Why it's OK to mourn Michael Jackson

As you know, yesterday was a rough day for celebrity icons. First, Farrah Fawcett lost her battle with cancer. Farrah's death saddened me in that she was on one of my favorite shows of ALL TIME.

Seriously, Jaclyn Smith -- MERCY!!!! Ehem.. yeah...
And this picture still makes me shake my head in appreciation of nipples:



Then later in the day Michael Jackson passed suddenly.

While those who of us who knew Farrah was battling cancer expected her death sooner rather than later -- Michael Jackson, on the other hand, was a complete and total shock.

At least to me.

Jess and I were getting texts from people saying he died so we hopped on CNN.com and saw that he was in a coma. Then we reloaded the page.

The headline that appeared drew an audible gasp from the two of us.

He, of the two deaths, was the one that actually drew a reaction from our 20 and 16 year old children. The kids didn't have a clue who Farrah was (sigh).

Of course, I was all over twitter and facebook when it all went down to see people's reactions when Michael died and most were, "OMG, I can't believe it." and "I'm so sad" and so on and so forth.

Then I started to see them, "Oh, he's a pedophile, good riddance." and "Michael was already dead." and comments like that.

And I thought -- "Wow, that makes me sad."

This morning when I popped my ipoop into the player in the car, it just so happened that Say, Say, Say was the first song to play. And I remembered...

So let me tell you why it's OK to mourn Michael -- especially if you're a child of the late 60s through the 70s.

Michael is/was a visual representation of our youth.

Michael was the first celebrity that ignited me and the rest of the world with me.

When he was still black he was ADORABLE.

In fact, I asked my mother if I could marry him if he was 14 years older than me. She, of course, said no that was too big an age difference -- then proceeded to marry a man 13 years her junior (Gawd, I love my mother).

His music and his vision and his charity were legendary.

His concerts were true entertainment (I've never been to one but I watched them on TV).

He was on top of his game in a time of my life when TV was actually good and the characters staring back at me on the screen were not yet walking talking advertisements for botox, anorexia and peroxide.

He was never good with the status quo and pushed boundaries of music and entertainment in general.

We have every right to be sad about the sad ending to a tragic story of what was once a great man.

I think the most tragic aspect of his life was that he was mentally ill and his celebrity prevented him from being diagnosed and treated. He was surrounded by Yes-Men who never questioned anything or did anything to help the man that was self-destructing right in front of their eyes.

His self-loathing was evident in that he made every attempt to wash away the fact that he was a black man. From bleaching his skin to thinning his nose (beyond human limits) to having blonde-haired, blue-eyed children.

He also had an obsessive need to recreate his lost youth.

What he did or didn't do with the children he was accused of molesting is really not anything we'll ever really know.

I do know one thing -- after the first accusation of molestation any child after that that slept at his house and then accused him of impropriety was at the very least 1/2 their parents' fault.

What parent in their right mind would send their child to sleep at a strange (in more than one sense of the word) man's house unsupervised? ESPECIALLY if there are already accusations of sexual misconduct with other children.

I find those parents disgusting. They intentionally put their children in harm's way so that they could steal a bit of the Jackson empire.

I sincerely hope they get what's coming to them.

But I blogress...

Michael Jackson has left this world but not before leaving a big-ass white shimmery glove print on it.

How many of us will leave that kind of legacy behind?

Is it a shame that mental illness destroyed this man and caused him to make poor judgments and that he had no true friends to rely on to help him see and treat his mental illness? Absolutely.

But does that mean we can't mourn the man he once was? No.

I mourn his talent, his bravery, his vision, his aid to the less fortunate and his fire.

Thank you for your contribution to my youth, for sparking my imagination and opening up all the boundaries my mind set on what was possible in this life.

No amount of nose surgeries or pet monkeys will take away what you gave to the 12 year old Tina-cious.

So -- to two icons of the days of yore I say, thank you.

May you finally enjoy the peace of no longer living under the scrutiny of this cruel world.

We will miss you.