Robin Williams killed himself yesterday. We are shocked, stunned, hurt, and so very sad – but we aren’t surprised. We can’t possibly be surprised.
Anyone familiar with the miserable illness that took him knows that every day is a brave decision. Everyone gets tired. The question is always how soon you’ll get your wind back. Sometimes you just can’t.
But he was so kind. In our current world of worst-news-first, of every flaw being leapt upon and ravaged, of common thoughtlessness toward others, of distance from even those closest to us sometimes, Robin Williams always showed his huge heart in equal proportion to his brilliant madness. He raised money where it was needed by working for it, by inspiring others to do the same. He helped friends in need, sometimes dire, sometimes small but meaningful. He smiled and noticed fans approaching, and he nurtured others in his field. He kept his friends. He loved his children. He was kind, and that’s what made him especially great, and especially vulnerable. And that’s what we could afford to lose the least.
I heard the news last night and then had trouble sleeping, finally waking very early with Cheryl Wheeler’s Sylvia Hotel in my head. I know why it woke me.
I don’t wonder why you left, I wonder why you stayed so long. Still, I wish you could have stayed for just one more.
So well spoken. So true to the situation in your observations and knowledge. I appreciate it so much when someone who knows addictions speaks for those who don’t or can’t. That second wind…So long in coming for some. Or, that feeling, that to go on with what the body wanted, would have killed him or others around him, so he just “gave” out of exhaustion. No one’s explained it as straight as you have, Marjie. Thank you for that. Others go to a point of non understanding and frustration. It is refreshing to read words from a human who gets it. Life…