Michael Jackson's Sad Life

As you read this, think about the fact that this probably applies to a lot of other people in positions similar to Michael's. Michael is just in the forefront as an example of my point.

Yes, Michael Jackson had MANY Blessings bestowed upon him in his lifetime. So why would anyone think his life is sad? How do I count the ways?

He had grown up responsibilities at such a young age, and no childhood.

He had an overbearing, if not abusive, father.

He was seen as a money making machine instead of a son.

His father criticized his appearance during his adolescent years in the spotlight.

He was extremely shy and never learned to communicate with other normal people his own age.

He had vitiligo, which made him begin to lose the color of his skin and led to much controversy in his life.

His 1984 Pepsi commercial mishap began a life of drug addiction.

He lacked having the positive influences around him that could have helped him over his addiction.

He obviously had some type of body dysmorphic disorder

He was accused of child molestation twice - and I don't believe either of them.

He was a great humanitarian with a gigantic heart and it was all wiped out with false accusations.

Let's start with an early start in his career. While others were playing, the Jackson children were practicing constantly for a career. They all had to grow up so quickly, Michael more so than the others. Michael was the star. He had the most responsibility of any of them. That's a lot of pressure for a little kid... Sure, in the beginning, I bet it was fun. But, giving up everything else in your childhood can take it's toll.

Next there is an overbearing father. I don't have a problem with a parent spanking their kid. I don't even have a problem with getting a "switch". I had a few of them myself. The difference (from what I've heard) is that my folks gave me a whack or two with it... Joseph Jackson kept it going for a while... Also, my spankings were for disobeying or smarting off... The Jackson's claim some of theirs were for not getting spins right and such. There IS a difference between how a normal parent disciplines their kids with spankings and how he did it. There again, this is according to what some of the Jackson children have said and according to my gut feeling I get by looking at him.

I don't think that the Jackson mother was perfect, but she did care about her children. I think that she should have protected them a little more. However, that was a different time, and it may not have been something a woman could do... you know, standing up to the man of the house and all... Still, I think she looked over a lot of things.

As the Jacksons, and particularly Michael, started becoming more and more famous, I believe that the father saw them less as his own flesh and blood children and more like money-making machines. I think that is what he had in mind all along, but he seemed to make it so blatantly clear through out the years. Even after his death, on Larry King Live, when asked as a father, how he was doing after losing his son, Joseph rattled off something about his son, the legendary international king of pop. That's the only way he saw his son... That is so sad.

According to Michael, his father criticized his appearance quite often, too. Many people, both famous and normal, could grow up having issues from a father commenting on such things. But, Michael was in the spotlight. It only stands to reason that these comments made Michael worry about what the public would think.

According to many people interviewed, Michael was always an introvert. Not going to a regular school or having any other children around (besides siblings) does not help an introvert child to be able to communicate well with others. Besides his very special friends and the grown ups who "handled" them growing up, he had no chance to meet and make friends with normal people. As Michael became an adult, he surrounded himself by other child stars such as Brooke Shields, Liz Taylor, Liza Manelli, McCully Culkin, Emanuel Lewis, etc. and also by lots of children - something he lacked as a child.

Michael began losing pigmentation in his skin, causing him to have white blotches. The disease, vitiligo, is known to often start on the hands and lips and spread from there. It has been suggested that the reason Michael started wearing the one glove was to cover the spots he was beginning to get there. In later years, it has been revealed, Michael began bleaching his skin to even out the white blotches. The controversy that came from this always haunted Michael, even after death.

Despite all of the things working against him prior to 1984, Michael seemed to be on the right track. A terrible accident occurred on the set of a Pepsi commercial that year. Michael's hair caught fire and he received 2nd and 3rd degree burns on his face and scalp. This is thought to have been the beginning of all of Michael's subsequent problems. It is believed that Michael became addicted to pain medication during this time.

Addiction to pain medication can happen to anyone. You don't have to be trash, or anti-Christian, or some deadbeat. It can happen to ANYONE, so don't be all high and mighty and think that you're above it. Maybe the burns themselves weren't that bad, but the treatment, healing and all of the procedures that followed can very much be, according to doctors I have seen interviewed. So, I can see how he could have easily become addicted.

