Michael Jackson
We have to admit that Michael Jackson was an intriguing person. No matter what you thought of him, you probably had more questions than answers about him. This week there was a grand memorial service for the man who became known as the "King of Pop" in the music world.
I once heard that the lady who operates the Galilean Home was invited by President George H. W. Bush to a white house dinner to honour volunteers. She sat across from President Bush and next to Michael Jackson. In the story I heard, she said that Michael Jackson came in late and sat through the dinner without speaking and mostly keeping his head down. She said he seemed like a poor lost boy and she wanted to just take him home and love him. I don't know how true that story is, but that is how I heard it.
In March 2001, Michael Jackson gave a speech at Oxford University in England. In that speech he gave some insights about himself. Here are a few quotes from the speech:
"All of us are products of our childhood. But I am the product of a lack of a childhood, an absence of that precious and wondrous age when we frolic playfully without a care in the world, basking in the adoration of parents and relatives, where our biggest concern is studying for that big spelling test come Monday morning.
Those of you who are familiar with the Jackson Five know that I began performing at the tender age of five and that ever since then, I haven't stopped dancing or singing.
But while performing and making music undoubtedly remain as some of my greatest joys, when I was young I wanted more than anything else to be a typical little boy.
I wanted to build tree houses, have water balloon fights, and play hide and seek with my friends.
But fate had it otherwise and all I could ever do was envy the laughter and playtime that seemed to be going on all around me.
There was no respite from my professional life.
But on Sundays I would go Pioneering, the term used for the missionary work that Jehovah's Witnesses do.
And it was then that I was able to see the magic of other people's childhood."
Later in the speech he said:
"Ours is a generation that has witnessed the abrogation of the parent-child covenant.
Psychologists are publishing libraries of books dealing with the destructive effects of denying one's children the unconditional love that is so necessary to the healthy development of their minds and character.
And because of all the neglect, too many of our kids have, essentially, to raise themselves.
They are growing more distant from their parents, grandparents and other family members, as all around us the indestructible bond that once glued together the generations unravels.
This violation has bred a new generation, Generation O let us call it, that has now picked up the torch from Generation X.
The O stands for a generation that has everything on the outside - wealth, success, fancy clothing and fancy cars, but an aching emptiness on the inside.
That cavity in our chests, that barrenness at our core, that void in our centre is the place where the heart once beat and shich love once occupied."
He went on to say:
"Love, ladies and gentlemen, is the human family's most precious legacy, it richest bequest, its golden inheritance.
And it is a treasure that is handed down from one generation to another.
Previous ages may not have had the wealth we enjoy. Their houses may have lacked electricity, and they squeezed their many kids into small houses without central heating.
But those homes had no darkness, nor were they cold. They were lit bright with the glow of love and they were warmed snugly by the very heat of the human heart.
Parents, undistracted by the lust for luxury and status, accorded their children primacy in their lives."
Later in the speech he spoke of his relationship with his father:
" My father is a tough man and he pushed my brothers and me hard, from the earliest age, to be the best performers we could be.
He had great difficulty showing me affection. He never really told me he loved me.
And he never really complimented me either. If I did a great show, he would tell me it was a good show. And if I did an OK show, he would say nothing.
He seemed intent, above all else, on making us a commercial success. And at that he was more than adept.
My father was a managerial genius and my brothers and I owe our professional success, in no smlall measure, to the forceful way that he pushed us.
He trained me as a showman and under his guidance I couldn't miss a step.
But what I really wanted was a Dad. I wanted a father who showed me love. And my father never did that.
He never said I love you while looking me straight in the eye, he never played a game with me. He never gave me a piggyback ride, he never threw a pillow at me, or a water balloon."
I think that speech tells us a lot about Michael Jackson as a man. Men like Michael Jackson may puzzle us. But we can learn from their experiences in life. We can observe the effects on a man who had no childhood. We can mourn what could have been. For even though he was extremely famous and popular in our generation, he was a man. He was created in the image of God.
When he died he passed from this life into the next and he met his creator, the one who longed to be a Father to him. At the memorial service, the pastor who prayed the benediction said it well when he said, "and now the King of Pop bends the knee before the King of Kings".
posted by Meredith @ 3:45 PM
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