You're not alone, says Elizabeth Nolan Brown, and there's nothing wrong with feeling nothing:
Now thereâs nothing wrong with using the surprising (apparent) suicide of a surface-happy comedian as a catalyst for discussing mental health issues. But how absurd to suggest itâs wrong not to. Maybe some people would prefer to remember the manâs life and work rather than his demons. Maybe some people who are intimately aware of the toll depression can take (or the pain a loved oneâs suicide can cause) are loathe to latch their very personal pain to online discussions of a stranger with strangers. Maybe not everybody has to react in the same emotional tones....
There is nothing wrong with feeling genuine sadness over the passing of an entertainer you enjoy and admire. There is nothing wrong with being stung by the way Williams seems to have went. There is nothing wrong with posting Mrs. Doubtfire stills to Instagram and heartfelt missives on your Twitter timeline in response, if the spirit moves you. And the ânormalcyâ of these responses is shown in the likes and retweets and expressions of solidarity with which theyâre met. Collective catharsis exerts a powerful pull.
But in the age of all this public emotingâsome no doubt genuine, some signalingâit can be very easy to forget that not everyone is âdeeply saddenedâ by the news of Williamsâ death. Some arenât even moderately saddened. And thatâs okay, too.