Like the rest of the world I was shocked by the tragic passing of Robin Williams…
In a culture that worships fame, money and success, it’s easy to lose sight of two facts: money doesn’t buy happiness and never will; money doesn’t always buy mental health.
“Williams’ death is a wake-up call – depression is no laughing matter,” says Eve Meyer, executive director of the San Francisco Suicide Prevention.
Here’s the reality: wealthy people commit suicide at roughly the same rate as poor people.
Yet the myth that wealth equals happiness persists; it’s the image that Hollywood projects to the world.
During my last trip to Nigeria in 2008, it bothered me that my little African brothers would spend countless hours around the T.V. watching Hollywood blockbusters and MTV. They seem to think streets in the U.S. are paved with gold.
I tried to tell them that most folks in the U.S. don’t live that way and the vast majority in this country are either struggling or broke. They didn’t listen. They couldn’t listen. They chose to believe what they wanted to believe.
On some level, we all choose to believe what we want to believe, despite evidence to the contrary. Because most of us don’t have access to wealth, we tend to think money is the magic answer to all our problems.
Those who have money must be “living it up” – ballin’, we think.
Clearly, Mr. Williams wasn’t living it up. He wasn’t ballin’ either.
His tragic passing puts the issue of mental illness and depression in sharper focus. Even though middle-aged white men are at greater risk for suicide than the rest of us, we need to pay closer attention to mental illness in our own communities too.
The reality is that depression is closer to home than we would like to admit…
No one is immune to depression. We all have family members or friends that struggle with it at one time or another, for one reason or another.
“It is important to learn and understand that each of us is capable of saving someone else’s life. Each of us who has felt invisible pain of any kind is an especially important force for saving the life of another person, who may save the life of yet another person in the future,” says Eve Meyer, executive director of San Francisco Suicide Prevention.
For me, the passing of this comedic genius is yet another reminder to focus on what really matters because the size of your bank account and fame do not.
But how you feel on the inside does.
Blessings
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James Weeks
Producer, Across the King’s River.