If You Want Something Good Said About You, Die

I know it still seems like I'm fixated on this Ford funeral stuff, but it got me thinking, still thinking, actually: If you want something really good said about you, die.

Now in President Ford's case, he had a lot of good things of which to be said. Never mind the same people saying those good things weren't saying them when he was president.

No, back then, he was stupid, or clumsy, conniving on the Nixon pardon, or callous on his treatment of New York City. No, back then he was telling a city to drop dead. Now that he's dead, he's a saint.

I've even seen it with Saddam Hussein. The guy killed tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of his own people. Yet to read the major press, he got a bum rap in death. Too cruel. Too mean. Too much. One newspaper was even quoting his "oddly compelling" poetry today. I kid you not.

So, if you want good things said about you in life, first die. But I'm warning you: You're going to be dead a long time. This praise thing won't be.

The way I figure it, the glow's about a few weeks, then that's it. Then comes the second-guessing, the re-evaluating, the "maybe he wasn't such a great guy" talk.

But for one brief shining moment, you're in that moment, and you are that good. The bummer is, you're also dead.

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