Jeff Adams

Celebrities die every day. A Michael Jackson comes along once a generation. Love him or hate him (or both), few people would dispute that no one since Elvis Presley has had the type of global influence as Michael Jackson. The Beatles were this kind of big, but there were four of them and two are still alive.

Countless millions of people around the world learned to dance to his music, probably trying to mimic his moves. He was at the forefront of pop culture from the time he was a small boy until he died at age 50.

Earlier this year I traveled extensively through some remote regions of the Middle East with a middle-age white man who has his legal name on his US Passport – Michael Jackson. I honestly cannot remember a border crossing, hotel clerk, military check point or airline counter where that name on the passport did not elicit a wry smile and usually some humorous comments. You have to work really hard to find a place on earth where Michael Jackson’s name is not known.

For the past 24 hours I have found it fascinating to watch and listen to responses to Jackson’s untimely passing. even the obvious dark side of his life could not quench the amazing and global influence of this man. What is it that causes someone like Michael Jackson or Elvis Presley to suddenly float above other millions and millions of human beings to such an iconic position?

These are a few thoughts that came to mind today. Maybe you have some more you’d like to offer. I’m sure I have not thought of them all. Let me confess that I was never a Michael Jackson fan. I was never an Elvis fan, (I was a Beatles fan) but I have to recognize that in both cases I am a minority.

• Genius level talent – Raised in a show-business family among very talented siblings, Michael was always different. Winning the talent contest at the Apollo Theater at age 5, Michael’s astounding talent always lifted him above everyone else. He could write, sing, dance, act and everything else a pop icon does. But Michael had “it.” Whatever it was, if Michael did it, it was going to going set the bar higher than anyone else. Thriller (1982) remains the best selling record of all time, and with the sales Amazon reported today it will probably not be challenged anytime soon. He is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the Most Successful Entertainer of All Time.
• Hard work – His work ethic was legendary. He added hard work and discipline to his incomparable talent. He would practice dance steps for hours and days on end. He had an eye to see what others do not see. He would search movies from the 30′s and 40′s to discover dance steps that everyone else either forgot or never noticed. He was passionate about his passion and never let up in his relentless quest to be the be the best he could.
• Barrier-breaking creativity – Michael Jackson was more than talented; he was unique. His Thriller defined the whole genre of music videos. His moonwalk moves are still mimicked by kids everywhere. He was better than better; he did things no one else had ever thought about.
• Painfully-flawed personal life - For whatever reason, this seems to be almost a necessity for a generational pop hero. He made millions and millions and spent more. Those cosmetic surgeries and transformational changes in appearance puzzle even those closest to him. Rumors and accusations of child sexual abuse haunted him, yet nothing was ever proved and he was acquitted in the only case to go to court. Bizarre behavior such as dangling his baby from a hotel balcony in Berlin has caused many to question his basic sanity. Anytime five humans sit down around a table anywhere on earth, chances are one of the five is an amateur psychologist who can speculate loudly about how Jackson’s own abusive childhood relationship with his father has resulted in his own flaws. Even now some are speculating that his well-known addiction to prescription drugs may have led to his early death.

Some people rise above millions of other. Even in the Bible, there are just a handful of mega-personalities (apart from Jesus). Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David,  Paul. Yeah, there are other biblical heroes, and we can quibble that one or two more should be included in the list, but there really aren’t many.

They all had their flaws, too. We don’t have to look further than David, a man famous for his intense devotional walk with God. Yet he was a murderer and adulterer. Of the list of biblical heroes, only Joseph and Daniel do not have personal sins recorded in the Bible (though they were sinners like us all). Only two over the course of six thousand years had this type of impact and no one mentions their flaws or sins.

What is it that forms a Michael jackson? What can we learn from larger-than-life people like this? Is there a Bible passage that comes to mind, or that offers some insight, explanation or instruction? Feel free to share.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 26th, 2009 at 9:21 pm and is filed under Social Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.