~I SING OF WHAT YOU SEE, AND MIGHT THINK ABOUT, BECAUSE OF WHAT YOU SEE

MOVING HANDS, MOBILE FACES WHEREBY THE EYE, NOT THE EAR, TRACES WHAT’S ON THE MIND

SO, WHEN YOU SEE HANDS WEAVING THE SPACE BETWEEN FRIENDS

THINK OF THEM AS BEING, AS THOUGH YOU ARE SEEING, VOICES

SPEECH WITHOUT SOUND

FACE TO FACE

HANDS UNBOUND

WEAVING THE SPACE

BETWEEN FRIENDS

SO, THINK OF THEM AS BEING

AS THOUGH YOU WERE SEEING

VOICES~

Michael Jackson

SEEING VOICES

“History books will never capture the essence of your humble soul and the lives you literally saved.  Video archives will never accurately depict the excitement you caused every time you set foot in public or on stage.  The best mankind can do is observe your genius and pay it forward as an example of how a true angel walked among us.”

Jodi Gomes

“He was an angel walking the planet.”

Kenny Ortega

“And, just when you think you know him, he gives you more.”

Elizabeth Taylor

Life offers up a litany of challenges, each requiring a response…and, with each response, our interior portrait is drawn.  Connecting the dots, what we say and what we do reveals our truth.  We often navigate these waters by adding restrictions and qualifiers to our good intentions.  We believe in humane treatment, but we must take care of our own.  We believe in justice for our kind of people, but we forget that when anyone’s rights are violated, we are all at risk until justice is redressed. We believe in the teachings of religion, but want to decide WHO is worthy of love and forgiveness.  We want an impartial and truthful justice system, but we willingly join the media as accomplices in unethical bullying and character assassination. We believe that every child deserves a childhood, but, we turn away from uncomfortable mirrors held up for us to see dark reflections.

Michael Jackson faced down qualifiers and restrictions throughout his entire career.  He held a mirror to society’s good intentions, questioned authority and addressed issues that were often uncomfortable for many to face.  Unwilling to stay in his place, he became a powerful black man actively speaking out for change.  He spoke out for those who were suffering, mistreated, victims of war and poverty, abused…for a ravaged planet.  Often calling out YOU AND ME, he invited us to join him.  His artistry inspired and rallied us for cause.

A leader is one who thrills and inspires while reaching a powerful connection.  Tightness is replaced with expansion.  Restrictions and qualifiers are laid aside and a beauty of collective purpose and understanding is reached.  As if by a miracle, the bond grows and even death cannot break its hold.  Michael Jackson’s uniqueness comes in public interaction, artistic performance…his gift of both physically and emotionally being able to feel the pain of others.  He identified with abused children, women who contemplated abortion, abusive marriage, the terminally ill, abused animals, a ravaged earth, those who were social outcasts, those living in abject poverty, those bullied, those falsely accused, victims of greed, victims of the system, the crucified, those caught up in war and violence, the lonely, the betrayed…those with disabilities.

Discovering SEEING VOICES brought me to the page today.  Sensitive to those who cannot hear, seeing hands weaving the spaces between friends, thinking of them as being, as though seeing…voices.  Beyond his body being a canvas, he was a storyteller through bodily movements.  His dance was felt over every inch of his body.  His hands interpreted emotion, telling us what he felt inside.  Without restriction, Michael Jackson danced love into life with intimacy and vulnerability, revealing who we are and who we can be.    Erasing for us those restrictions and qualifiers, we have been freed to understand the world through his eyes, his heart, his hands.  SEEING VOICES is a metaphor for a life woven together.

SEEING THE WORLD THROUGH MICHAEL’S EYES…no boundaries or borders, no restrictions or qualifiers.

~No, all children are our concern~

Two little boys in London killed this other kid and I was going to visit them because the Queen gave them adult sentencing for life.  They were like 11 and 10 year-old boys and I was going to the prison to visit them.  (When told that he was an idiot, he was rewarding them for what they did) Michael asked HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT?  I bet if you track their lives, you can find they didn’t have parents around, they didn’t have any love, nobody to hold them and look in their eyes and say I LOVE YOU.  They deserve that even if they are going to get life.  I just want to say I LOVE YOU and hold them.  The information came out they came from broken families, were never watched as little kids, never attended to…their pacifier was those Chucky movies with stabbings and killings.  And, that’s how they became conditioned to that.”

Michael Jackson

Unconditional love…the words are easy to say, but far more difficult to carry out, especially when the conditions are uncomfortable.

Speech without sound

Face to face

Hands unbound

Weaving the space between friends

Weaving the space between human beings, meeting face to face, holding onto each other and saying:  I LOVE YOU.  No matter how difficult, Michael Jackson made unqualified, unrestricted choices.  Through his eyes we are all the same.  Through his eyes every child deserves a childhood.  When Michael sang HAVE YOU SEEN MY CHILDHOOD  he was speaking for all children, for all of us.  When Michael created Neverland he wanted it to be a place for children of all ages celebrating CHILDHOOD…TRACING WHAT’S ON ALL MINDS, what we remember, chasing down ghosts and seeking change. 

SEEING MICHAEL

HEARING MICHAEL

SEEING VOICES

Jude