Michael Jackson is dead

The world learned today that the King of Pop died unexpectedly at age 50. The news reports starting hitting early Thursday afternoon and by 3 p.m. it was the only story being covered. I read a few news reports but didn't give it too much thought. Farrah Fawcett died earlier in the day and it was a bit of celebrity death overload.

I got in my car to drive home and turned on the radio. "Thriller" was blaring and I remembered being in junior high when that album came out. It was the like the second coming. I switched to another station and it was the Jackson Five sweetly singing "ABC." When we first started dating, J burned me a CD of various songs and "ABC" was the title track. When I switched to yet another station, it was "Human Nature," one of my all-time favorite Michael Jackson songs. It suddenly struck me how much of his music served as the soundtrack for pivotal points in my life. I remembered riding the school bus and hearing the first cuts from the "Off the Wall" LP, which were so infectious and amazing. There hadn't been anything that sounded like that before.
As "Human Nature" played gently and sweetly, the tears came. Not for the passing of this artist, but in gratitude for the music he gifted to the world.