June 29, 2009

• What a week it has been.

  I’ve played medical taxi twice– once taking my teenage daugher for oral surgery (wisdom teeth), later taking my wife’s co-worker/friend for vocal cord surgery. I’ve visited the campus of Regis University to consult with my advisor about my graduate program that begins, officially, tomorrow. I took care of said daughter post-surgery. I laughed in horror and consoled and supported as my wife was told she needed a $700 shot. Three celebrities died (Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon, and Michael Jackson) as well as thousands of other human beings around the globe. And, not least importantly, I made a quasi-triumphant return to Xanga.

  Everyone else has shared their thoughts on Michael Jackson, so I might as well do the same. The man was an icon. If you are 30something years old, like me, he’s a part of your formative years. I clearly recall music class in 3rd grade and whatever game we may have played– Musical Chairs,
  Freeze Dance– most often the song of choice (by us third-graders) was “Beat It.” In fifth grade we convinced our teacher to buy the “We Are the World” record (yes, record) and play it in class.

  Unfortunately, in his latter years, MJ was more a target of suspicion and ridicule than regarded as the great musical artist he was. No doubt he did bring much of it on himself. There were extremely complex psychological machinations leading to his desire to so radically alter his appearance. As for calling him a child molestor, well, I can’t think of many worse crimes, but the fact remains that he was proven guilty of nothing. I still believe that for the most part, although he probably didn’t have much sense of appropriate boundaries, he was just trying to recover and relive a lost youth, a childhood he was never allowed to have. It seems hard to deny, to me, that this man had his heart in the right place. Look at what he did with USA for Africa. Consider the messages in songs like “Black or White” or “They Don’t Care About Us.”

  His death was shocking, but like Elvis Presley and John Lennon before him, it just somehow feels as if he wasn’t meant to become old.

  In other news, I’m pleased to see that so many of my old friends are still around here on Xanga. I have to laugh at people commenting how they’ve been on here– a year!– or even more– two years! Maybe I came across as condescending when I spoke of my longevity here and how these futile and insipid attempts at Xanga “celebrity” are not only nothing new, but are most of all like Kansas described– dust in the wind. If so, I apologize. If you’re trying to carve out a legitimate presence here, and you want to get noticed, you go right ahead. It matters not what your join date is. Just remember that there are those of us who have been around this block many times and, when you do seek advice, we know of what we speak.

  • 12:28 am
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