TWO GUYS FROM GARY
Followers of Zen Buddhism seek Satori, an enlightened state in which the true nature of reality is perceived. One method of opening the mind to Satori is through koans, which are questions or riddles designed to expose the truth behind everyday reality.
So gentle reader, here is a puzzling set of events, a koan if you will: A small coincidence that may or may not offer a glimpse into the truth behind anything.
I speak of two guys from Gary, Indiana, a town of 100,000 created to serve big steel, a town that thrived and dived in lockstep with the steel industry. Two famous former sons have died within a week of each other. Not many towns anywhere can say that.
First there was Michael Jackson, whose talents were mercilessly exploited by an abusive father driven to escape the rust belt and make a new life on the boulevard of dreams. Instead, they ended up on a road that lead straight into the heart of American pop culture darkness.
His death was followed in a matter of days by that of Karl Malden, whose parents moved to Gary from Chicago in order to find work in the steel mills. He was born Mladen George Sekulovich to Czech and Serbian parents who loved music and theater and who encouraged his interest in theater.
By the time he was 8 years old, Michael had left Gary and was barnstorming through the Midwest on the way to Motown and international fame as the headliner for the Jackson 5. Karl worked his way through the school of hard knocks, including a 3-year stint working in the steel mills, absorbing the working class ethos of the city into his bones.
Michael's career lifted off into the stratosphere, fueled by enormous talent and God knows what psychic furies spawned by years of horrific abuse at the hands of his father. Karl built a solid award-winning career characterized by hard work and dedication to his craft.
Michael was a willowy man-child moonwalking across the stage. Karl was the stolid everyman following along behind his plow. Two men raised in the American heartland, men with enormous talent and drive whose genius took them down two very different paths.
Their lives are a koan of sorts, a puzzle that hints at something deeper that lies behind our ordinary perceptions of reality. They embody yin and yang, lightness and darkness, the masculine and feminine principle. In the end they teach us the meaning of fate and destiny, fate being what happens to us, destiny being what you make of it.
July 3, 2009
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Michael Jackson
Karl Malden
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