Michael Jackson R.I.P.-off

I have been completely amazed at the media attention surrounding Michael Jackson's death and puzzled at the public outpouring of grief.

People around the world have been exposed to the story and the internet has been littered with little else last week. His CD's and DVD's have sold out at major music outlets worldwide. Online downloading has raked in millions more sales. Los Angeles came to a halt as his funeral cortège made its way to the cemetery. It is estimated that 300 million viewers around the world were glued to their TV's.

Why? I ask myself. Why this public outpouring of grief? He was a good musician - not the greatest. OK, so he taught the world one or two dance steps. He was a novel entertainer who made superb use of technologies of the day. Some of his lyrics were quite poignant. Some expressed definite social concern. In 1985 his "We are the World" brought famine in Africa to the world stage. As a postmodern androgenous trans-coloured, he made us rethink gender and colour. But he wasn't the pope, or Mother Theresa. Maybe the world also needs secular saints. Princess Diana figures.

Is it all just a media-driven circus? Jackson did have a particularly sad life. Are we moved by the tragedy of it? Or do we just want to be part of something greater, something significant, a bigger story than our own? Part of a soap opera? Do we identify with the kid from an American ghetto, introduced by his family to the world of music, exploited by his promoters, styled as the "King of Pop," a universal commodity? Do we aspire to his riches? Are we so uncomfortable in our skin that we too would go to any length to change its colour? Are we not revolted at the waste of a small fortune, of megabucks? And what about those allegations of paedophilia? Can this man really be a modern hero? An icon? And if so, of what? Or do we look to him to see how messed-up our own lives aren't?

What is the attraction of Neverland? Do we really want to live in some dream-world, away from the troubles of everyday life? OK, everybody needs to get away from it all for a while, but to construct a whole world of escape and fantasy...... Isn't that just a Peter Pan syndrome - refusing to grow up, making a space where children can be children forever? Michael Jackson transported us to a world of the imagination, of smoke and laser shows, of bling and sequins, of crotch-grabbing and moonwalking, of laser surgery and painkilling drugs.

Our Lord has all the time in the world for Michael Jackson, for his art and music, for his personal crises and tragic life. Yet he is more concerned with the genuine, the concrete, the pain of the world, of our daily experience. He came to save us from our real problems. Not escaping into Neverland, but by living our lives as authentically as we can, trusting in God and welcoming his grace. Now that's the real "Thriller."