“There are two kinds of music.  One comes from the strings of a guitar, the other from the strings of the heart.  One sound comes from a chamber orchestra, the other from the beating of the heart’s chamber.  One comes from an instrument of graphite and wood, the other from an organ of flesh and blood.

This loftier music I speak of tonight is more pleasing than the notes of the most gifted composers, more moving than a marching band, more harmonious than a thousand voices joined in hymn and more powerful than the world’s percussion instruments combined.  THAT SWEET SOUND OF LOVE.”

MICHAEL JACKSON

In this age of 24-hour news cycles, of cut and paste and sloppy reporting, baron of ethics and accountability and devoid of the truth, loftier ideals and ideas often do not reach the public.  Repeating myth brainwashes the unsuspecting viewer, often subliminally.  A case in point is the recent reporting focused on XSCAPE, Michael’s latest album to be out on May 13, 2014.  Even though the reporters have not heard the tracks, that doesn’t stop them from commenting on them.  Doing absolutely no research, they blindly spew their inaccuracies.  Saying that, “DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR CHILDREN ARE?” is about Michael being falsely accused by extortionists, once again shows a lack of knowledge.  This song was recorded by Michael in 1990 and considered for the DANGEROUS ALBUM which was released in 1991, two years before extortionists reared their collective ugly heads and more than a decade before Michael was falsely accused and forced to endure high tech media lynching.  Karen Langford shares with us a gem that was found in Michael’s notes as they discovered Michael’s inspiration behind, “DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR CHILDREN ARE?”  In the 60’s through the 90’s there was a T.V. campaign for child safety that would come on T.V. each evening asking parents everywhere this very question.  Only Michael could take a T.V. safety campaign and turn it into genius rhythm, music and songwriting. (From L.A.Listening Party)

As swimmers dare

to lie face to the sky

and water bears them,

as hawks rest upon air

and air sustains them,

so would I learn to attain

freefall, and float

into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace,

knowing no effort earns

that all-surrounding grace.

Denise Levertov

THE AVOWAL

The loftier music, the loftier ideals…that freefall earning grace…while reading this poem, two emotions came to me:  I felt gratitude for spiritual embrace freely given and not earned…and, I felt the pain of anger remembering Diane Dimond’s words during Michael’s pain when she gleefully reported that all were watching Michael’s freefall and waiting for the splash.

“Sadness…is not the opposite of happiness.  The opposite of happiness is a closed heart.  Happiness is a heart so soft and so expansive that it can hold all of the emotions in a cradle of openness.  A happy heart is one that is larger at all times than any one emotion.  An open heart feels everything-including anger, grief, and pain-and absorbs it into a bigger and wiser experience of reality.  Joseph Campbell calls happiness the joyful participation in the sorrows of the world.  We may think that by closing the heart we’ll protect ourselves from feeling the pain of the world, but instead, we isolate ourselves even more from joy…I have come to believe that the opposite of happiness is a fearful, closed heart.  Happiness is ours when we go through our anger, fear, and pain, all the way to our sadness, and then slowly let sadness develop into tenderness.”  Elizabeth Lesser, The New American Spirituality 

“I think God will forgive everything except lack of joy.”

Father Alexander Schmemann

“THAT SWEET SOUND OF LOVE” Michael talks about embraces joy while feeling God’s grace in every part of it.  “When you want to be close to me, listen to my music…the love is stored there.”  Really paying attention, hearing and becoming educated brings understanding…everything, EVERYTHING Michael wrote about, sang about, performed, talked about, celebrated loftier ideals.  It was all music from the heart.  Its message came from pure love and joy of spirit containing many layers…a tapestry of loftier music, music from the beating of HIS heart chamber…a heart that used struggle and pain, a tender heart open always.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XGYbjyB2RI

I am working towards a joyful, OPEN heart, walking through pain, fear and anger allowing that sadness to lead to tenderness.  I would be lying if I said it wasn’t a struggle.  My passion for justice overtakes me at times.  But, truly I tell you, Michael saves me each and every time I feel the water at my head.

Thank you, Michael, for being my inspiration and my hope…my passion and my role model.  I learn more every day and, truly I say, I am a better person because of you.  I love you more.

Jude

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