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Roger Ebert ~ Discovering Kindness

Roger Ebert ~ Kindness made him happy.

Roger Ebert died, yesterday, ‘after an extended battle with cancer’ as they say. Except, as with many who find grace along the journey to life’s end, Ebert appears to have instead taken cancer’s hand and walked with it into the darkness of oblivion he did not fear. That grace is evident in I Do Not Fear Death, an article he penned for Salon well back in 2011, and nowhere is it more evident to me than in this passage from the article:
“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.
~ Roger Ebert
 
My religion is kindness. I wonder if Roger realized he shared a philosophy with the Dalai Lama?

Roger didn’t believe in a perpetual soul, or any kind of life after death. He was OK with that. The symmetry and peace of returning to the state of nothingness he was before being born, and having a life long enough to discover the secret of happiness — that was enough for him.

But I think he’s in for a pleasant surprise. I kinda like to think, in the way of the beyond, in the way of spirit, Gene Siskel saved an aisle seat for him.

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