Posted on 04/05/2006 8:14:38 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
WASHINGTON - Columnist Art Buchwald is dying and enjoying every minute of it. Death was expected within weeks of his decision to reject blood-cleansing treatments that could prolong his life, yet he lives on. Neither Buchwald nor his doctors know why, he says.
But it doesn't matter. The Pulitzer Prize-winning political satirist says he's not afraid of death, isn't depressed and is, in fact, having the time of his life. He spends his days writing columns from his room at a local hospice and reminiscing with friends from all stages of his storied life who visit daily.
"It's a great way to say goodbye," Buchwald, 80, said in an interview.
In his personal version of "Tuesdays with Morrie," the best-seller about an author's weekly conversations with his terminally ill college professor, Buchwald holds court in the salon of his hospice room with family, celebrities and friends from the worlds of media and politics.
"They sit here and we have group therapy," he said. "We talk about everything."
The French ambassador brought a medal from his country; Buchwald wrote his first columns from Paris, about nightlife in the City of Light. The Marine Corps commandant also visited; Buchwald was a Marine during World War II, dropping out of high school at age 17 and joining the corps underaged.
NBC's Tom Brokaw, Kennedy family members and former Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee also have visited, as did some former and current members of Congress. Buchwald's three children and five grandchildren visit several times a day, he said. His wife, Ann, died in 1994.
"I'm going out the way very few people do," Buchwald said in a strong voice.
Vascular problems led doctors to amputate his right leg below the knee in January. Buchwald said losing it was "very traumatic" and that it probably influenced the decision to reject dialysis for his kidney failure. That would have meant being hooked up to a machine three times a week, five hours each time, he said.
"I just decided 'To hell with it,'" said Buchwald, seemingly at peace with his imminent fate. "I haven't been afraid to die. I'd had a wonderful life. I'm 80 years old, so I'm not afraid."
Getting to that point wasn't easy by any means.
"Your loved ones don't like the idea," he said. "Your friends don't like the idea. No one likes the idea, but once I made it, everyone knew it was my choice. They've gone along with it.
"It was purely a decision about 'Did I want to stay around or did I want to go?'" Buchwald said. "It's one of the few things where you have choice."
His choice has caused something of a stir and earned Buchwald some new fans, judging from the hundreds of letters he said he's received since checking in to the hospice Feb. 7. The contents of some of those letters are the subject of Thursday's column, which Tribune Media Services distributes to newspapers including The Washington Post.
As he writes about and discusses his decision with visitors and in interviews, Buchwald said he's finding that "for some reason, people are very interested in someone who didn't take dialysis" and are grateful he's talking about it so openly.
"I don't know what's coming next and neither does anyone else," Buchwald said by telephone. "It's something that we do have to face but the thing is that a lot of people don't want to face it. And there's denial. If somebody says it, like me, everybody feels a little better that they can discuss it."
Buchwald said his humor grew out of a difficult childhood in his native New York.
The youngest of four children, he and his sisters were sent to foster homes after mental illness claimed their mother. Their father, who sold drapery, couldn't afford them.
Humor was his "salvation," he wrote in "Leaving Home," a 1995 memoir of his early years.
After the war, Buchwald was managing editor of the humor magazine at the University of Southern California and a columnist for the student newspaper. He dropped out in 1948 and went to Paris, where he became a correspondent for Variety and wrote columns for the New York Herald Tribune.
He returned to the U.S. in 1962 and started a career writing columns that made fun of Washington's power brokers and other subjects. At one point, the column appeared in more than 500 newspapers worldwide.
In 1982, Buchwald won journalism's highest honor, a Pulitzer, for outstanding commentary.
Buchwald, who has been public about bouts with depression, said he is anything but depressed these days.
"The thing is, when you make your choice, then a lot of the stress is gone," he said. "Everything is great because you accept that you are the one who made the choice. So I don't get depressed."
He said he enjoys the freedom he now has to eat whatever he wants, and his visitors bring plenty of food. "They think because you're dying you should have food," he said.
When alone and not writing, Buchwald passes time reading newspapers and news magazines and watching television and rented movies. "It's a funny thing, but it's a good life," he said.
Waiting for the end, Buchwald said people shouldn't be too concerned about where they will end up in death. What they should really be asking, he said, is "Why was I here in the first place?"
Why does Buchwald think he's been around for 80-plus years?
"Apparently to make people laugh," he said, "which is as good a reason as any."
It's that whole "burning in Hell for all of eternity" thing that concerns us.
I guess burning in hell is not something Buchwald is concerned about. Oh well, what can you do?
It's not a religious question, actually. Hell is. Jesus was gracious enough to give us a way out. I think that was wonderful of Him.
Great, he helps people all his life with his humor and he takes the need to consider where one spends eternity away from people facing death.
Just who made him God? Hope people don't listen to his statement. This is not all there is - 80 years on earth.
This is just the beginning.
Accepting Christ and living a life helping others, instead of living for "me", gives me peace.
Having watched my mother and sister die, I do not fear death or dying. It's just another door opening.
Nonsense. You can choose not to believe. If you are wrong, well, what the Hell.
I agree with the freepers who are concerned about eternity. It's not "your god" but the one and only God, and eternity makes 80 years seem like a split second. They're right. Buchwald is wrong. If he doesn't know Jesus he's not ready to face the Judge of all men, no matter what they thought their religion was. God doesn't adjust reality to fit peoples' varied religious beliefs.
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