JoanCoulson4Judy: Comparison of two movies-"A Star" and "Show Busine...

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Christopher Hitchens and "Over the Rainbow"

Christopher Hitchens, essayist, who left our planet on December last year, said in 2002 “writing is recreational for me. I’m unhappy when I’m not doing it”.  This sentiment applies to many of us.  I have just found a new writing group and look forward to being with people who share the same passion.  Just quite what his connection is to Judy Garland escapes me now, except that they have both gone “over the rainbow”  Never mind….

It is interesting that some of us have a need to draw, paint, play a musical instrument but others  want to write.  Of course many of us do not have the brain, wit and success of Hitchens; nor do we become involved with so much controversy.

Hitchens was born in Portsmouth, England on April 13, 1949.   The family was not wealthy but sent him to a private school and he graduated from  Oxford University.  In Britain debate and arugment is a part of the school system and Hitchens embraced it; always willing to engage in any controversial subject.

He wrote for the The New Statesman, Vanity Fair, Nation and Atlantic and never missed any deadlines even though he kept up a busy social life.  He counted among his friends many of the writers of our times, Salman Rushdie, Martin Amis, Ian McEwan among others.  Friend, Christopher Buckley recalled a lunch with Hitchens which started at 1 pm and ended at 11 pm. Also he wrote books on Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine and many political essays, about international affairs. He was most identified with George Orwell, British essayist and author of “1984”.  In the course of his work to uncover the truth of any situation, he traveled to many hotspots of the world, Argentina, Portugal, Northern Ireland, Greece and Cyprus.  He was shot at in Sarajevo, jailed in Czechoslovakia and beaten in Beirut.  He formed the opinion that religion had caused many of the conflicts in the world.

The results were books such as, “God is Not Great: How religion Poisons Everything” (2007) and “The Missionary Position” (1995).  In one of his final interviews with Charlie Rose after the discovery of his fatal illness of esophageal cancer, they discussed life after death.  Hitchens insisted there was nothing after death, when you died that was the end of it. After his death I imagined how annoyed he would have been if he found himself “over the rainbow” in some form or another.   Some of us hope there is life after death but I suppose we will only know when the time comes.