My Final Farewell to Michael Jackson...

Michael Jackson is an American Pop Icon. He transcended so many firsts and there will likely be no other like him, ever. With his passing, he will elude all the people that feel the need to follow his unique lifestyle and will now find peace in his final resting place after 50 years on this earth.

And what a 50 years it was. 50 years may not sound like a lot to want to live, but truly, his life had it all. If anything Michael Jackson wanted, he pretty much had. He worked his way to the top with an unprecedented amount of talent. I don't think anyone could argue the fact that he was the greatest entertainer of all time. I don't think anyone even is a close second. And he shared it with the world...

-But at a huge cost.

In anything, something great comes with a price. You always hear that he never had his childhood and his insecurities created demons that he just couldn’t seem to elude in his lifetime, despite all the money and fame you could ever expect. And he exceeded it all. In his lifetime, he made close to a Billion Dollars, and now he sits about 400 million in debt despite being the all time greatest selling artist and owning the catalogues to the Beatles and Elvis's greatest songs. This is estimated at around 400 million dollars. This adds to the mystery of Michael Jackson, but what is he REALLY about?Michael Jackson is really about the music, isn't he?

Yes, let's start there. He was a musical genius, no doubt.

He had a world of talent and once he hit that stage, a new person appeared. He wrote music, danced, created elaborate music videos and created style and everything in trend setting a pop music star could. He evolved in many forms in his career like Elvis did, and thus creating more attention along the way.You can start with his appearance. Many called him a freakshow. He was a plastic surgery nightmare.
He should've been the poster child for Joan Rivers of the dangers of it. He only ever admitted to having 2 nose jobs, in a blatant lie to try to diminish his obsession with his big African American nose. Addicted to cosmetic surgeries? Check!!
The trademarked Rhinestone Glove? He is reported to have started to wear it on one hand to disguise the Vitaligo from ruining the pigmentation of his skin. Over the years, he obviously bleached his skin to even this process out of this disorder, but it let him looking very white. Not at all like the African American he was. He evened out his skin colour by wearing a massive amount of make-up; So much in fact, that he looked freakish and like a cross dresser; Eye-liner, lipstick, blush, mascara. Many times, you couldn’t tell him and Latoya apart. Yet, nobody talked about how odd this was...
It was obvious that Michael Jackson was very vain. His hair and appearance became an obsession that only added to his peculiar lifestyle choices. He created a Wonderland Neverland Ranch to compensate for the lack of childhood he never had and surrounded himself with kids all the time. His closest friends were kids like McCauley Culkin, Cory Feldman, and many others that outgrew his interest. Whether or not he was a pedophile isn't the issue. He was never convicted of it, so we can only go with what we know. But what bothers me about this guy is with all his money and fame and entourage, how do you pay off a civil suit of an accuser that costs you 20 million dollars, and then admit on TV to millions of viewers that you still allow children to sleep in bed with you?

How is anyone that stupid?!

I want to love Michael Jackson for his altruistic heart. The amount of charity that he gave, the moments and music he created in our lives, but I needed him to meet me half way. I think the majority of people will choose to look at the artist, not the person and all of his human indiscretions. And I would like to be a person who can do that.However, I can't help but draw comparisons to what we create stars to be that they aren't. A genius like Bobby Fischer who was great at Chess and an unparalleled genius of the game, but suffered greatly in everyday life, and quite honestly, was a miserable human being. People want him to be the person that their talent reflects, but is this fair? Many celebrities are simply horrible people, but just very good at what they do in their trades. Does this mean that you have to be a great person just because you are famous? How would someone like Kobe Bryant compare?

How could you really live up to the pressure of all Michael Jackson's fame as a person? The answer is simple. -You can't. Your status can only be eulogized in death that which will make people forget your eccentrics in life and allow your legend to live on in the minds of those who will keep you alive in the press. Just look at the attention this man has created in the past 2 weeks of his passing. I think MJ himself is looking down in absolute glee to see how much he is loved, and all the attention he so greatly craved.

I think death was the perfect escape for this man. I think he was just too much of a perfectionist and simply too vain to age as poorly as he was. All he was known for since he was 5 years old was being the entertainer that he was. Taking that away from him would simply have killed him anyway. So I think again, Michael got what he wanted. To slip out before the world saw him for what he really feared the most.

-To be just an ordinary man.

That would've been his worst nightmare.But regardless of all these toxicology reports coming back of his heart being overwhelmed with all of the prescription drugs that he was reportedly taking or not, it clear that a 50 year old man in his weight class was doing something to go into Cardiac Arrest. In fact, I think that there will be many things in the near future that will come to light about Michael Jackson's life that will make people look down on his life and legend. But as for me, I have already allowed the great Michael Jackson to be who he thought he needed to be to live his life in order to be the Icon he was. I don't expect him to be perfect, and in fact I know that he was a lot weirder than I would care to know.But he was a great performer and a master of his trade who always created attention and had the world's attention like no other. Not even Princess Diana could say that.

So I will let his critics say what they want about the man, while I admire the artist for what he was…

An American Pop Star Icon and the Greatest Entertainer this world has ever seen.

Rest in Peace.