Robin Williams: My inspiration to write, experience the world around me, laugh, and most of all live

Boys, you must strive to find your own voice. Because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all. Thoreau said, "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation." Don't be resigned to that. Break out!
- John Keating, Dead Poets Society (1989)

Yesterday this world didn't lose a leader of faith or politics. We didn't lose a warrior or saint. No, this world lost a flame in a darkening cave. The world needs laughs, satire, and jokes of all kinds. We lost renewable source of cheer and hilarity.

You might be wondering why I am writing about Robin Williams. I am a beer blogger. What does Robin Williams have anything to do with beer?!

I have been inspired, moved, and driven me to write about the world around me and seek ways to inspire others. All of this by a comedian no less. One of the reasons I love the English language, is because of him.

Robin Williams was a man of many faces, voices, and talents. With one sentence, he could be telling a G rated children's story full of hope, wonder, and inspiration. In the next he could make you blush with his descriptions of a compromising and humorous situation.

The man was more than his roles, his stand up. He made the words he spoke come alive. Those words become fingers prodding our feelings, thoughts, and aspirations. Whether he made you laugh at his caricature depicting the invention of golf. Or made you forget Apple's attempt at commercialization and branding, instead compelled you to want to see the world and describe the awe inspiring fleeting moments that pass us by on a daily basis.

We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.To quote from Whitman, "O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?" Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?
-John Keating, Dead Poets Society (1989)

Most of us as kids, if we don't remember him from anything else he acted in, he can most be recognized a big blue genie from the Disney Classic, Aladdin! This was also where I get one of my nick names! Yes, some people call me Laddie.

"Aladdin! Hello, Aladdin, nice to have you on the show. Can we call you Al, or maybe just Din? Or how about Laddie?"
- Genie, Aladdin (1992)

While over the next few days, details about what happened to the man in last hours and theories about the tortured thoughts that ravaged his brain will surface. We will need to remember all of the positives his life brought and not the negatives his death threatens. We will need to remember that he made us laugh at our weakest moments. In some very influential movies, he made us think and challenge ourselves.

All of life is a coming home. Salesmen, secretaries, coal miners, beekeepers, sword swallowers, all of us. All the restless hearts of the world, all trying to find a way home. It's hard to describe what I felt like then. Picture yourself walking for days in the driving snow; you don't even know you're walking in circles. The heaviness of your legs in the drifts, your shouts disappearing into the wind. How small you can feel, and how far away home can be. Home. The dictionary defines it as both a place of origin and a goal or destination. And the storm? The storm was all in my mind. Or as the poet Dante put it: In the middle of the journey of my life, I found myself in a dark wood, for I had lost the right path. Eventually I would find the right path, but in the most unlikely place.
- Patch Adams, Patch Adams(1998)

While Robin Williams has been called home, let us not lose the path and keep on going and not let life pass us by. Let us use our words to not only describe the world around us, but the landscape of what is on the inside. Never feel afraid to describe a hell you may be experience! Always share the joys and blessings you have. You never know who is listening who may need you or you may need them. As long as we keep talking and expressing ourselves, we will never be alone.