I typically do not do this… but I have thought about it often when someone that has affected our lives leaves the earth. Today, something moved me to type this email… and launch this idea that I have been working with for a while… Let me elaborate.

We lost a man they called THE KING OF POP… a man we watched grow from a boy to a man right in front of our eyes. A man that NO MATTER WHO YOU ARE… from the PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES to a MEMBER OF THE KKK you know one of his songs and you have sang it OUT LOAD AT THE TOP OF YOUR LUNGS… “BEAT IT… BEAT IT… NO ONE WANTS TO BE DEFEATED!!!”… how can I NOT acknowledge something this big leaving the earth, as we know it?

There are few dates that I remember the passing of a spirit from this earth… the one I recall next to this was the loss of Mr. Marvin Gaye… me and my dad were at an ice cream shop in Buffalo NY. And the man behind the counter said… “Did you hear, Marvin Gaye was shot, he’s dead…” I could feel from my father it was like he heard that he lost one of his BEST friends. Yesterday was one of those days for me. First I got a text from my wife, “Mike Jackson is dead”… in my mind I am like… who??? Do I know some guy named Mike Jackson cause she can’t be talking about Michael Jackson, but low and behold, a search on my phone started bringing electronic headlines of his passing… WOW… was all that I could think… wow… very much the same response my dad gave in 1984.

I am not sure that I have fully processed all of the information. The best way to sum up the loss is a light has gone out in the world. A creative light that had a gift… I have come to realize that gifts are truly from above we cannot determine who will have what gift, but we see them everywhere. When a child is born that child has the capacity to touch BILLIONS OF PEOPLE… you just NEVER KNOW… think about it… Barack Obama, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, JFK, Michael Jackson and the list could go ON and ON… when you look at your child you may be looking into the eyes of a person that can cure AIDS or solve our dilemma of global warming, the potential for the human mind and the spirit is boundless.

When I thought about what best to do to think through the loss of this creative spirit MJ… it seemed obvious… PULL OUT THRILLER… and man… me and my daughter JAMMED DOWN THE HIGHWAY… “you gotta be startin’ somethin’ you gotta be startin’ somethin’… “THRILLER THIRLER NIGHT…” “Billy Jean… is NOT MY lover…” and it was interesting… cause I think that for the FIRST time… I listened to the album… Yes… I have listened to THRILLER five thousand and four times… but this time… i …. listened … to the voice… to the gift.

You know… none of us on earth are perfect human beings… we ALL FAULTER… and that should NEVER overshadow, a gift… recognize the gift before you recognize the faults. Think about it this way… A VOICE has LEFT the Earth… but then again, MJ left so much of his gift hear with us (I meant to misspell that)… I can POP in that CD and I can watch a youtube video of a thousand people in a prison in the Philippines do Thriller in the prison courtyard… the light will always be here.

I am working on a character with a POSITIVE VOICE… one that can speak to us all… I have created a series of thoughts called {Oluizums} through this character a little voice will ring out that we can all relate to… when Olu speaks his mind or shows us his face… we will say… “YES… that is what I am feeling…” much like the music that MJ left us… I thought this would be the perfect day… TO START A NEW VOICE… goodbye for now MJ… rest in peace… finally.

Go start a new voice… a positive voice… today.