OBLIGATORY MICHAEL JACKSON POST...*SIGH*

I have not been looking forward to this for a number of reasons...not the least of which is that MJ's music is the music of my family's life...name a song and I can see my kids at various ages...various living rooms, bedrooms, backyards, friends, fashions, babysitters, the whole nine-yards....I'm still kind of grieving so a song or memory will set me back a bit...a little teary, a little pain, a little tug....

I can see MTV (yea, when they played music videos, I know)...watching "The Making of Thriller"....my kids lined up in a row in front of the TV...fascinated....memorizing the words AND the dance moves....who were my babies kidding?....they were practicing those head snaps and pelvic things....so was I...

And the conversations that traveled around the table as MJ's appearance became stranger and stranger...and whiter and whiter....and then the accusations.....thankfully my children were older and we didn't have to "explain" things so much...they were moving onward and outward and finding other music and interests....they were outgrowing the King of Pop....

Their Dad and I looked at him this way..."Take the celebrity out of it and make him our neighbor...our freaky, one-gloved, military-apparel-wearing neighbor".....heck no, kids, you are NOT going over there to play...no way on this green earth, I don't care how many chimpanzees are playing on his backyard roller coaster....huh uh....nope....but the guy sure can sing and dance can't he?.....

Good bye Michael....thank you for the memories.....thank you for the talent.....the rest of the stuff you were burdened with I pray you can resolve now in a court of justice and mercy....God be with you...