One Little Spark
This probably isn't the first post you've read about the passing of Robin Williams, and my guess is it won't be the last. But it will be the first and last you read here.I'm not one for celebrity and apart from Princess Diana, I don't think I've ever cried at the passing of a famous person, no matter how much I enjoyed their films/music/art.Until today.When I heard about Robin Williams' death, I spent 20 minutes scrolling through news and social media sites, fixed my kids some morning tea, closed the door to my office and I cried my eyes out.I've been trying to put my finger on why for the better part of the day, and I'm still not sure.I think part of it is my own experience with depression and the fact that I'm in a bit of a down phase. But there's also just an acute sadness that a brilliant spark has gone out.I don't know of anyone my age who grew up without regular viewings of Robin Williams in Mrs Doubtfire or Hook. ("Ru-fi-ooooooooooo!") At the heart of these movies, and many others, was a playfulness and the desire to stay in a childlike joy. The underlying message: "Don't take things too seriously, whatever you do."There will be much talk about mental health today, as a result of this great actor's apparent suicide, and I hope with all my heart that these discussions help tear down the walls of stigma and silence that surround depression and other mental illnesses. God knows they need to come down, too many people are going under.But maybe we can keep space for that childlike joy too. The mischievous grin, the glee in a well-placed one-liner, the joy of a middle-aged man dressed up as an elderly lady, the unbridled delight in a Neverland food fight.After all, as Peter Benning put it at the end of Hook:
To live... to live would be an awfully big adventure.
When we can, I think we should live that adventure with as much childlike joy as we can.
RIP, Robin Williams.