Transplanted

I woke up to more rain today so no long bike ride. Instead I flipped on the TV, found CNN and came up with another idea: take public transit to the CNN Center and watch the Michael Jackson tribute on their jumbo TV.

If you’ve never visited the CNN Center (sorry I don’t have pictures) there is a large food court with a jumbo tron that runs CNN all day and all night (I assume). It’s a pretty massive looking set up. And since there wasn’t a formal gathering planned, I was surprised by how many people were already sitting down watching when I arrived. Still, I managed to find a seat near the front when a nice older black man agreed to let me share his table. It wasn’t long before the whole room was full with a couple hundred people and media crews began filming us and taking photos (I think my mug was on TV for a millisecond).

While I was a huge Jackson fan growing up–I watched “Thriller” a million times–he had been off my radar for a long time, and I never knew what to think of the molestation charges. But given all the controversy, his appearance and obvious struggle for privacy, I sort of thought that his life was fairly sad , but the truth wasn’t so “black and white.

Turns out that MJ was a true inspiration for many black people. Part of my experience of living in Atlanta has been to gain new level of exposure to my brothers and sisters with darker skin (in Utah they are few and far between). During the tribute today, the men and women who gathered at CNN were nearly all black and many of them were crying. And it made me think about how none of us can really say for sure what sort of influence we have in the world, how we impact people’s lives or the impact others have as well. I didn’t see MJ that way. To me, as a kid, he was just an amazing performer who “thrilled” me. But to many black people he broke down barriers.

So day two was enlightening and I’m beginning to wonder if Forest Gump’s line of wisdom will ever be topped: “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.”  You just never know.