Die Wise

nDie Wise does not offer seven steps for coping with death. It does not suggest ways to make dying easier. It pours no honey to make the medicine go down. Instead, with lyrical prose, deep wisdom, and stories from his two decades of working with dying people and their families, Stephen Jenkinson places death at the center of the page and asks us to behold it in all its painful beauty. Die Wise teaches the skills of dying, skills that have to be learned in the course of living deeply and well. Die Wise is for those who will fail to live forever. nDying well, Jenkinson writes, 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. Die Wise dreams such a dream, and plots such an uprising. How we die, how we care for dying people, and how we carry our dead: this work makes our capacity for a village-mindedness, or breaks it. n nTable of Contents nThe Ordeal of a Managed Death nStealing Meaning from Dying nThe Tyrant Hope nThe Quality of Life nYes, But Not Like This nThe Work nSo Who Are the Dying to You? nDying Facing Home nWhat Dying Asks of Us All nKids nAh, My Friend the Enemyn