Death of an icon

Death can be sudden. Death can be expected. Either way, death is always hard to deal with.

For the past week the world has mourned.

I was in the St. Louis airport June 25 when my travel buddy and I found out Michael Jackson had died. Word spread through Facebook, Twitter and news websites like a flood. By the time we deplaned in Boston, Anderson Cooper had devoted his show to the deceased King of Pop.

Everyone was talking about it. Everyone we met had a different story.

Over the weekend in Beantown nearly every store, bar and club was playing an MJ song.

One guy told me his mom was traveling in China and attended a candlelight vigil in Beijing. A family traveling back from London said people there had put flowers and tokens at the O2 Arena where his 50-concert tour was to start.

Even the Hispanic priest in a cathedral in Boston on Sunday delivered his sermon on dealing with death and praying for Micheal Jackson's soul.

It was a death that affected the world, which brings me to my point: Who's left?

What public figure is there now whose death would reach every continent and cause global mourning?

Pope Benedict XVI would hit Catholics around the world, but likely wouldn't flood across religious lines. Oprah would be huge among her audience.

When Elvis Presley died -- also young, he was 42, and surrounded by clouds of drug abuse -- the world mourned. A cultural icon and global celebrity left a generation behind to grieve.

Most people who were alive in 1997 can remember where they were when they found out about Princess Diana's death.

With Michael Jackson dies a generation of icons that survived tragedy, transcended generations, started trends and touched millions of lives.