http://www.care2.com/greenliving/tribute-to-michael-jackson.html
Tribute to Michael Jackson
By Deepak Chopra, Intent.com
Michael Jackson will be remembered, most likely, as a shattered icon, a pop genius who wound up a mutant of fame. That’s not who I will remember, however. His mixture of mystery, isolation, indulgence, overwhelming global fame, and personal loneliness was intimately known to me. For twenty years I observed every aspect, and as easy as it was to love Michael — and to want to protect him — his sudden death yesterday seemed almost fated.
Two days previously he had called me in an upbeat, excited mood. The voice message said, “I’ve got some really good news to share with you.” He was writing a song about the environment, and he wanted me to help informally with the lyrics, as we had done several times before. When I tried to return his call, however, the number was disconnected. (Terminally spooked by his treatment in the press, he changed his phone number often.) So I never got to talk to him, and the music demo he sent me lies on my bedside table as a poignant symbol of an unfinished life.
When we first met, around 1988, I was struck by the combination of charisma and woundedness that surrounded Michael. He would be swarmed by crowds at an airport, perform an exhausting show for three hours, and then sit backstage afterward, as we did one night in Bucharest, drinking bottled water, glancing over some Sufi poetry as I walked into the room, and wanting to meditate.
That person, whom I considered (at the risk of ridicule) very pure, still survived — he was reading the poems of Rabindranath Tagore when we talked the last time, two weeks ago. Michael exemplified the paradox of many famous performers, being essentially shy, an introvert who would come to my house and spend most of the evening sitting by himself in a corner with his small children. I never saw less than a loving father when they were together (and wonder now, as anyone close to him would, what will happen to them in the aftermath).
Michael’s reluctance to grow up was another part of the paradox. My children adored him, and in return he responded in a childlike way. He declared often, as former child stars do, that he was robbed of his childhood. Considering the monstrously exaggerated value our society places on celebrity, which was showered on Michael without stint, the public was callous to his very real personal pain. It became another tawdry piece of the tabloid Jacko, pictured as a weird changeling and as something far more sinister.
It’s not my place to comment on the troubles Michael fell heir to from the past and then amplified by his misguided choices in life. He was surrounded by enablers, including a shameful plethora of M.D.s in Los Angeles and elsewhere who supplied him with prescription drugs. As many times as he would candidly confess that he had a problem, the conversation always ended with a deflection and denial. As I write this paragraph, the reports of drug abuse are spreading across the cable news channels. The instant I heard of his death this afternoon, I had a sinking feeling that prescription drugs would play a key part.
The closest we ever became, perhaps, was when Michael needed a book to sell primarily as a concert souvenir. It would contain pictures for his fans but there would also be a text consisting of short fables. I sat with him for hours while he dreamily wove Aesop-like tales about animals, mixed with words about music and his love of all things musical. This project became “Dancing the Dream” after I pulled the text together for him, acting strictly as a friend. It was this time together that convinced me of the modus vivendi Michael had devised for himself: to counter the tidal wave of stress that accompanies mega-stardom, he built a private retreat in a fantasy world where pink clouds veiled inner anguish and Peter Pan was a hero, not a pathology.
This compromise with reality gradually became unsustainable. He went to strange lengths to preserve it. Unbounded privilege became another toxic force in his undoing. What began as idiosyncrasy, shyness, and vulnerability was ravaged by obsessions over health, paranoia over security, and an isolation that grew more and more unhealthy. When Michael passed me the music for that last song, the one sitting by my bedside waiting for the right words, the procedure for getting the CD to me rivaled a CIA covert operation in its secrecy.
My memory of Michael Jackson will be as complex and confused as anyone’s. His closest friends will close ranks and try to do everything in their power to insure that the good lives after him. Will we be successful in rescuing him after so many years of media distortion? No one can say. I only wanted to put some details on the record in his behalf. My son Gotham traveled with Michael as a roadie on his “Dangerous” tour when he was seventeen. Will it matter that Michael behaved with discipline and impeccable manners around my son? (It sends a shiver to recall something he told Gotham: “I don’t want to go out like Marlon Brando. I want to go out like Elvis.” Both icons were obsessions of this icon.)
His children’s nanny and surrogate mother, Grace Rwaramba , is like another daughter to me. I introduced her to Michael when she was eighteen, a beautiful, heartwarming girl from Rwanda who is now grown up. She kept an eye on him for me and would call me whenever he was down or running too close to the edge. How heartbreaking for Grace that no one’s protective instincts and genuine love could avert this tragic day. An hour ago she was sobbing on the telephone from London. As a result, I couldn’t help but write this brief remembrance in sadness. But when the shock subsides and a thousand public voices recount Michael’s brilliant, joyous, embattled, enigmatic, bizarre trajectory, I hope the word “joyous” is the one that will rise from the ashes and shine as he once did.
Intent.com provides content and community for who you aspire to be–personally, socially and globally.
related stories
-
(66 comments)
-
(9 comments)
-
(6 comments)
Robyn
Melissa
Deepak
Eric
Dave
Dr. Brent
Isha
Susan
Delia
Michelle
Wendy
Megan
Hilary
Ann
Judi
Ronnie
Kelly
Lily
Terri
Betsy
Cait
Andrew
Jana
Annie B.
