Remembering Robin Williams: Oh Captain! MyCaptain!

Remembering and reflection.

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First off, let's know just a smidge about how this amazing man came to be.

Robin McLaurin Williams was born in Chicago, Illinois, on July 21, 1951. His mother, Laura McLaurin was a former model from New Orleans, Louisiana. His father, Robert Fitzgerald Williams was a senior executive at Ford Motor Company in charge of the Midwest region. His maternal great-great-grandfather was Mississippi senator and governor Anselm J. McLaurin. Williams's ancestry included English, Welsh, Irish, Scottish, German, and French.

He was raised in the Episcopal Church (while his mother practiced Christian Science). He grew up in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where he was a student at the Detroit Country Day School and later moved to Woodacre, Marin County, California, where he attended the public Redwood High School in nearby Larkspur, California. Williams studied at Claremont McKenna College (then called Claremont Men's College).

Williams left Claremont and attained a full scholarship to the esteemed Juilliard School. In between Claremont and Juilliard, he attended the College of Marin for theatre. He had two half-brothers: Todd (who died August 14, 2007) and McLaurin.

The passing of Robin Williams has hit me really hard and I don't know why. I'm totally an emotional wreck tonight. I knew him as we all did, through his humble beginnings on TV to movie mega-stardom. So why am I upset? It is a sad, sad tragic loss and we are lesser for his passing but I think for me it's kind of a wake-up call that age is passing. The world I knew as a child and as a younger adult is fast slipping away. Faster than I realized, I guess.

I am not all that old but I'm not a spring chicken clucking up a storm out in the barnyard either. Change is the only thing constant in life. This is one of the fundamental facts of science. Until the last few years that change has been pretty consistent in its forward trek through time. Now things are changing faster the what the world can keep up with. Sounds crazy huh? But that's what it looks like to me.

Everything I used to know seems to have accelerated in its journey to evolve. I am not afraid of change but I need time to assimilate and process what it is that's changing. The world is spinning out of control. Genocide, epic invasions, an ineffectual, uncaring government, a criminal president, riots, rampant racism, major American cities going bankrupt. Holy shit, right!?

With all this going on and I'm trying to process it all and make some kind of sense out of it because that's the way the human mind works. We have to try to make some sense out of things, even when they don't. So maybe that's why Robin's death has me so upset. With all the horrible, tragic, horrendous shit going on in the world, this has to happen. That the passing of one man could affect so many on so many different levels. It makes a person feel small and insignificant.

The enormity of death and destruction in the world and this man, this simple man who loved to make people laugh, he leaves us and seems to make the world pause and take a breath. I think we all paused and took a breath.

Robin once said "Death is nature’s way of saying, ‘your table is ready.’" I would not mind a seat at that table when they call my name. I will miss Robin Williams greatly. Somewhere there is a white courtesy phone ringing, unanswered. Keep'em laughing till I get there my friend. Yours, always RayRay.

By RayFed

From: United States

Twitter: @Mr.RayFed