A Life Worth Loving

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A Life Worth Living When was the last time you were thankful to be alive? Were you ill or in danger of dying? Oftentimes we only consider the worth or importance of a life when our lives are in jeopardy. One cannot truly appreciate or respect its value unless there is some significant happening. The average person is nobody until they meet an untimely demise, and the lives of the rich and famous are looked back on with much kinder eyes once they're gone. Falling ill and facing death can be the most influential point in a persons life; no one knows for sure what happens after death, but coming to terms with it makes you look back on life with a different perspective. Sometimes, when there’s nothing left and death is around the corner, you begin to see life in a totally new light. Chris Jones’ article Roger Ebert: The Essential Man talks on the subject in great detail, from the perspective of a man who knows he's dying. Roger Ebert, acclaimed film critic, lost most of his lower jaw and consequently his voice in 2006 due to a cancerous thyroid. His voice was arguably the most valuable asset in his line of work; the loss was a major blow to his lifestyle and livelihood. However, Ebert denied this obstacle the right to stop him from living his life. He continued to write movie reviews and kept up a personal blog, refusing to bow down and let the cancer take what life he had left without a fight. “Ebert takes joy from the world in nearly all the ways he once did. And he still finds joy in books, and in art, and in movies-a greater joy than he ever has” (54). In the article, Jones also briefly touches on the fact that famous people are made into sort of saints once they're dead: We have a habit of turning sentimental about celebrities who are struck down-Muhammad Ali, Christopher Reeve-transforming them into mystics; still, it’s almost impossible to sit beside Roger
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