Another Fallen Icon

Well for a while we'll endure or some will perhaps enjoy a tsunami of news about Michael Jackson who is termed by some an "icon" of pop music. The story is of yet another famous person dying too young and too famous. Being an icon is hard, that is if you are a "living icon."

Icons in the Eastern Orthodox church have a history of being those painted figures of Christ or saints usually done on wood. The famous personages directed the one who venerated them to something beyond the actual picture. These icons were directional signals to something bigger than the image.
Being a living icon may be more than one can handle. I'm not sure what happened to Michael Jackson and I mean that both in his living and in his dying. His "picture" changed before our very eyes as he re-painted his own face so as to loose its color. He re-sculpted his iconic image so that he no longer looked his old self. Many speculate as to why he did such re-figuring.

It's hard to be a living icon. Maybe we're not designed to be icons while we are living. Maybe that designation is to be applied later after time allows for a certain mellowing and fermentation of respect.

In the religious/spiritual world icons ultimately point to a reference for none other than God. Some seemed to almost worship Michael and his work. Such veneration of the living is always dangerous. It is said that Michaels heart "gave way" or "gave up" or something. The human spirit can only handle so much without buckling in some way under the weight of "glory."

There is a line I will paraphrase from the book, "The Wizard of Earth-Sea." The words come when a young apprentice wizard turns himself into a hawk in order to escape the clutches of a dark dragon. In flight the wizard forgets himself and continues to enjoy soaring in the clouds. Suddenly he becomes weak and finds himself in a rapid descent to the earth.

He awakens cold and clammy in the arms of the master wizard who is his teacher. "My teacher," he says through trembling lips, "What is the matter with me?" The old teacher looks into the eyes of his young pupil and says, "My child I gave you great powers, but if you become what you are not for too long it will destroy you."

We are but human. No one can really be a living icon. Being truly human is supposed to be enough. Even icons, real icons point to the One who creates our humanness.
Rest in peace Michael. Now that the pressure is off you can be simply human again...or maybe even for the first time. God bless you.
jody