I’m nostalgic person.
I keep knick knacks for no reason other than each item has some sort of sentimental value to me or reminds me of something and/or someone. More often than not, the items I keep fuel some part of my writing or creative mind set. They partially and sometimes temporarily become my muses for a blog post or poem.
Every now and then though a person I’ve never met inspires me to be more than what I currently am. Have you ever been a fan of someone’s work for the shear fact that the person is awesome beyond his or her talent? I’m not talking about being a fan girl or guy but someone who appreciates the time, effort and energy that it takes to be larger than life both on and off camera.
Earlier in the week, we lost one of the most talented, funniest, giant kid actor/comedian. I never really realized how incredibly gigantic of an impact Robin Williams had on my life until my little sister told me he passed away Monday. My heart sank farther than it has in a very long while. I just couldn’t believe that someone who’s literally made me laugh since I started walking, talking and reading took his own life. Someone who’s made such a long lasting career of being who he was on a regular basis. And no I didn’t personally know Robin Williams but even I could see that he was a different type of actor and person.
Who is effortlessly funny on a dime? I mean seriously I’d watch him on late night shows and the man would turn it on like it was a dern light switch. How did he do that so seamlessly? How did he bring his plethora of characters out of his imaginary magician hat or bag and unleash them one after the other like a machine gun? You don’t get it either!?!??! Good, I’m glad I’m not the only one.
I suppose my motivation for making this a toofer is this… I think as creative minds we can draw inspiration from Robin Williams because like him we shouldn’t be afraid to be a little “out of our damn mind” about our creative works. The insanity that leads a person to create is what will ultimately be his or her saving grace.
It breaks my heart to think that he battled depression for so long and felt like the only way to end his suffering was to commit suicide. It scares me shitless because I’ve been depressed beyond considerable reasoning. I’ve questioned on multiple occasions why I should even be in existence. There was a period in my life that nothing absolutely nothing made me happy. I would cry and cry and cry like the world was crushing me like a trash compactor.
But even when I felt at my absolute lowest rock bottom state my one comfort was writing. Writing, my first love, allowed me to release my pain and to start the healing process even if I had absolutely no desire to do so. And I’m not saying Robin Williams probably didn’t attempt to find ways to make himself feel whole. Or that his pain wasn’t significant. We on the outside can’t even begin to speculate what he was going through in the last days of his life. What we do know is that at some point in each of our lives this wonderful and funny man made us laugh so hard we cried and double over in pain because we were laughing so hard.
We also know that we cannot be afraid to confront the pain we feel in our hearts. We cannot allow that pain to set us back so far that we don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. We also can’t be afraid to think outside the box when it comes to our talents. We should aspire to be different. Be innovative not for everyone else in the world but for ourselves. We should want to share out talents and our struggles with the world because honestly I felt that if every person can help another person in some shape, form or fashion this world would be a mildly better place to exist.
Today I’m remembering Robin Williams and the joy he shared with the world even if it was only for a relatively short period of time.
Thanks for reading and nanu nanu…
The Southern Yankee
disclaimer: images are not my own. taken from http://www.robinwilliams.com and imgur.com
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