Moment of Silence: Robin Williams

[ysabetwordsmith]

Robin Williams has passed away. 

*moment of silence*

And only a moment, because this is not a man to be mourned in solemn grace, but one to be sent off with as raucous a wake as may be arranged.  The Pale Horse has evidently painted himself up like a bunting and I am not even going to ask whose idea that  was.  So tell a joke, read a poem, share a memory.  

"Nanoo, nanoo!"  Yeah, that was some of my early xenolinguistics.  It was alien, it was funny, I loved it.  And I felt like Mork a lot.

EDIT: This death has shaken up a lot of people, because a lot of fans felt very close to Robin Williams.  There are resources for coping when a friend commits suicide, or helping a friend who has just lost someone to suicide.  Know the warning signs of suicide and depression.

Comments

grieving

[dialecticdreamer]

My younger son and I have been having a rather somber discussion about suicide and bipolar disorder/ depression, self-medication via alcohol and other drugs... A comparison to Steven Fry (who went public some years ago with his own struggles and actually created a BBC documentary about the issue)...

In between, we've been cracking the kinds of 'in the trenches' jokes that hints at how /badly/ we're taking the loss of a total stranger whom we /felt/ we know because of his myriad standup routines and interviews.

First George Carlin, then Robin Williams... here's wishing for a long and happy life for Steven Fry and Simon Peg.

Re: grieving

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> My younger son and I have been having a rather somber discussion about suicide and bipolar disorder/ depression, self-medication via alcohol and other drugs... <<

There are a lot of thorny issues ...

* how fame can eat people alive

* who makes the decisions about a person's life and death

* what constitutes quality of life

* what things can be fixed and what can't

* those awkward cases where self-medication works better than anything else

* and the supremely awkward fact that despite all the hoohaw about every life having value, there are millions of lives that are not valued much if at all: people who are lonely and have no friends, people who are homeless, people who are in jail, etc.

>> In between, we've been cracking the kinds of 'in the trenches' jokes that hints at how /badly/ we're taking the loss of a total stranger whom we /felt/ we know because of his myriad standup routines and interviews. <<

I always sympathized with how Robin obviously felt like an alien a lot of the time.

Re: grieving

[dialecticdreamer]

My son has a surprisingly strong grasp of personal rights at nineteen. Kiddo was angry enough about comments calling Robin Williams "selfish" for his decision-- well, kiddo wanted to know who was more selfish, the person opting out or the person who /refuses/ to allow it because /they/ would be impacted.

It's not a simple conversation, and this is where one's views on personal rights versus ethics and social mores are really hitting the bricks.

I'm sad that Robin Williams is gone, but instead of opting for "Dead Poets' Society," we chose to watch "Aladdin" tonight. I think it was more appropriate given our views on whose rights counted most.

Re: grieving

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> My son has a surprisingly strong grasp of personal rights at nineteen. Kiddo was angry enough about comments calling Robin Williams "selfish" for his decision-- well, kiddo wanted to know who was more selfish, the person opting out or the person who /refuses/ to allow it because /they/ would be impacted. <<

Parenting: you're doing it right.

I don't think that wanting to stop being in mortal agony is selfish. I just think it's sad when people try different things to achieve that, and those don't work, so they wind up cutting off their body to make it stop.

>> It's not a simple conversation, and this is where one's views on personal rights versus ethics and social mores are really hitting the bricks. <<

... that always happens where one person's desires part company with someone else's. If you put agency first, you have to respect their decision. You don't have to like it.

>> I'm sad that Robin Williams is gone, but instead of opting for "Dead Poets' Society," we chose to watch "Aladdin" tonight. I think it was more appropriate given our views on whose rights counted most. <<

"Genie, I wish you free."

Re: grieving

[dialecticdreamer]

PRECISELY.

What the man did WELL, he did fabulously. What he didn't, obviously HURT him a lot. Now his fans just have to deal with our hurt.

Re: grieving

[ysabetwordsmith]

Sooth. I have added a few links for coping with the aftermath of suicide.

Re: grieving

[dialecticdreamer]

Thank you. I'm having an internal debate about Wednesday's topic... is /this/ something that will derail routine? I don't know yet.

Re: grieving

[ysabetwordsmith]

If you're still feeling it on Wednesday -- or even if you want to post sooner because it's so moving for you -- then by all means do so. Especially if a lot of folks you know are also talking about this. One thing that helps to process grief is just having a place to talk about it.

