Dolphin’s Dock

For one, he was young. I think that has a little to do with it. It’s not pleasant to hear that anyone has died, but when it comes to something feeling like a “tragedy,” 28 beats 82. Younger deaths can leave a feeling of “missing out.” Certainly that’s true with Heath, whose career, despite being notable on it’s own, was really just beginning. They also remind us that tomorrow isn’t promised for anybody. For some of us that is scary because it reminds us of our own mortality. For other because it reminds us of the mortality of loved ones (whom we wouldn’t want to live without?).

Tragic as a young death is, there’s more to it than that. Would the death of 26 year old Brittany Spears stirred as much sadness? It perhaps would stir up more talk, but I suspect alot of that would revolve around crass jokes about her passing, and even mournful posts would likely mourn less about her death and more about the life that led her there. Heath wasn’t a “bad boy.” We tend to not mind as much when a “bad boy (or girl)” dies because it’s easy for us to, for lack of a better word, “blame” them. It’s a self-defense mechanism and the same things that causes some folks to blame victims of rape. We like to think, “That couldn’t happen to me, because I don’t live that way.” While the details of his death aren’t 100% clear in this case, it doesn’t ultimately matter. The perception that most have of Heath Ledger is that he more or less had his life together. He wasn’t a Hollywood wild child (at least not to my knowledge). He performed in his films, flashed a smile at various events, but more or less kept himself out of the lime-light.

On the other hand, if suspicions about a drug over-dose pan out, and in amounts that cast doubts on his family’s assertion that his death was accidental, then the most likely explanation is suicide (I don’t really know for sure, but I’ve never heard of sleeping medications as a recreational drug). Perhaps that even worse than seeing a “good boy” just accidentally die because it’s a grim reminder that nobody has it “all together” and even those that seem happy and well-adjusted might be struggling with some monstrous demons right below that smiling exterior.

Of course, lest my dime-store variety psychology (take it or leave it) makes it sound as if I think the reaction to Ledger’s death has more to do with everyone else than it does with Heath himself, let me add this: Heath was one of the few great young actors out there. Modern Hollywood is full of pretty faces with mediocre talent. Heath Ledger was not one of those. We’ve lost a rare talent and we’ve lost the future characters that could have been brought so vibrantly to life by that talent. That’s worth mourning in and of itself.