I know, that headline alone can conjure up all kinds of images, but I'm not talking about any of Michael Jackon's strange, perhaps even criminal relationships with children that shaped the last decade of his life. What I'm talking about is explaining the life and death of Michael Jackson to children.
The topic came up for us, during our family vacation (a very "Griswold Family Vacation" type affair, I'll blog about later), when racing out the door of a Utah hotel room for a morning hike. It was at that moment the media blitz of Michael's passing, pierced our frivolity. My six year old daughter, continued to play with some action figures with little regard for my husband's or my repeated drumbeat of: "Michael Jackson is dead?" But, my nine year old son took notice and asked "Who's that?" We explained he was a popular singer we grew up listening to and we continued to watch the old videos of the Jacksonn 5 and his "Thriller" days pour in. Then my son said something that put explaining Michael Jackson into a whole new framework. He asked again, "Who's that?" Only this time, he was pointing to a RECENT photo of Michael - pale skinnned, whittled features, frail. Making no connection between the two. He had no idea this was the same person.
It made me really think about Michael's metamorphosis and how to explain that to a child. I told my son, he had a lot of plastic surgeries to change the way he looked and that he must have been a very sad person inside to do that to himself. My son continued to watch quietly and then said "He seemed like a nice person." I said, "He did." Knowing full well, no one really knew who he was, including Michael.
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