I can’t remember the first time I met Dovie Eisner, which is odd given that he always stood out, his small broken body wheelchair-bound with a breathing tube as a result of his being born with a recessive genetic neuromuscular condition called Nemoline Myothapy, but I do remember the last time.
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I → remember → time
From about 2012 until he slipped into a coma last year, and passed away last week on Sept. 11, Dovie was a central figure in the small world of conservative writing and thinking in New York City.
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Dovie → slip → City
It was a group that, along with myself, included the likes of Karol Markowitz, Sohrab Ahmari, and Armin Rosin.
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that → include → Markowitz
Basically, if you had ever written a right wing op-ed in Gotham, you were a friend of Dovie.
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you → write → Dovie
He would seek us out, often one by one, first through social media, then a lunch or dinner carefully choreographed to accommodate his severe disability.
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He → seek → disability
I’ve never known anyone so anxious to be on the scene, nor so deserving.
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I → know → scene
When Dovie would see a photo of a meet-up he had not attended, he would simply reply, "Why wasn’t I invited?" which became an inside joke for us, summing up all life’s little disappointments.
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which → see → disappointments
As a thinker, Dovie was top-notch, and two lights shone brightest in his philosophy: the importance of fairness and the importance of life.
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lights → shine → life
Intellectually, Dovie was a tireless — and I’ll be honest, sometimes even annoying — devil’s advocate, with an extraordinary ability to see the best arguments of all sides.
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I → see → sides
There you would be, waxing poetic about free speech absolutism, and in his quiet wheeze of a voice, he would start listing off exceptions — as if he had a Black’s Law Dictionary stashed somewhere in his wheelchair.
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Dictionary → wax → wheelchair
In retrospect, it is amazing that someone whom life dealt with so unfairly held so dear to his broken breast the ideal that we, us human beings, must always treat others with fairness in mind.
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we → deal → mind
Not just his, but those of the unborn and others in his own shoes, tempted by the easy out of assisted suicide — a practice he abhorred with every fiber of his being.
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he → tempt → being
Writing in the New York Post last year, shortly before his slip into eternity began, Dovie said, "The logic of assisted suicide leads inevitably to the conclusion that those with doctor-approved expiration dates are living lives not worth living.
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those → write → lives
Lives unworthy of life, as the Nazis referred to people with disabilities when they set out to exterminate us with their Aktion T4 program.
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they → refer → program
I’ve heard echoes of that myself — from peers, from rivals, sometimes from myself: I haven’t been suicidal in a good number of years, but I can’t say that about my teens and early 20s."
As stoic and strong as Dovie was, there were late-night texts full of fear and sadness as well.
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Dovie → hear → fear
He wouldn’t let you off the hook with platitudes, he literally had no time for that.
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he → let → that
You couldn’t just say, "Don’t worry, it will be OK," because he knew, and you did too, that it damn well wasn’t going to be.
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it → say → ?
Those are some of the most frank and cherished conversations I’ve ever had.
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I → have → conversations
No artifice, no lies, the cold, bitter reality of life’s cruelty faced head on.
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reality → face → cruelty
Everything was up for grabs, because Dovie demanded it be so.
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it → demand → grabs
But also, the presence of God’s love — which Dovie found in every face and facet of the world around him — with a depth one could only envy.
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one → find → depth
Every writer and thinker who he blessed with wisdom is better for having known Dovie.
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he → bless → Dovie
When we fight for the disabled in the womb, we fight for Dovie.
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we → fight → Dovie
When we fight against the killing of the light that assisted suicide represents, we fight for Dovie.
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we → fight → Dovie
Dovie, who loved life so dearly, and lived it so fully.
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who → love → it
Often, after a group dinner, the bill would come and someone would say, "Who had five top-shelf bourbons … oh."
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Who → come → bourbons
We would all scrounge to cover Dovie’s excessive bar tab, and we were happy to do it.
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we → scrounge → it
We would all love to do it just one more time.
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We → love → it
The kid knew how to live.
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kid → know → ?
The last time I saw Dovie, we were standing on the corner outside the Yale Club in Manhattan, and I was having a smoke as we waited for his special minivan to come get him.
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minivan → see → him
"You know, Dave," he said with thick breath, "all I really want is a beautiful wife and like four kids."
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I → know → kids
I told him, "I get it, man."
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I → tell → it
He looked at me and said, "I mean, Stephen Hawking did it."
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Hawking → look → it
I nodded, took a drag and said, "Well, how’s your physics?"
Dovie spit out his breathing tube and said, "Stop, don’t make me laugh."
I spent a lot of time trying to make Dovie laugh, time I am so grateful for.
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I → nod → time
Mark Twain wrote that "Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand."
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nothing → write → laughter
Dovie was like a philosopher stone, turning brutal suffering into humor and humanity at every turn.
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Dovie → turn → turn
He was the toughest guy I ever met, and we will not see his like again.
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we → meet → like
The Aporia
