Roger Ebert and I don't always agree on movies but his latest column in the Chicago Sun Times made me laugh and tugged at my heart at the same time. Roger has been battling cancer for some time and the surgeries have left him unable to speak and physically unattractive.
Friends have suggested that he avoid his film festival, that paparazzi will take advantage of his situation and people will be unkind. "Frankly, my dear," he writes, "I don't give a damn."
"We spend too much time hiding illness. There is an assumption that I must always look the same. I hope to look better than I look now. But I’m not going to miss my festival."
Go Roger!
What does this have to do with Hard Rock Philanthropy? Not much, except that our culture's fixation on beauty at any cost also causes us to turn away from whatever we don't want to see. Like starving children.
Maybe if more of us were less concerned with how we appear (like Roger and, frankly, like a lot of old hard rockers...have you looked at Keith Richards lately?) we'd be more concerned with helping others.
Copyright © 2007 Richard M. Potter. All Rights Reserved.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment