Dear Roger:Got 99 Problems And A Monkey Is One

Young rock stars are the perpetual teenagers of the entertainment world, they often do things that leave you wondering just what the hell? With seeming no rhyme or reason that makes no sense to their fans, and they don't have to explain themselves because after all, they are what they are, people who are marketing a product, themselves and when they get tired of marketing it and want to move onto bigger and hopefully better things, they often decamp without so much as a "Fuck you all very much, Im going to go do this now." I have lived through it countless times, and I am, in fact pretty immune to it at this point in my life. I do get sad when I hear that a band I enjoy no longer plays live music, but hell, I know how artistic temperaments are, so the fact that people did get together and managed to make wonderful music for a few years without killing each other amazed the hell out of me, especially with some of the flair for the dramatic I have observed in some personalities, my daughter, however, is another story.
She is a relative rookie to how the world of entertainment works. I mean, sure she has seen a few of her favorite cartoon shows get cancelled and she knows what it feels like to see something she treasures come to an end, after all, she was there with me when we watched the ending of Harry Potter and we cried together in the theater like the proud Potter nerds we are, but what happened today took the pain to a whole new level for her and I wasn't ready to have to explain that to her, especially a week before her damn birthday.
I know one, nobody, little, nearly 8 year old child doesn't figure into that kind of decision making when the bigwigs get together and decide to do things, but for fucks sake, what a dick move to make that kind of announcement right now.I was floored when I realized that there really would be no way to keep it from her. I had ordered her some more merchandise from the damn website and while I am delighted that the Bens and Uncle will be keeping it alive, honestly, Ben G freaks her out a little, she doesn't really know that much about Ben J, and while she likes Uncle Larry, she ADORES Jackson and Jerad with all her little heart.
Bless Jerad for sending me the message that he will be coming back from time to time, that is the first thing I showed her when she got home from church. She already knew something bad was up, her brother wouldn't let her on her computer and he was being too nice to her, (a sure tell something BAD had gone on), she was afraid her favorite boy had died so I had to go with with band aid method and just tell her that he had left the band, that they had broken up and were no longer together. The reaction was like she had been slapped.
You know I hate to see my baby cry, right? Heartbroken sobbing with plaintive little,'But why??" followed by "Ill never see them again, I told you!" Just rip my heart to pieces and set it on fire. Even her jerk brothers felt bad for her, so you know it was bad when they go in and give her hugs and try to soothe her. Her older brothers reaction was,"Why do I want to kick someones ass?" Leaves me thinking there may be hope for him as a big brother yet.
Shes hurting. But we talked about it quite a bit and she knows that its really not that bad when you look at it in perspective, after all, Jerad reassuring us that he would be back was hugely comforting to her, and she has the memories of all the great time that they gave her in the past that made such a huge difference to a little girl that had so much pain and sadness for so long by those boys who had brought us to the sunshine.
I dont know what this means for her relationship with her favorite boy as he takes off into new and uncharted territory. The people with the Monkey crew had always been kindly indulgent about getting her little missives to him, but in the big ole Hollyweird machine, I know that things tend to not always be that way. Things and people change, this has been her first lesson in that and while its an ongoing one, I am hoping it wont all be a negative one for her, after all, all her monkeys are still alive and kicking and she knows one that I held dear, isnt, so she knows there are worse things to contemplate.