A Life Well-Lived, Part 2

So, Robin Williams, huh?  Did NOT see that coming.  And yet, it wasn't the MOST surprising news imaginable.

In Part 1, I told the story of Bobby Driscoll (another famous Peter Pan...hmm)--the young Disney star that hit the heights but fell back to earth, faster & faster, until he crashed and disappeared.  Literally.  He'd been dead for 2 years before being identified.  Drug & alcohol abuse had claimed him at 30.  Depression, surely, played a part.  If your life story's climax is at age 14, how long can your epilogue run?  How many of us have the ability to start over, to begin a whole new story at our very lowest point?

 

Perhaps that's what's so upsetting about Robin...he HAD started over, numerous times.  We SAW that he was immensely creative, superhumanly energetic & had an unflappable strength that denied failure's victory time & again.  When MORK & MINDY ended, when POPEYE bombed, when several movies were just BAD, did we ever expect to NOT see Robin Williams shine in something ELSE before long?  And, before long, he did.  You have to admire that; in an industry where one crap film can ruin multiple careers (yes, I'm looking at you, BATMAN & ROBIN), Mork from Ork made more than his allotment, but would pull out of those nosedives every time with a GOOD MORNING VIETNAM, MRS. DOUBTFIRE, GOOD WILL HUNTING, INSOMNIA or even a killer segment with Letterman.  We liked him doing that.  We liked HIM.  He won awards, he fought tirelessly for hunger relief & medical advances, he expanded his talents & took risks to grow, professionally & personally.  We heard about his troubles--substance abuses, failed relationships--but he seemed to have a rein on things or the strength to at least stay in the saddle.  He saw so many peers fall in so many ways:  Spalding Gray, John Belushi, Christopher Reeve, Gilda Radner, Richard Pryor, Rebecca Schaeffer, Kurt Cobain, et al)...Surely HE knew the fragility of life & could wrestle those demons down.  Every time.  Over & over.

 

There's an old Native proverb,"Don't judge a man till you walk a moon in his moccasins" & I largely believe it.  When someone tells me about a sore thumb or hitch in their back, I can't think about the choking fit from that morning, the loss of balance I've got or having hands that are nearly useless at all!  People's travails are their own and cannot be dismissed because someone else has it worse.  Someone's ALWAYS got it worse in this world, and while good to remember, that won't get everyone through any situation every time.  What seems easily survived by you really is someone else's absolute threshold.  Every one of us fights very personal battles; to look beyond our own & to help someone else...well, that's about as good as we get.

 

Robin Williams deserves our respect & compassion for fighting his dark places and for shining as much light & laughter as he did.  He seemed to want a better world and did more than the average human, I'd say, to help make it so.  If a good life is about making our fellows smile, think a little better about humanity & feel more hopeful about our futures, surely Robin had a well-lived life.  Let's not remember ANYone by their weakest moment, by their poorest choice in hard times, but by the aspirations they had & the bravest steps they took to achieve them.  Forgiveness of others' shortcomings is one of the bravest things we can do.  Farewell, Patch, Euphegenia, T.S. & Batty!  Rest in peace, King of the Moon, Parry, Teddy, Prof. Keating & Armand!  Our next laugh's dedicated to you!