Cooper: It's hard to believe this is how it ends. I mean, I always knew the Task Force would end one day, that my career would end one day...but all of this?
Dembe: After I was shot, lying there on the street...I thought I was dying. And in that moment, I was okay with that being the end. With all the things going through my mind...I also thought of Raymond. More than anyone I’ve ever known, he’s always been at peace with death. He says death is inevitable. It will come for us all. And that inevitability robs death entirely of its significance. What matters are the things that are not inevitable. The things we create. The things we find. The left we take when everything in our life is leading us right. How we live. I’ve always loved him for that. For his remarkable refusal to “go quietly into that good night."
Cooper: The poem...by Dylan Thomas. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Dembe: Yes. Imagine. Raymond, a man surrounded by death in so many ways, so passionately committed to embracing life. He could have surrendered a thousand times over and to some end. But instead, he chooses to rage. To rage against the dying of the light. To rage against the bad guys that would do us all harm. Rage to protect those people he loves. To find moments of peace and joy...and fun...even though he knows the light is still dying. To live a most passionate life, knowing it will still lead to the same inevitable end...is perhaps the most deeply moving choice one can make. It is the lesson at the very core of my time with him. You never imagined this is how it would end. But our time with him, our time together, was never about how it ended. It was about the adventure, about life, about Raymond constantly reminding us, showing us, imploring us...to rage. To rage.
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