Sorrow in joy: Robin Williams' passing gives insight into what's behind the laughter

There is something tragic about someone with promise who dies well before his time.

But there is something especially poignant about someone whose calling it is to make other people laugh who can no longer find joy in his own life.

Normally, so tragic an event as a suspected suicide would not be fodder for a discussion about anything except the fragility of life and the double-edged sword of fame. But comedian Robin Williams was special -- not just for his myriad of characters, but for the gift of laughter he seemed to bring to every place he went. He was the sort of person who was just naturally funny. He could not help himself or contain himself, as many interviewers found out when they invited him on stage.

That's what makes his death so hard to understand. How could someone with such a gift see life in anything but the rosiest of rainbows?

But perhaps that was part of his legacy -- a message he left cloaked in the sorrow of a talent whose shimmer he could not see or that simply wasn't enough to get him through the rough patches.

Maybe he wanted us to know that he was like us -- that he had challenges to overcome and burdens to bear.

It would seem to be a fitting final thought from a man who never seemed to know a stranger or to be immune from shining the spotlight on the fallacies of his own existence.

He was, after all, more like us than we knew.

It is often so with comedians. Think of all the great ones we have lost much too early. Perhaps that is what happens when your profession involves making other people forget about their problems. Maybe it magnifies your own, and leaves you less equipped to conquer them.

But Williams' death is a reminder that not every gilt-edged life is free from pain, that even some of the most famous people deal with the same problems as those of us who walk around dodging life's slings and arrows.

Williams was not your typical celebrity. There was a humanness to him, a keen understanding of the joys and sorrows and the humor that can be found -- and was necessary -- when facing some of the most difficult of moments.

He gave much to many, but perhaps did not have anything left for himself.

His death is a moment for sadness -- and, of course, another chance to talk about addiction, which Williams battled most of his adult life -- and the grind of fame and fortune.

But there is a human lesson here, too. A chance to remind anyone who faces the same demons that there is hope and that there is help -- and that there is no shame in seeking it.

We are sure that there are many people now who wish that Robin Williams had sought that help, that faith, that support.

No one should support the decision he made. Suicide is never the right answer. But there is a lesson in his passing -- and it is not about fame and fortune, drugs and addiction.

It is about the joy and laughter that are in every life -- if you look in the right places to find it.

What greater gift could there be from a man who brought smiles to so many than a moment to reflect on how lucky we are and to encourage us to see the positives in our own lives rather than to admire those who seem to have it all.

Perhaps that rather than the manner of his death can be his true legacy.

We can only be left wishing we could have shared that same lesson with him.

Published in Editorials on August 12, 2014 11:53 AM