Heath Ledger...dead? Huh?

I really don't mean to be glib. It's not a death that remotely personally affects me, and I wasn't a fan...but he seemed like a genuinely likeable, grounded fellow. I didn't HATE him. He didn't IRRITATE me. And that alone counts for a lot. So I guess it's the SHOCK of it that first gets me. There's 50 other celebs I would've expected to die first. It's just so jarring and sudden...the mere loss of another human being...who was so YOUNG and had so much potential. Life snuffed out. It's just disturbing and sad.

It reminds me, too, of how I felt when JFK, Jr. died -- not that it was some stalkerish mission of mine, but i'd always wanted to run into John John, and I felt the same way of Heath. He was one of these celebs always photographed just walking down the street, hanging out in some bar. Sigh...the utter finality of it all.

And what's with it being "accidental"...yet there's pills "strewn" across the bed? Then you hear he had pneumonia. Well, whether you're sick or not, when does anyone scatter an assortment of pills around? Me, I pour one or two into my hand, then put the cap back on. So that KINDA makes me think suicide...but if not, WHY are ya scattering pills around, Heath?! Christ, I'm telling you, if it IS accidental, THIS is why I'm such a freak about medication. I'm surely a candidate for sleeping pills, but I'd be terrified to actually take one.

Such a rich, famous, young, handsome guy...carted out in a black body bag in front of a crowd of gawkers on cellphones in a sea of flashbulbs. THAT'S the image that gets me...realizing again how we're ALL the same in the end. THAT'S what's so sad and resonant about his sudden death. Nobu for dinner one night, zipped in a body bag the next. No matter your station in life, it could all end in an instant.