Romi Garduce: Farewell Robin Williams

I’ll cut the bit about admiration, good words or comments on Mr. Robin. He deserves all the good words.

But a brief – a still recall, being a small boy, laughing my heart out when I see the funny scenes of Mork and Mindy. Robin the Mork from Ork, the funny alien who wore ‘one size fits all, 1-footer long elastic space suit’ and greets “Nanu-nanu”.

But the honest part of this post is that – one of his movies, the Dead Poet’s Society (DPS) was one transformational movie for me. Movies do that? Not for most I guess. I asked friends about this DPS movie effect and I thought I was alone. But it doesn’t matter; we have all our unique moments in life.

Let me capture some verses here and resound it:

(Robin as Mr. Keating talking to his students:)

"Why do I stand up here? Anybody? I stand upon my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way." (cut)

But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it? - - Carpe - - hear it? - - Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary." (cut)

"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. 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." (cut)

"There's a time for daring and there's a time for caution, and a wise man understands which is called for."(cut)

"Most men lead lives of quiet desperation." Don't be resigned to that. Break out!"

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My own key take-away was a message that goes like: ‘Feel life every day, Live life every day”. Being seen or labelled as extraordinary may just be a consequence of that behavior (or rather, the output of that behavior). Funny that within the week after I watched the movie, I even walked barefoot in UST ground during the night (an attempt to feel Earth, to feel life), pausing every now and then to look up and see the night stars. I even attempted to buy a collection of old poems from the nearby bookstore. What movies can do, eyy?!!

DPS message is a good constant reminder that, the next time we see something ‘boring’, ‘routine’, ‘been –there-done-that’, try standing up on the desk and change the scenery. Is this the life we want, is this the change of life (scenery) we need, or do we want/ need something very different. Do something different now, carpe diem!