How Has The Death Of Heath Ledger Changed Your Life?

I wanted to open up this very special thread of discussion on this very special day, in order to mark the unexpected death of 28 year-old actor Heath Ledger. Let’s all share with each other, as we mark this occasion, the answer to this question: How has the death of Heath Ledger changed your life?

I’ll start out by sharing my feelings.

I really don’t think that the death of Heath Ledger has changed my life much, except that wherever I look for news of events that will change my life, I run into gobs of information about the death of Heath Ledger. Don’t get me wrong – I think it’s sad that Heath Ledger has died, just as I think that it’s sad when any human being dies.

There are, however, 6 billion living people on Earth right now, and though I don’t know the exact figure, I imagine that at least a million people must die every day. Was Heath Ledger’s death really any more sad than the 999,999 other deaths that occurred yesterday? I can’t think of a reason to believe that.

The truth is that Heath Ledger was an entertaining presence on the screen, but not much of an enlightening one. He acted, and gave an emotional portrayal to other people’s ideas. There’s nothing wrong in that. I think that a life given to acting would be a fine life. I do find something off-balance, however, about the way that we give so much attention to the people who portray ideas, and so little attention to the people who create and craft those ideas. Very few people know who actually wrote the movies that Heath Ledger starred in, relative to the number of people who know about Heath Ledger himself.

I went into a Barnes and Noble bookstore yesterday, and saw that about half the magazine space was given over to magazines about the lives of celebrities. Why are people so obsessed with following their private lives and deaths? Is it because we feel so alienated from own neighbors that we don’t know how to follow their lives any more?

If we must take a lesson from Heath Ledger’s death, let it be this: That personalities die, but ideas do not die. Let’s take more time to explore the ideas around us, and if we feel the need to know more people, let’s look right outside our doors before turning on a DVD player.