Day belonged to Michael Jackson
Well, the other reason for celebration of the day is of course Michael Jackson. After recording James Curtis show for all these days since two months now, watching all the re-enactments of the courtroom scenes, I was waiting for this day to hear of the decision. Amrita had asked me how would it feel when after all these days of suspense, the verdict is passed. Well, June 13 arrived. Came good. Real good.In the classic case between Thomas Mesereau Jr. and Santa Barbara County District Attorney Tom Sneddon, the former won. After 72 days of suspense, it was agreed upon a by the jury that Michael Jackson was not guilty on any of the ten counts brought up against him.The singer I grew up with in India: immersed in a dream of the impossible, the ecological diversity and the nullification of color lines, the challenges of the dance conventions and the benefits of doubt for the 'bad' outlaw. Jackson, one of the heroes who always adorned my room walls not only because of how he was as a performer, but also because who he was as a human being, today was finally declared innocent.As he rightly says, "Children had not betrayed me. Adults have let me down." I guess the media obsession with the Jackson trials going on since a decade now will finally end, and as Liz Taylor said, the "people will leave him alone now."Jackson is not just a performer. He has served as a ray of hope for a changing world since decades now. Defying the American hegemonies, transcending the borderlines of continents, gender, and race, MJ stood for issues bigger than the immediate. The most successful African-American entertainer of all times, he courted political lines because he could not have afforded to do otherwise.We made enough mockery of this man. Now lets celebrate him and the words he lives by. Of late, haven't we had enough of the romantic longing blues and hitting baby toxications? More than mouthful of apple butts and hip-hop imageries? "Man in the Mirror" and "The Earth Song" will forever remain in our minds to remind of MJ legacy. But here is one lesser known song he wrote to celebrate the Planet Earth. For better hopes sake:
Planet Earth, my home, my placeA capricious anomaly, in the sea of spacePlanet Earth, are you justFloating by, a cloud of dustA minor globe, about to bustA piece of metal, bound to rustA speck of matter, in a mindless voidA lonely spaceship, a large asteroidCold as a rock, without a hueHeld together, with a bit of glueSomething tells me, this isn't trueYou are my sweetheart, soft and blueDo you care, have you a partIn the deepest emotions, of my own heartTender with breezes, caressing and wholeAlive with music, haunting my soul.In my veins, I've felt the mysteryOf corridors of time, books of historyLife songs of ages, throbbing in my bloodHave danced the rhythm, of the tide and floodYour misty clouds, your electric stormWere turbulent tempests, in my own formI've licked the salt, the bitter, the sweetOf every encounter, of passion, of heatYour riotous color, your fragrance, your tasteHave thrilled my senses, beyond all hasteIn your beauty, I've known the howOf timeless bliss, this moment of nowPlanet Earth, are you justFloating by, a cloud of dustA minor globe, about to bustA piece of metal bound to rustA speck of matter in a mindless voidA lonely spaceship, a large asteroidCold as a rock without a hueHeld together with a bit of glueSomething tells me this isn't trueYou are my sweetheart gentle and blueDo you care, have you a partIn the deepest emotions of my own heartTender with breezes caressing and wholeAlive with music, haunting my soul.Planet Earth, gentle and blueWith all my heart, I love you
