An American Tragedy

What a tragedy & maybe a blessed relief at the same time. Michael Jackson gave so many so much pleasure, yet couldn't find much in his own life. He needed unconditional love, & thought he could get it by having children (no matter how they were conceived, or who were the actual biological parents, he raised them, so they were his kids). By all accounts he adored them, & they adored him. He became what he never had: a good & loving father, who had his children's best interests at heart. He did the best he could, even though he had no role model to emulate.

My daughter remarked that it was so wrong that Joe Jackson outlived his son, but maybe it was inevitable. From everything I've read & observed, he was a monster, & I don't use that term lightly. He was the reason Michael Jackson became who he was. Apparently there was no room for sensitivity or sweetness or unconditional love in the Jackson household. Anything that got in the way of making money to support the family was forbidden. The real surprise was that the entire family wasn't quite as tragically screwed up as Michael, but then again, he & Janet were the most successful, & both of them had few good words for their father. He didn't even let his kids call him "Father" or "Dad". It was always "Joseph". From the first time that he told Michael that he was ugly (a bald-faced lie, obviously) or had a big nose, the damage was done. Even though he was a really cute kid who grew up to be a really good-looking man (before all the surgery), Michael didn't really see "the man in the mirror". He saw someone who looked too much like his father (who WAS ugly), even though I think he looked more like his mother, who was beautiful. He suffered from "body dismorphia", which is the same disorder anorexics & bulemics have, & the outcome of that is never good.

I think Michael used plastic surgery & skin bleaching to become the farthest thing from his father that he could imagine. I don't think that he didn't want to be a black man, which is something Quincy Jones said in a recent interview, but that he didn't want to become THAT black man (his father), & even though the means he used turned out to be sad & tragic, I think he felt it was his only option. And people do get addicted to plastic surgery, & seemingly can't stop, even when the results become obviously (to others) horrible.

The world has lost an incomparable talent, & his kids have lost an adoring father, the only parent they've ever known. I don't question that Katherine Jackson loves her grandkids (biological or not), but just their proximity to Joe Jackson makes me shudder. He, of course, just wants
Michael to make more money for him in death, as he did in his earlier life. I just hope someone looks out for those kids & loves them as Michael did. And I hope Michael Jackson has finally found the peace he never had in life.