickly judged him and started thinking of him as a bad person. The media ignited this fire more by showing him in goofy situations with his children wearing mask. And then there were the plastic surgeries and so on and so on. The more I heard about him the less I liked him as a person. I can thank the media for that.
But the memorial changed my views of him and I once again was able to appreciate him. He was brilliant and revolutionary and he changed the stage of music for generations to come. But even more, he cared about the world and did a lot for charities. He holds the Guinness Book of World Record for someone who has donated the most to charities.
Then I later learned that because he had his children wear mask in public, he was able to successful shield them from the paparrazzi. His children were able to go out in public without the paparrazzi following them. Why? Because they were unrecognizable. You can’t say that about Suri Cruise of the Pitt twins.
Now I think back to all those pictures of his children wearing mask and I see it as brilliant on his part. He grew up in the spotlight and he knew first hand how it can torture your soul. He loved his children enough to protect them from his own destruction. That speaks volumes to me.
Regardless of how you felt about Michael Jackson, he was a human just like you and me.
July 8th, 2009 at 9:17 am
Kudos to you for admitting you made judgments in the past, but changed your views. We all make assumptions and mistakes, but it takes a strong person to admit that they may have judged too quickly. I am downright sickened by people that I call friends who have said so many harsh things about MJ (and others, as well) and have no regards to what their words are really conveying. And these are people who claim they love everybody and are so religious in their beliefs….would God want us to hate and judge in this manner?
You hit the nail on the head when you said “Regardless of how you felt about Michael Jackson, he was a human just like you and me”. I think people are forgetting this, not only about MJ, but about the human race in general. Everyone wants and needs to be loved, accepted, and celebrated for who they are. People were so quick to love him as a younger person when he was what society deems “normal”, but so very quick to ostracize him as he grew and his eccentricities became apparent. I blame the media for the bulk of this. The media can be a great resource, but they can also be the devil. Like you, I believe MJ was actually very brilliant when it came to keeping his children out of the limelight. He never had the opportunity to live a “normal” childhood. He never played basketball in the streets, ran after his siblings and friends in a game of tag or splashed freely in a pool. If he did, the media was on his tail. By sheltering his children he provided for them a sense of normalcy as best he could.
My heart breaks for his three children along with his family. I pray that they can find the peace and strength to endure whatever lies ahead of them in the coming days, weeks and years. I pray that the media respects the privacy of his children (although I doubt they will) and they can grieve and heal in peace.