my mj valedictorian speech

there are a couple of things i have realized about michael jackson since he left us all sad and questioning.

first, michael jackson didn't become odd and eccentric. michael jackson always was odd and eccentric. i've watched interviews with him when he was young and abc-ing it up and older and in his red leather signature and in each interview, he was awkward and sensitive and seemingly misplaced in the world. in each interview he talked about having a different pet (boa constrictor, peacock, monkey), in each interview he struggled to answer questions about true friends, (diana ross is a close friend i think? we tell each other everything), in each interview he talks about a normal life as an unfamiliar concept. questions about favourite foods and activities and what he does to unwind stump him completely. he seems to be holding those questions in his mind as someone would a foreign but wonderful notion.

the second thing i've realized about michael jackson is that the 90's were a horrible time for him. still performing, still on tour, still churning out music like only a musical madman could the downward trajectory had begun and i'm sure he never quite understood why. why did everyone love him in the 80's? accept him? celebrate him? then turn on him? expect him to act differently than we've always known him to act? it must have been so hard for him to understand. he must have taken it very personally.

and the songs kept coming.

i watched a fairly recent interview with barbara walters and i could not believe how michael jackson knew better than anyone how michael jackson was viewed. this was a tortured, sad, very much alone man. barbara asked him at one point how he plans to keep his children from the wacko jacko insults when they must inevitably join the world for school and so forth, to which michael replied with a hollow chuckle 'now that's the problem. and i invite you to help me come up with a solution'.

how tragic and knowing.

i think he did have true connections in his life but whether or not he recognized them as such i'm not sure. lisa marie presley was one of those and if you're interested she has a really great letter on the matter on her my space page. elizabeth taylor, eddie murphy, even the late princess diana i know were all friends in high places and i know they saw in him what those who love him do, but how much were these people actually a part of his life. his day to day. did he have a day to day?

michael said that when his son was born the only way he could stop him from crying was to sit him on the floor and dance for him. he'd dance for him for hours. he danced for all of us.

he was our performer. and because he was ours we owed him something back.

did we give it to him? did we accept his gift with thanks? or did we take and raise the bar of our expectations?

people always say that michael jackson was born to perform. that on stage, he was home. i wonder if that's true because there, no one asked him questions he couldn't answer. because there, he could express himself fully within the comfortable confines of his creativity.

his life was his performance and especially in his later years when scandal became more press-worthy than music he allowed that to be. the line between reality and the act blurred but i would argue it never was there to begin with. michael never left the stage. nobody let him.

so there's all this stuff to swallow and all the other things we know are true and sad of his childhood and adult life and you think HOW, how did this person even make it to 50?

and the answer to that is he believed in a good and decent world populated by good and decent people and despite a life full of proof to the contrary, michael jackson kept going because he desired love and believed it was in store for him.

just around the next corner.

i realized yesterday after three days of moping around that we should be thinking now of what michael jackson would want and that it certainly wouldn't involve walking around feeling sorry for ourselves.

michael jackson's message was always a simple one, perhaps overly so, of love and hope and brotherhood and i for one plan to honor him not by scrutinizing his life and the hardships he endured and how his face changed from year to year, but by dancing my heart out every time his songs come on and i invite you to join me in the mission.

turn up the music! slap on your dancing loafers! feel that funky fever!

michael made music to enjoy and so enjoy it! it's a gift unlike any other and thankfully we get to keep it though he's gone! it's what we do with it now that's important and i say we crank it up and moonwalk down the streets!

celebrate life cause it's good and present and we have so much to share with each other! accept people for who they are! without judgement or expectation!

love your friends and your family and tell them often! fill the world with messages of love!

wear a sparkly glove and be proud!

sing 'we are the world' with your friends and 'man in the mirror' in the shower!

it is, truly, what michael jackson would have wanted.