One year later: Have we learned anything new?

A year ago today, I was riding on the train, coming home from the city, when the talk began.

"Michael Jackson is dead!" a man said.

There were some groans among the packed train-car passengers, but the shock and dismay quickly dissipated. Like any talk about Michael Jackson, all serious talk changed to jokes and laughter.

"He must have died because he was distraught over Farrah!" the same guy said, with a laugh.

I tried to ignore the jokes and, instead, banged out a column on this guy, this freakish entertainer who was bigger than Beatlemania, even as he displayed odd signs of mental illness.

I tried to ask the question: Was he mentally ill? If so, could we have saved him?

A year later, I still don't think we have the answers. I tried to answer the question myself, and my answer now appears on the "Wiki answers" website. But, a year later, we barely have an arrest, or a cause for what happened.

We've had no discussion on how things could have been treated differently. We don't appear to be any less sensitive to the quirks and obsessions that people develop once they achieve some level of fame.

All we have are the jokes.

Here is the column I banged out on my computer just after the news hit:

“A lot will be said about Michael Jackson as we learn more about this story,” Brian Williams said on the “NBC Nightly News.”

“He was incredibly talented, a child star who was an adult with deep troubles and physical and mental health issues.”

Those were the words that needed to be said a long time ago. Michael Jackson was mentally ill. And now he's dead.

But his personal demons brought him down more than the paparazzi ever did. His obsessions impacted him more than being spoiled, and his quirky behavior brought more shame than fame.

The spoiling, the media - those were merely the triggers. The public? They merely watched this spectacle of a life deteriorate from impossible levels of stardom to disgrace.

The spectacle will play out some more in the days ahead. But maybe we'll learn something from this, too. We'll learn that the seemingly inhuman is very human. We'll learn that the spoiled rich could also be troubled souls.

We'll learn that mental illness isn't a lifestyle choice. It's an illness, and everyone is suceptible.

I've never seen anyone in my lifetime achieve the kind of fame he had. It was like living in Beatlemania, even if it was an abbreviated version.

I was never a big fan of his music, but I do own "Thriller." Listening to it today, it seems outdated. But the genius of the pop craftsmanship will live forever. Pop songs just maybe the hardest songs to write.

Sometimes, it takes someone with an obsessive level of drive to make it happen. Look beyond the plastic surgery disasters, and give Michael Jackson his due.