The Good Short Life by Dudley Clendinen

        In this essay, author Dudley Clendinen describes his thoughts of death after he is diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Clendinen was a reporter for the New York Times and the editor of The Baltimore Sun. Shortly after being diagnosed, Clendinen offered his perspective on death through writing this essay, as well as hosting a radio series on WYPR. In this essay, Clendinen opens with the statement, “I have wonderful friends”(63) and continues to talk about how his life is fantastic. However midway through the first page he mentions the necessity for obtaining a gun to kill himself. The way Clendinen changes the tone of the essay catches the reader’s attention. Although Clendinen is cognizant that with modern technology he is able to prolong his life, he decides not to undergo the, “Colossal waste of love and money”(65) because he doesn’t want to be, “A drag”(64). Clendinen not only accepts the fact that he is going to die, but rather embraces it and decides that once he is unable to, “Tell a funny story, (or) walk my (his) dog…Life is over”(66). Clendinen’s purpose in writing this essay was to inform the public that it’s more beneficial to die once you can’t do simple tasks as opposed to prolonging your life. This unique perspective is supported by an anecdote where Clendinen sees his mother suffer through treatment. Clendinen recounts, “She looked at me…as she might have at a passing cloud”(65). Essentially, in order to stop himself from becoming so weak that he wouldn’t be able to love his daughter, he wanted to kill himself. I thought that this anecdote was powerful, as it exemplified what Clendinen did not want to become. Later on, Clendinen references a song called, “Dance Me to the End of Love”(66) to even further show how he truly feels about dying. I thought that this essay was well written and offered a fresh perspective on death. I think Clendinen achieved his purpose as I now question how I would want to die. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this essay as it was very insightful and thought provoking.

Pulling the Plug By Bennett (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

This pain and suffering is not helping anyone...