Michael Jackson dead

Fox News reports:

The legendary singer, 50, reportedly went into cardiac arrest and had to receive CPR in the ambulance, according to a report from TMZ. Joe Jackson, his father, told multiple news sources that his son is not doing well.

I’m sad to hear this. But there it is. The story on the radio is that Jackson was exhausted, preparing for a comeback tour that will never come. He is now reported as having died.

At 50, he had overstayed his time in a frenetic business. “In November 2008, Jackson was reportedly too sick to travel to London to testify in a suit claiming he owes an Arab sheikh $7 million. Jackon sought to give his testimony by video link from the United States. Jackson has often been seen wearing a surgical mask in public. In one infamous 2002 court appearance in California, he appeared to have a bandage hanging from his hollowed-out nose. Despite much speculation about his radically changed appearance over the years, he has denied having had any alterations to his face other than two operations on his nose to help him breathe better to hit higher notes.”

AE Houseman captured the transitory nature of fame in his poem To an athlete dying young.

The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.

To-day, the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.

Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields where glory does not stay
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.

Jackson was quoted by TMZ as saying, Jackson was “looking forward to doing a lot of great things. … I think the best is yet to come in my true humble opinion.” Maybe this was the best he could hope for. No slow decay of rented cars or mocking stares but the gentle hands of family and friends.