Robin Williams

It's sad that Robin Williams will no longer be making us laugh or truly entertain us with his character portrayal abilities and spontaneous humor.

He died yesterday at age sixty-three. In so many ways it's such a young age to pass.
The word from his publicist was that he was suffering from severe depression.

So many of our accomplished actors and notables succumb to the agony of depression. They live in a rarefied arena of adulation and accomplishment and must constantly think of new ways to please their perceived public. Each day is a performance of life that never quite seems real for success and adulation come from the unreal. The hard part is letting go. Releasing the illusion must be the gordian knot of assuming a character and then trying to release the fantasy when the character is no longer required. Depression is the result.

Whether Robin Williams committed suicide has yet to be determined, at least as of this writing, but, if so, he fits into a vast litany of entertainers, celebrities, and leaders who could not handle the life they perceived and chose to end life rather than face their demons and dragons.

Williams is not alone in celebrity suicide. Signund Freud, Ernest Hemingway, Kurt Cobain, and Herve Villechaize - Tattoo - in Fantasy island just to name a few.

For me suicide is never the right choose, but, at the same time, suicide should not be judged by us and others for we have not lived in the shoes of those who give up the most precious of gifts.

It is still a sadness never understood by the living.