Fame and Michael Jackson

There's often a point in most people's life when we'd like to be famous; perhaps just for a day to see how it feels. I really think the “King of Pops” fell on the altar of fame and had become a prisoner of that schizophrenic system in which you need to build any sort of walls to shelter you from the rest of the world. Sure, there seem to have been a lot of abuse going around when he was young, but to anyone who's read a few biographies of “stars,” the path they must follow is a very perilous one. It's a bit like climbing a treacherous ridge on the final ascent to a very challenging mountain peak. A few of the countless steps taken can place you in jeopardy of tumbling to your death on either side. For Michael the peak was extraordinarily high and the climb was so technical that it didn't leave him much of that “wiggle room” most of us enjoy. With that in mind, I'm at peace with a non-famous life; after all, I can go shopping and do a multitude of things in all anonymity and I like it a lot...