Roger Ebert: A Man in Full
I don’t often wander too far into pop culture on this blog, but Esquire’s Chris Jones has a simply awesome profile of Roger Ebert that explores the man, dying and unable to speak, in the midst of his own personal renaissance as a writer. Ebert writes about his own impending mortality as bravely and candidly as I might about the last movie I saw:
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.
Ebert’s predicament, although seemingly sad and dark and muted and desperate and eager to lend itself to anger and self-pity, has forged a man completely comfortable with his station in life and his fate. And in the time he has left, there’s so much to get out.
So many words. And as a fortuitous byproduct for us, he’s doing the best writing of his life.
I strongly encourage everyone to read the whole thing.
