Rest in peace, Robin Williams!

I'd like to make this post a more detailed eulogy, if the term is allowed of me, for Robin Williams.

The very first thing that sprung to mind when I heard of his demise was the movie 'Dead Poets Society'. However, what mattered most to me about that movie wasn't necessarily the script, or the story, or indeed the many splendid performances.

It was the sincerity of William's acting that caught me. That, and the message relayed by his character, Mr Keating.

There is no single work of art, let alone acting performance, that has had a more profound impact on me than that one.

I have gone through many courses at a university level, and always striven to be worthy of the example set by Mr Keating. To me, it wasn't a fictional character calling on me to stand on my desk and tell what came from my heart, it was Robin Williams. Such was the honesty of his acting, and so in keeping with that sentiment have his actions ever since then been.

Silly? Oh yes. Pretentious? Most definitely. But such is the idle fancy of a young boy finding his place in the world as the demagogue who wishes to embrace life.

There is noone who wasn't shocked by his passing. Nobody saw it coming.

Heck, many people in the US and UK probably grew up with Williams as the Genie in Aladdin. It's a commonly known fact that he simply ad-libbed most of the lines on the spot. He just played around, weaving a character by himself that captured the imagination of people all over the world.

Of course, in Sweden, we didn't have him. We had some random overpaid voice actor doing an offensive arabian accent.

But Williams won in the end, because all the dubbers had to work with was his lines.

That's the testament to his greatness, to his enormous generosity of spirit and energy; the fact that he shone through in the end, even after they changed both the actor and the language spoken.

Petty? Oh yes. Insignificant? Possibly. But when a loved one has died, don't we most fondly remember the small things?

More than anything, I was annoyed by the passing of this great man. It was another death in a line of fairly recent ones that robbed us of among the greatest people to walk the earth.

But I wasn't particularly sad.

Then someone on an internet forum I frequent went and posted this:

"O Captain! My Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won;

The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,

While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:

But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, 

Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! My Captain! rise up and hear the bells;

Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;

For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;

For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

Here captain! dear father! This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck, You've fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;

My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;

The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;

From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;

Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells! But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my captain lies, Fallen cold and dead." - Walt Whitman, 1865

That is what brought me to tears.

Rest in peace, you greatest of personalities. And if you end up in hell, keep the place warmed up for me!