There is a YouTube segment from NPR’s This American Life that is essential viewing. Rakoff was an essayist, a precise, delicious wordsmith who had so much to say that was wise. He died this past year at the age of 47.
Rakoff danced a lot as a child and into his young adulthood. In this video, shot three months before his death and four years in to his fight with cancer, he steps away from the lectern for a last dance. It is heartbreaking and beautiful, a moment so personal and yet so generous – an expression of love. Please watch.