"Black or White"-Michael Jackson

I'm sure everyone has heard by now that Michael Jackson is dead. I'm still working on wrapping my head around it. I can't really imagine a world in which he doesn't exist; then again, my friend Emily made a good point when she said that in some ways it's like he's been dead for a while.

"Black or White" has special significance for me. When I was six years old, I was in my first play. It was part of this summer program at the Carrboro ArtsCenter where they let a bunch of six-year olds write their own play and perform it (I don't know who decided this would be a good idea, but miraculously it was).

Our play was called "Dancers and Demons," and the idea was that a mad scientist had somehow trapped dancers from around the world inside of glaciers, and other dancers had to go rescue them. I was a dancer from Egypt and performed an impassioned improvisational dance to "Walk Like An Egyptian" by The Bangles. Then at the end, when everyone was rescued and safe, our counselors cranked up "Black or White" and we all ran around the stage in our multi-cultural dance costumes and shook it like crazy. We danced like we were being possessed by the holy spirit at an old-fashioned revival. It was one of the most ecstatically joyful single moments in my life to this point, and I think about it every time I hear that song.

Michael Jackson: even if you died of a broken heart, or even if you go to a scary zombie purgatory where sad child stars go, you should know that you brought some people a lot of happiness.