Michael Jackson - Man In The Mirror

When I think of Michael Jackson, I like to remember the young boy. The young man who had such an incredible talent. He was just a year older than I am and I remember watching the animated Jackson 5 cartoon series on Saturday mornings. Funny now that we think that fascination with big families erupted with big families with the rise of Jon and Kate. When I was young we watched The Brady Bunch, a fictional blended family of six and The Partridge Family, a fictional family of five (if five could be considered large) that traveled around in a bus asking people to get happy as they traveled around the country asking everyone to "Come on Get Happy."



We watched cartoons about two real life families as they performed songs that caused preteens to run out and buy their 45's. I'll have to confess I have the song ABC downloaded onto my iPod.




The Young Man who seemed to burst onto the Pop Scene in the 80's was a brilliant performer and with hits like "Thriller" and "Billie Jean" you can't gloss over his talent.

It is his personal life that seemed to be a train wreck in the making. Charges of child molestation, sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber, trying to purchased the bones of John Merrick, the "Elephant Man." massive debt, short lived marriages, family feuds, dangling his son from a balcony, they all provided the gossip mills with lots to talk about the man some called Wacko Jacko.

Now with rumors that an injection of Demerol being bandied about shadows of Anna Nichole Smith cannot help but be raised.

When all is said and done, what will be said of Michael Jackson the man? It is undeniable that he had an amazing talent. He was a man who's music crossed race and age lines. He was truly the King of Pop.



Michael Jackson August 29, 1959-June 25, 2009