Roger Ebert: "I Do Not Fear Death"

[Hissyspit]

Last edited Fri Apr 5, 2013, 10:29 AM - Edit history (1)

http://www.salon.com/2011/09/15/roger_ebert

THURSDAY, SEP. 15, 2011 11:01 AM EDT

I do not fear death

I will pass away sooner than most people who read this, but that doesn't shake my sense of wonder and joy

BY ROGER EBERT

Roger Ebert was always a great friend of Salon's. We're deeply saddened by reports of his death, and are re-printing this essay, from his book "Life Itself: A Memoir," which we think fans will take particular comfort in reading now.

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. 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. I am grateful for the gifts of intelligence, 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.

- snip -

What I expect to happen is that my body will fail, my mind will cease to function and that will be that. My genes will not live on, because I have had no children. I am comforted by Richard Dawkins’ theory of memes. Those are mental units: thoughts, ideas, gestures, notions, songs, beliefs, rhymes, ideals, teachings, sayings, phrases, clichés that move from mind to mind as genes move from body to body. After a lifetime of writing, teaching, broadcasting and telling too many jokes, I will leave behind more memes than many. They will all also eventually die, but so it goes.

- snip -

That does a pretty good job of summing it up. “Kindness” covers all of my political beliefs. No need to spell them out. I believe that if, at the end, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn’t always know this and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.

MORE[p]

[spanone]

1. k&r...

[zappaman]

2. This is a fantastic piece!

Thank you for reminding me of it.

Rec and Kick!

[malaise]

3. Absolutely Roger Ebert

fabulous!!!!

[elleng]

4. Mr. Ebert — who said he saw 500 films a year and reviewed half of them

— was once asked what movie he thought was shown over and over again in heaven, and what snack would be free of charge and calories there.

“ ‘Citizen Kane’ and vanilla Haagen-Dazs ice cream,” he answered.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/movies/roger-ebert-film-critic-dies.html?pagewanted=2&hp

[RKP5637]

5. K&R !!! n/t

[sheshe2]

6. K&R! nt

[840high]

7. k/r

[locks]

8. We all thought he was our Roger Ebert

Roger made a great contribution to Colorado by attending the University of Colorado/Boulder's Conference on World Affairs every year for more than 40 years. He loved it and we loved having him and his great movie lectures "Cinema Interruptus". What fun to hear him laugh and joust with Mollie Ivins and all the great panelists from every walk of life. He and his wonderful reviews will be so missed, not just in Chicago, but all across the nation.

[mountain grammy]

9. No worries about no children, Roger left us so much. Rest in peace you dear soul.

[llmart]

10. How beautifully and succinctly put.....

and so true.

"To make others less happy is a crime."

[Dpm12]

11. Oh my god, he's dead?

That sucks! RIP!

[hifiguy]

12. Absolutely beautiful.

This world could use a lot more Roger Eberts.

And I agree with him in every particular.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

13. K&R.

Thank you Hissy.

[Flaxbee]

14. He will really be missed. I loved his essays and reviews. So much kindness

and wisdom he has left behind and will continue in the thought of others; I just wish he was still around to generate more.

[lunasun]

26. I just wish he was still around to generate more.

me too!

[vanlassie]

15. RIP dear man. Well done.

[HockeyMom]

16. I am 64 and totally agree

with everything he says. If I were to die tomorrow, I will be at peace knowing that I lived my life doing the best I could to raise 2 humans and to help those less fortunate than myself in the small ways I could. I don't fear death.

RIP Roger. Perhaps we will meet one day soon.

[tavalon]

34. As an aside,

You are early to have done a life review, but you have and you have found it good. This is a magnificent place to be. Please don't take it for granted. Few pay attention to life review until it's pressing upon one or worse, just never available. You have already achieved the developmental stage of the elderly and you aren't anywhere near elderly! I just wanted you to know that this is really important work you've done and the peace it brings is a well deserved gift.

[LVdem]

17. The movie that made Ebert want to become a film critic:

The Third Man

He was a great film critic and great Liberal...

[KatyaR]

18. His reviews are what turned me on to classic and foreign films.

I don't know how anyone who listened or read his reviews could not love the movies. What a joy it must have been for him to make a living doing what he loved. Would that we all could be so lucky.

Pass me the popcorn, Roger....

