Blog Psychologist

Honestly, I am sincerely heartbroken over the loss of Michael Jackson last week. I have been a big fan my whole life. I realize that people younger than I am may not understand why, but there was a time when nothing nor no one was bigger than Michael Jackson. He was an icon, an inspiration and I idolized him.

Now, I know everyone and their mom is talking about his death right now and maybe people are already sick of hearing about it. Well, this isn't that kind of post. Yes, I was a huge fan and could go on for days about it, but it's not the whole reason I'm writing.

I'm writing to address some of the negativity surrounding his life. While I can't pretend to know what it feels like to be famous, let alone since childhood, with your every move followed and analyzed, I'm going to give it a try. You see, I think his family and my family (specifically one side of my family) are similar in that they were both screwed up. If my family had been thrust into the spotlight, it wouldn't have meant our problems would go away. Fame and money, no matter what people think, don't equal mental health and happiness.

So, there we'd be, my family and all our flaws exposed. That's just the flaws he came into fame with. Once fame had it's way with him, he didn't have a chance. No artist today, even as crazy as it is now, can know what Michael went through in the height of his fame. It was a different time, he was more popular, more talented than artists today. He was my generations Elvis only, unlike Elvis, he'd never known anything else. He'd been famous as a young child, everyone wanted a piece of him.

Are we then surprised he was strange? Man, how we loved his originality when he was pumping out records.