As Anderson Cooper and friends continue to propagate our televisions with discussion around the cause of Jackson's death, his relationship with Bubbles the Chimpanzee, and his strange relationship with the media I am stuck on a simple sentence shared at today's memorial service.

In a prerecorded voice over Michael Jackson said, "But I must confess, it feels good to be thought of as a person and not a personality."

Michael was a man objectified by many, known by few, and understood by fewer. Strange. Eccentric. Greedy. Haunted. Perverted.

And maybe some of those "personalities" are true of Michael. That is not for me to judge. But it's odd how often we play into these personalities. As we are objectified. We get defensive. We isolate. We act out. We play into the names thrown at us. I believe Michael did just that.

And yet today at the memorial service there was story after story sharing the beauty of this man's life. Today his friends talked about the person. The generosity. The smile. The child like laugh. Today we saw the person, minus the personalities.

I believe that San Francisco, like Michael, is a place fighting its own personality (or personalities). Objectified as liberal, gay, and obnoxious. Named disrespectful, greedy, crude, and weird. Yet appreciative of beauty in both nature and humanity. Home of new ideas. A city full of generosity. San Francisco, I don't know your person yet. But I want to. I want to know more than your personalities. I want to hear more than your protest and frustration. I want to know where the passion comes from. The story that birthed this desire in you. SF, I can't wait to get to know you.