I read of the death of Farrah Fawcett before heading to class for the afternoon today. Then, upon arriving home, Jay mentioned that Michael Jackson had died too. Farrah's famous 1977 swimsuit poster is pictured here. She took on the title of pinup gal of my generation. She adorned a more than few male dorm rooms during my freshman year at college. Similarly, those times were well-represented by the music of Michael Jackson. Back when he was black and cool, I was a young adult. In fact, I always knew that Michael was exactly my age.
Celebraties, like the general population, meet the end of their lives every day of the year. It's not so much the pain of loss that's affecting me today. I am more fightened because they were my contemporaries. A few months back, the United States elected a president younger than I am. Now, pop cultural icons of my youth are dropping like flies.