"... Dying
well is not a matter of enlightened self-interest or personal
preference. Dying well must become an obligation that living people
and dying people owe to each other and to those to come. Dying could
be and must be the fullest expression and incarnation of what you’ve
learned by living. If you love somebody, if you care about the
world that’s to come after you, if you want somebody to be spared
the lunacy of what you’ve seen, you’ve got to die wise.
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. Dying well is a right and responsibility of everyone. It is a moral, political, and spiritual obligation each person owes their ancestors and their heirs. It is not a lifestyle option. It is a birthright and a debt. How we die, how we care for dying people, and how we carry our dead: this work makes our village life, or breaks it..."
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. Dying well is a right and responsibility of everyone. It is a moral, political, and spiritual obligation each person owes their ancestors and their heirs. It is not a lifestyle option. It is a birthright and a debt. How we die, how we care for dying people, and how we carry our dead: this work makes our village life, or breaks it..."
Stephen
teaches internationally and is the creator and principal instructor
of the Orphan Wisdom School founded in 2010. With Master’s degrees
from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto
(Social Work) he is redefining what it means to live, and die well.
Apprenticed to a master storyteller, he has worked extensively with
dying people and their families, is former program director in a
major Canadian hospital, former assistant professor in a prominent
Canadian medical school, consultant to palliative care and hospice
organizations and educator and advocate in the helping professions.
He is also a sculptor, traditional canoe builder whose house won a
Governor General’s Award for architecture. He is the author of Die
Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul (a book about grief, and dying,
and the great love of life, released March 2015), How it All Could
Be: A work book for dying people and those who love them(2009) and
Money and The Soul’s Desires: A Meditation (2002). He was also a
contributing author to Palliative Care – Core Skills and Clinical
Competencies (2007). Stephen is the subject of Griefwalker, a
National Film Board of Canada film (2008).
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