Heath Ledger - there it is.

“What you can’t change, you’ve just got to ride out.” - Ennis Del Mar

It seems strange that upon the death of a young promising actor that we’ll hear so much talk about a wasted future and the impact on box office grosses, but there it is.

I am utterly amazed by the thought that someone, somewhere, is contemplating what they’ll do with all of those new Joker action figures, either designed or sculpted or molded or perhaps even rolling off the assembly line right now. And that someone will likely consider things like investments, stakeholders, marketing and other things equally unimportant, but there it is.

And there will be a toy collector who either buys or sells such a thing for an exorbitant price. And someday there will be a little girl - she’s two right now - who sees a toy crafted in her dead daddy’s image and there it’ll be.

Should it be revealed as a suicide, it’s difficult - and, from my standpoint, impossible - to contemplate the course of action of a man who, despite the pressures of fame, above the constant scrutiny of parasitic photographers, beyond the difficulties of a troubled, breaking marriage, could not somehow be comforted by the hope and the potential and the joy that is borne from the love of one’s little child.

And there are Dark Knight posters still to be printed and TV spots to be cut and dialogue to be looped and all manner of Studio Blockbuster commitments to have been made, but there it is.

The deaths of young celebrities is nothing new or old. But it’s still surprising somehow, jarring. Bizarrely sad.

Somewhere teams of publicists - not just for Ledger, but for others as well - are mobilizing. This is what they prepare for. This is their Super Bowl. It’s a tragedy, but there it is.

Tonight the Pittsburgh air is cold - brisk cold not biting cold
with the huge, snow-filled clouds moving fast across the sky
like they’ve got somewhere to be.
They shift, break and you see it
- there it is -
a full, bright moon,
stunning with light and promise.