All of you remember the TV stories and movies about the kids with Cystic Fibrosis. Dean Barnett had it and lived from his birth in 1967 until today with it. 31 years. He was a noted columnist and filled in on the Hugh Hewitt show. No easy task for a man with CF. He lost his battle with the odds today.
Dean knew that someday, soon, the odds would catch him and he wrote this essay, which you can buy. Here’s the best part, for me.
“I came to view serious and progressive illness as an ever constricting circle with oneself at the center….At the innermost point of the circle are the things that really matter: family, faith, love. These things stay with you until the day you die. At the very end, because the circle has shrunk down to its center, they’re all you have left. But as we approach that end, we finally realize that all along, they were what mattered most. As a consequence, life often remains beautiful and worthwhile right up until the end.”
I don’t think any recent writer has captured the real spirit of a true conservative like Barnett has. It’s all positive. Dean Barnett would never have wanted to be “looked after”...he could do it himself.
I hope he is now filling his lungs with the sweet air of heaven.