I think ,like Elvis, Michael was an advanced soul,  frustated by being earthbound and unable to traverse and taste the boundlessness of the universe.   They both reached higher than worldly means would allow and were frustrated that they had already fulfilled their purpose on earth and were ready to expand their soul’s expression on a higher plane.  They had evolved here on earth to the end of their usefulness to themselves and were simply  "hanging in" and waiting in abject frustration for their "time" to come.

To Dear Michael:

"Now cracks a noble heart…..Good night Sweet Prince…

And flights of angels sing the to thy rest." 

Thank you Liz.  Your article was brilliant.  I think your truth about him is so smart.  

I have met Michael before.  I was very lucky and he was sweet and generous and kind.  It was at a theater and I was very very pregnant with my first child.  I introduced myself and told him how much I liked his debut solo album and he was sweet open and kind.  He had not started the plastic surgery nightmare.  Just a sweet kid that took a chance and broke from the family group to try on his own.  I remember he was playing with a yo yo.  He had one bodyguard.  Oddly enough, I remember him most from that.  I was places that he was at times, but that memory sticks out the most.  

I came to know Michael Jackson in other ways.  A very good childhood and college friend of mine was his chef.  Her daughter spent time at my house and when they went on tour, J lived with us.  J knew Michael very well.  She spent the night over there with other children and always said that Michael would never touch or molest a child.  Therefore I never believed the allegations.  My friend worked for him for several years and she would share with me how smart Michael was and how different his private persona was from his public persona.  She was always impressed with his integrity.

When he started his journey of plastic surgery I asked her why and she said that he always had people around him that would tell him anything he wanted to hear.  Parasites and hangers on that thought maybe a little of his fame would rub off on them.

I called her one day because one of my oldest son’s friends, who was a huge Michael Jackson fan, father had suddenly died of a heart attack - he was in his 40’s.  I wondered if we could get an autographed picture of him for the friend.  The response was immediate and more than a picture arrived, there was so much love and generosity it made me cry. Once he didn’t want to go to a Gladys Knight and the Pips concert and my husband and I got his tickets.  He was always thoughtful.

I guess we all feel that we all knew Michael Jackson in a personal way. He was so vulnerable and exposed to us because of what he did to his face, he did not want to look like his father.  He wanted stardom, adoration and privacy which just don’t mix.  I am so sorry it turned out this way.  It didn’t have to end like this. 

I try to live my life by the creed that I shall judge no man harshly until I have walked two moons in his mocassins. Never having met Michael Jackson I am ill prepared to pass judgement on him , but I was and always will be in awe of his amazing talent. and his passing is a great loss to all who knew him, and those whose lives were touched by him, and so in honor of those who did know and love him. I would like to share a poem by E.E. Cummings that I read at my brothers funeral.

I carry your heart with me. I carry it in my heart. I am never without it anywhere I go you go my dear, and what is done by only me is your doing my darling.

I fear no fate for you are my fate, my sweet, I want no world for beautiful you are my world, my true. And it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you.

And here is the deepest secret nobody knows. Here is the root of the root, and the bud of the bud, and the sky of the sky of a tree called life, which grows higher than the soul can hope or the mind can hide. And this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart.

I carry your heart, I carry it in my heart.

Good night Michael, rest well……God bless. 

Excellent writing and insight.  When I heard Liza Minnelli say how she was glad they were memorializing him now, because later things would come out that wouldn’t be nice,  I remember thinking, "…and as his friend, she would know."  Already this weekend so many unpleasant things have surfaced in just the actions of his father alone that I won’t ennumerate on.  The vain peacock parades.

I think you are dead on right, too, about Elizabeth Taylor in how she grounded herself to the business and in just how much she would let it control (or not) her life.  I would still love for wOw to do a piece about Ms. Taylor and her "tweets."  I love the idea she is using Twitter to reach her fans.