RIP Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and Ed McMahon

So Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and Ed McMahon are dead. It's sort of strange in a way, because I hadn't even realized Michael was aging (strange, I know). Ed McMahon seemed too old to die. Farrah Fawcett finally succumbed to cancer. I didn't even know she had cancer.

I think to a certain extent we (certainly I do) see someone at a certain age and it's hard to register that they will not remain at that age. I've always thought of him as a guy in his 30's. He died at 50. That's quite removed from what I thought of him, though of course, completely irrational. Like, I always see my father as a man of almost 50. Of course, only this year he celebrated his 48th! It's strange how our perception of something or someone almost stagnates once it's set. Think about people you knew in high school and see now, 10 years later, and they've lost weight, or become famous, or still live in their parents' basement, and unless they stayed within your expectations of what they'd become, you're surprised.

When I lived in Israel I lived in a kibbutz. For those not in the know, it's basically a communist little village where a couple hundred people live and work. Taxes are exceptionally high, but everything is provided for (we had a big house with a huge backyard and DELICIOUS meals 3 times a day with the best cheesecake I've ever had!). I'd recently gotten in touch with an old friend from there, and everything has changed. They sold the factory where most of the residents worked and from where they got most of the funding for that cheesecake. So most of the people I knew moved away, the people left are daydreaming about moving away, and this image I have of what it used to be is dead and buried along with Mr. Jackson.

I suppose that's a good thing. Things need to change, and I for one hate for things to stagnate. At the same time, it's often hard to let go of those images you have of something. It's a way to hang on to a memory of good days, and a way to remember people and things that have passed on, but at the end of the day, things move on, and so must we.