In death, King of Pop touches another generation

Alright, I have come to the conclusion that legends never die.
For a short span of time, all of us have the opportunity to walk this planet and make our own footprint that future generations can live by.
A lot of our efforts go unnoticed to nearly the rest of this world's inhabitants over seven continents separated by the four great oceans. But each generation has their own group of people who earn the attention of everyone, lending their lives as a lesson of what you can do, and in isolated cases what should best be left alone.
Always able to make a football comparison even when we're still out of season, the quarterback position is often the most scrutinized position in professional sports. For a long time, however, the man under center was primarily used as a channel from the center's snap to the gut of a running back.
Football hall of famer Johnny Unitas changed all of that, becoming a coach on the field. Sometimes overruling his head coach on the sideline, Unitas revolutionized the game through precision passing and knowing what every offensive player is supposed to do on any single play.
Playing in Baltimore, Unitas played for the hometown Colts, the beloved franchise of Maryland's largest city from 1953-83. The team would leave that year to move to Indianapolis, keeping their nickname but not necessarily their history.
Cue Peyton Manning. The current Colts quarterback is often compared to Unitas, who passed away in 2002, primarily for his knowledge of the game and being a coach on the field of play.
Manning and other quarterbacks give Unitas a lot of credit for his contribution to how the game is currently played, and for that the ol' school gunslinger is considered by some to be the greatest of all time.
But enough about football, music seems to bridge generations.
As a child, we would listen to old choir hymns or listen to a little bit of jazz or R&B, as my parents tried to shelter me from rap/hip-hop for years, that is until they figured they had no way to keep it from getting to my hands.
But one person we could all agree on was Michael Jackson.
I can still remember watching 'Thriller' for the first time when I was five years-old, and being scared of the video and wondering whether these unearthly beings were hiding under my bed.
At that age you soak in any and everything put before you, so of course I ate it up. There were times where me and my cousin Erica would sneak into her father's secret stash of albums, which include the likes of The Temptations, Smokie Robinson and numerous others.
Even though as we became older our appreciation grew for the music of the 1950s and 60s, but the 'King of Pop' just left us in awe. For that reason, those albums seemed to collect dust on my uncle's shelf during the 1980s, while Jackson's 'Thriller,' 'Bad,' and 'Dangerous' stayed in heavy rotation.
Even though you probably didn't know many of the other words after your first time listening, you still tried your best to sing along to 'Beat It,' 'Billie Jean,' 'Dirty Diana,' or my favorite 'Smooth Criminal' (Eddie are you OK, Eddie are you OK, are you OK Eddie... simply classic).
This man seemed immortal, or 'Invincible,' the name he gave his final album seven years ago.
But as we know, this earthly body is not meant to live forever.
Realization Jackson had passed away came for me by way of Twitter, as me and millions of others all tried to sift through every bit of information being reported by media outlets like the Los Angeles Times, E! News and everyone's favorite, TMZ.
A piece of my childhood and that of others, was gone ... or was it?
Through this man's life, we bore witness to one of the greatest musicians to ever live, and in death the 'King of Pop' has affected another generation, doing exactly what he did his entire career — sell records. In weeks after his passing, Jackson has sold more than 2 million albums worldwide, in essence helping him dig out of the massive debt he left when he died.
Jackson also showed us the vulnerable nature of being famous. With the world as his audience for nearly his entire life, allegations of inappropriate and bizarre conduct sometimes circled around him.
Even in the weeks following his death, people are still trying to reconstruct the days and hours leading up to his final moments, the Jackson family and the rest of the world wondering what happened.
I guess it's the way Elvis Presley's family felt in the weeks following his death in 1977. Similar to Jackson, rumors have circulated in the 30-plus years since 'the King' passed.
But as he did when he rocked stages coast to coast, Presley remains a topic of conversation, with some of you (you know who you are) believing he's still waiting for the right time for a farewell tour.
With a large catalog of music and a life of achievement and controversy to his credit, its likely Jackson will have a similar impact for years to come.

