Fillmore Finds the Truth

I too often think it tragic when a kind-hearted, loving, faithful believer dies, but that is really only the finale to the first show. The sadness is only temporary for those of us left in the theater when the actor leaves the stage.

A real tragedy is when someone with God-given talent squanders that gift on bitterness and cynicism, even carrying it to his grave:
George Carlin dead at 71

Carlin could be insightful, entertaining, and extremely funny in certain venues. I did not hear (nor do I want to hear) the obscenity-laden stand-up routines that dominated his career. I heard sanitized versions of “Icebox Man” and some of his other well-known bits. I enjoyed him as “Fillmore” in Pixar’s Cars, and he was the best narrator the Thomas the Tank Engine series ever had. He had every reason to be happy and thankful for his success, yet he said in one interview:

"I don't have any beliefs or allegiances. I don't believe in this country, I don't believe in religion, or a god, and I don't believe in all these man-made institutional ideas,"

He claimed he “looked forward to an afterlife where he could watch the decline of civilization on a ‘heavenly CNN’: ‘The world is a big theater-in-the round as far as I'm concerned, and I'd love to watch it spin itself into oblivion…Tune in and watch the human adventure.’"

I feel only pity for someone so steeped in disdain for goodness as to be blinded to the good in his life. He had such potential to bless, and even his cursing didn’t poison his best work. He really made me laugh. God gave him potential to speak life, and he wasted his life’s energy ridiculing Him. I pray that somehow in his dying moments God showed him mercy and that George wasn’t too proud to accept it.