Blog
Blog: Good Williams Hunting
/ August 15, 2014
How many times have you seen Robin Williams in your newsfeed this week?
What a star. What an actor. What a man.
Few have shaped my childhood memories as much as him (…well except for maybe Emilio Estevez).
I love seeing people remember the belly laughs and the one-liners he gave us, and the 10 weeks in a row where we only greeted people with “Hellloooo!”
…but why, why, do we seem to saturate ourselves in the loss?
Just hours after his passing there were advertisements for a special screening of Mrs. Doubtfire that evening. Yesterday it was for the ‘greatest hits’ movie marathon you could watch over the weekend.
Of course people are going to want to watch his movies again and be reminded of their favourite moments, but can we not have some space to pause with respect?
Earlier today I was at one of the major digital outlets scanning the DVD’s looking for a gift.
I briefly noticed one of his lesser known flicks ‘The Angriest Man in Brooklyn’ was sitting face-first alongside numerous skinny spines. I smiled, noted the stores efforts, and browsed on.
2 minutes later or so, an attendant walked up with a customer enquiring, “Do you have an copies of the ‘Dead Poets Society?'”. It turned out that sadly no, the additional delivery they’d placed had sold out within an hour of its delivery.
What?
Wow. I was simultaneously struck by the stores business prowess and customers’ mass predictability; They’d perfectly timed their placement of a product with the consumers exact needs. Textbook.
…I would just like to breathe for a minute though.
Have we not forgotten that at the centre of this is man who saw no escape to the struggles in his life to such a degree that he chose to end it?…that a 25 year old girl is mourning the loss of her Dad and dealing with trolls that won’t let her do it with dignity?
I know there have been articles about his state of mind, about dealing with depression, and raising the awareness of diseases like Parkinson’s – people are wisely highlighting some of the factors that need considering. But at what point does it become disrespectfully morbid?
It seems that from so many angles people are cashing in on the cache of attaching themselves to ‘Robin Williams’, feasting on the loss of a family and a man.
When though, did the celebration of a life become so much about us?
I’ve been pondering it on my drive home tonight, wondering about why we feel the need to so addictively consume the details about death that endlessly come our way.
Perhaps it’s a curiosity with what some feel is the ‘unknown’, or maybe a need to feel collectively informed. It could be a bi-product of the unadulterated voyeuristic nature the internet allows – no-one’s seeing how much you read, so there’s no shame in turning the page or looking at the next picture.
But what is all this fascination doing to you?
You can’t not give credit to the TV channels and the retail outlets for their timing. It’s perfect business practise I suppose – but doesn’t it grate on their sense of moral responsibility?
I feel like we’ve been so caught up in the media/facebook flurry that we haven’t actually stopped and quietly said “Thankyou”. For his life, for his gift. For giving himself to the world and letting us share in his uniqueness.
It is a a great loss. You can cry. There will be no other man on earth like Robin Williams.
Yet his passing is not our food to consume. It’s not our right to know everything that went through his mind in his final moments, because clearly, it would seem, that’s something he wanted no-one to know.
If anything, please don’t let this be another article you read about our childhood icon, or the father of your teens, let it be a reminder to give space in grief. Allow the family to mourn, yourself to respond, and then pause.
Thank God for your life. For your family. That may He give you the grace to enjoy them, the power to love them, and the courage to ask if they’re doing OK.
Laura x
Love you R.W.
