“I didn’t know dying was this much fun.” So says Art Buchwald in an interview found in the June 26, 2006 issue of TIME. He was speaking about the book he’s writing, Too Soon to Say Goodbye, since his surprising survival of his decision to refuse dialysis last January when he moved into a Washington hospice in preparation for an end that hasn’t yet come. I find his outlook both refreshing and inspiring.
I have long felt that there is a strange dichotomy in mainstream Christianity that proclaims eternal life on one hand but makes death the ultimate tragedy on the other. I find myself in agreement with Buchwald’s response to the question; do you have any religious belief? “Yes, I believe there is a God, but he’s not the one all the religions claim. The Christian religion, the Jewish religion, the Muslim religion—if you believe in their God, other people will say you’re an infidel. There’s a God out there, but not the one that causes all the trouble in the world. The people who fight all the wars now—not just Iraq but all over—believe that their God told them to.”
Good living is really about dying well. The sooner that we get that through our thick skulls the better it will be. If King George and his court really think that Iraqi freedom is worth dying for, then I suggest that they be the ones to go over there so that the men and women they are murdering can come home. If ‘W’ is sincere in his convictions then he, too, can proclaim “I didn’t know dying was this much fun.”
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