Michael Jackson – His Legacy – Heal The World

Michael Jackson is someone that I always see as that little brother with all his big brothers and their Afro hair, outshining all of them singing…

“ABC, Easy as 123, so simple as do re mi, …” or “One bad apple don’t spoil the whole bunch girl…”*

Michael Jackson Aged 12 - Image Harry Diltz/Corbis

As a child, I remember just being in total awe of this kid and always felt that I wanted to be like him because he shattered the barriers of what was perceived as acceptable and what was not. This was a time when a black man was still called a “coloured” man and where he inspired me to dream as big as I wanted to because if he could stand on that stage as a skinny little runt, and have all the girls screaming for him… (not for his big brothers mind) but for him in the same way that they did for the white-all Christian-big-toothed-colgate-smile Donny Osmond …. well… that meant that anything I ever dreamed of doing would come true! I mean he even had his own cartoon show with the Jackson 5’s too!

He was my idol for many, many years and when his album “Off The Wall Came Out”, it was one of the very first albums I brought as a teen and I danced and danced and danced many a night to the new sounds coming from this boy, now grown to young man, now flying solo. I also cried to his ballads such as “Ben”. This was also the first physical change that Michael made to himself.

I continued to follow Michael’s dancing steps, just like so many millions around the world and when “Thriller” came out, I was shocked and enchanted at the same time. The music, the videos, the dance moves – WOW, they were something from out of this world. I was confused though, why did he want to become white? In the black community, he was considered a legend and we idolized him even more than any other black artist because not only was he was one of our own, but he was also so unique. Everything he did was new, his musical arrangements, the choreography, his clothes and the fact that he dared to be so different in all that he did – who would ever have thought of teaming up with another legend such as Paul McCarthy and singing a song such as “Ebony & Ivory”?

I couldn’t understand what would drive him to mutilate himself and as the years went by and he became more and more eccentric, I felt it harder to follow my idol. This left me with a feeling of treason, since I recognized the power and the beauty of the words that he sang in the songs for the growth of humanity, but his actions confused me, so little by little, I stopped following him and began to deliberately shut my eyes and ears to anything I heard or saw concerning Michael Jackson.

Then followed scandalous accusations with equally scandalous behavior, leaving me wondering, who or what he is he? Man/Woman; Black/White; A caring, loving parent or a child abuser? I did not know but did know that each time I listened to his music it continued to touch me deeply. It continued to inspire me. Hearing my children sing his songs, the songs that I grew up with makes me smile.

Reading the words to his later songs, I recognized that his gift to the world, was his music, through which he expressed his messages of love, peace, harmony and acceptance.

For me, the legacy that Michael Jackson has left behind for myself, my children and their children’s children, is exactly that…

Love one another, no matter your colour, your race, your creed, for that is how we will bring peace, harmony and joy to the world…

“Doesn’t matter if your black or white”, I believe that Michael Jackson began to “Heal the World” a long time before we began to consider it a possibility that one individual could do such a thing.

Love will conquer all.

What legacy has he left you?

Change & Transformation

*Lyrics – Copyright and property of their owners

Heal The World – Michael Jackson – A Legacy

There’s a place in your heart, and I know that it is love
And this place could be much brighter than tomorrow
And if you really try, you’ll find there’s no need to cry
In this place you’ll feel, there’s no hurt or sorrow

There are ways to get there
If you care enough for the living
Make a little space, make a better place

* Heal the world make it a better place
For you and for me and the entire human race

** There are people dying if you care enough for the living
Make a better place for you and for me

If you want to know why, there’s a love that cannot lie
Love is strong, it only cares for joyful giving if we try
We shall see in this bliss, we cannot feel fear or dread
We stop existing and start living

Then it feels that always love’s enough for us growing
So make a better world, make a better world

[Repeat * , **]

And the dream we were conceived In will reveal a joyful face
And the world we once believed in will shine again in grace
Then why do we keep strangling life wound this earth crucify
Its soul though it’s plain to see this world is heavenly be God’s glow

We could fly so high let our spirits never die in my heart
I feel you are all my brothers create a world with no fear
Together we’ll cry happy tears see the nations turn
Their swords into plowshares

We could really get there if you cared enough for the living
Make a little space, to make a better place

[Repeat * , ** , * , **]

[Repeat * , ** , ** , **]

You and for me (x11)

Above lyrics courtesy of Absolute Lyrics

The views expressed above are my own and are not intended to promote or defend Michael Jackson in anyway.