Nanu Nanu

A friend of mine spent some time on a yacht with Robin Williams, he told stories with hilarious voices and faces... all the time, until she wanted him thrown overboard.  He was clearly an unusual man: prodigiously talented with a mind like lightening and always unstill.

The press agent releasing details of his death said "He has been battling severe depression of late".  There has followed much discussion on the nature of depression or bi-polar syndrome as it often called.  There has been talk of his addiction issues.   I hope Mr Williams' untimely death gives us some time to reflect on the nature of madness and morality.  

Madness is a way of thinking that one would not wish upon one's own worst enemy.  It may appear selfish, but it is not self interested.  It's rough being crazy. 

Madness and immorality are hard to tell apart.  We all have a tendency to be wilful and selfish, we all need some rules to regulate our behaviour.  We all have a tendency to get lost in the moment and ignore the bigger picture.  How do we know when someone around us is suffering mental illness or just plain insensitive?

How do we know if we are crazy?

We don't.  This may be why the Old Testament common to Muslims, Jews and Christians states that 

"pride is the beginning of sin".  We need humility to allow for the possibility that our thinking is faulty.  

Robin Williams knew that his thinking was faulty, his comedy was always tinged with tragedy.  He was acutely aware of the idiocies of the human condition and played the failures of hubris with a lightness that left us feeling tender and forgiving of our own.  It is a source of great sadness that he could not be succoured by his own message.