Michael Wore A Mask (Part I)

I began to think of Michael Jackson tonight. Perhaps it was because my wife had asked me to put "This is It" in the DVD player before I left the house. Or maybe because my daughter, Denielle, told me that her twin daughters had discovered Michael Jackson videos and were immediately converted, as expected. I have always had a "kinship" with Michael. For years, I recanted how we both derived from a large family; by normal standards in that day. There were seven of me and my siblings, nine of them. Both our families were very talented in the area of music and dance. My brothers, Victor and Vernon, and a couple of transitioning friends of ours formed a singing group and mimicked other singing groups of our time; The Temptations, The Main Ingredient, Blue Magic, and of course, The Jackson Five.

Destiny claimed only one of our families for stardom. For many years I wondered "What if that had been us"?

As I watched Michael's physical transformation in wonder and bewilderment, (along with the rest of the world), I struggled to understand why one would go to such lengths to alter, (what seemed to be), his very persona. As I age I can clearly understand why just a little more. There are dark areas in all of our lives. How many of us have looked into a mirror and said what we would change about our appearance, if we were able? Like Michael, we may abhor a particular parent's physical appearance and realize that we resemble that parent may be painful and depressing. Michael's vast fortune enabled him to alter his physical appearance to the extent that he no longer resembled any member of his family; hardly a member of the human race, some would say. And his face became molded into the semblance of a comedy tragedy mask; providing him a slight smile while all the while his eyes spoke of unbearable pain.

More to follow...

Dennis