"This one (and I've only read two of Hoggatt's books) is my favorite one! *grin*"
"When people say we don't want to reinvent the wheel,
I stop listening: I want to reinvent the wheel!" (D. Ed. Hoggatt) Devon needs to escape from the street violence in St. Louis, but it draws him in like a Hoover. He's a dirty boy, living in squalor, with his single mother who works two jobs just to buy cereal. Often overlooked by authority, Devon believes he must follow the rutted track left by his dad - who now spends time in prison for drug possession and a failed gunshot to a police officer. Devon does not realize that no one is "destined" to repeat the failings of his ancestors, that these things do not have to be generational. When best friend Shawn is shot after a violent gang attack on some local athletes, Devon comes clean to his mom, and she takes action in the form of bolting from their home town. The two seek refuge with Devon's uncle, in a sleepy town in Oklahoma named Shannon Springs. Devon learns a valuable lesson in Chippin Cleats, my novel about guilt and redemption. None of us is as alone in the world as we might think - and sometimes running away (from evil) is the best course of action. In all of the talk of Robin Williams, I am reminded that he was just a man. Like me. A man. A man with issues and troubles, vices and habits. He was just a man. Mr. Williams was not a saint or a savior, a demon or a devil. He was a man. He needed compassion and passion, love and tender care, redemption and forgiveness. He needed to find the narrow path. Just like all of us, he was just a man.
People today, a few hours after his death at the age of 63, remember Mr. Williams more for his characters than for his personal life and daily accomplishments. But he was not his characters. He was not a naive alien who fell in love with the girl next door. He did not teach poetry to college boys. His name was not Patch (I've seen the real Patch Adams, and Robin Williams was nothing like him.). He didn't get stronger after eating spinach. He didn't fly and fight pirates. He never snuck back into his ex-wife's house, posing as the nanny. He didn't invent Flubber (Fred McMurray did!), and he was not Teddy Roosevelt (Teddy Roosevelt was.). It is not lost on me that he played a boy who got himself stuck in a game board for many years and a genie who was confined to the itty bitty living place of an oil lamp for thousands of years. Of all of the characters Mr. Williams played on screen, these might have been more like the real Robin than he would have admitted. Like many among us, Robin Williams was depressed - not trapped in small confines or stuck in an alternative world, but restricted by his own vices and caught up in his own feelings. While on the outside, Mr. Williams could not be limited to a script, in his mind, like so many of us, he could never shake his "dependence" on stimulants and depressants. Likewise, he seemingly could not relinquish thoughts about sex or cursing. I suppose Robin Williams is just one more casualty one a multifaceted war that shoots at us from all angles with a great variety of weaponry. It is a war that all men and women fight. A war against morality. A war against self image. A war that strips good people of dignity and cognizance. A war that lures us into the darkness of sin and anger. The bodies lie around our feet with wounds inflicted by insignificance, depression, booze, drugs, sex, laziness, and much more. It is a war that leaves battle scars inflicted by friends, strangers, bosses, peers, and even family members, but I suspect the greatest enemy I face is myself - who I think I am, who I think I should be, who I think I can never be, who I think others expect me to be, etc. Robin Williams, upstaging actor and coarse comedian, died yesterday. The authorities strongly suspect he took his own life as the result of ongoing depression. But he was only a man weakened by his own state of mind. The strong characters he played live on. The application to the rest of us is to break the bindings that restrain us. We must break free of the unattainable standards of perfection that threaten to destroy us. We must not allow ourselves to be held to the unreachable expectations that stretch us to the snapping point. For me, that means I rely on the kindness of others (and they, on my kindness to them), I lean on the church for support, and I keep a tight relationship with my God, studying his Word, talking to Him regularly, and being the man He intends for me to be. Though he had the support of family, friends, peers, and employees, I don't think Mr. Williams had the family of Christ. It makes all the difference in this world. This guy, who yearned to always be the center of attention, would have done well to turn his own attention to the true Center, the living Son of living God and Savior of the masses, Jesus the Christ. Tomorrow marks the release of the new PG13 movie, Into the Storm.
Something tells me it won't have the same positive message as Out of the Wind. |
AuthorD. Ed. Hoggatt is an award-winning fourth grade teacher. Click Titles to Order Now
Archives
July 2017
RECOMMENDED READING
Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea Charlotte's Web by E. B. White Chippin Cleats by D. Ed. Hoggatt Crumbling Spirit by D. Ed. Hoggatt Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan Hatchet by Gary Paulsen Holes by Louis Sachar Loser by Jerry Spinelli Mumsket by D. Ed. Hoggatt Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse Out of the Wind by D. Ed. Hoggatt Petey by Ben Mikaelsen Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom by Louis Sachar Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls Yankee Girl by Mary Ann Rodman |