Veronica
143 comments
add your comment »WE ARE ALL GIFTS FROM GOD, MICHAEL WAS A GIFT FROM GOD TO US. Our job now is to continue what he started and pass on the many messages he wrote in his songs, to ALL children and help make this a better place for the future generations to come. There will be tears on earth, but cheers in heaven. R.I.P. Michael.
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
Why everybody realised that he was the most valuable man on the earth after he died?!Why?!..until now everybody threatened, judged, acused him of the most terible things!!!Why now everybody loves and appreciates michael...where were you when he really nedded you?!....HE IS the most amazing, carying, beautiful, charming person on the planet....For me he's still alive!!and maybe happy...hope so!...I love you more applehead!:*:x...YOU (m) lost a friend..a friend of children, people, life, love, planet....our friend....our best friend!!!..he is God's glow!
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/artist-of-the-millenium PLEASE SIGN AND PASS THIS PETITION ON FOR MICHAEL TO RECEIVE THE ARTIST OF THE MILLENNIUM AWARD HE DESERVED FROM M T V Thank You! R.I.P. Till We Meet, Michael. I Will Love You Until The Day I Die!
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
i luv MJ... thats all i can say...
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
i think michael jackson is one of the most beautiful and inspirational people that has ever lived. i'm grateful to have grown up with his and his brother's music to appreciate him during his lifetime. i'm looking forward to the tribute in vienna september 26th.
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
Michael has brought so much love to this world. For those people who understood him he still does. From where he is now he is watching over their caring souls. Every good deed done makes him happy and tells him that his lessons were perceived.
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
MICHAEL,you are part of my life...I can't imagine my life without you...R.I.P....YOU are an amazing person and a genius for people all over the world...Nobody will ever be like you...I hope that you are in a better place now,which is full of love and care...I wanna you to know that you changed the world,changed the people and changed me...THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BEING PART OF MY LIFE,I WILL KEEP YOU IN MY HEART!!!
I KNOW IT'S BETTER ON THE OTHER SIDE!!!I LOVE YOU,MY DARLIND...YOU WERE AND WILL ALWAYS BE AN ANGEL FOR ME!!!
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
Michael is still with us through his music...I just can't stop listening his songs...For me he was,is and will be forever the best man I've ever known in my life...He is the most talented,the most open,the most sincere,the most beautiful and the most blessed...I see him not like an icon but like my brother...No one will be better than Michael...I MISS YOU SO MUCH,MICHAEL!!!YOU WERE THE SENSE OF MY LIFE,THE REASON WHY I DREAMED ABOUT MANY THINGS...YOU SHOWED ME HOW MY LIFE SHOULD BE AND WHAT I MUST DO TO BE BETTER..."I'M STARTING WITH THE MAN IN THE MIRROR CAUSE I WANNA MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE FOR YOU AND FOR ME"...THANK YOU FOR YOUR LOVE...I'LL KEEP IT IN MY HEART FOREVER...REST IN PEACE AND GOD BLESS YOU!!!
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
Still can't believe he's gone...My heart is crying right now,the world will never be the same without him...Writing that right now makes me so sad and at the same time angry 'cause some people can't shut up and keep talking how crazy he was...I wanna say to you that everything will turns on you back...God hears all shit you say and one thing you all have to do is praying for yourselves...cause you are the real monsters,not Michael...And to the rest of the world who cry with me for him,please never forget THE KING...There is one dream he had... to unit whole world together like brothers and sisters...So let show him that he succeed and that we are one big family due to him...I'm sure he's watching for us now..he's still on the earth and I think he would like to see us in a good way and supporting each other...MICHAEL,THIS WORDS ARE FOR YOU..."REST IN PEACE..PLEASE FORGIVE US FOR ALL BAD THINGS WE DID AND STILL DO TO THE WORLD AND TO YOU...HOPE THAT NOW YOU ARE IN A BETTER PLACE...YOU'LL LIVE FOREVER IN MY SOUL...I'LL BE MISSING YOU"
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
Bravo, Margit! A good example comes from my own family. When they think you have money, they fawn all over you. However, when you need help. the dissapear rather quickly. So I sympathize with MJ on that point.
At the very least he did know his fans truly cared for him. Being serenaded whilst in hospitals during his life must have been nice.
But I agree too that too much love and attention can damage people. Which is why I never bothered the poor man with fan mail or such things. I saw him as close as five feet, and that was plenty for me.
I don't like being mobbed myself, so I'd be horrified to be that famous. Imagine never walking down a street or going to the movies. His house must have been a prison. After all a gilded cage is still a cage.
I hope that now people will realize what the do to one another. Not just to stars, but to the unpopular kids and adults. To outsiders of race, creed, or whatever. We'll never have world peace if we still fight and kill one another in our streets.
Not being able to sleep is no fun. I have to take relaxants myself, or my body is stiff as a board all night. Luckily I take mild doses of safe drugs. Poor Michael was conned into very deadly drugs. I feel nothing but pity and compassion for the poor man. Drugs are a terrible master.
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
Facebook account: