When I got out and surveyed the damage, all I could think was You done did it now. there was our new car with what turned out to be a $500 hit on the right, back seat door while the car I had been driving, an older car made in 1975, had been left without a scratch.
For a few moments I was pleading with God: let me go back in time just a few seconds and undo whatever damage I had done. That way the accident would have never happened, and life could resume as normal.
It seemed like a simple request.
I was thinking the same thing yesterday when I found out that Michael Jackson had died.
So came another simple request: Would it be possible to go back in time to prevent his death?
Of course the news was a total shocker. Michael, 50, had been in the news lately, and it seems that things were looking up. A concert engagement in London had sold out, and there was talk that he might do shows in the US in the coming year.
As a kid, I might not have known who the president or vice president was, but I always knew who Michael Jackson was.
It had all started back in 1984 when I was in the first grade. One of my best friends, Robert Threadgill, had a collection of records. One of them was "Rockin Robin," a song from Jackson's first solo album. I was hooked.
I don't exactly know if I wanted to be Michael Jackson, but I certainly wanted to be like Michael Jackson. I'm still striving to be as good at something as he was at being an entertainer.
Now whether he knew it or not, Jackson was someone that had been with me "in the beginning." I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't know who he was. The memories of him color my childhood. His image towered from a poster in my bedroom wall (see image above). He was simply the most famous man that had ever lived.
I had cherished him for his music and his celebrity. Who else was that dynamic? Who else was that popular? Who else could sell out stadiums in Asia? The fainting girls, all the histronics. And all for Michael.
He was amazing.
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