Add this addiction to the fact that since he was a child, he could basically get anything he wanted because of his money. So, by the time he is addicted, he is surrounded by people who will do whatever he says. If they say no, if they try to talk him out of it, he just fires them and finds someone who will. This did not make Michael Jackson a bad person. It only made him an addict with the means that any other addict wishes that they had. This is sad on two levels... One that there was no one to help him save himself and two because those who were around him could not have cared about him and had his best interests at heart. That is a sad, lonesome life right there.

Michael had to have had some sort of body dysmorphic disorder or something. I can understand why he might have had a nose job or two, but after that, it just became strange. Though he denies having anything other than a couple of nose jobs, we all know better I'm sure. I strongly feel that his lack of judgment in the surgeries and then the lies about ever having these surgeries can all be attributed to his drug use, at least, if not some other type of delusional thinking. Again, I don't think that this makes him a bad person. He is just a product of what we have all made him. It also shows how people would take advantage of him by not saying no. No means no payday.

Then, there is probably the most devastating events of Michael's life - the child molestation trials. I personally do not believe that he ever did anything sexual with those children. I do think the whole spending the night thing was inappropriate in that it left him open for these very type of accusations. Anyone can see how childlike Michael Jackson grew up to be. Anyone knows that he was dedicated to helping people and especially children. The children that he usually brought to Neverland were usually underprivileged or very ill children... children who needed to forget about their difficult lives for a while and just be a kid.

With the first trial, Michael paid a settlement without admitting guilt. It has been said that Lisa Marie convinced him to go ahead with the settlement thinking that the damage caused by a lengthy trail would be worse than just paying the settlement and getting it over with. Some would argue that was a bad decision and that he should have continued the fight to save his good name. Maybe the second accusation would never have happened had he not paid the first one because I think that is all that the second family was looking for. Let me ask you this. If you were the mother of a child who claims to have been molested by an adult, would you simply drop it and not make your child testify to put the sick person behind bars if that molester offered you money? Would you just drop it and allow it to possibly happen to other children? I just don't believe either accusation. I think that the family of both children were looking for a payoff. The first one got it, the second didn't.

Seriously, though. It is no secret that he paid the first family a settlement and that the boy then refused to testify against Jackson. Some crimes, such as child molestation shouldn't be allowed to settle out of court. That is an out and out crime. The pay off and acceptance of it should be considered as bribery or blackmail in my opinion. I think that both the family and the defendant should be charged with something like obstruction of justice for conducting such a transaction.

Michael is anything but a molester. I'm not saying that he is godlike or a saint or anything. He is only human and has his share of demons and faults. But, no one can deny that this man was a great humanitarian who cared deeply about people, especially children, about animals, the earth, underprivileged nations, people affected by war, the fair treatment of any group of people, etc. He donated to charities more than anyone. In every country that he went to, he was always going to hospitals to visit the children and to give them presents. But, because of the accusations against him, all of his good works were forgotten about by many. Not by me, though.

No, Michael was not normal, but he never had the chance to know what normal was. As Gladys Knight once put it, "we did this to Michael." All that he ever knew was the public spotlight, living for public opinion, craving privacy, being able to get whatever he wanted, having an army of "Yes Men" who never cared enough about him to tell him the truth, and people who longed to be around him just for what he could do for them. The only exception to this was the small children who were full of wonder and amazement and innocence. No wonder he valued them most of all.

I'll leave you with a link to the video for the song he said was his most autobiographical song that he ever wrote or recorded and the lyrics to it posted below. Give it some thought and try to love him...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVJscGa5vbc

Have you seen my Childhood?
I'm searching for the world that I come from
'Cause I've been looking around
In the lost and found of my heart...
No one understands me
They view it as such strange eccentricities...
'Cause I keep kidding around
Like a child, but pardon me...

People say I'm not okay
'Cause I love such elementary things...
It's been my fate to compensate,
for the Childhood
I've never known...

Have you seen my Childhood?
I'm searching for that wonder in my youth
Like pirates in adventurous dreams,
Of conquest and kings on the throne...

Before you judge me, try hard to love me,
Look within your heart then ask,
Have you seen my Childhood?

People say I'm strange that way
'Cause I love such elementary things,
It's been my fate to compensate,
for the Childhood I've never known...

Have you seen my Childhood?
I'm searching for that wonder in my youth
Like fantastical stories to share
The dreams I would dare, watch me fly...

Before you judge me, try hard to love me.
The painful youth I've had

Have you seen my Childhood...