Forced to say goodbye...

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This week we were forced to say goodbye to a number of heroes…one of them particularly struck pretty close to home.

I am so not a celebrity fan girl – I judge a person by their treatment of others, their work and their contribution to their field and so am always entirely behind in any case of scandal or any personal details of an actor’s or musician’s life…because of that my heartfelt sadness in reaction to the death of Alan Rickman took me entirely by surprise…

This surprise in turn prompted a reflection on why the news impacted on me so much, which in turn resulted in the following conclusions…

The first thing and the most obvious was that as an actor, an artist and a role model he inspired me – he used the gifts that he had of being able to portray character, express emotions and tell stories impeccably…he was a joy to watch from his touching honesty in Truly, Madly Deeply to his popular culture offerings in Harry Potter…I fell in love with character after character because he worked hard with such craft to make something that was easy to fall in love with…

Then there was his voice…mellifluous in quality, defined in diction and utterly engaging.  This and the list above meant that on Thursday when I heard that he’d gone I had an absolute attack of you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone…

I take some comfort that my feelings have legitimacy when I read the heartfelt testaments from those who did know him.  Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Thompson, Ed Kemp…their words of loss and appreciation are so genuinely warm and full of respect there is definitely a measure of the man he was within them…

Although I am still uncomfortable with the whole idea of celebrity and mourning someone I never had a conversation with…but this weeks events have reminded me on making the most of anyone who inspires you…sucking all the energy and guidance you can from them, whether they be everyday heroes you meet in your communities or untouchable professionals you worship from afar…because in a finite world you never know what is around the corner…


P.S.  If all of that doesn’t convince you I’ll leave you with this Alan Rickman quote…for which, like so many things, I am very grateful to him for…

 "And it's a human need to be told stories. The more we're governed by idiots and have no control over our destinies, the more we need to tell stories to each other about who we are, why we are, where we come from, and what might be possible."

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