It is always sad when the world loses major talent. It is magnified by the exposure of their art and lives in endless cycles on airwaves, internet and in some cases radio. I am always reflective when talent passes on. It is a reminder of the fleeting nature of our stay on the planet… but it is also sometimes a walk down your own memory lane.

In truth I have never been a huge Michael Jackson fan. I will not deny that there has been music in his library of many hits that I have enjoyed over the years… but for the most part I lean in other directions and found the artist himself a bit too eccentric for adulation.

But then there is the landscape of a lifetime. I am the same age as Michael and I grew up with him all around me. He is a part of who I am because he is a part of all of us. I cannot and will not deny the feeling of shock and loss today. It is surreal and it is sobering. It is a reminder of the frail nature of human beings and the sense of how little we really know about others, especially those who we learn all about through the media.

What strikes me as most revealing is the knowing that this man was (and will remain) world famous as an artist. There was money, riches… and a legacy of loneliness and naivete. The eccentricities and the troubles of his later life will always be a part of what we know Michael Jackson to be, but in the end it will always be the music that defines him.

But as I watched the endless barrage of clips and tributes today I could not help but to feel the eerie chill whenever the years that marked his life were on the screen. 1958-2009. That is my year of birth. It just felt surreal.

To those who mourn I join you. It is never anything but sad to see this sort of shift in the culture happen. To both Michael Jackson and Farah Fawcett’s families I send my sincere condolences. The world has lost.

For those of us who remain….

Be Happy. Be Well. Be.