If you take the time to look at the definition of madness, you will find that it is defined as a state of frenzied or chaotic activity in which an individual partakes in foolish behavior. However, could madness be something entirely different?

I used to think that madness held a derogatory connotation; I thought that it was a word that defined flaw and weakness, determining that a person had no semblance of sanity. However, I realize that that is not true, it was never true. When someone is mad, it does not necessarily have to be a bad thing, for madness is a human expression, an idea that breads creativity. There is a time in life where you look at something you have been taught to believe, such as, that madness should be avoided because it does not benefit humanity. You look at this belief and there is an event, a person, or an idea, that makes you see that the belief does not hold true. When this time comes you become enlightened and you can see more than what you have been taught, you can see real expression at its core. 

Human expression, it is something that I have been thought a lot about. In its purest form, human expression can speak louder than words, it can touch on every emotion, it can bring out the best in us, and it can make us see our worst. To master human expression one would have to master madness, to be frenzied yet calculated, to be chaotic yet calm, and to be foolish and wise all at once. Robin Williams was a master of human expression. Robin Williams taught generations what it was to fell happy and sad, to laugh until you cry, and to fell enlightened even if from a foolish gesture; he taught us all that it meant to feel, to be alive, for he believed in ideas, and that,  “no matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.”(Robin Williams).

Some only saw this man as a comedian, as a man who earns a living from laughs, but he was so much more than that. Robin Williams was a man, a husband, a father, a brother, a friend, and a teacher. For those who knew him he was the light of the world, a character that always brought out the best in everyone. For anyone who did not know him, it was the same. From role to role, in standup, and in public, Robin Williams brought out the best in us all because he believed in us, he believed in the idea that everyone has value, and that everyone can be great. There are no words that can explain the loss that the world feels over the most creative of souls, the maddest of souls, for there lay a whole in the heart of every person who ever had the chance to know the mind of madness. 

In life Robin Williams struggled with depression, substance abuse, and ailments to his health that became strenuous to his emotional and mental fortitude, that began to eat away at his form of expression. Robin Williams believed in the value of life, the value of seeing that “you will have bad times, but they will wake you up to the stuff you weren’t paying attention to.”(Robin Williams). However, the darkness became too much, and the master of madness, the man who taught me what creativity was, and the man who showed me the purest form of expression, was taken from the world before his time. 

While he is gone, it is not the end, for nothing ever truly ends. Robin Williams persists, for his words and ideas changed the world. Each laugh, each smile, and every kind embrace is an idea, and it was to illuminating those ideas that Robin Williams dedicated his career and his life. The mark of madness lays in each and every one of us, a mark of expression, emotion, and creativity. The is an idea that was given to the world by this man, that every idea is worth being shared, for each idea can bring about greatness, not only greatness in one’s self, but greatness in all of those who share the light of the idea. This gift, this lesson, was given to us all to help us all see that we can achieve greatness. This is an idea that will never die. The idea of Robin Williams will live forever, for unlike life, which comes and goes as the tide does rise, ideas are like an infinite sea that can never die. 

Robin Williams was a man, a father, a brother, a husband and a son; he was a teacher and a student; he was Genie, Adrian Cronauer, John Keating, and Peter Pan; he was Daniel Hillard and Euphegenia Doubtfire; he was Sean Maguire; but most importantly, he was Robin Williams, a man who became a part of you and me. While he will be missed, he is now free. From the mind of madness, “only in their dreams can men be truly free. It was always thus and always thus will be.”(Robin Williams). Your dreams lie amongst our own, and soar with you amongst the stars. 

To Robin Williams 

1951-2014