RIP Robin Williams

Today, the old saying dying is easy, comedy is hard, rings false.   Robin William made comedy look effortless, he pumped it out at a speed that would make nascar fans want to slap sponsor stickers all over his tuxedo or rainbow suspenders.   But if part of the price of being famous in the 21st century includes being weighed and measured by the internet after passing, then poor Mork now must deal with the least friendly audience he's ever faced, the unsympathetic, the ignorant and the politically manipulative.  

On the internet today I've seen stupid stuff about suicide. While it is a choice, it is also the result of deep pain that seems insurmountable, and that is the hard reality which should be met by friend and stranger alike with deep sympathy, for him and those who loved him. I've seen stupid stuff about his death being the result of his liberal beliefs which makes my head hurt with the lack of charity and clarity.  Mental illness isn't the result of  political ideology, and suicide isn't something limited to a particular party affiliation.  Worst of all, I saw stupid stuff about his death being the result of prior sins.  Pain begets pain, no question, and prior griefs, prior sufferings, prior hard points in life played a part in the battle with depression Williams apparently faced down for quite some time.   But to armchair quarterback his life with respect to moral choices, is to invite the same for ourselves. No thank you.  This family is grieving in a way we cannot know and pray we never do.  This family has a hole in its heart.  Declaring the deceased's sins, prior demons or political allegiances to be the source of his pain no more than 24 hours after his death shows less tact, grace and charm than the Westboro Baptist Church.  

If I could say something to these very sure of themselves experts who don't know Robin Williams any more than I do, be they Matt Walsh, Rush Limbaugh or Lifesite news it would be "Shut up already."  I say this as someone who reads Catholic blogs all the time, is pro-life, and has voted Republican in every Presidential election since 1984.   I cite the people and sites but won't give the links as I don't want to give traffic to something I think wrong headed. 

Normally I despise the tendency of the media to canonize any celebrity upon his or her untimely death.  But I can say this time, there is some support for the world missing this particular soul.  He didn't just live in his Hollywood bubble.  He worked with the real world.  He did not propose the government solve the world's problems but worked to mitigate the world's problems himself, through his gifts.   He helped create Comic Relief, he spoke and entertained the troops with the USO.  By all accounts, both from the famous and the less so, he employed the homeless and poured everything he had into every project he ever touched. While I didn't always agree with his views, I didn't have to, it wasn't required.  He did make me laugh, and he did good work.   Laughter is universal, laughter is healing.  I'm just sorry all the world's laughter wasn't enough to chase away the darker pains he covered with his wit.  

Why'd I say "Shut up already?"

If we are Catholic, if we are Christian, now is the time to pray for his soul, not analyze it.  If we are Conservative, now is the time to show we have hearts that are not made of stone, that understand this was a person who brought great joy to people the world over for decades.  If we're pro-life, we mourn the loss of any human soul, and we do not view suffering as a karma of our bad choices.  A good man, well loved by his family and friends, who shared what he could do with the world, is gone and we are all poorer for it.

Do

Watching the news, one cannot help but feel helpless.  Everywhere in the Middle East, hell seems to be unleased on Earth. And it seems all we can do is read the news, watch the videos and howl with them.  We are not there. We cannot stop these people from doing evil things like isolating fleeing villagers and leaving them out on a mountain exposed to chose between death by deprivation or death by beheading if they try to return.  We cannot stop the beheading of children.  We cannot stop the crucifixion of whoever they decide to crucify. We get to simply watch as the world turns mad. 

Driving downtown, one cannot help but feel helpless, as every corner with four lights has a person, sometimes two, with a sign.  "Help.  Homeless." and a cup.  Some look sicker than others. Some look slicker than others.  But all of them are asking the same thing.  Help.  You fish for a quarter or a dollar, it doesn't seem to be sufficient, and yet we cannot figure out what would be.  How could we feed them properly? 

We can give to the pantry and to charities, we can pay our taxes, and still, there is a ocean, everywhere we look, of need.  Physical need.  Emotional need.  Spiritual need.  It is small wonder, most of us now look to keep ourselves inside, to stay on news sites that do not make us squirm, to visit virtually, so we need not minister physically.  In an age of instant and constant communication, of 24-7 news and 24-7 capacity to reach out, we are filtering everything to let the least amount in possible and still consider ourselves connected.

There is a grave temptation, when we see need after need after need, to stop and say, it is too much. We only have these five loaves, these two fishes.  Worse, it is true. We only have these cisterns of water. We are out of wine. We only have this nothing in the desert.   But if we give what we have.  If we do what He tells us.  If we but ask, the 5000 will be fed, the water becomes wine, there is manna in the desert. 

How do we offer up our loaves and fishes and our water filled cisterns?   How do we give in the desert to help those so far away? 

Begin small.  It is how God works, so it should work for us. 

1) Surrender one little pleasure a day in solidarity with those who do not have such a luxury.  It can be diet coke. (Yes that's a big one for me)  Chocolate, television, the internet, just something and it can be a different thing each day, but give it up.

2) Pray.  Today's readings talked about having faith the size of a mustard seed.  If we did, we could move mountains.  Let's move a mountain of hearts.  Pope Francis has called for people to simply pray for the displaced people of Iraq.  We're being shown on all sides, the desperate need for prayer.  If you need reminders (and who doesn't), I recommend Pray More Novenas.  You get an email every day of the Novena with the prayers.  Read and you've given that little bit.  But they aren't always happening, so if you want something for every day, I recommend the Magnificat. It would be a better source for me if I didn't inevitably lose it somewhere during the second week of the month before finding it in the fourth, but it's still excellent.  The third one I'd recommend, and these are all different, so they have different appeals, is the 3 Minute Retreats.  It's a gentle way to engage daily in just a touch of reflection. 

3) Give.  Just like the other two, which are only small things, 3 minutes, one thing a day, give something.  Give it daily.  I don't care if it's a dollar to one beggar --learn his name so you can say "Hey John Chase" when you see him, but give.  A can to the food pantry a day, 7 days a week, brought at mass, is a gift a day, and cumulatively, they add up.

The goal is to build a mountain of mustard seeds.

What inspired this post? Simcha Fisher's excellent reflection on what we are called to do.  Catholics are supposed to always be both and, feeding the belly and the heart, both bread and wine and the body and blood, we are always supposed to be more than the minimum.  So now,  go.  Do.