I was volunteering at the prep shop at Mitch's school on Friday morning when I received a call from Don. He wanted to let me know that TMZ was reporting that Michael Jackson had died. I'm addicted to TMZ. I usually check it once a day, and although Perez and the Superificial are entertaining I find TMZ to be the most up to date and accurate. I was on the road most of Friday so I listened to AM radio, where they were piping in US news programs and tributes.

That evening Don and I were talking about it, and even Mitch seemed to know who MJ was. Well, at least he thought he knew, according to what he had heard at school that day. He was very curious that evening, and so Saturday morning we tried to explain to him exactly who MJ was, and why he was so famous. We tried to pull up some videos for him to watch and of course the internet had slowed to a crawl. Suddenly a lighbulb, MTV! Turned out that VH1 was having a top 30 countdown of MJ videos. Both Don and I thought that Thriller would be a great video for Mitch to see. It's got music, flair, and dancing zombies. How could we go wrong? Hmmmmmm....maybe not such a great idea. Mitch seemed to be into it, until MJ transformed into a yellow eyed people eater. He started shrieking, covering his eyes and attempted to tunnel through the sofa, via my armpit. Don came running into the room, scrambling for the remote. He found it just as Mitch started to calm down. Don turned off the TV, and immediately Mitch popped his head up wanting to know why we turned it off. He started to cry saying he wanted to watch it. So, I uh, I turned it back on. Yeah, I know. He was really into it, said he liked it. So here we are Sunday night. Mitch has called us in three times because he keeps "seeing bad things" and can't sleep. Coincidence? Stall tactic? Bad mommy? Who knows.

On Saturday morning (pre Thriller) I had planned on turning the TV off after one or two videos. but I actually found myself wanting to watch as many as I could. I hadn't really listened to MJ since the early 90s, and I certainly hadn't purchased an album since Bad. but watching the videos really took me back. Last week, if you had asked my opinion of him I wouldn't have been very kind. But one thing that cannot be dismissed is that he had an immense and immeasurable talent. Hopefully he now finds the peace that he was unable to attain during his life.