'Facebooking' has become a way of life

Facebook is a funny tool.
Linking long lost family and friends, the social networking site has become a favorite primarily for those in the 18- to 35-year-old demographic — of which yours truly is a proud member.
Through the site, members are able to tell virtually everything that is going on in their lives, regardless of whether it is a simple change of status or the uploading of pictures.
Being able to browse the pages of my some 400+ friends (it used to be much longer) offers the unique opportunity to be a part of their lives from a distance, something our forefathers probably didn't believe would happen until the year 3039, if not at all.
On some occasions, my wife will come and tell me of one of our fellow Winthrop alumni furthering their education, getting a new job, buying their first home or starting a family. Good news is always pleasant to the ears.
As great and helpful as this search engine can be, it can create problems that each of us encounter during a certain point every day.
Unknowingly, each of us open the door to the wondering minds of our "Facebook friends" through the items we put on our pages.
I know you're wondering why I'm still a member of the social networking site even though it exposes my business to the rest of the world. My answer: we're all humans ... we all deserve at least one good addiction.
Daily us "Facebookies" will often place little blurbs about what we're doing, where we're going or what was great the night or week before. This particular status may be of great significance to one person, but to another it could be used as a way to question one's direction in life.
Often during a visit to Rock Hill, a friend will mention a name and on many occasions the conversation will revert back to Facebook.
"It's been a long time since I saw them, but I checked their Facebook page a few days ago," a friend might say. "I don't know who they are with, but what he/she has on their page is a hot mess."
Sometimes when these particular moments happen, I wish their mother would do like mine used to and say, "Mind your own business, keep your mind on what you have going on."
Kids, all of us say it but it's the truth — parents are always right.
As valuable a tool as Facebook is, it reveals the human need to express opinions — good or bad — as well as feed into our nosey instinct of wanting to know everything going on in someone else's lives.
If that is what we are trying to do, what do you think others are doing? I hear flash bulbs popping everywhere.
That's right: the same thing.
There is a reason why we're told to mind our business. Mostly because in the end there is only one life that is controlled by me, myself and I — my own.
Trying to pry our way into why others do things a different way than someone else somewhat shows where our priorities lie, and it's definitely not focused on our own well-being.
It's a fact that all of us have to come to grips with — people will only tell as much as they want you to know, and in the end it is up to to you to decide which path to go with after that. Unfortunately, our perceptions are wrought without them being able to plead their case.
For example, a resume goes into great detail about where you have been in life and what you have accomplished. On this one to two page document, it also includes a few important people that may have made some sort of impact on your life.
However, not every nook and cranny of your existence is found on your resume. Think I'm lying? Ask most professionals if their college GPA (grade point average) is included with the document.
Getting back on task, when you get to an interview, employers often use the resume as a basis of conversation. If or when they decide to ask questions about issues not listed on the resume is up to them, and you still have the right not to volunteer the information.
At least at that point you are able to face up to the questions on your own.
Life is too petty to keep trying in vain to break someone else down. It's already a job for all of us to make it through today and advance to the next, why do we try to make everyone else's business our own?
Adopting a personal policy that places the focus on correcting our own problems and deficiencies takes away the time we have to look at the shortcomings of others. And if you happen to look at those problems, commend them with an encouraging word and an optimism that uplifts them to do better rather than a scathing message again dragging them through the dirt.
It seems in life we're so tied up in matters not our own that we don't get the chance to audit our own hearts. By doing so, some of the stresses of life may brush off your shoulders a little easier.

Allow me to introduce myself...

All of us have a yearning to let the world know a few things about themselves, thoughts that may have been welling up in our bones for months or even years.
But for some reason we cannot find a way to express exactly how we feel. Whether it is the thought of being embarrassed or simply by being the slightest bit shy, a lot of us "punk" out to ourselves just to be one of the crowd.
However, only YOU can be you. As similar we may be to each other, family members or friends, each of us walk a different path through life, none of us going at the same pace or walking to a similar beat.
Keeping with that, each of us think our own thoughts, taking our own views and stances on complex issues like abortion, whether marijuana should be legalized and the direction of our next generation of Americans to simple ones that don't matter in the true scheme of things, but still we take great liberty into arguing who the best team in the NFL is, or whether Kobe is better than LeBron and vice versa.
For that reason, I started this blog, to give my views of things that may or may not be important to you, but for some reason I felt like sharing.
Feel free to share opinions and/or criticism; after all, I get that everyday from my newspaper's loyal fan base.