Michael Jackson — the multi-talented performer who never really lived
While never a great fan of Michael Jackson, I always appreciated his talent. Just to watch his music videos was to see a performer doing what he was born to do. The flexibility of his movements, all in perfect sync with the music.
While we may have envied his talent and the success which he achieved, in large part because of that talent, we with smaller talents and much less material success, may well have found more happiness in our lives than did the late King of Pop. Yes, Jackson enjoyed a level of success that none have since equaled and few could even imagine, but happiness seemed to elude him.
His childhood was without friends his own age, his adolescence spent entirely in the public eye and his adulthood lacking both privacy and sustaining human companionship. Perhaps he regularly sought the company of children and teenagers to make up for the relationships missing from his own youth. He never did seem to have any close friends, missing, in his abbreviated life, the kind of human contact which makes life meaningful to all of us.
And he never seemed comfortable in his own skin. As the AP put it in their piece on his passing, “As years went by, he became an increasingly freakish figure. His skin became lighter and his nose narrower.”
His success thus apparently came at a terrible cost. Perhaps the most gifted musical performer of all time, he never really seemed at home in this world. And I, never a great fan of his, find myself strangely moved by his passing, as if mourning for a bright-eyed child, stricken with cancer at a very young age and dying before he had the chance to live.
Because it seems that while Michael Jackson brought so much joy to so many through his gifts, he never found that joy himself. He seemed to have missed out on living.
Today, as we mourn his passing, we remember his talents and the price he paid for his success. May we find what he lacked. And he find the peace that eluded him in this world.
Latest posts by B. Daniel Blatt (Posts)
- Michael Jackson — the multi-talented performer who never really lived - June 25, 2009
- How Obama can truly change the tone in Washington - May 21, 2009
- What Carrie Prejean didn’t say - May 20, 2009
- Pelosi lied; The left-wing sighed - May 19, 2009
- Nancy’s nemesis in a nutshell - May 19, 2009
Print This Post
You are exactly right! What so many don’t seem to understand is he never was able to live a “normal” life. He had to create his own world, To us that may seem weird but to him that was his normal, it gave him his privacy, and he created his world. Its a shame he had to do that, it’s actually very sad. He will be very missed in this world because I’m sure he had so much more to give. Hopefully He has found Peace now…
I totally agree its a sad moment to lose a talented man as michael jackson. I wasnt a huge fan of his either but give the man respect and also his family. We all have things we arent proud of that we have done in our lives. This man never had the childhood alot of us had and took maybe for granted. I hope he was right with the Lord. Theres only going to be one to judge this man. God Bless and give his family strength in the following days.
you didn’t have to go into detail about his looks in that nasty way…
Don’t really know if you are being truthful, because it don’t sound honest.
, when u wrote about mourning his death..
If you columist in this site don’t have nothing nice to say about Michael Jackson,
don’t go tarnashing his name. Let him rest in PEACE..
I LOVE YOU KING OF POP RIP
oh people please……wha wha wha…I’m a huge friggin pop star and my life is so horibble, I never had a childhood…wha wha wha….
tell me…what about not having a “normal” childhood…makes it ok to be sexually and emotinoally abusive to children? Do you really mean to suggest that because he didn’t have a “normal” childhood that it was ok for him to put children in pecuiliar and abnormal situiations?
You peple need to re-exam your priorities. I wouldn’t have let that man even look at my child.
You all kill me….yes, I have respect for his talent…but that’s it…he wasn’t anything to me other than A PERFORMER…you people are making him a god…and god knows – god don’t want to be associated with him…god loves children…but not like Michael did……..
What a poignant review of MJ. However, Michael
was very secretive and he had many joys in life and
some joys that the public are unaware of.
So now he is with the angels, experiencing peace and love without judgement.
God Bless You Michael
Hm-m… Why are you, anonymously nasty people, still searching for news of Michael Jackson, which is the only way you’d ever come across this post? Get a life already. While DeLeon’s column may be in questionable taste, he is a professional journalist, while your comments are unquestionably barely literate, not to mention the weird way you identify with Michael Jackson as a victim, which is best left to shrinks. He should have devoted some time to seeing those, and so should you.