Reflections on Death

Yep, that the most honest essay title that came to me.  

I, along with millions of others, have been thinking about Robin Williams this week, about the terrible pain the brought him to the point where he consciously took his own life. I also learned today that he was dealing with the early stages of Parkinson's Disease.  If you are profoundly depressed, there is little to no energy left to face anything.  Doing the dishes and dealing with a lifelong illness seem equally impossible to face.  

What did his comedy mean to me? Why am I so sad at his death?  Why was this performer such a standout amongst his peers?  The one word that seems completely appropriate is empathy.   He emotionally connected with everyone around him. Williams could take the most horrible and tragic of circumstances and make it wickedly, heartbreakingly funny.  His work seems to show that all of life is a tragedy so you might as well laugh (and be kind to one another). 

Robin Williams seemed to possess the ability to be a transmitter of emotion.  In his comedy (and elsewhere) he shared his darkest and most lonely self in a way that let people feel less alone themselves.  

I think that's what truly we all want: to be less alone.  

Sadly we are a little more alone because he is gone.