Another photo excursion into rural MO/KS. It's almost too hot to be doing this... but not quite. Photo above: This old stucco house is abandoned, getting rapidly overgrown. Sad story, but nice subject for a photograph.
And, unavoidably in the news, is Michael Jackson's death. I understand and share the appreciation of his huge talent. Here's what I don't understand: the outpouring of apparently genuine grief, the expressions of apparently strong love and a sort of personal devotion to the man. Does nobody remember, or care, that he was a totally unrepentant pedophile? It's OK, in my book, to excuse the incredible weirdness, the bizarre series of plastic surgeries, the masks and gloves and crotch-grabbing... but pedophilia? Do people really think that's OK?
[Added later:] I don't think I did a good job of expressing what I am thinking or feeling about this Michael Jackson phenomenon. It's not that I think he should be hated, or should have been persecuted, because of his pedophilia. That's really not the point I am trying to make. What is really occurring to me is that I find it hard to understand why people seem to feel a sort of closeness to him, and/or consider him (and many have said this) an "idol." For me, his strangeness, his apparent incapacity to engage in normal relationships (including, but not limited to, his obvious thinking that sex with children is OK), leave me feeling that I would not cross the street to have a cup of coffee with him. I acknowledge his tremendous talent, but do not feel he is a person I could have any meaningful connection with.
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