Heath Ledger and immediate reactions
It was a shock to hear the other day that Heath Ledger had died, seemingly due to an accidental or intentional overdose of pills. He was a talented actor, appeared to be a genuinely nice person, according to what his friends and neighbours said about him, and he had a two-year-old daughter he loved very much. I am also crass enough to mention that he was hot, although his death wouldn’t have been any less upsetting if he hadn’t been attractive.
It’s strange that when someone dies and nobody knows whether it’s suicide or an accident, most people’s immediate response is, I sure hope it wasn’t suicide. I’m not sure it’s any less sad if someone who definitely doesn’t want to die suddenly winds up dead. It’s easy enough to think of reasons behind this knee-jerk reaction, though, and here are a few:
- Suicide is considered a major taboo.
- It’s very uncomfortable to think of someone who is suffering and unhappy before they die, and more pleasant to think of them as having had a pleasant and rosy life up until their death.
- People feel that it’s something someone should have seen coming and been able to stop, unlike a freak accident that might have been less easy to predict.
- In a case like this, where it’s somebody who Had It All, you know that this guy had talent, money, fame, good looks, and a child he cared about, and still might have been depressed enough to purposely end his life, and you wonder what the hell kind of chance any of the rest of us have of being okay.
Anyway, suicide or accident, it’s still a tragedy.
January 25th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
I think the real tragedy is the Woodsboro Baptists are going to picket the funeral because he was a “fag enabler”. There is some murmur that he may have been manic depression. I would help the reaction to it would help focus concern on suicide and depression, help detract from the notion you can’t “have it all” be depressed. It is tragic but maybe something can come from this.
January 25th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Well, I don’t think your crass for saying he’s hot if you think so. It might be slightly irrelevant to his death but…you’re just stating your thoughts, right?
It’s interesting that you wrote this as I was kind of thinking the same thing–especially in media reports. Could you imagine if someone actually said and was quoted, “Well, you know…it could have been suicide…” And really, I don’t see anything wrong with that–well, the point of view or someone thinking that. Who knows?
I don’t think it’s any more/less sad regardless of the circumstances of someone’s death. Maybe other people who haven’t had to face suicide in any way may feel that suicide is “worse” but when someone dies it’s always (well, for most?) sad.
Some people say that suicide really is awful, however and it’s wreaked havoc on their lives and loved ones… Maybe it does hurt some people more.
True, suicide is still taboo and misunderstood and people have a hard time dealing with it. A lot of people do feel they should have done something and feel guilty. No, we don’t want to see people suffer and would rather have them happy before they die.
Following that, either “thinking” of them happy and/or thinking that they “Had It All,” we never know what is going on in other people’s lives. We can’t possibly imagine what lies behind the curtain, the facade, whatever.
People were (and are?) saying all of these “rosy” things about him but do they even know? Maybe he was secretly living in hell!
Maybe I just echoed everything you said…I don’t know… *sigh*
It’s been a long day.