Watch Me Entertain Myself!

Sacha Guitry once said, "You can pretend to be serious, but you can't pretend to be witty." Oh yes, I'm the great pretender.
(pilot episode: 20 January 2004)

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Dying Is Easy, Comedy Is Hard

If that were true, then Dolphy’s hard days may be over. On Twitter as I type this, the hashtag #PrayForDolphy is already doing the rounds. On television, news shows are scrambling to cover Dolphy’s condition in Makati Med.

My readers may be livid that I’m writing like this. The man’s not yet dead, and yet you seem to wish him so! I can almost hear their rants. No, I am not wishing him dead.

Yes, Dolphy may still pull out of this one. Yes, he may still be able to recover and live several years more. But let’s face facts. Given his age and the state of his health, the longer and more often Dolphy is hospitalized, the more unlikely that a full recovery will happen. It’s about getting real. It’s about being open to all the possibilities, even the unpleasant ones. It’s not about losing hope, but tempering hope with a reality check.

So let’s hope for the best for Dolphy, but be ready for the worst. There’s a difference between wishing someone ill versus facing the grimmest scenario with some sense of grace. Dolphy has done more in his life than most of us could ever hope for with ours. If it’s his time to rest, then let us also have the humility to accept that.

Ultimately it’s about how we view Death. Most of us have a problem with the Grim Reaper; He is, after all, the ultimate manifestation of Loss. And let’s face it, many of us are still like children, holding on to things and people as if we own them. It takes a while before we realize that the ownership was never ever really with us. And one of the ultimate lessons of Life is that we all need to let go eventually, even of ourselves.

We are all on the road to our deaths, dear sirs; some of us are just way ahead of the others.

No comments: