Monday, September 14, 2009

Patrick Swayze, Farewell!

It is reported today that Patrick Swayze has died after fighting pancreatic cancer for nearly 2 years. He was only 57 years old.

He will be missed by many, I'm sure especially by his beautiful wife Lisa, other members of his family, and his many friends and fans.

Swayze continued to work on his TV series "The Beast" during his illness,refusing to take painkillers because he did not want to "take the edge" of his performance by being drugged.

Patrick Swayze is most famous for his movies "Dirty Dancing" and "Ghost", but I remember him best for "Roadhouse", probably because I am a guy, and also becausef I lived in Japan where the philosophy his character Dalton followed is a fact. I think I have watched that movie a dozen times, if I have watched it once!

I believe Patrick himself strove to live like that. His "chi" was strong to the end.

Patrick was a master of many skills including dancing and gymnastics as well as acting, but he was a performer in other ways, as a singer/songwriter and musician.

It is a great tragedy that this creative life of great vitality was cut short this way.

Those of us who believe death of the body is not the end of life, look forward to seeing him again some day, although we may not recognize his new identity, but perhaps he's again acting, dancing, singing and making us believe that life can be good and that good can win over evil.

In the meantime, we can only wish his family and friends the best of everything.

Patrick Swayze in fact made many more movies than most folks are aware of, and fortunately for us, with technology his films and music are available to us. They can be found here: Patrick Swayze Lives!.