This Week

Afternoon, folks. This has been a very, very strange week. Wouldn't you agree? Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson, all within a two day span. What in the world?

Ed McMahon always seemed like a nice man. I am sorry for his family's loss, but he was in his 80s and whether we like it or not, there is a natural order to things. He seemed like one of those people who really enjoy their lives. I don't remember anyone, anywhere ever saying anything bad about him. I believe he enjoyed the life he lived and he loved his family. Good for him! Maybe he's met up with Johnny Carson and they're sitting on a couch having a laugh or two or a hundred. I really hope so.

Farrah Fawcett was one of the icons of my childhood. She was who all of us little girls wanted to be when we grew up: beautiful, popular, smart, nice, and, you know, married to the Six Million Dollar Man. Okay, okay, we were little girls, what did we know of real life?? Still, the woman was, and always will be, iconic. One Christmas, my sister and I got our dad one of those posters. He liked her so much, we thought it was a great gift. Bless my mother's heart that she went along with it. He hung it right up and it stayed there for a while. I don't know whatever happened to it. Like my mom, Farrah Fawcett got cancer and also like my mom, she said it wasn't going to beat her. I never really liked the fact that people criticized her for going to Germany for experimental treatments. When you have cancer and there are no longer any regular treatments to have, you'll try anything. When you get hit with cancer, let's see how far you'll travel to find a cure. Pretty far is my bet. I really admired her courage, her dignity and her refusal to let cancer rule her life. She's the one who set the terms by which she would live and then she went out and lived. She fought hard for three years and it's safe to say that she never gave up. So, yes, she has my admiration. Her family has my sympathy. She was one of a kind and now she's gone.

And she died on the same day as Michael Jackson inexplicably died at 50 years old. Folks, that is young. My sister and I used to watch the Jackson 5 cartoon on Saturday mornings when we were little. Yep, aging myself here. When I was in college, every other girls' dorm room had either Rob Lowe or Michael Jackson hanging on the wall, sometimes both. When Thriller came out, everyone had it and the posters. He was so very, very handsome then. Why in the world did he ever do that to himself?? I was lucky enough to see him in concert once. My sister and I saw him in Louisville on the Bad tour. It was absolutely surreal. I'll try to explain what it was like. It was liking watching television. There he was, right in front of you, doing all that dancing that no one else did and we couldn't believe we were watching him in person. I mean, it was MICHAEL JACKSON, for crying out loud. And then, he turned into this weird, otherworldly kind of person and no one could ever quite figure out what was going on with him. Nevertheless, he was a talent and an icon and we will never see his like again.

Yeah, it's been a very strange week. Rest in peace Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. May you find the peace and understanding that might have eluded you in this life.