Some of us who grew up watching Michael Jackson from the beginning struggle now to express our feelings adequately about his untimely death. Those of us who are the same age or nearly the same age as the mega-star are living witnesses to his rise. We saw him go from the little boy from Gary, Ind., whose enormous talent causedSuzanne de Passe to lobby disinterested Motown mogulBerry Gordy to give Jackson and his brothers an audition to seeing Jackson evolve and become the King of Pop, the biggest music star in the history of the industry.

And now we see him die too soon, at 50, reminding us all of our own mortality and loss of youth. We who grew up with him struggle and also those who grew up seeing him already grown on MTV as music royalty.