the Daily Dump
Because it’s always shit o’clock somewhere…
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It's a Scream
26th June 2009: So many shits, so little time [and patience]. Celebrity and celebrities are usually the last thing on my mind, but there’s never a shortage of people and/or events which have me reaching for my Official Shit List.
Since returning the Official Shit List domain to its original and intended blogstate, a mission has begun, but we’re very good at juggling travesties. And so we begin the Daily Dump [with special thanks to Dineh (Navajo) Artist, Wallace Begay for creating a picture which looks like I often feel, and which I will use as my avatar for these particular ramblings] in memory of Michael Jackson. Though I’ve loved his music and dancing since the Jackson 5, this is the song for which I will most remember him:
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Damn shame all around, isn’t it? A complicated life if there ever was one [and, in death, I’m sure there will be further complications].
Michael Jackson was as talented as he was surely miserable, and people who think “money and fame should be enough” are sorely deluded. In the late ’70s, I knew a guy who’d lived near Jackson for a few years, and he said that there were times Michael would wander the streets late at night, just hoping to run into another human.
But, apparently, when he did find another soul on the streets [a very rare event in SoCal, at any time], he didn’t really know how to have a “normal” conversation. Very sad, and not at all surprising. Kids learn how to socialize as adults by socializing with other kids when they’re children, and he didn’t have much of that, extra-familially. I could relate to him, immediately. We weren’t in the national spotlight, but my family was very isolated and itinerant. Childhood was only a matter of chronology, and I never learned how to do small-talk [the backbone of socialization].
Luckily, I learned to amuse myself [no end], at a very early age. Once on my own, I got to know loads of people, and knowing loads of people taught me that I don’t mind not knowing very many people. As a matter of fact, I count it among my many blessings. Michael’s “problem” was that he wanted people all up in his life. And children! I’d rather give myself a hysterectomy with a weedeater, but to each his or her own.
The seemingly never-ending plastic surgery smacked of self-hatred, which made the madding-crowd pile-on particularly jarring. Watching the videos and clips spanning his entire career, it was something of a shock to be reminded just how attractive he was, at one time. And how much he was beginning to look, as a man, like his “father” [a word I hate to use loosely].
So here’s my take on his physician-assisted self-mutilation. Unless one has personally experienced looking in the mirror — or, worse, catching an unexpected glimpse of one’s reflection, on any surface — and seeing the face of the person who terrorized one as a child, it is impossible to understand how that feels. Impossible. There’s no way to leave the abuser and the abuse in the dust. The body itself has been programmed to react with the proverbial rush of adrenalin and an instinctive cringe. Terror.
Unfortunately, Michael had enough money to make a mess of himself, but had he not gone so far, his surgeries would’ve been [for someone with his “childhood”] very much like the surgeries which are intended to erase the constant reminders for battered women, and to give them a new start, emotionally as well as physically. No one hounds them. “What do you mean, you haven’t had plastic surgery. Your entire eye-socket was crushed from cheek to brow, and now it looks normal! Seriously. Admit it. You’ve had work done.”
Michael Jackson had so very much, and so very little. I’m sure the toxicology reports will explain his death, scientifically, but Big Pharma and allopaths are on my Official Shit List for entirely different reasons. People do what they’re gonna do, whether or not it’s “legal.” What’s sad is that we do the things we do [including allowing governments to make and enforce laws which shouldn’t exist (and self-destructing. And other-destroying). Government’s been on my Official Shit List longer than Big Pharma and allopaths (and they’re especially prolific when it comes to self-destruction and other-destroying)].
Michael Jackson was an extreme manifestation of a sadly pedestrian regularity. This planet would be a much nicer place if Dysfunctional Families and Misplaced Priorities were jostling for the top of our collective Official Shit List. The world will never see another Michael Jackson, and the world is full of Michael Jacksons.
Is very true what you say about too many childrens like Michael Jackson. I have many same in my family I don’t understand. Man in the Mirror is my favorite Michael Jackson song too. If everybody think this way the world will be better. Ciao.
I was abused and it still makes problems for me because I can never forget. Even if I am having a good day people don’t know that a lot of things remind me of my abuse and even if I am smiling I might still have a part of me that is very sad. I used to feel alone but when I got older I saw that this happens all the time to children. When I her people say that Michael Jackson should be happy because he was rich and famous I get very angry and depressed. They don’t know what it’s like. I enjoyed your article. God bless.
I like your writing. I wish you would do more of these posts. Great blog! I hope you can help Venus get her money back from that del Rosario guy who ripped her off. This is a great thing to do with a blog. Sam
Need more daily dumps! I was hoping you will write in here every day but it has been a long time. I really like your writing.
Great writing but this is old now. There is so much shit in the world I hope you talk about other things soon.
This is a really nice article and you are so right about everything.
RIP Michael Jackson
nice post my parents are worthless too