A Way Happiness Might Be Hiding From You (A Look Into Robin Williams)

In Search of Happiness Series: second installment

I believe there is not one person in my generation who doesn’t Robin Williams. If there is, there shouldn’t be.

A person with a huge heart and an even bigger need to make people happy.

An incredible talent to whom I, unfortunately, relate in the mental health aspect.

In the second part of the series (here’s the first one), I am going to give a shot at looking at what happiness means in the deepest of senses.

Laughter

Robin Williams was a stand-up comedian first and foremost.

His comedy was always quick and witty, that’s what he is famous for. As one of the leaders of the “comedy renaissance”, he knew firsthand how drugs and happiness don’t mix. Nevertheless, even after seeing what it does to people, he didn’t refuse to try it out himself.

In my world, alcohol and drugs are associated with relief.

You are less conscious and, therefore, less likely to feel the cruelty of reality. It was an escape from pain and a bad one at that. Just reducing the symptoms doesn’t mean that the problems are gone. It’s always there, even when you pretend it’s not.

Laughter also hides the same parts of me.

If I make it into a joke, it means it’s not that serious. I pretend it doesn’t hurt that much if I laugh — a pull of wool over other people’s eyes. Easy trick to master, actually.

With laughter, Robin aimed to heal.

Experience over everything

“Sometimes over things that I did, movies that didn’t turn out very well — you go, ‘Why did you do that?’ But in the end, I can’t regret them because I met amazing people. There was always something that was worth it.” — Robin Williams

Robin didn’t regret it, he valued the experience he had over the outcome of said experience.

The death of John Belushi — whom he shared cocaine with right before his death — was like a lightning bold in his life. Robin woke up from the addiction long enough to change it to cycling instead. If not for his friend’s death, who knows what would have happened?

While it’s sad, is it okay to feel thankful?

You can change your past but you can look back and change your future.

If he never saw what drugs can do close up, Robin could’ve been in Josh’s place instead. He could have been way earlier. Or he could have regretfully continued his addiction to a dark path.

The famous words

“I think the saddest people always try their hardest to make people happy. Because they know what it feels to feel absolutely worthless and they don’t want anybody else to feel that.” — Robin Williams.

Robin Williams suffered from mental health issues for a long time.

Before his death, he was constantly anxious and depressed. According to his wife, he was also paranoid, feeling like his brain was failing him. And that was his biggest fear.

When you know how it feels — you want to stop that feeling from ever happening to anyone else.

That, of course, is not possible. But you can always try.

And Robin tried.

He didn’t quit work until he physically couldn’t work anymore. He wanted to make people laugh. He wanted his children to have good things to watch. When he took the job of voice actor, he didn’t want to advertise any of the “bad” corporations because of his children.

Final Thoughts

He was a good father.

He was an incredible talent with the energy to match it.

Does it help that he lost his fight?

No. But that is not what the lesson is here.

The lesson is to keep going. To fight the depression, to bring laughter into the world.

Of course, life can be hard. It never is easy. What matters is that there are moments of relief.

And not in medication or alcohol — he was clear about that.

“Kid… If you need booze or drugs to enjoy your life to the fullest, then you’re doing it wrong.” — Robin Williams.

Life is what we make of it.

And we make it into laughter.

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