[lunasun]

28. I was at a critic's review pre-showing in Chicago and that is what he was doing

while watching/reviewing the movie - eating popcorn ! Yes he loved the whole scene and people
I was thinking about him eating the popcorn at that showing today...along with his movie Beyond The Valley of the Dolls

From Wiki>
A supporter of the Democratic Party,[102] Ebert publicly urged liberal filmmaker Michael Moore to give a politically charged acceptance speech at the Academy Awards: "I'd like to see Michael Moore get up there and let 'em have it with both barrels and really let loose and give them a real rabble-rousing speech."[103] During a 2004 visit to The Howard Stern Show, Ebert predicted that the then-junior Illinois senator Barack Obama would be very important to the future of the country

[idwiyo]

19. K&R

[liberalmuse]

20. I've only cried after the death of one other celebrity.

That was John Lennon. I'm crying now. Roger Ebert will be missed.

[tavalon]

35. Crying for a good person's passing is never bad.

[me b zola]

21. K&R

[ruffburr]

22. One Word-

PROFOUND

[Hissyspit]

23. kick nt

[Martin Eden]

24. Great Film Critic, but apparently a Better Philosopher

Roger Ebert

[Lone_Star_Dem]

25. Enjoy your journey to the stars, Mr. Ebert.

I hope you end up at one of brightest and most interesting ones in all the multiverse.

[PufPuf23]

27. Robert Ebert RIP

Kindness yes indeed Good Sir.

[AtheistCrusader]

29. Holy crap.

I've got some dust in my eye or something. Some of that I read in my mind in my own voice, like he reached into my head and captured how I feel about death. (Sadly, I don't have any memes to pass on)

He was a great critic, but I think he missed his calling as a philosopher.

[tavalon]

33. Actually, I believe that was his second career when he lost his voice

I didn't care for his movie reviews and in fact, I went to see movies based on the opposite of his review. But then I started following his blog after the cancer and I was amazed. He was a kindred spirit who just didn't share my taste in movies. But he was so philosophical and so deep, I became entranced by the man after his cancer.

I'm glad to have had that opportunity.

[AtheistCrusader]

41. Well crud.

I didn't follow his writings for the same reason you identified. I detested his movie reviews. Looks like I missed an opportunity, however, thanks to the wonders of the internet, I'll be able to read back through it. See what I missed.

[Moostache]

30. I read this before, but it rings true today more than it ever will again.

Goodbye Roger.

I am sorry that we never met when our atoms were collected and held together in human form - came as close a few times, though never quite to a face to face level; but perhaps one day in the future, atoms from the person you were will bump into ones that once were me, and if there is any quantum field affect that allows for it, they were share a brief flash of happiness. Or more likely they will float past each other totally unconcerned with their previous incarnations at all!

Roger's thoughts and words ring out today (and thanks to those who have posted this several times today as well, I think its OK to have several threads memorialize a well written obituary of sorts); but the memory and message will live on in me until the day my atoms begin to scatter along side his.

[Cha]

31. "Kindness covers all my political beliefs".. How

beautifully said.

thanks Hissyspit.

[tavalon]

32. How many are able to write such a moving eulogy a couple of years before their death

That is the great power of the pen.

A good man has passed.

[panzerfaust]

36. Belle, très belle

Merci Hissyspit pour lier à cet article dans le Salon.


Il est donc beaucoup plus à la vie, et la mort, que la superstition âge du bronze permettrait ...
So much more to life, and death, than Bronze Age superstition would allow.

[midnight]

37. I like his message of contributing joy...

[earthbot1]

38. thanks

i like his perspective on things. RIP Roger and Vincent!

[66 dmhlt]

39. Even in death, he keeps giving us wise words to live by. RIP

[cbdo2007]

40. I can't help but wonder....what was the last movie he saw??

[EOTE]

44. The last movie he reviewed was "The Host".

I truly hope it wasn't the last movie he saw. I've relished his reviews since I was a little kid and had a few email exchanges with him, I hope Mr. Ebert gets a fantastic surprise in an afterlife he was never expecting.

[russspeakeasy]

42. Thank you for posting this..

[YoungDemCA]

43. What a wonderful human being Roger was

We were all fortunate to have him. His time here was finite..as is all of our time. We must not take it for granted.


K&R

[colorado_ufo]

45. Breathtaking wisdom.

I must know more of it.

[AikidoSoul]

46. I knew Roger Ebert back in the sixties and seventies

when I lived in Chicago, and was married to a writer for the now defunct Chicago Daily News. We used to drink together at a great Irish bar called O'Rourkes. Back then, he could be pretty caustic, but there was always a side of him that showed that he cared about people.

Good to have known him.