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The unfinished dream of Michael Jackson

My mention of Michael Jackson on my Facebook status woke many up, especially when I invited them to pray for him. Within minutes, dozens of friends were commenting on my status, most of them fans. More personal messages were left in my mailbox or emailed directly, and these were messages from my angry friends: “What do you have to do with Michael Jackson, a child molester, blah blah blah?”

This is a great question, a great question as it can be rephrased in countless ways. What do I have to do with you? What have I to do with the editor of this newspaper? What do I have to do with President Obama?

Or, what do you or I have to do with this world? Perhaps the best answer is: “Because I live in this world.” This is the point. The fact that you and I live in this world connects us with all the other citizens of the world.

I remember the great mystical Sufi poet Saadi: “Human beings are members of a whole, In the creation of an essence and a soul. If one member is afflicted with pain, the other members will remain restless. If you do not feel sympathy for pain human, the human name you can’t keep.”

But human pain and suffering cannot connect me with my fellow human beings, if I don’t have some kind of “feelings” for them. I have an emotional bond with my family members, so I can easily feel their pain. But, he may not have such a bond with you and therefore may not feel the same way about you, your pain and suffering.

Not so with Michael Jackson, he could feel the pain of a suffering humanity. He raised and donated millions of dollars for humanitarian causes. He was not forced to do what he did. In fact, there are people much richer than him who did nothing to alleviate the suffering.

Michael Jackson differs from them by his “feelings”. We can still hear the echo of his compassion through his songs and writings, like this passage from his album “Dangerous”:

“Consciousness expresses itself through creation. This world we live in is the dance of the creator. Dancers come and go in the blink of an eye, but the dance lives on.

“On many occasions, when I am dancing, I have felt touched by something sacred. In those moments, I felt my spirit rise and become one with everything that exists.

I become the stars and the moon. I become the lover and the beloved. I become the winner and the loser. I become the master and the slave. I become the singer and the song. I become the knower and the known.

“I keep dancing and then, it’s the eternal dance of creation. The creator and the creation merge into a single totality of joy. I keep dancing…until there’s only…dance left.”

Such feelings are indeed very “dangerous”, because then you can no longer close your eyes to what is happening around you. Michael was in a very vulnerable condition, even before writing such thoughts, he was already singing: “We are the world… the world must come together as one… It’s time to lend a hand to life.”

He felt connected to the world not only physically, but also spiritually. He didn’t just acknowledge and admit people’s pain and suffering; he wanted to make a change.

In “Man in the Mirror”, he actually saw the reflection of his soul and blood with added fervor: “If you want to make the world a better place, look at yourself and then make a change.” It was advice given not to you or me, but to himself: “I’m going to make a change, for once in my life I’m going to feel great, I’m going to make a difference, I’m going to do it right. .”

His realization that he had “fallen victim to a selfish kind of love” made him even more obsessed with the idea of ​​spreading the right kind of love to heal himself and “Heal the world” to “make it a better place”. for you and for me. ” he dreamed of a world where” black or white “did not matter at all, or mattered equally.

In “La Canción de la Tierra” he cried with Mother Earth: “What have we done to the world, look what we have done to it.” Frustrated with everything going on around him, he continued, “I used to dream, I used to look beyond the stars; now I don’t know where we are, though I know we’ve come a long way.”

In the late 1970s I had the rare opportunity to meet the philosopher J. Krishnamurti (1895-1986). He too suffered from a similar frustration. Later, in a documentary made about his life, those who were close to him during his last days spoke of his frustration.

Both the philosopher J. Krishnamurti and the artist Michael Jackson spoke of change, of the definitive liberation from slavery, from the old rotten paradigms. And, as Mahatma Gandhi said, they both realized the need to “be the change” they wanted to see in the world. However, both died in frustration, as did the Mahatma. Gandhi who could not accept the idea of ​​dividing India based on religion.

J. Krishnamurti let out his frustrations through his writings and discussions with the people around him. Gandhi let out his frustrations by retiring from political life and returning to his commune in Gujarat. Michael Jackson, the star, let out his frustrations by experimenting with his body. He turned his body into a laboratory.

From a strict diet to various plastic surgery operations and his participation in unpopular “businesses”, his love and sexual life, everything can be seen as manifestations of his innermost desire for change. Change was both her dream and her obsession. When she “felt” that she wasn’t making the change, or at least that it wasn’t the kind of change she wanted, she would withdraw and shut herself off from the outside world. This was a serious mistake. In doing so, she closed all the exits to let go of his frustrations. And he died a lonely man.

However, a man, a star like Michael Jackson is too big to die. Indeed, he is a star too bright to fall. He will shine for many, many years. His legacy of songs, his unfulfilled dream of the world to come, and his obsession with change will be remembered for generations to come. Michael’s dream will live on, because his dream is not the dream of a loner, his dream is the dream of all those who are capable of dreaming something big.

Jackson, we share your frustration and we will turn this into a source of energy to make your dream come true, “to make a better world for you and me”. I will not say goodbye to you, my friend, because our meeting continues in your dream.