Friday, June 15, 2018

Dying for a good ending

If you're a fan of Charles Krauthammer, you know that he's been battling cancer and admittedly says he doesn't have long to live.

He's a national treasure and I really enjoy his columns, his television appearances, and his book, "Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes and Politics".

I had to chuckle today at this anecdote about Charles as told by author/columnist Marc Thiessen:
A few years ago, I was talking with Charles Krauthammer in the Fox News green room when the news that someone famous had passed away flashed on the television screen. Charles told me the way he hoped to go when his time came. His dream, he said, was to be assassinated during the seventh-inning stretch at a game at Nationals Park. He wanted to die in what he once called “my own private paradise,” where “the twilight’s gleaming, the popcorn’s popping, the kids’re romping and everyone’s happy.”
I have the same kind of wish but not as specific. I told a friend a couple years ago that when I die I want it to be front-page news. Not because I'm famous or anything, but I want it to be exciting. I'd settle for odd.

I really don't want to go in my sleep or via heart attack or cancer. That's so pedestrian. I want, like Charles, something people will talk about, laugh about, or respond with an "uff da."

Like: A victim of a bank robbery gone wrong, a hostage situation or a mountain lion jumping out of a tree. A buffalo pushing my car over a cliff. The stranger the better.

I remember a few years ago during the Sturgis Rally, a guy was killed on his motorcycle when a portable toilet fell off a truck in front of him. I'm sure that's not the way he wanted to go and it's unfortunate. But now he's got a story to tell in Heaven.

And as I've said before, life is all about the stories you can tell ... even in death.

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