“You’re only given one little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.”
Robin Williams, July 21, 1951 – August 11, 2014.
Yesterday the sad news of actor Robin Williams’ passing reached us. Immediately my mind filled with the many moments of joy he brought to me and my family. Only a couple of weeks ago we watched Mrs. Doubtfire together with our girls, laughing so hard we had to pause the movie at times. I remember watching Good morning Vietnam as a young girl and being utterly touched by it, watching Dead Poets Society in my English class in Sweden as a teenager, Aladdin on one of my first dates with my husband, Good Will Hunting as newlyweds in our first small appartment, Night at the Museum and Happy feet with our small girls.
I can hardly believe he is gone. He was a part of our lives we somehow thought would always be there. Robin Williams made us laugh and cry, he inspired me in writing poetry and in finding the crazy, the funny, the beauty in life.
After he underwent his open-heart surgery in 2009, and came back joking about it, I felt a special bond to him. He had had aortic valve replacement, just like me. It is difficult to explain, the special bond between us “heart-people”. It is a comfort just to know that someone else has been there, has felt the utter loneliness of lying on that operating table. Not that I wish anyone to go through it.
Robin Williams struggled with depression as well — which is difficult to imagine, he being so funny and brilliant. Heart disease and depression is not unusual to be linked together and I was so saddened to learn that though he beat the heart disease, he was overcome by the depression in the end.
I too have experienced depression close to me, how it affected myself and loved ones. It is often accompanied with a sense of guilt, an almost knee-jerk urge to cover up and hide it. We want to be our best, show our best, make the world a happier place, not burden it with our struggles. But is there a nobler thing than to open up, reach out, meet each other as we truly are? And that way help each other, through bad and good times. I wish everyone who struggles with depression a good friend, an understanding doctor, the best professional treatment there is, and kind people to support on the scary journey through the dark and back to the light.
Because there is light on the other side of the dark, no matter how dark the night is. A depressed person can be told this, can sometimes know this, but not feel it. The darkness is everywhere, never-ending. This is why help is so important, someone to lean on who will repeat: “soon you’ll be out in the light, soon”. How grateful we are for the friend who will show us that spark of light!
Maybe the people who have waded through much sorrow, are the ones most ready to amuse us, to crack a joke, make us laugh. Because they know the true value of a spark of light. Or a little madness.
Take care friends,
♥Lene
Det är förunderligt vilken blandning av sorg och glädje livet består av. Utmaningen är väl att ta till vara glädjen på bästa möjliga sätt, och sprida den efter förmåga, precis som Robin Williams visade med sitt liv. Och vi andra kan följa hans exempel att underlätta livet i vår omgivning med vår egen unika gåva.
Så fint du skriver. “…med vår egen unika gåva.” Just så känner jag: vi har alla något unikt att dela med oss av, just eftersom vi är unika. Tack för den fina kommentaren.
För att riktigt kunna förstå måste man ha gått samma väg – då finns en länk som är outtalad ,som är osynlig men ändå känns genom erfarenheten man delar. Familj o vänner behövs i alla livets skeenden.
Precis som du säger behöver man vänner och familj och det gör inte så mycket om man inte delar erfarenheten, bara att någon vill förstå är en tröst, även om som du säger det finns en outtalad förståelse när man gått igenom något liknande. Tack för de fina orden.
Det du skriver är så sant och viktigt! Tänk, vi alla kan någon gång vara den strimma ljus som någon behöver för att komma på fötter igen. Ibland är andra människor den strimma ljus för oss. Vi behöver andra, andra behöver oss. Tack för det fina du skrev!
Tack Evelina! Så fint du beskriver hur vi kan finnas för varandra. Så viktigt!
Tankeväckande ord på livets väg!
/Eva
Tack Eva!
Love your website, Lene! Love the way you write. An exceptional, adventurous Swede, with style, honesty and great feeling! A globetrotting Norwegian, writer and poet myself, it is a delight to read what you share with us in such a wonderful manner indeed. Keep writing! Thank you, Lene! All the very best to you! Granny Kari M. Knutsen
Thank you for your kind words Kari! Wonderful that we are now connected on twitter; two Scandinavians exploring the world, in Asia and South America. 🙂 A couple of years ago I visited Belize, Honduras and Mexico and loved it!! I’m definitely checking out your website, see you soon!