I think this was the first celebrity death I heard about via text -- I was sitting in Shelly Morrison's office next to the high school intern who's been working on our historic walking tour map of Columbia City when she got the word from one of her friends. Immediately we googled "Michael Jackson dead," and were a bit nonplussed when the first thing that popped up was a spoof Onion article from 2005. "Wait, no," Rosemary said after a minute. "Here's a real one -- he really IS dead this time."
This was also the first celebrity death that we honored via YouTube -- our kids needed to see "Thriller" and "Beat It," of course. But we started things off last Thursday night with this one, "When We Grow Up" from Free To Be... You and Me:
Sigh. It might have been better if he'd been able to take this song a little more to heart in some ways. But in the days since, as we've driven around town singing along to "ABC," "Man in the Mirror," and "Billie Jean," smiling at everyone else who's doing the same -- as we've tried to resurrect our rusty moonwalk after watching one of those incredible compilation videos -- as we've danced around the historical society office with Simon, blaring "Beat It" out onto the sidewalk -- as we've immersed ourselves in the incredible creative legacy Michael Jackson left behind -- we're mostly just so grateful for all the joy he brought to us, and to millions of other people all over the planet. Thank you, Michael. Rest in peace.
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