Several of you have written me (and one woke me up this morning with a phone call) to ask what info, if any, I have about the true health of "grand master" author Harlan Ellison. Harlan, who I've known since around 1969, is the stellar guest of honor at a convention in Madison, Wisconsin this weekend. Last week, it looked unlikely that his health would allow him to attend, as announced…but there he is in Wisconsin at this moment, doubtlessly entrancing all with his speeches and anecdotes. He really should be the guy in those "most interesting man alive" commercials.
In this newspaper article and in a few other places, he's announced that this will be his last convention appearance ever and that he is near death. Friends and fans of the man understandably want to know how to take this. When he says he's dying, does he mean, like, before the month is out? Or is he dying the way all of us are dying, that event being inevitable? I haven't spoken with Harlan much lately and when I have, it hasn't been about this kind of thing so I just plain don't know. And since I just plain don't know, I'll make it easy on myself. I'll opt for assuming it's somewhere between the two extremes of dying any day now and dying any decade now. I may still opt for this if I find out later from Harlan that bye-bye is a lot more imminent than that. It's not that I'd think he was wrong but that I can't see how it would help me or him in the slightest for me to go on deathwatch.
I wind up writing a lot of obits on this weblog because I know a lot of people and I'm interested in a lot more. The more people you care about, the more deaths occur with which you must deal. I'd like to think I've learned to deal with them…and it's mainly a matter of accepting that death is a part of life (duh) and that if you have something you need to say to somebody before they go, don't put it off too long. This applies to your favorite comic book artist as much as it does to your close relatives. I have a friend who still hates her late mother and the reason goes something like this: "She did so many rotten things to me and then the worst was that she deliberately died before we could settle them." Even if there are folks in your world who are really like that, you (emphasis on "you") need to unpack the baggage before they go on that journey.
Oddly enough, last Wednesday I had lunch with an old friend of Ellison's. They were once very close then they had a quarrel and haven't spoken in a long time. He asked me how Harlan was and he mused about giving him a call one of these days, seeing if the quarrel could be set aside. He had not heard anything about Harlan possibly checking out soon. He just had that dangling and on his mind as something that needed to be put right. I told him not to delay.
Like I said, I've known Harlan for a long time…long enough to have had moments of both friction and bonding but I can't think of anything personal we vitally need to discuss. I'll give him a call anyway when I figure he's back and rested from Madison but I won't write about it here unless he asks me to, which he probably won't. One of the things I admire about the guy is that he's darn good at speaking for himself. If you're concerned about his health…well, ask yourself if you're concerned for your sake or his. If you're concerned just for his sake, remind yourself that there's not a damn thing you can do about it…so choose optimism or pessimism, whichever is more comfy for you. If you're concerned for your sake because you need to say something or do something before he goes…well, what are you waiting for? You shouldn't put those matters off with anyone, no matter how healthy they seem to be.