RIP, Robin Williams

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Does anybody think it is selfish to leave your loved ones in such a way? If a person who murders somebody else is hated, despised, guilty of taking them away from their family, why is a person who commits suicide, taking themselves away from their family, celebrated and their memory is showered with love and they become immortalized? Aren't they basically guilty of the same thing.

Not to offend anybody, but I don't get this reaction our society has with people who commit suicide. How we can forgive them for something we wouldn't forgive somebody else for simply because we like them while they were alive. It's like we accept suicide.
I liked his work, but I think what he did was wrong....and inexcusable....

I've read a few articles about how his suicide may give more attention to mental illness. Fair enough. But, I think it should also give attention to hurt and trauma it causes the people who are left behind. Let's be fair and tell both sides of the story...

Don't get me wrong. I liked him as an actor, but I can't excuse what he did. Nobody wants to be the unpopular person by saying anything insensitive, so we all take the sympathetic approach. Not sure it is the best way to deal with this issue.
 
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Does anybody think it is selfish to leave your loved ones in such a way? If a person who murders somebody else is hated, despised, guilty of taking them away from their family, why is a person who commits suicide, taking themselves away from their family, celebrated and their memory is showered with love and they become immortalized? Aren't they basically guilty of the same thing.

Not to offend anybody, but I don't get this reaction our society has with people who commit suicide. How we can forgive them for something we wouldn't forgive somebody else for simply because we like them while they were alive. It's like we accept suicide.
I liked his work, but I think what he did was wrong....and inexcusable....

I've read a few articles about how his suicide may give more attention to mental illness. Fair enough. But, I think it should also give attention to hurt and trauma it causes the people who are left behind. Let's be fair and tell both sides of the story...

Don't get me wrong. I liked him as an actor, but I can't excuse what he did. Nobody wants to be the unpopular person by saying anything insensitive, so we all take the sympathetic approach. Not sure it is the best way to deal with this issue.

Severe depression isn't rational. Nobody in their right mind would do such a thing. Seeing my dad lose the will to live was terrifying. Did he want to hurt his family, I'm sure no, but the brain of someone severely depressed sees this as doing a favor for their loved ones, so they will no longer have to deal with them, especially if they are facing a debilitating illness.
 
I think open heart surgery also adds to the mix. We had a good family friend who had heart surgery, and he became depressed, surly, and totally not himself. Have seen it in several others since.
 
Anytime people are allowed to say whatever they want behind the veil of anonimity, you can bet money there will always be a few idiots who will abuse it. I've noticed the same sort of behavior when people are inside their cars driving. They often act much more aggressively than if they were standing right next to you. It's almost as if the ability to hide gives them license to be jerks.

On a completely unrelated note, this made me chuckle
“We will not tolerate abuse of this nature on Twitter," Del Harvey, Twitter's vice president of trust and safety, said in a statement.
Could someone please tell me exactly how does one get hired for the position of "vice president of trust and safety?" :LOL:

You certainly have a point Steve. It's the primary reason I have nothing whatever to do with social media..tweets, facebook etc. If you want to speak to me, you have to call my home phone and speak with me. or my machine at that number. Good grief, why do people want to be so PUBLIC ?
Does nobody care about privacy anymore?
 
Robin Williams was immortalized before he committed suicide. His way out was his way out and who am I to judge him for what he thought was best for him.

A shining star is gone from our world, this is very sad, same as if it had been a relative or friend. How he left, does not matter.
 
Does anybody think it is selfish to leave your loved ones in such a way? If a person who murders somebody else is hated, despised, guilty of taking them away from their family, why is a person who commits suicide, taking themselves away from their family, celebrated and their memory is showered with love and they become immortalized? Aren't they basically guilty of the same thing...

I'm having trouble with your equating murder and suicide. Yes, the effect of both is devastating to family but I believe that's as far as it goes. Suicide is the desperate act of a troubled mind. Hardly the same as violent death at the hand of another person who commits the crime for personal gain.
 
Robin Williams was immortalized before he committed suicide. His way out was his way out and who am I to judge him for what he thought was best for him.

A shining star is gone from our world, this is very sad, same as if it had been a relative or friend. How he left, does not matter.


Exactly.
 
You certainly have a point Steve. It's the primary reason I have nothing whatever to do with social media..tweets, facebook etc. If you want to speak to me, you have to call my home phone and speak with me. or my machine at that number. Good grief, why do people want to be so PUBLIC ?
Does nobody care about privacy anymore?

That's why I didn't open and read the "Twitter vows" link regarding his daughter, from The Washington Post article a few posts above.....
 
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... If a person who murders somebody else is hated, despised, guilty of taking them away from their family, why is a person who commits suicide, taking themselves away from their family, celebrated and their memory is showered with love and they become immortalized?...
Each illness causes death in its own way. Heart problems might cause enough death in the heart muscle to make it cease to function. Cancers cause tissues to multiply to such a degree that they consume the very life that fuels them. Depression has its own ways of accomplishing an exit strategy. Many with depression take the route of ending the pain by their own hand. This is news because Robin Williams dying of depression by his own hand is a celebrity event. His family bears the burden of mourning in public. Many families deal with the same pain in private.
 
I cannot judge.

He passed, and I will miss him. Sometimes life throws us curves, and those can hurt.
 
