Here are my thoughts on Ms. Ross, Ms. Taylor and Mr. Jones:
Like me, they also likely thought the event would turn into a kind of showbiz gala and party.... A celebration if you will. Like the two of them, I did not want to see this because in my heart it should have been and was for me a time of mourning. The bottom line is someone(s) lost a friend, son, brother, father, uncle, cousin, nephew and so on.
My personal belief is that this is how Quincy and Liz felt. They didn't want to send him off with a bang, they just want to grieve for a dear friend that they've just lost. Same goes for Diana Ross. They surely did not want to be a part of what they likely figured would be a circus. I'm happy to say that while watching the entire memorial service yesterday, none of these fears came to pass for me. It was done and handled with the respect and dignity that Michael deserved, a beautiful and emotionally moving send off indeed.
I can tell you that when they brought the casket out while the ensemble sang that old time spiritual: "Were going to see the King", I could no longer hold back the tears. The ceremony, I thought was surely befitting the circumstances. A very human element came out in all of this.
I wish people would realize these things and remember to lock the barn door BEFORE the horse bolts. All the wonderful and beautiful acknowledgments seem to come out about a person AFTER he or she has died... I struggle with this.
It's not often that the Lord blesses the world with an extraordinary gift.... And what do we do? Instead of embracing and accepting it with open arms of appreciation, we scrutinize and look for faults and cracks in the armor, of which we ALL have. And when we find them, we stick our dagger in deep and work it around until the integrity of that armor becomes so weak and fragile that it's only a matter of time before it falls apart. Yes, I do believe that Michael may have perpetuated this to at least some extent.... But since age 5 he's lived in a fishbowl... What else did he know to do? In any case, I hope we all learn to appreciate the gifts that God bestows on us....
"The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away."I now know that, that passage extends beyond just the one who's been given life and then had that life taken. Concerning Michael and Mr. Chapin, We've ALL had a little piece of life taken from us and we are all losers in this regard.
D.
Last edited by D. Slam on Thu Jul 09, 2009 11:55 am; edited 9 times in total