Robin Williams RIP

[XR2]

Fuck. The only appropriate word. My world is a smaller place yet again.

[Bobonli]

I'm not sure what I'm hating more this year: cancer or mental illness.

[Brandon White]

That is really sad.

[joosttx]

"Jesus send us some good women to save all your clowns" - Bruce Stringsteen

[nahtnoj]

Does anyone have a picture of him riding a Pegoretti? Cause that would make me feel better.

Sad as hell. I was young enough the first time I saw Mrs. Doubtfire to not really get it. As I watched him more and more, I loved how he was willing to put his deep sadness out there for everyone to see. Not many actors are willing to go the places that he went.

[sk_tle]

Does anyone have a picture of him riding a Pegoretti? Cause that would make me feel better.

Sad as hell. I was young enough the first time I saw Mrs. Doubtfire to not really get it. As I watched him more and more, I loved how he was willing to put his deep sadness out there for everyone to see. Not many actors are willing to go the places that he went.

I saw a picture of him at NAHBS pegoretti stand this morning...

EDIT:

Here it is

[rydesteel]

I'm not sure what I'm hating more this year: cancer or mental illness.

I battled the first and won, I'll let you know about the second it doesn't get cured just subdued for a while. What a shame, what a loss, his light will be missed.

[David Tollefson]

He was on my "five people I'd love to have lunch with" list. Not because he was so entertaining, but that there was a depth that he only hinted at on stage/camera. He did the bike leg of several CAF triathlon relays. He traveled to the TdF many times. And always he was trying to put the attention on the CAF athletes, or the TdF riders, and away from himself.

[dgaddis]

Such a funny guy, and so sad it came to this.

His bits on golf and the one on the olympics are some of my favorite comedy bits of all time.

[Jonathan]

This is a really good time to remember those living with depression. It's a terrible disease.

[davids]

Such a funny guy, and so sad it came to this.

His bits on golf and the one on the olympics are some of my favorite comedy bits of all time.

[Len J]

Real depression is a total darkness that the lucky ones who haven't been there find hard to understand. It's that place where the pain is so bad, that ending it is a relief.

It's the place where hopelessness is all you have..... It's never going to end. When you make the decision to die, you don't want anyone else to know.... Stopping you means you stay in the pain.

I've been there.... Planned out the end, was visiting friends one last time...... I was a hairs breath away, serendipitously saved by someone giving me a glimpse into what a normal life was..... It was a before & after moment. That view was a small spark of light in the darkness, but because the darkness was so deep it glowed brightly for me. It saved my life.

41 years later and that darkness is still on the edge of my vision. I haven't lived many days without it, but I've found ways to cope. I'm very lucky.

Upwards of 1 out of 3 Americans suffer from depression, and it's worse in middle aged men. Think about that, if you are lucky enough to not suffer the darkness, then either the person on your tight or the one on your left probably does. Show them some light. They need it....... And it's most likely the last person you think it will be.

William's apparently hung himself with his own belt. Prior to or during that, he tried to cut his wrist.. The bloody knife was nearby. How much pain would you have to be in where doing that was a better alternative than living with the pain? Yea, it's that bad.

Hopefully william's death will enable an open conversation about mental illness & as importantly, a reduction in the stigma associated with it. It's a disease, a chemical imbalance in the brain triggered by external stimuli in an abnormal way. I've lived with the shame of being defective my whole life. Would I feel shame if I had diabetes?, or high blood pressure? Substitute mental illness for either of those and how would you feel?

I'm not suggesting suicide is OK, I'm trying to give you a view from the inside.... It's not simple.

I'll miss William's genius, I'll use his death to remind me of how lucky I am. "There but for the grace of God go I."

If this post is out of line, just delete it.

Len

[Jonathan]

Len, your post is not only inline, its needed. Thanks for sharing your experience.

[Jason Musgrave]

+1, So well put Len

[SpeedyChix]

Len, Thanks for putting this up here.

[rowdyhillrambler]

Len, any group of people that would feel like that is out of line, I would not want to be a part of.

Your post was inline, online, and the line. Seems like you deal with it, but never totally out of it . I hope that we are all friends enough around here to lend each other an ear or shoulder.

[David Tollefson]

Thank you Len. Even being around depression/bi-polar for coming on 5 years now (my wife is diagnosed type-2 bipolar), I really only have a scratch-the-surface understanding, and am barely qualified to broach the subject. I'm totally out of my league in dealing with it most of the time. Maybe that's why RW's death is affecting me this way. I hear the discussions around me at work, the ignorance is maddening.

[Cookietruck]

so it looks like he had early stages of Parkinson's disease as well as the depression and the addictions to various substances.
sounds like a mf'er to deal with...

[David Tollefson]

so it looks like he had early stages of Parkinson's disease as well as the depression and the addictions to various substances.
sounds like a mf'er to deal with...

Sheds new light on things. Having watched Parkinson's take my father slowly to... where he ended up... I'd rather pilot a small plane into a mountainside than go through/put my family through that. No clue how it would be to deal with that plus clinical depression.

[jitahs]

Nice piece with Dario:

Robin Williams and Dario Pegoretti: The Comedian and the Bike Builder - WSJ