On Michael Jackson

From The Tatum Daily Update 444

Good afternoon.

A few words on Michael Jackson.

I saw about 5 minutes of the funeral yesterday. I what
struck me the most was just how much of a cultural phenomenon he was.
I am truly fascinated by the whole thing.

Human nature has a funny way of making connections. We want to make
connections with each other in any way that we can. More than that,
if someone can produce something that we consider beautiful, be it in
their appearance, their music, their writing, their own personal
achievement of fame in the world outside of them, then we want to
connect and associate ourselves to that. As Adam Duritz sang to us
once, "We all want something beautiful.. man, I wish I was
beautiful..." And that is what we all want. Beauty and art: they are
functions of our spirit that live outside of us. We can produce them,
we can fashion them, but ultimately the proof of them lives outside.
And
it does things to us that a bullet point formula could never achieve.
If you want to be apart of something bigger than yourself, which you
do (let's be honest) then you have to connect yourself to some kind of
art. That doesn't just mean music, writing, or poetry. It means that
what you do has an art to it, if you will only allow it.

That's sort of a digression. It's just that we will attach ourselves
to whatever we find beautiful. At times, as Natalie
said to me last night, during moments in our lives when someone elses'
art coincided with other things that were happening within
ourselves: be them break ups, deaths, births, weddings, etc. In a
less dramatic way, that's why the Smashing Pumpkin's "Mellon Collie
and the Infinite Sadness" rings of the 8th grade for me, particularly
our field trip to Toronto. Oh, those were the days. I didn't throw a
coffee table out of the window, but in many ways, I now wish that I had.

And so, because of a perfect storm of talent, timing, and media, we
had Michael Jackson. He had, perhaps, one of the most elaborate
services for someone since the death of Pharaoh Rameses II. I only
saw about 5 minutes of it, the part where someone sang "Will You Be
There". It's amazing how fast they had to script choreography,
lighting, and arrangements with the orchestras. It was stunning. And
on one side of my mind, I was enjoying it.

And then, on the other side of my mind, I was thinking about a widow who
once gave all that she had when she emptied the sparse contents of her
purse. I think about the people who love with
their whole hearts, who lay down their lives for each other, who are
divine intersections of Heaven and Earth. I think about how many of
them will ever have a service in their honor: likely, there will be
few. Many of
them will be fortunate to find themselves with the honor of dying with
their
families by their bedsides. Yet, someone once told us that it was, in
fact, the
greatest honor to be the least.

And I'm not going to say what is right and wrong with the world in all
of that. I'm just saying that it "is".

Someone asked me yesterday if I liked Michael Jackson.

"Well. I loved "Will You Be There" and all of the Thriller album. I
memorized the entire rap part of "Black or White" back in '91. I
really liked his music. But, if you're asking if I liked him as a
person, the truth is that I never met him."

I don't care how powerful someone's art is, or how strong the
allegations are against another person. At the end of the day, I never
had the chance to meet the guy. It doesn't really matter if I had. I
still couldn't judge for myself whether he was a good person or a bad
person or a worthy person or a lucky person.

All of my claims and statements on another person, living or dead,
famous or not, are ultimately not worth anything. Trying to sum up
someone else is like trying to hold a loose gallon of water in the
palm of your hand.

I can tell you that "Billie Jean" is surprising good to listen to
while running.

Jason Tatum.

Regular Updates @ www.jasontatum.org

"Resurgam".