Re: grieving

[shehasathree]

So much these things!

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

I recall seeing the episode of Happy Days Mork debuted on tv. Fonz dealing with alien visitation, priceless.

Baby Johnathan Winters.

A flock of roller skaters do a tribute number, shooting the duck ala elephant train.

Yes...

[ysabetwordsmith]

That crossover was awesome. All the fanservice!

[zeeth_kyrah]

I'm told he wanted to be the very first to die in the pure energy of the new Age. Though perhaps I think it was that he was just trying to hang on until it happened, sort of like when someone has been waiting for a visit with a particular family member.

He chose this very deliberately, and will be honored for it.

In the meantime, a glass of one's favored beverage, whether it be Sherry for cooking or a pleasant fruit juice. I already had ginger beer today, but I'll be singing the new epic for centuries. Oh yes, he has earned this.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> He chose this very deliberately, and will be honored for it. <<

Sooth.

>> In the meantime, a glass of one's favored beverage, whether it be Sherry for cooking or a pleasant fruit juice. I already had ginger beer today, but I'll be singing the new epic for centuries. Oh yes, he has earned this. <<

Today we explored blueberry lemonade, and kiwi-lime shakeup, both very tasty.

[clare_dragonfly]

This is by far the saddest I've ever been about a celebrity death.

But you're right. So I'm going to imagine him returning to Neverland and taking his rightful place as head of the Lost Boys.

Yes...

[ysabetwordsmith]

"He can fight, he can fly, and he can CROW!"

[rivulet027]

It's sad. I feel bad for his family. He has a lot of good work out there and won't be forgotten.

[helgatwb]

I keep remembering him on 'Inside the Actor's Studio' with James Lipton. I don't know if you've ever seen it, but it's supposed to be srs bznss, actors talking about the art of acting. And with Mr. Williams...it was not. He couldn't seem to stop. I later heard that one lady in the audience cracked a rib, laughing so hard. My face ached for days. I'm not like a lot of people, I don't like most comedy, and I cannot truly say that I liked everything Robin Williams did, but he was still a very funny guy, with a big heart. My prayers will be with his family.

Yes...

[ysabetwordsmith]

I've seen parts of that, yes. He was amazing. Laughter incarnate, clearly touched by Trickster.

[kshandra]

One of my favorite bits from that was during the Q&A with the students at the end. One woman took the microphone and asked him a question...in Russian. And they spent probably 90 seconds talking to one another before she switched back to English. I've come back to that more than once in my thoughts over the past 18 hours; how lucky she was to have this personal, and effectively private, interaction with the man in a room full of people!

Wow!

[ysabetwordsmith]

That's amazing. Language is powerful.

Once upon a time, when I visited the Soviet Union, one of our stops was to Tblisi in Georgia. I ambled down the stairs in the morning, half-asleep, someone said something to me, and me being me I echoed it. Instantly I had the attention of every Georgian in the room, because it had been 'good morning' in Georgian. A quiet little bit of linguistic rebellion, and I'd joined in on it. Our Russian tour guide was beyond furious. Well, me being me, I kept it up. Only ever picked up a few words of Georgian because we weren't there long, and I don't remember them now, but it's an exquisite language. I was happy to join David against Goliath. And the Georgians, they loved me, they would've kept me if they could. I still have a warm spot for that culture.

Language matters. It can define what group you affiliate with.

Re: Wow!

[helgatwb]

I have never been out of the country, and I'm monolingual, though I do speak more than one dialect of English. The only talent I have for languages is pronunciation. I passed my two years of required high-school Spanish because my teacher was a native speaker(Cuban), and according to her, if she hadn't known I wasn't a native speaker, she would never have guessed it from my pronunciation. My immediate supervisor is Belgian, she says I do well with the little bit of Belgian French I get from her. I find that creates a connection, as well. Pronouncing things right, even if you can't really speak the language.

Re: Wow!

[ysabetwordsmith]

Oh yes, pronunciation will do it. Even just for people's names.

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

My first thought was... he's pulling one heck of a prank!

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

My first thought, last night, was, "Let me check Snopes." (It hadn't yet hit Snopes, but I kept looking and found what looked like an official press release from the Marin County Sheriff's Department, so I went with assuming it was true.)

My second thought was, "Aw, dammit."

And my third was, "May he find the peace in the next life that he didn't in this one."

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Bangarang.