Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. Two icons, but beyond their celebrity, two individuals with a lot of people who loved them.
RIP.
ETA: I just got super annoyed on Facebook at the chastising tone of someone saying that nobody would think about or talk about Iran anymore because of two celebrity deaths. I don’t try to stir up conflict, so I stilled my hands on the keyboard.
Since this is MY LiveJournal, however, I’ll say what I please here. Which basically is:
I still care about Iran. Iran and the Neda video have tormented my waking and sleeping thoughts for days. I fervently support any people’s cry for justice and struggle for freedom.
But I also think art is one of those things that transcends the various artificial boundaries we invent to separate us. These two people (Fawcett, Jackson) were cultural icons, their names and work known all over the world. I see nothing wrong or abnormal about mourning or discussing their deaths. Regardless of his screwed up personal life, Michael Jackson’s musical appeal was universal. And even if someone finds the merit of Farrah’s work (which included movies about women empowering themselves) debatable, she put up a valiant fight against her cancer and wanted her experience to give other people hope and comfort in their own struggle with illness.
It’s never wrong to pause to note the loss of any of us, from the most obscure child dying of starvation in Darfur, to the death of a young girl on the streets of Iran, to the passing of someone who felt like a part of our growing up. As Christina says in her comment to this post, hearing news like that brings to mind the losses we’ve known in our own lives. We feel compassion for those who will suffer as we have.
The world can never have an over-abundance of compassion.
As the news started to sink in I thought, “parts of my childhood are dying,” (Andrew came to mind on the tail of that thought) and I went to my room and had a small cry. I feel for their families.
It’s so very, very sad.
He was a huge part of my childhood.
I fondly remember listening to him on 8 Track and then buying his records.
Big losses today.
My first thought was “My God, the eighties died with him.”
If people think that Farrah didn’t have talent then they never saw The Burning Bed, or Extremities. Sometimes people “forget” about domestic abuse, The Burning Bed called attention to it in 1984 – and who knows how many women benefited from what some might think was a cheesy made for tv. movie.
Michael Jackson changed the music industry, and made MTV … but I must confess my favorite Michael Jackson song is “You can’t win..” from The Wiz.
Both obviously had issues that plagued their personal life, and I can certainly understand some people not being able to feel for them on a personal level. I know that there are people in this world I can’t have compassion for, but that is my issue and speaks to what plagues me … if that makes sense. That doesn’t mean that they aren’t worthy of compassion.
Perhaps people are mourning a little more because of the heartbreaking news that is coming places such as Darfur and Iran, and Iraq.
Since this is MY LiveJournal, however, I’ll say what I please here.
Amen! Sing it, sister!
I just got super annoyed on Facebook at the chastising tone of someone saying that nobody would think about or talk about Iran anymore because of two celebrity deaths.
Chastising or being sanctimonious definitely isn’t the best way to make a point since all it does obviously is to turn people off. Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson were such a big part of our popular culture for so long, so obviously there’s going to a lot of coverage and interest when they died . . . especially with Jackson since nobody was expecting him to die, unlike Farrah who we already knew was extremely ill and on death’s door. Really, that person seems to be seeing a false dichotomy since the media coverage will even out as the days go on. It’s not surprising that most of the coverage tonight was about Jackson, but by tomorrow morning, they’ll be back to also reporting on Iran and North Korea.
“The world can never have an over-abundance of compassion.”
Hear, hear.
RIP both those known universally and those dying quietly.
Well said my dear. Hear, hear!
Beautifully said. I like this, too: …art is one of those things that transcends the various artificial boundaries we invent to separate us. Gave me pause. : )
Hope it wasn’t me – but it could have been. If so – I meant no offense. I felt I was commenting on the media’s immediate dumping of the political subject matter for the ratings-busting coverage of a tabloid icon. I didn’t mean viewers would be forgetting Iran. Not at all.
Ms. Fawcett’s death, I would hope would help teach not just women, but everyone about the importance of regular and thorough check-ups and cancer screenings. She was much too young to die from such a horrible disease.
Jackson’s death didn’t hit me as hard. Maybe I am too cynical…I dunno.
In any event – please accept my apologies if it was my comment on FB that offended.
Oh, no, no–it wasn’t you! I didn’t read anything you said that sounded like the comments that provoked me. Even the person who made the original comment in FB didn’t at first say anything that bothered me. It was his commenters who got the ball rolling. Since I don’t know any of them, I opted not to throw my voice in with theirs because they’d have been all, Who’s SHE?, I’m sure.
🙂 I get it. Well – good. I know sometime my opinions get thrown out there pretty callously…so – don’t be afraid to smack me upside the head! *hugs*
I’ll just trash-talk you to Jim, and he’ll smack ME upside the head! Hugs back to you–although you should know no one here is hugging because we’re all covered with a constant layer of sweat. HEAT WAVE.
compassion
Thank you. ~hugs~
Re: compassion
You’re welcome.
Re: triping through eternity
I run across so many Doctor Who references that probably one day I should watch the whole series (have seen none of the Doctors or Torchwood).
Tasty and healthy . . . my mouth is watering already!!