Entertainer…humanitarian…will not be the first thoughts coming to mind when you hear the name Robin Williams from this day forward.  Instead, it will be suicide and the world will always wonder, why?  All the accolades and all the platitudes will be forever clouded by, “he took his own life.”

Inside the master of performance was a piece we did not know.  The piece that is in all of us; the voice that whispers over and over and over that we just don’t measure up.  We are befuddled by the reality that someone that accomplished so much, who gifted the entire world with laughter and joy would surrender to the pain inside.

Somewhere in his life there was a moment, maybe once, maybe more when his heart was injured at its very core.  In that moment he believed he lost all value and from that day forward until yesterday he shaped and molded a master of disguise.  Innovative, spontaneous, masterful, brilliant are the terms used to describe his work while kind, gentle, and compassionate echo from those that knew him intimately.  But the legacy will be…”he killed himself”. He is not the first nor will be the last in the entertainment world.  Every day thousands of every day folk make the same choice without the attention.

It’s the pain we never see.  It’s the pain we never hear.  It’s the shame that began when someone wounded us in the heart and we forever believe we are worthless.  It’s in all of us.  We all have a moment in time.  All the laughs, all the accomplishments, all the eulogies will not replace the pain of a broken soul.  When hope is lost…despair enslaves the soul.  Robin Williams at last told the world what was truly in his heart.  He could no longer live with the pain.  His last message…grip hope with every last ounce you possess and never let it go.