Hello Beautiful People,
Yesterday three children lost their father. A wife lost her husband and best friend.
And yes, the world lost one of the most brilliant actors and comedians to grace this earth.
Countless quotes come to mind. Countless movies. Pictures. Clips. Countless memories of this man and all that he had given the world, and quite frankly, I don’t know where to start. It’s so easy to start asking questions – all of which would start with why.
Why?
Those three little letters hung heavy in the air for me yesterday.
Why?
But perhaps, at this moment in time, it’s better to express gratitude. For as the news of his passing hit the airwaves and the internet, the memories that his work had created just came pouring in. Memories of laughter. Of children’s first movies. Of that special scene that made a young person say I want to do that. I want to create. I want to act. I want to entertain. Memories of great art — of stories and film that stuck to your bones and soul for all the years to come.
It’s funny, and call me crazy all you want, but I recently wrote a letter to Mr. Williams, asking him if he’d consider doing a Q&A for The Write Teacher(s).
Was it a long shot? Sure. But I didn’t care. For I knew that there was so much that students, teachers, and, well, everyone could learn from Robin. ️And crazy enough, his death just makes me believe that even more.
Depression knows no boundaries. It knows no gender, no ethnicity, no race — no economic status.
It’s suffocating.
It’s incapacitating.
Sometimes it’s a victory to just get out of bed in the morning.
Sometimes it just hurts to breathe.
It’s more than sadness. It’s as if your bones feel hollow.
It’s as if it’s an all-encompassing cloak of blackness that can just weigh you down, and leave you searching for the tiniest bit of light. And it can be so very hard to grab hold onto that bit of brightness, it can be even harder to find it. And sometimes it feels easier to just let the darkness seep in.
But perhaps the greatest lesson that Robin will ever give is that you never know what’s going on in someone else’s head; that there is no shame in asking for help, and that even when you can’t feel it, or see it, or believe it — there are people who love you. Who would be broken if you left their worlds too soon. There are people who want to see you happy, and who want to help you find that tiny shred of light through the all-encompassing darkness.
We shall miss you, Peter Pan. Rest easy among the stars.
Live, Love, Learn,