Nothing Gold can stay

Like Most people I was sad to hear about the passing of Michael Jackson. No matter what we all think of his personal peccadilloes he was a father, a son, a brother, and a friend. He died quite young and the people who loved him will miss him. Long after the public memorials are over people will mourn him privately for the rest of their lives. The Onion made a funny yet incredibly tasteless joke about the fact that he "died at age 12." And that got me thinking. As tributes and memorials fill my television I can't help but note that that all the praise is tempered by a focus on his personal shortcomings. The plastic surgery, the child molestation accusations, and the increasingly odd behavior. His legacy may never be what it should have been because he has spent the better part of 20 years taking a sledgehammer to it. Legends die young. That's just how it is. Marlon Brando was arguably as brilliant an actor as James Dean. But Dean died at the height of his fame and at the pinnacle of his talent. Marlon Brando had an additional 40 years in which he became obese and made films like Don Juan Demarco. Mr. Jackson’s father-in-law Elvis Presley died just as his legacy was beginning to take a hit. He had gone from a bluesy rock sex-symbol, possibly the first one, to a bloated spectacle on the Vegas stage. Can you imagine if he'd lived another 20 years? Michael Jackson made some pretty catchy music in the 90's but the third millennium was not kind to the King of Pop, just as he was not kind to the people who loved him and wanted to believe in him. I was in elementary school when he released Thriller. And my brother and I zombie danced in our living rooms as I'm sure you did too. But in high school I learned about the molestation accusations. I believed them wholeheartedly. I still do. And it was a disappointment on par with the day I realized that my seemingly indomitable parents sometimes got scared and often cried. It felt like the moment when I realized that few of us grow up to be the person we thought we'd be. A comedian once remarked that if it was true that we can all grow up to be whatever we want, its curious that he's never been in a room full of ballerinas and space cowboys. Michael Jackson's childlike refusal to admit that we all grow up and go to work, and adulthood is scary and fraught with responsibilities we find overwhelming, felt like a betrayal. Real art comes from the truth and Michael Jackson refused to live with the truth. Thriller is brilliant because it was not only a pop record but one that moved our bodies and excited us. Even Bad and Dangerous had songs about the way he saw the world and what it was at the time. Black or White? Man in the Mirror? Those are songs that are honest. But when Jackson's appearance became a lie and his behavior became like a endless performance art piece, he managed to make his brilliant past less relevant and venerable. We like our legends captured in amber or sealed in a Time Capsule.