The obligitory Michael Jackson post

We were in England when it happened.  D and I had just come out of a delicious dinner and someone across the street said about how Michael Jackson had died of a heart attack.  We were thinking "No, that couldn't have happened."  We got back to the hotel and turned on CNN and well...

I remember watching the moonwalk being done for the first time.

I remember We Are the World and Hands Across America.

I remember Michael Jackson when he was black. 

I don't know what happened to him.  A friend of mine said that he's been tabloid fodder for the past ten years--and now that he's gone people remember that he was a damn fine musician.  And that's true too.

My heart goes out to those kids--and I suppose this is what I want to say.

It was criminally irresponsible of him not to have updated his will to include the third child.  It is horrific enough that the kids now have lost their father, but they should not have to go a day wondering where they are going to live. They should be able to take comfort in each other, not wondering whether they will be separated or not.

And yet I have friends who have kids who are equally irresponsible.  They don't have a will and they have people who they don't want to raise their kids.  It gets me annoyed.  I had to write a will to adopt, but because they have a working reproductive system they are immortal.  But they aren't.

No one is.  Not even Michael Jackson.

I think that is behind some of the hoopla about his death.  People are thinking , hey, I'm not much older/younger than he was.  I could die.  I'm going to die.  And it is freaky.  But it is also what makes us love life--the knowledge we will leave it someday.

Until that time comes, at least for today, I'm going to hug my husband, turn up the iPod speakers and dance to Thriller.

Comments

[Debberoo]

Actually, Michael Jackson's will does include all three of his children. Blanket was born 21 February, 2002 and the will was written on 7 July, 2002.

In a will a parent can only state who they would like to raise their children and that wish is, of course, taken into consideration by the courts but it is ultimately the court that decides custody not the deceased parent. Michael did state exactly who he wanted to raise his children, should he die while they were still miners, he named his mother and then if she was unwilling or unable to do so then Diana Ross.