A Tiny Drop Of Sadness

12-08-2014

At some point in their life everyone will die. When most celebrities die the news has registered with me in a very empathic, normal, way . I would have enjoyed listening to their music or watching the movies and shows they were in. I would feel sad that their life was cut short, or glad to learn they passed away peacefully at a ripe old age, and wonder what their poor family would go through in the days and weeks that followed their departure into the Great Unknown.

But today marks the day that the world lost a true genius and a genuine human being, for today is the day that Robin Williams is no longer on this Earth. For a man I never met, didn't know on a personal level, it has hit me in quite a profound way.

My first encounter with Robin Williams was when I was seven years old, leaving my grandmother's house on Christmas night. As all the kids stood with coats on and bellies stuffed with sweets a comedy show started on the television. Out walked this man with more hair on his arms than I had ever seen and he made a joke. People laughed. Something I had never seen before. Sure I had been in a room when family had laughed, but here was this guy making a hall of what, to my child's mind, looked like a million strangers laugh out loud. Truth be told I doubt if I got 1% of what he said, but it was mesmerising to watch. To this day I remember he made a joke about Optimus Prime that had me laughing. Not because I fully got the joke, but because the punchline contained the word 'fuck'. To a seven year Transformers fan that was just hilarious.

Later I learned who he was and that he was in a show called 'Mork and Mindy'. I must have devoured every hour I could of that show, this being back in an Age when you had to pray to the TV Gods that the episode you were watching was new and you were home in time for it. If I was ever not in the sitting room and the mother-figure happened to flick over to a channel where it was showing she would call me down so I could watch it.

This manic man saying crazy things and making people laugh, it was inspiring stuff to a growing boy. I know that my own manic story telling method has more than a hint of how Mr. Williams tells tales in it. As I grew older I started to watch the movies that he was in, finally getting more of the adult comedy than I had in my younger days. To this day Aladdin is my favourite cartoon and at thirty-one I ain't ashamed to admit it. Hell the Lady friend even got it for me on DVD as a present. How can you not love a magical being that has phenomenal cosmic powers and is also voiced by a brilliant comic? That's a rhetorical question if ever there was one.

What I always found mind-boggingly impressive about him was how he never seemed to let his inner demons stop him from making others laugh. For years he had suffered from depression, the black dog never far from his mind, and battled alcoholism. After the attacks on September 11th Robin Williams walked through the streets of New York with the rescue workers and other folk, helping them find people or dig out rubble and telling some jokes to help make them laugh in a dark part of human history, not unlike the scene from Good Morning Vietnam. When Christopher Reeves was in hospital after his accident, completely paralyzed, Robin Williams showed up dressed like a doctor and gave the Superman actor some of the best medicine he could to help boost the man's spirits. These are but two of the stories that very few people know about Mr. Williams, because he never made a big deal about them. They weren't for him, he wasn't interested in winning popularity like so many famous folk these days. These were just acts of genuine human kindness from a man who knew that even though he was going through some shit he could help others get through their shit with a smile on their face.

That is the mark of a truly great man.

For a lot of people today is going to be one of those 'Where were you when....' days. We all experience the black dog at some point in our lives, shit just gets on top of us. Williams himself gave advice on the topic saying that 'If you're that depressed reach out to someone. And remember suicide is a permanent solution to temporary problems.' Sadly it looks like his own demons left him with no other choice.

Like everyone else in the world I am thinking about his poor family and how they are going to deal with such a great loss. But also about the man himself and that even though he is gone he brought so much joy to people. Not a bad legacy to leave behind, even if he left us far too early.



"We're given a tiny drop of madness, we must never lose it." - Robin Williams (1951 - 2014)

Blue_jester