Not long ago, Roger Ebert--the famous movie critic--could talk & eat & laugh. Then, he lost his lower jaw in an emergency cancer surgery. But since that time, Ebert has continued to speak through his blog at the Chicago Sun Times. In it, he is funny & charming & sharp. He is also dying.
Of dying, he wrote something that haunted me in its beauty since I first read it:
"I know it is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing on the other side of death to fear, he writes in a journal entry titled "Go Gently into That Good Night." I hope to be spared as much pain as possible on the approach path. I was perfectly content before I was born, and I think of death as the same state. What I am grateful for is the gift of intelligence, and for life, love, wonder, and laughter. You can't say it wasn't interesting. My lifetime's memories are what I have brought home from the trip. I will require them for eternity no more than that little souvenir of the Eiffel Tower I brought home from Paris."
Esquire Magazine did a thoughtful profile on him recently. Check it out sometime.
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