from January 23, 2008
Everybody is talking about Heath Ledger.
Remember when Heath Ledger brought food and medicine to Katrina victims?
Remember when Heath Ledger helped end poverty?
Remember when Heath Ledger found the cure for cancer?
Neither do I.
Heath Ledger died yesterday.
A tragedy for his young daughter and the rest of his family, to be sure.
A loss to the film world? Debatable, but he had fans.
Best known as one of the cowboys in Brokeback Mountain, Ledger was poised for breakout success in this summer’s The Dark Knight, the latest Batman film, where he played the Joker.
Yes, he was an actor.
And an actor with a short body of work at that.
To be true, there seemed to be no one with a bad word about him.
By all accounts he was a nice guy and a good father.
And it is always a loss when a good man dies.
But he was an actor.
Brad Renfro died last week too.
Newscasts broke into daytime talk shows with special reports.
Newspapers had special wrap-around sections.
Camera crews staked out the building where he died.
Flowers and candles seemed to grow out of the air around his building’s front entrance.
He’s bigger news now than when he was alive.
Everyone is wondering if it was drugs.
Everyone knows how he was found naked by his masseuse.
Everyone has a theory.
How terrible it is to die young.
How terrible it is to be famous.
How terrible it is to be in the spotlight.
Heath Ledger was not a construction worker.
He was not a firefighter or a policeman.
He was not a teacher or a doctor.
He did not die in Iraq.
He did not save a life.
He did not cure the ill.
He did not maketh the crippled to walk nor the dead to rise.
He was an actor.
He played parts in movies.
He was a cowboy in a cowboy movie.
He was a patriot in a patriot movie.
He was a knight in a knight movie..
Sad that only now does he find his biggest audience.
Sadder still that we devote so much time to his life and so little to things that really matter.
Can you name five Presidential candidates?
Can you name five of your children’s teachers?
When did you reach out to someone in need?
Heath Ledger died yesterday.
Naked and alone and surrounded by drugs.
He left behind a young daughter.
His parents outlived him.
He was an actor.
Life goes on.
Mr. Blog's Tepid Ride 
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