Siren and I attended this show last night. We bought the tickets a few months ago. There just are not any Michael events going on where we live, and we weren't sure what to expect. Was this impersonator taking advantage of Michael's celebrity, or did he really love Michael and want to pay tribute to him? I was a bit nervous about it, because I didn't want to be disappointed, and I didn't want to see anyone disrespecting Michael in any way. How could anyone possibly live up to Michael's performances in concert. After the first song, we looked at each other and breathed a huge sigh of relief. The band, the dancers, and the impersonator were all awesome! They were honoring him, and doing their part to share him with others. Bishop (the impersonator) spoke about Michael as the amazing icon he was, and also talked about his real message of Love and healing.
Siren and I had made a day of this event. We started with visiting Michael's Love Tree as we always do on Sunday mornings. Our message for the week, we felt was Hope, as we had both been recently feeling depressed and sad, thinking that there was no hope that Michael would ever be understood and appreciated for all he gave in his life. It seemed that there was just too much to be done, and not much apparent progress in the right direction. Michael had put those thoughts to rest with messages of Hope for each of us in different ways. In fact, I had woken up in the morning with the realization that the people who would be coming to the show would likely be people who were at least open-minded about Michael, if not actually followers like us. With this in mind, we picked up my 15 year old daughter who was joining us for the show and went for lunch, followed by a stop at the theatre. I asked the manager if they would be interested in having copies of Ever After to give to the patrons of the show that evening. Looking over the book, he liked the idea, so we brought in enough books for each table, or each group, to receive a copy.
When we were shown to our table a few hours later, we saw a copy of Ever After at each table. During the hour and a half allotted for dinner, before the show started, we saw people all over the room reading the book, flipping through it, and heard discussions about Michael going on around us. It was surreal!
I can't tell you how wonderful it felt to see this. At one point, I was acknowledged for the donation of the books, and asked to stand up. An incredibly bright spotlight came on me and I couldn't see a thing! I stood like a deer in the headlights, and all I was thinking was "how did Michael see when he was on stage????" I was reminded of a devotion of Diana's about this subject.
The whole evening was wonderful, being with my beautiful Siren, who always is so much fun to be with, having my daughter joining us in a Michael adventure for the first time, sharing my books, seeing a tribute to Michael by people who truly understood him, seeing people enjoy Ever After and even ask me for autographs, it was all very sweet. We also discovered that there are other people in our area who love Michael, as well as meeting the band members, the dancers and Bishop Soul, who all are so devoted to what they do, for Michael. Siren had the opportunity to share her art cards and bookmarks with people who were amazed by her beautiful work. All of this in one night was simply unbelievable. Underneath it all, I could feel my love for Michael grow more than ever, which was already bigger than I ever could have imagined. Talk about HOPE! Michael's love is forever, nothing can stop it from growing and growing until it takes over everything and we remember that we really are all ONE, as he told us.
