It's a strange thing grieving for celebrities. You think of their families, their friends and wonder what right do I have? Who are we to claim any ownership over the loss of someone we've never met? And as an artist, what authority do I have to communicate that loss in my language?
But in our culture of entertainment, there are certain people like Robin Williams who do become family. We grow up with their presence as a constant in our lives. Through the television, film screen and stage, they reach out and help shape us into the people we become. For me and many of my generation, Robin was so much. He was our Genie, our Peter Pan, our doctor, our father figure. He taught us to laugh at ourselves through alien eyes, to see homosexual relationships in a very human way, to embrace the weirdness of life and never stop laughing at it. In the way only someone who would make you laugh until you cried could, he taught us that inner darkness was not a thing to hide or ignore.
I am really going to miss all the things that he could have taught and the laughter he would have created.
