The short clip above is from the audiobook of the Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert’s Life Itself: A Memoir. It is reminiscent of David Hume’s ruminations about his impending death. It even contains stanzas from what I consider the greatest American poem, Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself.” Here is the stanza Ebert quotes:
I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.
I’ll always think about Roger when I watch movies. And I’ll finish the poem:
You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.
Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.
