A Gift All Michael Jackson Fans Have

I was happy to hear that Katherine Jackson will be the legal guardian for Michael Jackson's children. I just hope she's able to keep Joe Jackson away from them. It's funny -- people cited her age and wrote her off as not the best choice to raise three small children. First, looks are deceiving -- Katherine Jackson looks good for a seventy-nine year-old woman. Second, women Katherine Jackson's age all over America are raising their grandchildren, some for reasons more sad than hers. Third, as Iyanla Vanzant says, there is nothing more powerful than a child of God with a made-up mind. Once Mrs. Jackson made up her mind to raise her grandchildren, game over. I wish her and her grandchildren well.

Thinking of this reminds me of two incidents I had with my great-nephews involving Michael Jackson and showing that he does indeed live on in his music. I had two 'tween great-nephews over a few weeks ago to spend the night, and both had Michael Jackson songs loaded on their MP3 players and were listening to them. They proclaimed themselves major Michael Jackson fans despite the fact that many of the songs they were listening to came out long before they were born. Since I believe in putting boys to work, I had them scrambling their own eggs for breakfast. It was cute to watch them scrambling their eggs and moving to the beat of Michael Jackson songs -- one was listening to "Billie Jean," the other, "Thriller," -- through their MP3 earbuds. Michael Jackson does indeed live on through his music.

The second involved my eight year-old great nephew, whom I sometimes pick up from visitation with his father. He had returned from New York state to visit his grandmother, and somehow we got on the subject of Michael Jackson. He informed me that he, like Michael, could stand on his tip-toes, although not at that moment because he was wearing flip-flops, and that he knew how to moonwalk.

I asked him, "How'd you learn to moonwalk?"

He replied, "I practiced. It's a gift all Michael Jackson fans have, you know."

I responded, "I was a Michael Jackson fan before you were born and I don't know how to moonwalk."

He replied, "Well, I practice. You can't moonwalk because you don't practice. You haven't been practicing, now have you, Auntie?" A smug smile crept across his precocious, cute little face.

He was right. Auntie had not been practicing her moonwalk.

And later that night, in the quasi-privacy of my kitchen, I practiced my moonwalk. And I almost got it. It's a gift all Michael Jackson fans have, you know.

Today, A Mother Is Burying Her Child

Today, a mother is burying her child.

This is taking place around the world, for countless mothers of children, some famous, some not. Whether or not that child was largely unknown to the world or the King of Pop, the pain is not any less than that of any other mother who has to bury a child.

"It's not the natural order of things for a parent to have to bury a child." My father often says this. Burying a child was, and probably remains, one of his greatest nightmares. When he faced down that possibility many years ago, my father, as devout a Christian as I imagine Mrs. Katherine Jackson to be, walked the floor all night, praying and speaking in tongues, flagellating himself with belts to show the Almighty that he was indeed His humble servant and to plead with Him not to take his child, or to take him in his child's stead. God showed him mercy.

And this from someone who never carried a child.

I can't imagine the pain that Mrs. Jackson is feeling today, and that pain is made all the more difficult by the fact that she doesn't have the option of hurting privately. Her son was public property, and she had to share him with the world. She is still doing so in his death.

I would hope that all the critics, naysayers, and New York politicians would show restraint, mute their criticisms, and keep their unkind words about Michael Jackson to themselves, for just one day.

Because, on this day, a mother is burying her child.