Michael Jackson Is My "Bestie"

Hello All,

You beautiful readers of my blog, by the hundreds of thousands, was going to say a higher number but why be all the way ridiculous. Just wanted to add another posts, reading over my previous posts, they have a vibe of blahhh! They mean something to me being my experiences, a few of my deepest thoughts and all but ya'll don't want to read all that. Not that there's a "ya'll" that will read this either but hey, still want to mix it up a bit.

As I clean the house I need the assistance of music and who better than Michael Jackson. While listening to over 2 hours of Michael Jackson songs, there's currently 168 on my iPod in number but some are repeats because of the greatest hits albums and compilations but it's a nice mix and still there are others I want. So with dancing around sweeping, putting in a load of laundry, dishes, making my children lunch, making a valiant attempt at organizing, I realize something so awesomely cool and heartwarming.

I realized that if given the opportunity, Michael Jackson and I would have been the best of friends. If his music is any indication and I so strongly believe it is, we would have been inseparable. Ok, he probably would not have been able to hang out as much as I would have liked, you know being the King of Pop and one of the top entertainers loved around the world, but we would have kicked it when he had time and possibly I'd done some traveling with him.

No, I'm not high, Lol! I just think that Michael and I are the same in the many ways of his song lyrics, that our love for love, justice, peace, brother and sisters of the planet helping and not harming each other, yes, that "We Are The World" mentality, we're kin in that.

Naive possibly but my "bestie" Michael Jackson and I would have relished in that naivety together, all the while being the change we wanted to see. Michael Jackson was that change and I still strive to be, well need to put more action behind my intentions to be but we know what's said about intentions right...I need to get it together, but anywho...

What's your favorite Michael Jackson song? I know, what a question, who can pick only one as a favorite. I know I have my top five, top ten, top 50 but an absolute favorite, see even when I was going to say "Keep the Faith" but then "Man in the Mirror" and "The Lost Children" come to mind. Then "Gone Too Soon", "Will You Be There", "Rock My World", "With a Child's Heart", "Music and Me", "Fall Again", "Smile", "Can You Feel It" and truly about 50 others so never mind favorite, I'll take your top five, good luck with narrowing that down :-).

Michael Jackson and I also love to dance, did you know there's a clip on Youtube of Michael tap dancing with the Nicholas Brothers (Fayard & Harold Nicholas), I love tap, have for so many years, that's another blog entry in itself, especially since it was basically the entire 90's decade that I was just obsessed, with tap and with Savion Glover but I'll spill on that another time.

I miss you Michael, like we were the closest of "besties". I appreciate you for your contribution to the world that will be forever felt, benefited from and enjoyed. I didn't always understand or agree with how you lived your life, the decisions you made therein but you lived your life and encouraged others to live their best lives as well, with songs like, "Off the Wall", "On The Line", "Keep the Faith", "History", "Black or White", "Earth Song", "Heal The World", "Cry", and just so many others. I want so much to give you the biggest hug when I listen to your songs, "Stranger In Moscow", "Scared of the Moon", "Someone Put Your Hand Out", and one that still stops me in my tracks as I absorb your words, "Childhood".

It's known, by those who know me, and now you all, that I am the biggest sucker for love. I love LOVE, the feeling of it, the experience of it and will easily geek out and cry from happiness of seeing others heart deep in it and actions display it. Some of Michael's songs that take me there for those moments are, "Just A Little Bit of You...", "Butterflies", "Fall Again", "Speechless", "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Someone In The Dark", "Got to be There", "Wanna Be Where You Are", "You Are My Life", "I'll Be There" and I don't the like any speak of blasphemy but I'll say that "Heaven Can Wait" has that "true love" element as well.

Now I appreciate too that Michael Jackson could get raw with it, he told it as it was with gems like, "They Don't Really Care About Us", "Ghosts" and "We've Had Enough". He also let it be known that he had haters, with "Unbreakable", "Why You Wanna Trip on Me", "Jam", "Privacy", "In the Back" and "Is It Scary". Michael had a few songs where he came at the ladies too with, "Who Is It", "Dirty Diana", "Blood on the Dance Floor, "Billie Jean", truly his body of work truly ran the scale.

I love you Michael Jackson and am so glad to have been born when I was so that I can be one of those who can say, I remember when...your new album was to be released and it was an event to see your new videos. When after "A Diffr'ent World" the premier of the "Remember The Time" video had people glued to their televisions then watching it on replay on the music video channels. I remember when "Scream" premiered, well not the actual date without cheating with Google, but I do remember it was another moment in time that was the topic of conversation for days after for many reasons. "Smooth Criminal" and "Thriller", a history making endeavor, were the two of the greatest music videos, short movies, every made I think, just amazing. They were bad, as you were "Bad", yet another of the great ones.

So, Michael, my "bestie" Thank God for you, for your parents for making you, which again is God's doing. I truly am thankful to have been alive to see you grow in your career and to have you apart of my life thru your music. Your music continues to guide me, encourage me and still serves as an example of perseverance and how one should feel a connection to the whole of mankind and be about the business of making us, as that whole, a bit better in even just "Our Small Way".

