What I learned from Michael Jackson: Depression, Non Judgemental, Parenting, Health & Well Being. By Florence Iwegbue.

In my plight to achieve and maintain good physical and mental health, I identified key lessons from Michael Jackson in life and in death. Indeed this culture contributed to his tortured soul, that ultimately haunted, isolated & killed him.

Human beings are intricate yet mediocre in their ability to accept each other as who they are. Most appease themselves with the thought that someone else is living a life more tortured than theirs... This helps them feel better. My mother began warning me of the danger in this trait as a pre-schooler. The ability to remain non judgmental is a trait that needs constant practice and reinforcement. Perhaps parents must see this as a learning tool. Perhaps the teasing he got as a kid for his looks may not have spiraled out of control & made him subject to ridicule. Though his autopsy has not been released, the belief is that the heart failure was caused by an extended period of depression. Cortisol (increases in the blood) & Serotonin (levels decrease in the brain) are 2 hormones that affect the body when depression is present. As research shows people suffering from clinical depression are at a higher risk of heart disease. He did all he could: stayed out of the music business & even moved out of a country he loved in order to avoid the pressure. In the end his financial situation and his love of music brought him back. This morning the Jackson Family attorney admitted on T.V that he(the attorney) only just recovered emotionally from the effects of Micheal's 2005 criminal trial on child abuse. What alarmed me was that he was not even the trial attorney, he did not even work on the case itself. He merely held the Jackson Family's hands through the process. Wow what a torture it must have been; it took so long for him to recover, how on earth must this have affected Michel?

For those who don't realize it or who have never seen him up close, Micheal beamed when he performed and I often commented on the stark difference in his demeanor whenever the media captured him off stage.
By doing the concert he was trying to rekindle an old flame with the populous. He was trying to remind us of how much he still loved us and hoped that we all still felt the same way. Like every one else he still wanted us to like him. Of course we know that preparing for the concert came with criticism too... As of 5:27pm(ET) when he passed he was still being criticized and ridiculed by the the media and populous.

More important is the genius that Michael was. Many who worked with him admitted that he was way beyond his time in Music. He was a perfectionist in a craft he loved: Quite a dangerous combination as this makes a person rather eccentric. Many among us carry this trait. It is said that Isaac Newton lived in his Lab for 3 years straight working on his research. Has society as a whole been advised on how to be patient with eccentric people? Do we even know how to identify eccentricity and thus accept it as a compromise to the gift the person offers?
Was the financially flamboyant nature of his eccentricity generate a level of envy among those who fed into the media frenzy that brought him down? To put it blatantly, where some of us jealous of his success instead of celebrating it? Do we realize that everyday in the media someone is being witch hunted? Is it healthy for this to continue as part of our culture? Where and when do we draw the line?

Michael was naive with a lot of bad advisers around him. It didn't help that he could barely trust anyone. But when the initial allegations of child abuse and compensation arose i was already a mother. My question then was if I knew my child was abused why on earth would I accept money instead of making sure hell came upon the person by way of jail time? Why would I accept compensation and leave other children at risk of the abuser?
With all the pressures that life itself presents for an average person, isn't it sometimes better to literally pay someone to leave you alone? I know I have done it several times in little ways: Sometimes I often think: "Is it worth the stress?" Perhaps this was Michael's reasoning in paying off the family initially.

I feel lucky in knowing Michael in a different way: Just his Music. It was until I moved to the West that I saw the negativity that pervaded Micheal's image. Back in Africa all we got was his music: no magazines, news stories, paparazzi shots etc I love and cherish that this is something I have over many. It is important that Americans realize that the rest of the world is immensely devastated by his loss; perhaps because we all share this filtered image of the King of Pop. Speaking ill of the dead is frowned by many cultures and Americans must endeavor to alert their media of the consequence: The ironic danger of looking heartless with one of the indisputable global icons of their own society. Many may wander, if they can treat their own like this even in death, how on earth will they treat anyone else?

In saying this, let us all take these lessons away from Michael, besides his music this was the most important gift he may have left for us.
Regards to you all,
Florence.