The DN

"You--you alone will have the stars as no one else has them...In one of the stars I shall be

 living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing, 

when you look at the sky at night...You - only you - will have stars that can laugh."

           --French poet Antoine de Saint-Exupery, posted by Zelda Williams, daughter of Robin.

                     

1   Well.

2   No one saw THAT coming.

3   Today is the first day of the new school year. 

4   Yesterday was the usual meetings, hub-bub, fears and excitements of getting back to the fold. 

5   It is traditionally one of the most bizarre days of the entire school year. 

6   I got through it famously. I was particularly concerned if the madness of last year would rear its pretty little head. 

7   It did, but for brief seconds only. I came away feeling other-worldly, but a good sort of other-worldly. 

8  On the way home I needed to run some copies for today's first lessons. I was able to stop and check my text messages. 

9   I read the news. It came to me in a text.

10  Instantly the other-worldliness grew.

11  Time stopped. I looked around. Everybody kept copying and stapling and all. I heard no talking, just looked around at strangers. Nobody said a word. It was almost as though nobody knew.

12  A part of me wanted to scream about Robin Williams. 

13  I couldn't. I hurried home and put on the news. 

14  

15  OTHER-worldly. I kept hearing the "breaking news" but walked around aimlessly. 

16  Helene got home and we almost cried, but I held off. Nicoley came over because they go off to jazzercise every other day while I choose to try living on nuts and berries. 

17  We all watched the odd news coverage by Channel 4, for whatever reason.

18  They had film of Williams that looked like it was taken by Osama Bin Laden. All I thought was, "Here is one of the most revered entertainers in the world, and the only footage you have looks like it came in from a war zone. Are ya KIDDIN' me here?"

19   I walked around my house just after those guys left, heard the news over and over, listened to the floor fans, watched the wind go through a palm tree, and decided to go down the hall and write this. 

20  The T-O-S-H-I-B-A, which I managed to re-set last week and which had worked brilliantly since had decided once again to upgrade itself back to being a paperweight. I wanted to write this on that computer, the one I thought I  had finally fixed, but it decided to send me this recurring message: "Please wait."

21  Bizarre. I was unable to access any internet news as the story unfolded.

22  I'm now sitting down at my desktop.

23  SMH.

24  That means, "Shaking My Head" in Facebookese.

25  This was not originally going to be a piece about Robin Williams. 

26  It was originally going to be a 'We're baaaaaaack!!!' piece, followed by an announcement that I may be cutting back on the Daily News for the first time since I started writing it eighteen years ago. 

27  Last year it really became a bit of an issue, but I knew that for whatever reason, I HAD to keep this going. 

28  I still feel that way. 

29  It was just with the rolling out of the Common Core stuff, and the subsequent extra work I did as a teacher assisting the support teachers, I almost got buried by the end of last year. 

30  So here goes: I'm going to try like hell to keep bringing this to everyone. I think it's fun, and to many, a lark.

31  It's also a hobby, like anyone else's hobby. Writing keeps one sharp, I'm thoroughly convinced. 

32  So for now, fear not.

33  The DN will continue to post. 

34  But it may be going down its last road. 

35  Why?

36   Because I just spelt "road" r-o-d-e, as in "I was rode hard and put away wet."

37   "Spelt". Who does that?

38  Anybody lookin'?

39  Anyhow, that needed to be said, but I also felt yesterday that I did need to acknowledge the passing of Robin Williams. 

40  I naturally believe it wasn't a suicide, for the record. How do you do suicide by asphyxia? That dog don't hunt. 

41  Tetchy topic. I just want to go on record as saying there is much more to this story than meets the eye. 

42  We'll watch. 

43  Meanwhile, you are allowed to grieve. Robin Williams is a an enormous part our collective lives. He was a husband, a father, a Genie, a Captain, O Captain! and in many ways, one of us. 

44  And he now knows what dreams may come. 

45  See you again, my Captain. Carpe Diem. 

46   Peace.

~H~