Moonwalk, OxiClean and Angel's

June was not a good month for celebrities. The world has said goodbye to Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon, Billy Mays, David Carradine, and Fred Travelena. As we live in a media, entertainment saturated world each of these celebrities connect me to my own life experiences.

I remember sitting, crossed-legged, on my grandparent’s living room floor watching the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and the supportive laugh of Ed McMahon. As a pre-teen, Farrah Fawcett was THE Charlie’s Angel, and secretly Tim’s Angel. I practiced high kicks and karate punches in my living room after each episode of Kung Fu, and was intrigued by Caine’s calm confidence and cool quotes, “If a man hurts me and I punish him, perhaps he will not hurt another”. In the early 80’s, I was the market teen for the birth of MTV and Michael Jackson’s videos were the rocket fuel of the music video stratospheric lift-off. The Man of a Thousand Faces, the comedian Fred Travalena, took us back to our love of our favorite Looney Toons characters. Most recently with the reality series PitchMen, Billy Mays was the poster child of the American dream, from Atlantic City Boardwalk salesman to millionaire and household name. What would we do without OxiClean, Orange Glo and Mighty Putty?

It’s interesting how the vast majority of us have never had any personal contact with any one of these individuals, and yet in the news of their death, we were saddened and felt a sense of loss. Why is that? We don’t really know them. Were they persons of integrity, good character, faithfulness, loving and moral? Were we connected with them in a personal relationship? Still, for me it is the reality of passing of time. They were the central figures of the treasured times of my past, in events that cannot be repeated. I am mournful of my own passing of time.

King Solomon, late in life and in his reign, wrote Ecclesiastes as his expression of mourning his life. He reflected on the vanities of the pursuit of knowledge, wealth, pleasure, materialism through the passing of his days. One of his summations is to live in the present.

“Be happy, young man, while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth.” Eccl 11:9

“Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do. Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love…” Eccl. 9:7-9

I will never be seven again, or sit with my grandparents, be a carefree teen, have a first crush, or practice karate and the moonwalk in my living room…at least while anybody’s watching, and who knows what tomorrow may bring. It is today that I give thanks to my God for the joy, the peace, the time, the memories, my loved ones, friends and even work. It is today, this moment, that I will enjoy God’s abundant blessings upon my life.