On a walk across central Trondheim, Norway, last Friday I was surprised to see about a dozen bright red posters announcing “A TRIBUTE WEEKEND FOR MICHAEL JACKSON.” Trondheim, Norway? I confess that I didn’t know what to make of it... this international outpouring of respect and grief for an entertainer whose appeal I never really understood.

Today, I think I am beginning to get it. He was in life a mythic figure, and he will remain larger than life long after his death. I confess that I found it hard to look closely at him. He had permanently fixed to his face what seemed to be a clown’s mask. I wondered what had happened to the talented, young Jackson Five boy who looked “natural” like the rest of us. It’s a mystery that was not made clear to me as I listened to a string of entertainers and politicians eulogize him. What was made clear was that I had underestimated him. He was important. His story is classic, an exaggeration the way his life was an exaggeration. His story is the stuff of great literature. It is bigger than life. It is a classic tragedy. It is appropriate that people all over the world, from Trondheim, Norway, to Los Angeles, California, should acknowledge and respect what I had failed to see.