Learning to guard my tongue.
Michael Jackson died. You may have heard.
Aside from initial nostalgia for the defining cultural presence of my childhood, the liking of whom decided one’s coolness in the first through third grades, this is not life-changing news.
What is significant is the self-awareness I discover upon reflection. In the past few days I’ve become pretty emotional, because the way I see people reacting to the death of Michael Jackson isn’t something I like. It’s bringing out some of the uglier instincts of humans, and I don’t like seeing this in people I like and people I love. (Or myself, but I’ll get to that below.)
So when someone wonders aloud how we can make this enormous hoopla mourning a, yeah, brilliant musician and showman who was more importantly a child molester, I get upset. I’m not upset because of the facts of the situation, necessarily, because neither I nor anyone I know was there to tell me what happened to any of the kids whose families sued MJ for alleged child abuse.
But I can say that I’m human, and would hate to know that when I die what will overshadow any positive legacy I leave is gossip and mudslinging about my mistakes, when gossip and mudslinging do not change the past.
It’s smart to take the Michael Jackson cases and say to oneself, how can I use this to improve my life? Can I make sure my kids are safe and with trustworthy adults? Absolutely.
Does it change anything to trash Michael Jackson as a child molester? Does it make any kids anywhere safer to say that Michael Jackson’s musical legacy is a pittance compared to the charges leveled against him? Absolutely not.
Incidentally, at the time that these thoughts were arising in my head, I had been reading The Year of Living Biblically
He repeatedly struggles to keep from saying anything negative about others, and it made me aware of how much humor is made at the expense of others. How much time we spend hashing out the faults of others for no purpose other than to entertain. (I have enough faults of my own, why do I need to expound on the failings of other people?)
Of course, my own reaction to others’ gossip, especially on the topic of Michael Jackson, has been problematic. I haven’t been shy about sharing my opinions of gossipers, and in this regard I’m just as bad as they are.
I’m reminded of the Denis Leary song, “I’m An Asshole.” Gossiping about the unchangeable past is probably behaviour we all could all stand to excise from our daily habits. In my quest for “fairness” or something, my outing the gossipers is just as bad.
If I don’t have something nice to say, next time I just won’t say anything.
And maybe I’ll go read some world news headlines, for a little practical grounding.
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If you had a like button for our blog entries, I would click it for this one.
Word.
Just have to say that I’m over it, and I got called out by someone on FB – but MAN, I can’t believe that the city of LA paid for it, I can’t believe that all this hullabloo is being paid to it, and there are still people protesting their right to a free and fair election.
And in China the uprising there is going to be dealt with very viciously.
I’m over the whole thing, and I just don’t need to hear it anymore. I think MJ was talented, but as a society, we both are fixated and have ADD. Ugh.
Oh look! There’s a chicken.
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