Michael Jackson

I was in Philadelphia, my friend Laura's apartment, when I learned that Michael Jackson had died. Growing up, I didn't listen to his music much. Most of the folks in the circles I frequented spoke of him disparagingly and I wrote him off as another 'person of the world' as I listened to my CCM favorites.

It wasn't until college that I really listened to anything he had done. That's when I realized his talent. That's when I began to wonder about the musical genius who had become the eccentric, scandalized weirdo. Would the real Michael please stand up? I'm also pretty sure that at one point or other I bought Thriller on vinyl.

I don't know that I would ever consider myself a fan of his, although for years I have admired his talent and wondered about him as a person. Is he a freak? a creep? a criminal? or just another person who couldn't handle excessive fame and fortune? I randomly caught one of those E! True Hollywood Stories about him years ago, and every time I would hear a song of his, or of J5, playing, I would get really sad for the man he had become and the experiences that drove him there - not to mention the pain and negativity he brought to the lives of an unknown number of individuals.

Michael Jackson as a whole is incomprehensible, but Michael Jackson the eccentric really is not that hard to understand. All you have to do is listen to his record Childhood. So much of what he created to be his life appears to be a desperate attempt to find a dream childhood to become something like the elvish Peter Pan. Peter Pan never grew up, and in so many ways, Michael Jackson tried not to.



Childhood
Michael Jackson

Have you seen my Childhood?
I'm searching for the world that I come from
'Cause I've been looking around
In the lost and found of my heart...
No one understands me
They view it as such strange eccentricities...
'Cause I keep kidding around
Like a child, but pardon me...

People say I'm not okay
'Cause I love such elementary things...
It's been my fate to compensate,
For the Childhood
I've never known...

Have you seen my Childhood?
I'm searching for that wonder in my youth
Like pirates in adventurous dreams,
Of conquest and kings on the throne...

Before you judge me, try hard to love me,
Look within your heart then ask,
Have you seen my Childhood?

People say I'm strange that way
'Cause I love such elementary things,
It's been my fate to compensate,
For the Childhood I've never known...

Have you seen my Childhood?
I'm searching for that wonder in my youth
Like fantastical stories to share
The dreams I would dare, watch me fly...

Before you judge me, try hard to love me.
The painful youth I've had

Have you seen my Childhood...