Last Updated on February 6, 2022
If you look at the reaction of some Michael Jackson fans, you’d think they lost a family member.  Or their best friend.
I find this quite peculiar.
I think Jackson was an amazing performer, even though he wasn’t my absolute favorite by any means.  I recognize that he, like many other entertainers, have extremely loyal fans, the kind who’ll hear virtually anything reported about their favorite celebrity and side with him no matter what, regardless of how true the rumors actually are.
But still, it’s odd to me.  I remember the same thing about Elvis fans when he died, and even though I was pretty young, I didn’t get it then, either.
There’s no celebrity at all that I can imagine would leave me looking like I’d just been through a war zone.  There’s no famous person I’m so into that I’d feel like my world had just ended upon learning of their death.
There are a very few people in my life, some of them family, some of them friends so close that they are family, whose loss would unquestionably leave me disconsolate for some time.  The difference is that these are people I actually know, people I’ve shared things with, people I’ve had conversations with, people I’ve spent time with, had coffee and shared meals with.  As I’ve given them a part of me, they’ve returned that in a personal relationship.
It’s a character flaw of mine, to be frank, that at times, such relationships do, on my end, go through periods in which they resemble something along the lines of “hero worship.”  Okay, okay, it’s a major character flaw.  But I’m blessed to have a few people in my life who care about me enough to have smacked me around until I was snapped out of it rather than just walking away.
And that, naturally, made us that much closer.
Maybe it’s sadness I feel for these “extreme” Jackson fans:  maybe the faces that show expressions of hopelessness are indications that they’ve never invested in a person who could invest something back on a personal level with them.
Admiring someone from afar is just not the same.  And it never will be.
We’re a celebrity-obsessed culture, where people live vicariously through entertainers.
One of the aspects of this that I find really bizarre is the way in which an everyday person will get involved in these celebrity feuds. Two ordinary people who will never meet their respective celeb-heroes will argue over which one is “better” or which side is “right” in a spat. Ever seen an argument between Aniston and Jolie loyalists? It’s really something to watch.
And of course the Aniston side is right. 🙂
I think it’s just when you really appreciate someones work, particularly when it comes to someone in the arts, it saddens one to think you will never again enjoy an originial piece of their art again. Their art dies with them. There can be imitations, and those who come close, but what made the artist unique is gone for good. Music in particular has such a way of bringing back memories long forgotten. Good times, bad times. Silly times. Music is provocative of moments in our lives in a special way, so It always saddens me when someone of real talent passes away. In a small way, life is never the same without them. Leaving personal politics out of things, the artistry is gone. I am rambling here, but that’s all I can say… the artistry is what will be missed by me. 🙁