The media has used this event to share much of what Williams had accomplished, from TV and movies to charity work with St. Jude's, the Reeves Foundation, and many others. The one that touched me the most was about how much time he spent even after filming or entertaining was officially over. When he would visit the military troops stationed around the world, after the performance he would go to visit with the support personnel who couldn't make it to the show and spend time with each group. Same thing when he was filming "Patch Adams", spending much time with the children in the hospital even when the cameras were not recording.

So much love given to others. It's almost as if he didn't save enough for himself.
 
I have just heard an expert on Parkinsons disease explain that depression is a part of this illness.

For someone of his inspired/hyperactive brain, and fame, to succumb to this slow and cruelly crippling disease
would have been particularly humiliating.
 
I've been observing this thread from its beginning and have seen the assorted ups and downs, backward flips and sideways tangents. I've also been touched more closely than I would have liked by suicide, both by very, very close family members, other slightly more distant family members as well as friends. It's a sorrowful and difficult road.

Now...in my view, instead of trying to analyze why or judge Mr. Williams for what did, perhaps we should do as the title suggests...RIP, Robin Williams.

Rather than second guess and surmise and attack him or each other, let's simply celebrate all he gave us while he was among us and the sizable legacy of talented work he left behind.

Do...rest in peace, Robin Williams.
 
Katie H - I think all here appreciate this great man else we would not have contributed to this thread in the first place.

He strikes me as having been exceptionally talented in comedy .... ideas, situations and characters seem to be on inspirational tap! Having done stand up comedy myself, I am in awe of this.

Re. his acting....to me, as mentioned, he was outstanding in the film The Fisher King.

On other sites I am on he is also much celebrated. There will never be another like him.
 
Katie H - I think all here appreciate this great man else we would not have contributed to this thread in the first place.

He strikes me as having been exceptionally talented in comedy .... ideas, situations and characters seem to be on inspirational tap! Having done stand up comedy myself, I am in awe of this.

Re. his acting....to me, as mentioned, he was outstanding in the film The Fisher King.

On other sites I am on he is also much celebrated. There will never be another like him.

Nicely put, creative. I remember him appearing on Happy Days and then Mork & Mindy when I was a teenager and then with his movie career - he was truly gifted.
 
Does anybody think it is selfish to leave your loved ones in such a way? If a person who murders somebody else is hated, despised, guilty of taking them away from their family, why is a person who commits suicide, taking themselves away from their family, celebrated and their memory is showered with love and they become immortalized? Aren't they basically guilty of the same thing.

Not to offend anybody, but I don't get this reaction our society has with people who commit suicide. How we can forgive them for something we wouldn't forgive somebody else for simply because we like them while they were alive. It's like we accept suicide.
I liked his work, but I think what he did was wrong....and inexcusable....

I've read a few articles about how his suicide may give more attention to mental illness. Fair enough. But, I think it should also give attention to hurt and trauma it causes the people who are left behind. Let's be fair and tell both sides of the story...

Don't get me wrong. I liked him as an actor, but I can't excuse what he did. Nobody wants to be the unpopular person by saying anything insensitive, so we all take the sympathetic approach. Not sure it is the best way to deal with this issue.

I understand your point completely Rock. When my brother took his life and I said that this kind of grief is complicated, I meant just that. For the family the normal sadness of the loss is complicated with bewilderment, guilt, protection, and yes, genuine anger. I was furious he had done this to our mother, his children, and all those who valued his life more than he did. It's taken me many years to come to grips with the anger.
 
The last I heard, Oregon passed a bill for Mercy deaths in cases of debilitating illnesses a few years back. Yea for Oregon. :angel:

The rest of this country should look at this and act. This is mercy at its highest degree.


Present and past students have all said that their favorite piece that Robin ever did was his visit to The Actor's Studio. It was one continuous hour of hilarious laughter. I well remember it. He was at the very pinnacle of his genius that day. :angel:

Seems he made a dark room bright and a bright room even brighter.
He was the master at taking the mundane and turning into aching laughter.
He was the best at what he did. That was comedy, not acting.


I see this behavior on other forums as well. Someone believes they are smarter, better and a trolls prophet.
They don't care if they hurt as long as they have fun and their cronies look up to them.
I don't blame the vehicle, I blame the idiot that trolls.

Does anybody think it is selfish to leave your loved ones in such a way? If a person who murders somebody else is hated, despised, guilty of taking them away from their family, why is a person who commits suicide, taking themselves away from their family, celebrated and their memory is showered with love and they become immortalized? Aren't they basically guilty of the same thing.

Not to offend anybody, but I don't get this reaction our society has with people who commit suicide. How we can forgive them for something we wouldn't forgive somebody else for simply because we like them while they were alive. It's like we accept suicide.
I liked his work, but I think what he did was wrong....and inexcusable....

I've read a few articles about how his suicide may give more attention to mental illness. Fair enough. But, I think it should also give attention to hurt and trauma it causes the people who are left behind. Let's be fair and tell both sides of the story...

Don't get me wrong. I liked him as an actor, but I can't excuse what he did. Nobody wants to be the unpopular person by saying anything insensitive, so we all take the sympathetic approach. Not sure it is the best way to deal with this issue.

Sounds like a religious point of view? The ideology that christians share, that suicide excludes you from heaven.
Ever see the movie "What Dreams May Come"?

Robin Williams was immortalized before he committed suicide. His way out was his way out and who am I to judge him for what he thought was best for him.

A shining star is gone from our world, this is very sad, same as if it had been a relative or friend. How he left, does not matter.

Very well said!
 
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