"The Good Short Life" ~Dudley Clendinen

Me, Lou, and My Daughter
(www.citylitproject.org)

"The Good Short Life", written by Dudley Clendinen, was written just before the author died of Lou Gehrig's disease. Dudley Clendinen was a very successful author and journalist, writing about politics, being gay in America, and speaking truthfully about his dying journey with "Lou", as he calls it. Clendinen attempts to make the point throughout the essay that death, or dying, is not something that anyone can teach you to live with. He writes, "We don't talk about how to die. We act as if facing death weren't one of life's greatest most absorbing thrills and challenges. Believe me, it is. This is not dull." (64) As he goes on to talk about how dying is liberating, I noticed that one of the tactics Clendinen uses throughout the essay was the personification of his disease. He speaks about "Lou" as if it is a person, not a life threatening illness. He writes, "It's about Life, when you know there's not much left. That is the weird blessing of Lou. There is no escape, and nothing much to do." (64) In this quote, he basically says that he feels lucky. He feels as though because his disease does not really have a certain cure, and there's no treatment, there is no way that he can escape death. He knows it's coming for him, and he's determined to live life as he would if the disease were not present. He doesn't want the false hope that a surgery will be able to cure him. I think he personifies his disease to show that he has accepted it. He is just fine knowing that he only has a short while to live. In attempt to relate this to the first essay I read, "You Owe Me", this man is much like a child with cancer, in the sense that there isn't much fear present. He takes in the life that he loves, and decides that when the time comes that he cannot do the things that he loves to do so much, that is when his time should be up. Unlike many of the other essays, I haven't sensed the emotional effect being used. I think he just wanted to tell his story, without letting people feel pity for him. He appeals more from credibility (ethos), than he does from emotion. This helps him serve his purpose. His audience could be anyone from a twenty year old studying to be a doctor to a seventy year old woman with the same disease. He writes this just to tell his story before he died. It was an excellent piece with well-served purpose.