Tragic Or Not?

After the news of the death of Heath Ledger I got into a discussion about whether this was a tragedy or not with one of my most avant-garde friends. He declared it was a tragedy in an email to me while I replied that Greensboro Kansas being wiped off of the map was a tragedy.
Katrina was a tragedy. The OKC bombing was a tragedy.

An actor dying because of unknown circumstances which could be self inflicted is sad but hardly a tragedy. He lived a good life, yeah he had problems but who doesn't?

It doesn't fit my, I guess narrow, idea of what a tragedy is. It isn't the traditional Shakespearian ideal of a tragedy such as the ones he wrote about, it is more along the lines of things you can't control such as a hurricane or tornado. No there are even tragedies that are avoidable such as the spread of AIDS in Africa for example. The children who are exploited in Asian countries can be stopped but no one will stop it. Darfur is a real life tragedy. What the rulers of Iran are leading their population into is a real life tragedy. North Korea's standard of living is a real life tragedy.

Those are all real life tragedies.

Forgive me if I don't feel sorry for an actor I've never met but have admired some of his work, who has either OD'd or something similar. It is sad. It is a crying shame. It is even tragically sad but it is NOT a tragedy. When it is your time it is your time and it isn't premature. Your life isn't cut short. You have a limited amount of time here, make it count.

For the next few weeks we will hear all kinds of good things and bad things about Heath Ledger. Remember all of the Anna Nicole Smith coverage ad nausea um? Yeah all of that is going to happen again. He will be extolled about how great of an actor he was, the next Batman movie will do ten times the box office it would have done otherwise and it will be big regardless. I would imagine that the studio execs are doing some kind of morbid dance of joy right now in fact!

Again that doesn't make his death a tragedy just because everyone knows who he is. Get a grip people. He didn't know me and he didn't know you. You might have felt like you knew him but you only knew the characters he portrayed on screen. He was a real life person with real life problems like you and like me. He died just the same as you and I will eventually do. The only people it was a real tragedy to is his daughter and his family who are now left behind.