I adore Christopher Hitchens. He's a boozing, chain-smoking, funny and delightfully witty author who loves to shock and awe his readers with his acerbic prose and spot-on assault of religion and the religious. Chris's recent disclosure that he is suffering from stage IV esophageal cancer (there is no stage V) was particularly distressing to his fans, including me. Chris recently discussed his mortality in an interview with Steve Kroft on 60 Minutes. Much to my relief, Chris maintains his sense of humor and his verve for experiencing life to its fullest - even while he is facing his own battles with encroaching death.
During the interview, Chris discusses his greatest fear. It's not the act of dying nor is it death itself. "I was very afraid it would stop me writing," he says. "And I was really petrified with fear about that because I thought that would, among all things, diminish my will to live, because being a writer's what I am rather than what I do."
The myth that there are no atheists in foxholes is one that is bantered about by many of the religious as fact. Chris is in his foxhole. Yet, I don't hear him crying out to any god. I haven't read or seen an interview yet where he reveals a need for a religious prop of any kind. In fact, he states death is a part of life and he wants to experience it with eyes wide open - in order to have "lived to the full".
Only 5% of those who suffer from Chris's type of cancer survive. The odds are not in his favor, but I hope that Chris is in that 5%. I admire him in his defiance in the face of death and that he remains true to his atheistic self with his wit and humor.
"Atheists have always argued that this world is all that we have, and that our duty is to one another to make the very most and best of it." From The Portable Atheist by Christopher Hitchens.
Keep up the good fight, Chris.
