When Is It Too Late?

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Among famous people dying recently was Norm MacDonald, a comedian who was a regular on Saturday Night Live from 1993 to 1998. He died of cancer at age 61.

Although I used to be a regular SNL watcher, I haven’t found it to be as funny as I perceived it to be15 years or so ago. And to be honest, I was never a MacDonald fan, seeing his humor as often cynical.

But I also often find myself evaluating people using insufficient information, and that’s not a practice of which I’m proud. It impoverishes life.

In any case, a story on Bing.com says MacDonald was “a public persona laced with paradoxes, an edgy, courageous comic who often seemed unconcerned if his work pleased the public or his employers.”

Portray Themselves as the Dumbest

The article quotes an editor of the podcast Ricochet: “The smartest comedians portray themselves as the dumbest; Norm Macdonald was the best at this sleight of hand. He graduated high school at 14, read Russian literature in his downtime and had long philosophical discussions with clergy. … Macdonald was a student of human nature first, comedy second.”

During an interview, talk-show host Larry King asked Macdonald to discuss his religious views.

"I'm a Christian," Macdonald said. "(And) it’s not stylish to say that now."

"Are you devout?” King asked. “…You believe in the Lord?"

MacDonald
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"Yes, I do," Macdonald said.

Unaware that he was interviewing a man with cancer, King asked: "You think that you're going somewhere when (life) ends?

"Well, I don't believe it," Macdonald replied, saying the word "believe" in a way that added verbal quotation marks. "What people don't understand about faith is that you have to choose. You know what I mean? They think that you believe it – but you have to choose."

In his 2017 book, “Based on a True Story,” written in the midst of his battle with cancer, MacDonald wrote, “The only thing an old man can tell a young man is that it goes fast, real fast, and if you’re not careful it’s too late. Of course, the young man will never understand this truth.”

All of us are so good at finding reasons not to believe, or as MacDonald would have it, not “to choose.” And like so many other really important things in life, we procrastinate.

Forgiving and Reconciling

Many things get past us because we wait until it’s too late. These important things include forgiving and reconciling with friends and family members; speaking to that “arrogant” neighbor or fellow worker; and acknowledging our weaknesses and failures to ourselves and others.

But the “biggie,” in my view, is putting off establishing and sustaining a relationship with God. In one way, none of the important things mentioned above, as well as our relationship with God, is ever too late. But there probably comes a time for many of us when we succumb to and harden in our intellectual and emotional patterns, and that’s when the important things get by us.

Many, I suspect, die without addressing them. And that’s when it may be too late.