Posts tagged Ben

Today, I finally got all the initial responses to all the term’s threaded discussions squared away (I will be obtaining relevant materials tomorrow.), and I did so because I wanted to allot time to watch the funeral at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, of a pop icon who sang my favorite song of his (penned by Don Black), “Ben.”

That man in the casket, of course, was the world-renowned Michael Jackson.

Personally, I’m not much of a fan, but I deeply appreciate his good acts as a humanitarian and of course, his ballads. My mother, however, was an avid listener of Jackson during the “Jackson 5″ era as a teen growing up in her native Philippines. She attended a concert herself, when Jackson was sixteen or seventeen. Alongside the aforementioned “Ben,” his song “One Day in Your Life” is just as touching, and yet, it’s so relevant to this day – the funeral of a revered, worldwide pop icon.

I watched the live coverage via CNN online and on the living room television with  my newly-repaired DirecTV service. There were several high points in the funeral, from his brother Jermaine Jackson’s touching rendition of “Smile,” a Charlie Chaplin hit (Brooke Shields remarked that it was Jackson’s favorite song.) to the gathering of celebrity mourners in a provocative medley of “We Are the World” and “Heal the World” But the  moment I deem as prominently emotional was 11-year-old Jackson’s daughter Paris’s terse yet tearful eulogy for “Daddy,” as her aunt Janet comforts her. Clearly, the reason why the few seconds of the preteen pouring out her grief moved me the most is because I personally had lost a father myself over 6 years ago on Easter Monday. As a Facebook user myself, I contacted many of my friends and joined in the discussion about the televised event as I watched it with my own two eyes from my PC in my Brandon area (FL) home.

I’m not a Jackson biggie, but I want to thank him for the international entertainment. May St. Cecelia now pray for his happy repose.