"You Can Have A Life You Love Wholeheartedly - Body And Soul."

Writing and Art for the Soul

Wit

If I were king of the universe, I'd make this film, Wit, required viewing for those of us living in America.

"Why," you rightly ask.

"Because we are living in an age where we are more removed from the realities of death than any other generations. And that is not healthy. Wit can help." I sagely reply.

It is ironic in our electronic wired age when every child sees something like 100,000 murders and shootings in TV and films by age 18. Every child and most adults see death on TV news. This is real death, but removed to a distance and shrunk to the small screen. We need to learn about dying.

Whether you agree or not with the release of the photo of the flag draped caskets returning from Iraq, the furor over the release of the photos illustrates clearly our unwillingness to face real death. What made that photo more poignant, more real than images of airplanes dropping bombs, tanks rolling, or machine gun fire?

I went to a local funeral home to view the body of an old friend of mine. She was in an open casket. Her adult daughter reported to me that most of the people who came had never been to an open casket viewing and were quite uncomfortable with it. We rarely see death.

You, I, and everyone you know will die. If you are married, almost certainly one of you will be in the bed dying and being cared for, while the other is beside the bed caring. If you have living parents, you will see them die. They won't die on TV. It will be personal.

This isn't bad news; in fact, it is one of the most compelling journeys you will ever make. But we need as much training and preparation as we can get for this voyage. Most of us prepare more thoroughly for a trip to Hawai'i than for this journey of a lifetime.

By now you have gathered that Wit is about death. It is. Originally, Wit was a stage play by Margaret Edson. Beautifully and sparely crafted, the film retains the best features of a good stage play. Wit can help to prepare you for this journey.

The film starts with Dr. Kelekian thumping Vivian, a tough academic teaching the metaphysical poetry of John Donne, with the diagnosis of advanced ovarian cancer. Wit unfolds with humor and pain. There are laugh-out-loud moments of, well, wit, but the film doesn't shy away from pain, humiliation, and regret. In the end, it is extraordinarily inspirational and moving.

Available on DVD or Video.

Read my related article Becoming Fully Human.

Read the BBC review.

Emma Thompson .... Vivian Bearing

Christopher Lloyd .... Dr. Kelekian

Eileen Atkins .... E.M. Ashford

Audra McDonald .... Susie Monahan

Jonathan M. Woodward .... Jason Posner

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