Monday, June 28, 2010

Shake Your Body Down To The Ground, Billie Jean. The Way You Make Me Feel, I Wanna Be Starting Something. It's Human Nature.

I'm a little late in posting this, but I did write it on the 25th. Better late than never, right?

"We have lost a cultural strand of our DNA" - John C. Mayer

When it comes to losing one of the only legends that people from my generation will ever alive to see, nobody said what losing Michael Jackson really meant than the quote above.

A year ago, I had just enrolled in college and was driving home with Angel when I receive a barrage of texts from Ari telling of the conditions that Michael Jackson was in. When she told me he was dead, I swear the freeway stopped and the sky burst open with a powerful sound. Half of it was a, what the f*ck?! Kind of noise. And the other half was a noise of true sorrow and pain. Angel and I looked at each other, not sure of what to do. If this was even real.

I will never forget that day as long as I live.

That night concluded with Ari, Shane, Angel, and I parading around Burbank blaring every Michael Jackson song at the top of Rogey's speakers. All of us talking about our memories listening to Michael Jackson as children with our parents. Me creating "The Moonwalk Mobile" in the sixth grade for Mrs. Collins' car project. Dancing to any and every Michael Jackson song with Brandon all throughout middle school and high school. Ari and Angel left the car, but Shane and I were still reminising our Michael days. We flipped on the radio and heard what John Mayer had to say about Michael Jackson's death, and almost simultaneously had a breakdown.

In remembering all of our memories of Michael, it occurred to us that our children would never know Michael the way that we did. That was the biggest trip of all. How so much of music's culture today, if you can even call it music would be nothing without Michael. Chris Brown, Ne-Yo, Justin Bieber, even the Jonas Brothers to an extent would be SHIT if it weren't for Michael Jackson.

Imagine music today without any of those artists. Now imagine music if Michael Jackson had never existed.

Can't do it, can you?

My kids. Your kids. Our grandkids will never know how music was morphed within the white sequined glove of one man the way we did. And for that I, you, and we are blessed to have been able to see this gift, even if it was only for a while.

And now a year later, still an avid listener of the King Of Pop, as I'm sure most of you are, Michael Jackson's message still lives on.

Stand up and live yourself.

Forget about your bullshit for a while. Forget about the bullshit that people impose on you. Even things in your life that are serious; just breathe through it. Live for you, and if you do, you'll find others living for you. Living with you. Living by you. We're all here for a purpose, and your purpose is just as important as anybody else's regardless of what you think.

I love you, Michael Joseph Jackson. Thank you for all you've given me and all you will continue to give as long as I have anything to say about it.

August 29, 1958 - June 25, 2009

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