I would be remiss if I didn’t post what everyone is stunned by.   Pathos and comedy are entwined tight for the brilliant mind.  Sorrow and deep despair is steeped in darkness and shrouded by a cunning farce.

Ironically, Robin Williams chose his fate and seized the day or Carpe Diem, as he espoused in Dead Poet’s Society, by ending his own life too soon and tragically.  Everyone has a favorite movie or sketch he will be personally remembered by.

For those souls who choose to leave this world by their own hand, my heart goes out to their families.  Recently, an Oregon woman left her two tiny children, husband and parents by killing herself.  My friend passed on a story of her friend’s brother, suffering from terminal cancer, doing the same.  I knew a young man who hung himself not too long ago. His mom, a neighbor, died soon after from cancer, perhaps brought on by inconsolable grief.

L’Wren Scott, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Alexander Mcqueen, Hemingway, Freddie Prinze, Kurt Cobain and Marilyn Monroe are just a few well known names of persons who had all the worldly goods and fame and yet were troubled and burdened enough to end their lives. It is proof positive that what matters is what goes on in between your head on the inside not what we see on the outside. And Who knows what goes on inside another’s head?

What awaits us on the other side is by no means known either.  But I implore whoever and whenever this awful, fatal thought crosses your mind, to stomp it out and replace it with a better, more generous view of your circumstances.  Not too many escape the stranglehold of depression or a bout with the blues at some time or another, but with kindness, openness and awareness we can help ourselves or another.

Again, my heart goes out to all his fans and especially his children, family and close friends.

If you get a chance, watch What Dreams May Come – 1998- an indie film about the afterlife with Robin Williams and hauntingly, a warning about suicide and its repercussions.