Golden Gate Bridge, California - Troubling Waters

I like driving to new locations wearing headphones and listening to music. The distraction keeps my mind on important thoughts while keeping my attention from the engine noises I tend to overanalyze. Sometimes thoughts and circumstances come together to form a cohesive topic and... Bam! Blog post.

NOFX was rocking in my ears about their friend, Tony Sly's, tragic suicide a few years ago. I happened to be driving our motorhome over the Golden Gate Bridge where 1600 people had jumped to their deaths over a 75 year period. And then the suicides of Anthony Bourdain, Kate Spade and Robin Williams started popping into my thoughts. Fearless artists deciding to end it all and a city of artists mimicking those heroes. The thoughts and circumstances came together in a question. Why did these fearless pioneering artists decide to depart so early?

I'm not going to pretend to know the answer. As a person who struggles with bipolar tendencies I have tasted despair but I will never assume to know another person's bottomless depths. I'm comfortable not knowing or understanding why tragedies play out. Life can be unbearably hard.

However, I might understand what may have provided them their passion for living early on. Each of them relentlessly enjoyed their craft, tirelessly innovated and stood by their unique message. They all broke the mold of their predecessors and smiled when it shattered. Face it; you'd smile too.

At the top of their game they were true to themselves and loved who they were in the faces of their critics. Imagine when they held fast to their passion and the world showed them love. It must have been a life-crescendo. The ultimate "I told you so".

We fell in love with these artists when they flew from their cages. Their individual artistic expressions revealed traditions and limitations to be bullshit. They were boundless and free.

Could it be that redefining their art may have locked them into a new definition of artistry? Did they lock themselves into a cage of their own making? Shocked, they must have recoiled at the thought of being considered "standard" or "old news".

I'd like to know if that unexpected change was too much. I'm sure people reassured them they were still loved. I wonder if they thought they were only loved for who they were. We'll never know.

We could all learn a lesson or two from these wonderful artists. They stood tall when criticized for being different and pushed toward their passions. No apologies.

The second lesson is a guess at best. I'm thinking that when life changed around them, they lost sight of what pushed them through past struggles. They stopped living life on their own terms and started doing what everyone expected. They fell out of love with themselves and their personal evolution. Tragedy.

Learn to love yourself in every phase of your journey. Don't look forward to who you will become or reminisce about who you were. Screw the haters, past, present and future. And remember, the people who love you today might hate you tomorrow. You know you are on the right track when more than half of the people surrounding you think you're crazy.

Loving your present self might not be the secret to life. But it sure as hell might help you get across that bridge where you can live by your own rules.

-Erick Wilde

Check out This Wilde Life on YouTube to watch the San Francisco episode (remember to subscribe and show love). If you agree, want to share your take or give me a piece of your mind, throw down a comment!

Stay Wilde.

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