Hold Heath Ledger in Your Heart

Tonight is dark with the confusion and a grieving mist that sweeps in at first sight of loss. It holds court over the hearts and minds of people who loved a man. He took risks on the projects that would make him grow, and he was, at the very least, for whatever reason, by whatever means, lost today. On January 22nd 2008. Heath Ledger was 28. He is gone.

Think about the reality and finality of all of this. Take thought with your intentions, your grudges, your passion and feuds. Notice how unsuspecting we all were, how surprised everyone is when a life is lost so early, and so fast. He was a father and a son. He was a friend, and a lover, an ex-boyfriend and brother. Acting was his craft, and although we reserve the right to judge his performance, we know not his story... He didn't tell it.

I feel so sad thinking through his day and night. Did he tell the people he loved how he felt? Did he have that eerie feeling this day was his last? More sadly, I ponder the pain his parents will endure. Michelle Williams is going to face misplaced guilt, and mourning for her daughter who will be fatherless. The shock-stricken friends who will spend weeks, maybe months looking at a number they should delete from their blackberries.

I didn't know him but I respected his capacity to challenge himself, and work hard at what he did. I am helpless in relation to anything personally involving him or those who loved him, but perhaps we control what we can.....Let's make a point NOT to sensationalize a man who took pride in protecting his privacy. Let's make an effort to support media that celebrates the accomplishments that he chose to give us, rather than take facts as they spin our way and speculate. Let's do our best to explain the tragedy of his timely death to our children, instead of exploit his daughter. She will have it hard enough.

Hold Heath Ledger in your heart, let it sit for a moment and feel the depth of it's discomfort. See the imaginable hole of the loss of a man you never knew beyond the characters he played. See how sad that makes you, this stranger. He had a full heart that stopped today.

Take inventory after you read this. Life is finite, fragile and fleeting. Say what you need to. Love who you can, and forgive what you must and be grateful. A quote I found from him:

"I'm not good at future planning. I don't plan at all. I don't know what I'm doing tomorrow. I don't have a day planner and I don't have a diary. I completely live in the now, not in the past, not in the future."

Be in Peace Heath Ledger. Our hearts are heavy with love for all who miss you, and forever will.



Films he was best known for:

"10 Things I hate about you"
"Patriot"
"A Knights Tale"
"Lords of Dogtown"
"The Brothers Grim"
"Brokeback Mountain"
and most recently, "I'm not there" and "The Dark Knight"