Here's what we can do.
Everybody who was sad when Lou Reed died, in 2013: go find a guitar, and make noise with it. It can music, with lyrics and structure and order; it certainly doesn't have to be. But it should be honest noise. It should tell the world something ugly or hard or beautiful or frightening about you, and it should not care--not even a little--what the world thinks about it, because it's your noise, for you.
Everybody who was sad when David Bowie died: change something about yourself. It needn't be big...just try on a new laugh, or a new walk, or a new face, or a new life. Reinvent yourself, not because you're unhappy with who you are, but because you're curious about who you aren't. And then, with your new laugh, go and change the world, for the same reason.
If you cried when Prince died, wear something more flamboyant than you are, and walk into every room you enter today as if you're the tallest person in it. Then take that feeling and make something with it: something slinky and sexy and unbearably cool.
Mohamed Ali was a fighter, but we didn't love him for his violence: we loved him because when he got in the ring, he was fighting a dozen fights, and not one of them was for him. If you miss him, find someone weak and scared, maligned, oppressed or preyed upon. Go find someone small, battered and on the ropes, and fight for them. Don't just like and share: get in there, and sting like a bee.
And if you're mourning because Carrie Fisher died today, be brave, because she was brave. Write something: something strong and opinionated, and write it fearlessly, in your own voice. Take a stand against something in your life that feels insurmountable and undefeatable, whether it's a job you hate, a dream that seems impossible, or an Evil Empire.
Be strong. Strive to be wickedly smart, and sharp and quick and wry.
Don't be afraid to ask for help. Take your trouble, whatever it is, and hide it in a little droid. Someone will come to rescue you, even if they are a little short to be a Stormtrooper, and even if you do most of the rescuing yourself.
Stand for something. Carrie Fisher did.
These people are Dead, all of them. But if we honor the things that they stood for, follow their example, and carry them with us, then none of them are Gone. They surround us, and bind us together, and in that, make us more than ever we could be alone.
--Max Peterson
On the Day Carrie Fisher Died