You would think that playing the iconic Princess Leia in Star Wars would be enough to mark a lifetime in the public eye, but Carrie Fisher went at least one further.

Fisher was among the first A level stars to talk intelligently about mental disorders including her own bipolar condition, a mood disorder characterized by highs and lows, depression and unusually high energy.

“It’s kind of a virus of the brain that makes you go very fast or very sad.  Or both.  Those are fun days.  So judgment isn’t like, one of my big good things.  But I have a good voice.  I can write well.  I’m not a good bicycle rider.  So just like anybody else, only louder and faster and sleeps more.  Oh manic depression … how I love you”.

She half-jokingly came up with the idea of Bipolar Pride Day.

Life is not perfect.

We are not perfect.

As hard as we try all of us are subject to forces and conditions not of our choosing, but the one thing that we can control is the way we choose to look at these challenges.

To see the good.

To show appreciation.

To have a sense of humor about ourselves and the human condition that we all share in some way or the other.

That’s why the loss of Carrie Fisher before the holidays was so meaningful.

In a world craving authenticity, the Start Wars fantasy actress was so real.

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