Appearances.

Appearances are deceptive.
You can't judge a book by its cover.

Aphorisms that I grew up with.

The first I agree with wholeheartedly.  When I look at people leading the perfect life who have everything I think of water birds.

They look so serene floating peacefully on the water and yet I know that under the water their little legs are going hell for leather keeping them afloat.  Lots of unseen work goes to keeping them there.

Sometimes they/we/I succeed.  Often for years.  And at other times, like Robin Williams, the never ending exhausting effort can be too much to sustain.

The covers to people's books are trickier.  Sometimes what we see is what we get, and a quick glance will tell us whether we want to read more - or walk away.

Other, very pretty covers, conceal a lifetime of pain, grief and despair.

Anne Lamott said what I feel better than I can.

Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don't give up.”

And how I wish that Robin Williams, and so many more people, had been able to wait out the dawn one more time...  And then another.  And another.  Which is a big ask.