Yesterday was an historic day in pop culture. First came news in the morning that 62-year-old actress Farrah Fawcett succumbed to cancer after a three-year battle.
Then, while media outlets were gearing up for feature stories on the former “Charlie’s Angels” beauty, news broke in the afternoon that 50-year-old pop icon Michael Jackson had died of cardiac arrest, and the airwaves became the all Michael Jackson, all the time network.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that American pop culture, and indeed pop music, wouldn’t be the same without Michael Jackson. From his signature moon walk and white glove to his video for “Thriller,” which came along at the birth of MTV and helped shape the video music industry, Jackson left his fingerprints all over the music industry.
What’s sad it that mingled in with all his historic successes are decades of bizarre behaviors and allegations of child molestation. A hundred years from now, people will be talking about his music, as well as his multiple cosmetic surgeries and tabloid antics. No matter what he accomplished, his memory will be forever linked to several snapshots in time: hanging his baby over the balcony; the transformation from young Michael Jackson of the Jackson 5 to the alien-like creature taking the witness stand in his own defense.
It’s the same with Farrah, in a way. Farrah Fawcett had a long career as an actress, earning multiple Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. Yet we will always remember her one season on “Charlie’s Angels” and that red bathing suit pin up shot that originally appeared in 1976 in Life magazine. Why is that?
Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson weren’t the only ones who died yesterday; they were just the most famous. And yet we all leave this life having touched hundreds, or maybe thousands, of people. And we all will be remembered for snapshot moments in our lives.
When we meet God on the other side, will he say to us “Well done, good and faithful servant?” Or will the photo album of our lives offer just a few shining moments in an otherwise mediocre life dedicated to nothing more than self-promotion?
In the end, how will we be remembered?
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