User blog:ZeroTigress/Neverland Nevermore

I guess not much else needs to be said about what happened to Robin Williams in recent days. One by one, celebrities that I grew up with pass on from this world with naught a bang nor a whimper. But Robin Williams was one of those celebrities that held a certain place in my heart. Hook, Mrs. Doubtfire, Flubber, and Patch Adams are but a few drops in the great lake of a talented legacy that Mr. Williams forged during his 63 years of life on this Earth.

When the circumstances surrounding his death surfaced, for me it was both a surprise and not so much. Of course, why would someone like Mr. Williams let the public know about his ongoing struggle with depression? He spread joy to so many people throughout his career that even in his depression, he dared not let knowledge of that taint what happiness he managed to give to the world. I know I wouldn't if I had even a fraction of his talent to make people smile.

Reading this article on Cracked.com helped me understand what could've brought on Mr. Williams' sad suicide. Personally for me, I can sympathize despite not knowing the kind of life that brought on Mr. Williams' depression. I'm not going to go into my life's story here (or anywhere for that matter) since it's the kind of story that will make you wonder why I'm not in an insane asylum or turned into another mass murderer. But let's just say that I'm among the lucky few that somehow managed to overcome the difficulties that Mr. Williams faced every day as he struggled with his depression. It is too much to expect someone like him, sinking deeper and deeper into his depressive darkness, to conjure up the will to turn around and swim back towards the light. People think it's easy, but it's really not. It's a difficult struggle. Some people like me can somehow summon up the strength to return to the surface while others like Mr. Williams inevitably drown.

Living can be a heavy burden. Some people have what it takes to live while others don't. We are all mortals; we can die any day, anytime, anywhere. So easily can our lives be snuff out at a moment's notice.

As one particular fictional hero once said: "'It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me.'" Focus not on the man that Robin Williams was behind the scenes, for it is what he did onscreen that matters more. It is those memories that will allow him to live on past his fragile mortality.