People were shocked (read the comments) when I said that many people - including those who claimed to be closest to him - found Michael Jackson's death a relief.  At Jackson's memorial, they could have the perfect relationship they wanted with him, but which they were denied by his actual presence on earth.  This is a standard reaction of people to the deaths of "loved ones" from whom they are alienated.  This feeling fuels the contacting-dead-people industry, for instance.  Such feelings are understandable, but nonetheless insubstantial.

To me, the love for Jackson on display at his memorial ceremony was disingenuous and self-referential, like when brother Jermaine reported that Michael called him his "backbone."  I wonder how often Jermaine saw Michael?  The most moving tribute by an adult came from Brooke Shields who described how they often got together and that Michael knew he could always count her.  Crying, she gestured to Michael in the heavens looking down on the scene.  Later, she told reporters that she had last seen Jackson in 1991.  Perhaps getting together every decade or so for a cup of coffee could have been helpful to him when Jackson was alive.