I don't mean to be callous, but as I sit here in my office listening to my colleagues exclaiming over this and reading my Twitter feed which is in a frenzy, I'm surprised so many people are surprised that Michael Jackson has died.
He hasn't been well for many, many years and one look at him reveals that he's a shell of the former man he was. According to doctors and friends, he's been suffering from a serious lung condition and he's been hospitalized on and off for years. He was a sick man. He was battered and scarred and as far as I can tell, not entirely with it (mentally) for the last several years.
If MJ had passed during his Thriller/Beat It days, I would have been shocked. Even during the Black & White, Man in the Mirror days maybe. But today? Not shocked. This is the Michael Jackson I'll choose to remember - not the one who passed away today.
