“Avoid using the word very because it’s lazy. A man is not very tired; he is exhausted. Don’t use very sad; use morose. Language was invented for one reason, boys- to woo women- and, in that endeavor, laziness will not do.”  – Robin Williams in Dead Poet’s Society.

Thank you, Robin Williams, for the knee-hugging-rolling-on-the-floor-wheezing-until-I-almost-passed-out-laughter that you brought to this crazy world.

Thank you for connecting phrases that most of us stumble around and putting them in such order that the mundane was replaced by the hilarious and we were re-positioned to view life with a heart of laughter.

Thank you for your unabashed willingness to change in and out of characters without reserve and the risk of looking silly in order to help us to poke fun at our own selves.

Thank you for the creative way you connected boring words flat on the page of a dictionary but jumped from your mind and mouth in unparalleled construct.

Each time you spoke, I listened and waited:

    • I waited to laugh
    • I waited to have you make sense of insanity
    • I waited for you to give me language for how I felt but couldn’t find the words to speak on my own
    • I waited for you to make fun of people who needed made fun of
    • I waited for you to christen champions with your approval
    • I waited for you to give me a new line I could repeat with my children
    • I waited for you to show me the magic of words
    • I waited for you to inspire me to be creative

Because of you, I eliminated the word very from my vocabulary.

Thank you for making this world a better place in which to live.

Rest in peace.

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