Summer, I’ve decided, cannot be measured by how many sunny and warm days there are. Sure..that’s typically how it goes. Summer is about being outside, swimming and sunshine..but you just have to make do with what you get. This has not been the warmest, sunniest summer..so far..that is for sure. So instead I just try to be thankful for having the summer off.. for regrouping, having time to actually drink coffee slowly and load the dishwasher at 10am if I want to.

I never imagined this would be the summer that Michael Jackson would be buried. I guess he just represents so much in our pop culture, so much of his music was in the background of my life..so it’s odd to think he is no longer there. And odder still to explain to my son, why people are making a big deal out of it, when my son can only think “But he molested children.”… so I try to tell him “we don’t know exactly what happened, unfortunately”..which is true. We can speculate, we can imagine..but we just don’t know. And that part of his life, can’t be the only thing that’s remembered..because he was much more than that. To the outside world anyway..and to his family and friends.  Like all things, there are so many shades of grey. We can’t just put it all in one box and walk away.

Seeing his daughter–Paris..who I haven’t seen much of until then–what a pretty girl..she was the most important moment of that memorial. To her, he was daddy..and that’s where the greatest loss will be. It didn’t hit me until I watched her try to speak. I only hope those kids have more influence than MJ’s parents in their lives. Because we all can see, how that worked out.