Heard Julia Sweeney on The Penn Jillette Show a week or two back – good stuff. Supposedly it plays on 97.1 FM from 2-3 pm out of Detroit, but I never get to listen to the radio on weekday afternoons so I listen to the podcast (RSS) instead. Check it out if you get a chance.

For those of you who don’t remember, Julia is a former Saturday Night Live cast member best known for her heavily overmilked character Pat, whose defining characteristic is that no one can figure out whether Pat is male or female. The skit was funny once, slightly, but when they made it into a movie, I was more surprised by that than the fact that the movie tanked. I don’t hold that against her, though; I’ve always understood there’s intense pressure on that show to create breakout characters/skits along the lines of Wayne’s World. (Incidentally, for those who don’t know, Mike Meyers was portraying Wayne long before SNL, and he even shows up in former MuchMusic VJ Christopher Ward’s forgettable Boys and Girls video. Also Wayne was originally from Scarborough, thank you very much, not Aurora, Illinois.)

The only other thing I knew about Julia Sweeney until recently was that, post-SNL, she had survived a bout of cancer and had written a one-woman show about her experience. It sounded interesting and I made a mental note at the time to check it out if I got the chance, but I never did and eventually forgot about it. What a pity, because hearing her on Penn inspired me to go look it up. While I haven’t found the actual show yet, I did find an episode of This American Life online, taken from soundboard tapes of her original talks, on stage at an improv club, which were the basis for the show. At the time these recordings were made, first her brother (who didn’t survive), and then Julia herself, were going through cancer treatment, one after the other, and she would go up on stage to talk about the situation.

Wow. Oh, wow. Wow.

Go ahead, listen. It takes less than an hour.

Now, don’t let the title of her show fool you (it’s called, God Said, “Ha!”). Like me, Julia is an atheist, and sooner or later, every atheist’s civility gets tested with claims like, “There are no atheists in foxholes” (specious), or “You’ll feel differently when you’re on your deathbed” (Really? Why not visit me when I’m actually on my deathbed and find out?). This happened to me most recently at John Allan’s funeral, when the celebrant made some remark or other about those benighted individuals who reject the promise of a life to come, the congregation chuckled, and Tara followed up with a reproving look in my direction. When 90% or so of the people in the world think they're doing you a favour by mocking you for limiting your beliefs to what reason and evidence can prove, you develop a thick skin and learn to pick your battles with care.

That's why it’s heartening when you occasionally come across someone who not only shares your priorities, but demonstrates singular courage by facing her pain and mortality with no spiritual weapons except her own good humour and biting wit. We can all learn from this amazingly brave and funny woman.