Michael Jackson, Personal Love Tutor

Michael Jackson, Personal Love Tutor (a msg to fellow fans)
(c) Feb 4, 2010 BeGodsGlow / majorloveprayer.org

Are we growing? Are we evolving? If not now, when will we begin?

When I was younger I used to long for some grand spiritual teacher to appear, to show me the way, to guide me to the secrets of the universe. "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear." I must have read this line at least a hundred times in mystical literature. While I didn't quit my job to live an ascetic existence in a faraway land, a sincere seeker I was. Yet where was my teacher, my guru? Perhaps I should have been satisfied where so many have, in the wisdom of history and perennial teachers like Jesus or Buddha. And while I respected them greatly (!) and took what words I could to heart, maybe it was the disquietude of youth that still needed an extra someone I could relate to in the here and now. Not one to follow easily or join a cult ;) I felt a bit left out in the cold, although still hopeful.

As the years went by it became clearer that some of us must've chosen to go it alone in this life. No special teacher appeared. Well, as we all do I learned many lessons (from the tiniest to the painfully or gloriously grand!) from friends and fellow travelers, but via no great guru. Perhaps there simply wasn't one for me.

One thing learned, though, is that we really are all the same in the end. We're all made of the same stuff. "The blood inside of me is inside of you!" We're all strolling down the same seemingly endless road to God. And if this is a giant cosmic classroom, there must be grade/class levels. And as such, a 10th grader is no more special or important than a 2nd grader; they've just learned more. The older student hasn't reached perfection. They don't know all the answers. And eventually the 2nd grader will know as much. This view eliminates both worship and inferiority, and it allows for mentoring, for tutelage. The kid up one grade/class might still be struggling with calculus, but he's pretty darned good at algebra. Wonderful! You've got yourself a new math tutor.

And so it was the other day, when working on a problem far more confounding than any quadratic equation, that I came face to face (so to speak) with my secret, unrecognized teacher. The dilemma was an age-old one: how do we love in the face of pain, when anger tears us up over someone stolen from this life, gone too soon? How do we love when we feel our hearts scream for vengeance? How do we not hate when our society even expects such reaction, when we shake with resentment and demand justice? How can we as fans face the tragic loss of our beloved Michael and live through the filing of charges and probable trial of Dr Murray... "with love"? My heart was crying out to find an answer for us, to hold us together, to not let division, conspiracy, hoax theories and infighting divide and conquer us. Us. Michael's Soldiers of Love. Where is my long-lost guru now when I need him, I thought?! And there, as eloquently as the universe could show me, there he was, staring back at me from a photo on my bookshelf ... these two big, beautiful eyes that have always gone straight to my soul and accompanied me from childhood, through dark times and light, always with me. It was Michael Jackson -- my imperfect, still-evolving personal LOVE tutor.

All these years he's been there, telling me that if I want to make the world a better place, I should look at myself and make that change. He begged me to see that WE are the world, no matter if you're black or white. Let's start giving! He asked me, "Can you feel it?", because the whole world is coming together now! He told me that we are here to change the world, that you're just another part of me (we're all one!), that our message is within the MAJOR LOVE that we should be sending out to each other! He wanted to show me that we can "be God's glow" and heal the world, because "there's nothing that can't be done if we raise our voice as one!" And amidst the cries of "what about us?!" he lamented a world in which he "used to dream", but now doesn't know where we are. Yes, sometimes it seems we've drifted far. And on that awful June 25th, we certainly all cried at the same time that night. Michael couldn't do it alone. It's going to take somebody else... thousands, maybe millions of somebody elses. Me! You! All of us!

And that was his message in This Is It. "It's all for love. L.O.V.E." Do we care?! Do we give a damn?!

Love doesn't compromise. Love doesn't wait until it's convenient to teach you its lessons. "Love won't wait" until we finish simmering with hatred and bitterness and try to regroup and find ourselves again. We're a family, MJ fans. We've always been and more than ever before we must remain one in this difficult time. Our precious teacher is gone from the physical world and now we must turn to each other. If we can't treat each other with love, where does that leave the world? It's time to come together, stand strong and declare in one voice that it's LOVE we represent! Not hate! LOVE. That's the message. That's the truth. If not now, then when will we begin?