BEAR: Do you miss performing?
HOOKER: Of course. But with these hands, I couldn't play if I wanted do.
BEAR: Arthritis?
HOOKER::I don't know what else to call it.
BEAR: What does the doctor call it?
HOOKER: I haven't been to a doctor. It doen't hurt that much.
BEAR: All the same--
HOOKER: Bear, I've reached the age when the doctor is no longer my ally. Our goals conflict. He wants to keep me alive. I want to die of natural causes, sooner rather than later.
BEAR: That almost sounds suicidal.
HOOKER: Bullshit it does!
BEAR: Sorry. Didn't mean to piss you off.
HOOKER: I'm sick and tired of being called morbid or suicidal just because I want to manage my own death. I've had a spectacular life! But it's over. No family left, no kids.
BEAR: What about me?
HOOKER: You're my longest friend, but you're not my responsibility.
BEAR: I'm saying I'll miss you.
HOOKER: And I'll miss you if you go first. But this doesn't change the bigger picture.
BEAR: Does your doctor know you feel this way?
HOOKER: No.
BEAR: Maybe you shoud tell him.
HOOKER: I don't trust him. He'd keep me alive even if it meant turning me into a bionic man.
BEAR: He knows more than you do. He's a doctor!
HOOKER: And half the doctors graduated in the bottom half of their class.
BEAR: I never looked at it that way.
HOOKER: Nobody has.
BEAR: Did you come up with that or read it somewhere?
HOOKER: Maggie read it in Dear Abbey.
(End)
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