Even if just a smile, please give the gift of kindness to a stranger everyday! I'll start :-D

D.G. - Gone Too Soon

Hello All,

It's early morning Thursday, October 6, 2011.* Yesterday evening while I stood at the kitchen sink washing a few dishes, cooking dinner listening to my iPod, not knowing then that Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple had died, Michael Jackson's "Gone Too Soon" began to play. That truly beautiful, moving song is on a specific playlist that I listen to often and heard so many times over the years, but last night my thoughts went to a place they hadn't in some time.

While listening to "...like a comet, blazing across the evening sky, gone too soon..." I thought of D.G., a young guy I worked with back in 1999, at my second job at then First Union down on 5th & Market Streets in Philadelphia. I worked in the mail room, sorting mail. One night the power had gone out and Joe, our supervisor, said we could hang out until it came back on. Well it didn't take us long to get lost from the building but instead of just going downstairs out front, D.G., another guy and myself walked the few blocks down to Penn's Landing. I've been trying to recall the name of the other guy and still can't picture him, sorry other guy dude.

We went to the ice cream shop that used to be on the corner on Front & Chestnut Streets, got a cone each, then walked down to the water front and sat down. That's when I'd learned there was catfish in the Delaware River.  A man had a bag of bagels, breaking off pieces, throwing them over the railing, something big came up and ate it. I thought it was a rat at first but they can't breathe under water so I asked the man, he said catfish, who knew! Well, he did obviously...

All this time I'd had my "walk man", yes that's right, a cassette tape playing, AM/FM, radio having "walk man", that I would put on and groove to while sorting mail. I so miss the 80s & 90s. That night I was listening to a mix tape of songs and a few of Michael Jackson's came on.  At that point we were sitting in front of the water, D.G. and I shared my head phones and listened to a few songs. I knew a specific song was coming up next so I stopped the tape and made some other conversation. That song was "Gone Too Soon" that I purposely turned off because D.G. told me some time ago that his mother died so him hearing that song may trigger sadness, I didn't want him to feel down.  After that we made our way back to work and finished our shift.

I guess I should clarify that D.G. and I were not dating, we didn't have that kind of relationship, he did like me and that was sweet but he was a few years younger and I was crushin' hard on someone else. After a few months of working together, we found out that we lived within blocks of each other in West Philly. On the nights my sister would let me drive her car into work, if "D" was working, I would drive him home or we'd get the El together and walk from the 60th Street. He lived closer to the El so we'd reach his house first, then he'd say "get home safe" and we'd part ways.

One Saturday night I was driving so gave him a ride. He asked me to take him to a friend's house that was a few blocks from 60th & Baltimore Avenue.  He was going to see a girl, which was cute because he was really nice as well as a handsome.  I'd gotten all the way home when I realized that he left his t-shirts in a bag on the passenger side floor. So I immediately pulled off the the parking space, reluctantly because it was on my block and that was rare.  Drove back to the house I remembered him going into, knocked on the door, the young lady answered and he came down the steps.  I handed him the bag and he smiled so beautifully, as he often did, pleasantly said "thank you" and I again went home. 

Since that time I'd stopped working at First Union and the guy I was dating called me one morning to say that someone I worked with had been shot and killed. He said the name Michael, I worked with a Michael so I thought of him and was sad for his family.  I'd spoken to my man friend another time that day and he said he was wrong the name was something like Donte, Donnell Gregory, Greene, he wasn't certain and I was all kinds of confused. Still though, hearing about the murder of another young Black man, senseless as it is sad. 

Going about my day, I was in the kitchen and something hit me, just like came to me, I remember saying, "oh my God, no, no" as I rushed upstairs, skipping steps to get the cordless phone. I called Perry, who worked at First Union with us, and asked him if he'd heard again, was the initials D.G., was it Darnell. He said yes, I screamed!

Darnell Grant was such a nice young man. He was a hardworking, pleasant, respectful, I was so heartbroken. I wasn't around him always but when we stood a booth apart sorting mail and talking, his conversations were about being productive, not the foolishness of the streets. I didn't imagine almost hearing Micheal Jackson's song with him that night, would all too soon apply to him as well.  I went to his funeral and at this moment, I can picture clearly Darnell's face as the body that once moved about laid still in a casket.  I was afraid to go any closer than the back row of seats, all I could do is stare at his face for as long as I could take it then I said goodbye and left the church.


Sadly, Darnell isn't the first person I've known to be taken by gun violence. I've known others who barely got to see 25 years old, who have been murdered and another man who is in prison for life for being the murderer of one of those young men.  

*I'm posting this on Saturday evening because I hadn't completed typing. Just this morning on Facebook I learned that another young man I'd gone to elementary and high school with was killed. Then scrolling down the page a report from Chicago was that since last night, to early this morning 17 people were shot, 3 killed.

It has to stop!