The king of pop, Michael Jackson, was a highly talented entertainer who was blessed with many skills that propelled him into an extremely privileged life. He attained worldwide fame, his music was recognized around the globe, he earned a large fortune but despite all that, the evidence points to the fact that he was an extremely unhappy individual. It seems clear that he was conflicted about his heritage, his blackness. His desire was to reject being black. By reshaping his nose through repeated surgeries, chemically altering the color of his skin, and straightening his hair it appears his goal was to remove his negroid features. It seems unusual that the black community has embraced MJ to such a great extent posthumously even as he appeared to reject that community during his life.
This is no way a slight on people of color but rather a manifestation of someone who is unhappy with who he or she is and is searching for a path to happiness. He likely thought if he could just lose certain ethnic features he would achieve fulfillment through a new appearance. He bought into the notion that it was his blackness that was preventing his ultimate desire of self-fulfillment.
He also demonstrates that regardless of endless possessions it was not enough or able to satiate his quest for self fulfillment. Regardless of an enormous mansion, endless furnishings and anything that his heart desired he remained unfulfilled.
Finally, he demonstrated that a life of fame does not necessarily correlate with a life of happiness. I recently heard a survey conducted amongst college aged kids as to what is there greatest desire. It wasn't wealth or health but the desire to become famous. As demonstrated by MJ and numerous other celebrities, fame is no guaranteed pathway to a content life. We live in a society where celebrities are placed on a pedestal and are adored, and kids want to attain that adoration to the exclusion of everything. Maybe that is why we have so much depression in this country as people buy into the idea that if they were better looking or richer or had more stuff or famous then only then would they be happy. And since this not attainable to most it becomes a source of dissatisfaction that leads to depression.
So MJ has shown us that fame, wealth and appearance are not necessarily a pathway to a fulfilled life. Despite his many gifts he lacked the one gift that would allow him to be content. The greatest gift one can receive is to be happy with what one has, what one looks like, and with one's lot in life. This is not to say that one should not strive for greater things but to be content with one's station in life is truly the greatest gift.
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I think the greatest achievement in life is to like yourself.
ReplyDeleteMJ thought that altering his phsical appearance would give him happiness but he didn't realize that one has to change from the inside/out rather than from the outside/in to achieve contentment. Perhaps if he had lived out his life he would have found this out. I know it took me over a half a century.