Austin Kleon wrote about Roger Ebert in "SHOW YOUR WORK!", talking about sharing your work on the internet through various platforms.

'Mr. Ebert writes as if it were a matter of life and death.', wrote journalist Janet Maslin, 'because it is'. Ebert was blogging because he had to blog - because it was a matter of being heard, or not being heard. A matter of existing or not existing.

Just to be very very clear, this blog post is not about Roger Ebert. I was thinking about how this quote had impacted me, started writing about that impact and thought maybe if I knew Mr. Ebert better, I would know why that impacted me so much. Then I saw the documentary Life Itself (2014), dir. Steve James. I posted a few moments I liked from it on my instagram page - @aintnobadmovies. Anyway, I thought I kinda figured out what that impact was. It was, obviously, his passion.

Werner Herzog said this about Ebert in the documentary:

He's a wounded comrade, who cannot even speak anymore, and he plows on. And that touches my heart very deeply.

He just wanted to keep doing what he loved. He loved films, and he loved life. He kept watching movies, writing about movies, and he kept living. Looking at him in the documentary made me feel like he was a ray of sunshine. And I on the other hand get cranky if I don't get my coffee on time. There is a lot to learn from this man, I thought.

Austin also wrote:

Ebert knew his time on his planet was short, and he wanted to share everything he could in the time he had left.

What I initially wanted out of this sharing is to be of use, to be remembered. Like that line from Another Day of Sun:

And some day as I sing a song

A small-time kid'll come along

And that'll be the thing to push him on and go go

To be of use, to be remembered, to be able to give back - is a gift. I want to have that gift. I have taken so much from this world, I want to give back something before I leave. Something only I can give.

At my current pace and effort, I don't have enough time either. I have to be better to be of use. Much better. I have to be better to exist longer. And I love existing. It's wonderful. Dude from Chicago used to talk about movies and almost 10 years after he passes away, some kid from Vizag will think about him every time he watches a movie. That is the power of passion. That is the power of expressing and sharing love. It is beautiful.

I have to share more, interact more, and love more to be eligible to wield this power sometime in the future. Since I am not doing those right now, I decided it is not virtuous of me to worry about those. I decided I should keep doing what I am doing, but better, and hope a group of like minded individuals gather around me while I scream my lungs out about what I love.

I have to scream. Scream on roof tops.

I'll get to that now, then. See ya!