I had no idea Ebert was now dealing with cancer until stumbling on a his profile in Esquire, and it just reminds you of how delicate life is, and how some people, even strangers, touch you in ways you might think impossible. Siskel lived a year longer than my own father, who died at 52. Ebert is still productive, and writing reviews, and while he is disfigured and not the man he appeared to be in the past, he is still the man he is... alive, passionate and still with us.
In 2006, the cancer surfaced yet again, this time in his jaw. A section of his lower jaw was removed; Ebert listened to Leonard Cohen. Two weeks later, he was in his hospital room packing his bags, the doctors and nurses paying one last visit, listening to a few last songs. That's when his carotid artery, invisibly damaged by the earlier radiation and the most recent jaw surgery, burst. Blood began pouring out of Ebert's mouth and formed a great pool on the polished floor. The doctors and nurses leapt up to stop the bleeding and barely saved his life. Had he made it out of his hospital room and been on his way home — had his artery waited just a few more songs to burst — Ebert would have bled to death on Lake Shore Drive. Instead, following more surgery to stop a relentless bloodletting, he was left without much of his mandible, his chin hanging loosely like a drawn curtain, and behind his chin there was a hole the size of a plum. He also underwent a tracheostomy, because there was still a risk that he could drown in his own blood. When Ebert woke up and looked in the mirror in his hospital room, he could see through his open mouth and the hole clear to the bandages that had been wrapped around his neck to protect his exposed windpipe and his new breathing tube. He could no longer eat or drink, and he had lost his voice entirely. That was more than three years ago.(Esquire)
Of course when you are a Christian, and not an atheist, and you watch an atheist approaching death, you are tempted to shake them. You want to dump Jesus or God into their laps and say, "Wake up...it's almost the hour of the great feast and God is inviting you in, sent you an invitation, but you won't come down that street, to his house, or ring the door and be welcomed in because you don't believe the messengers, or that the house exists, or that you will be welcomed there, and will wander down the road forever, wherever unbelief takes you." Atheists say nonsense to all that. The joy is in the journey, which is what Ebert seems to suggest now. That whole circle of life ethic I so despise, which, if true, could create equivalence between a worm journeying forever through the wet mud to the surface, and his reaching the surface. The worm knows the difference and is happy to avoid drowning in the mud. (Though, as the case may be, such journeys also often ended with said worm drying out on the pavement, or picked up by a youngster--me--and placed into a jar with deadly ants to suffer a true death moment).
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.CNN follows up with a piece on neck and head cancer, and the particular indignities of that form of cancer.
What was nice about Sneak Previews, then At the Movies was that we saw two smart guys arguing over movies, debating even. Each had valid points, even though they differed. Between the two of them you got a fair assessment of the quality of a film, and each was able to acknowledge quality in films they did not particularly like. When they were united, you knew a film was pretty much worth seeing. They could disagree without demonization, and with opinions based on angles of the truth.
Would that certain sectors of our political world had that same ability. Democrats and Republicans, and especially Republicans of late, have a hard time presenting their critiques of certain issues without killing the other side, and in many cases constructive criticism is actually lacking. When the theme of every "movie" is about a freedom loving, tax cutting patriot, then you just know someone is not getting the picture.
Other News:
- Conservatives embrace the John Birch Society. Rather shocking, no? Coincides with having a black president. Must be pure coincidence.
- Billionaire Mayor Bruce Wayne moves this money from his buddy into new firm. We understand. Sometimes it's so hard to know who to trust with your $5 billion. Sometimes I sit there wondering should I put my extra $10 into my credit union account, or leave it in the ever dubious hands of Bank of America. We feel your pain Mayor Bloomberg.
- Billionaire Warren Buffet's best wealthy buddy tells us a parable about Basicland, and its collapse. But I'll be darned if I know what country he is talking about, so I think I will do the typical American thing and project; I just assume he is talking about Iceland and Greece. Yep.
- Remember when we wrote (we think, but are too lazy to look back) about a Belgian man who was thought to be in a coma but could communicate. It made news around the world. Well, it seems he still cannot communicate. It was wishful thinking on someone's part. The method was a type of assisted communication using a "facilitator." As usual with people who facilitate, they cannot help but want some sort of success in the act of facilitating. Sans facilitator, logical communication stopped. Let that be a lesson to you optimists and believers in things unseen. (We place ourselves in that group).
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