"DieWise"does not offer seven steps for coping with death. It does not suggest ways to makedyingeasier. It pours no honey to make the medicine go down. Instead, with lyrical prose, deep wisdom, and stories from his two decades of working withdyingpeople and their families, StephenJenkinsonplaces death at the center of the page and asks us to behold it in all its painful beauty. "DieWise"teaches the skills ofdying, skills that have to be learned in the course of living deeply and well."DieWise"is for those who will fail to live forever.
Dyingwell, Jenkinsonwrites, is a right and responsibility of everyone.It is not a lifestyle option.It is a moral, political, and spiritual obligation each person owes their ancestors and their heirs."DieWise"dreams such a dream, and plots such an uprising.How wedie, how we care fordyingpeople, and how we carry our dead: this work makesour capacity fora village-mindedness, or breaks it.
Table of Contents
The Ordeal of a Managed Death
Stealing Meaning from Dying
The Tyrant Hope
The Quality of Life
Yes, But Not Like This
The Work
So Who Are the Dying to You?
Dying Facing Home
What Dying Asks of Us All
Kids
Ah, My Friend the Enemy"