Stephen Jenkinson’s new book is not a seven step coping strategy and not an out-clause for trauma or sorrow — it’s a manifesto for sanity and soul
Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul 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. [source: OrphanWisdom.com]
Dying well, Jenkinson writes, 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. 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 village life, or breaks it.
It’s a moral obligation to die well. — Stephen Jenkinson
About Stephen Jenkinson
Stephen Jenkinson, MTS, MSW, is an activist, teacher, author, and farmer. He has a master’s degree in theology from Harvard University and a master’s degree in social work from the University of Toronto. Formerly a program director at a major Canadian hospital and medical-school assistant professor, Stephen is now a sought-after workshop leader, speaker, and consultant to palliative care and hospice organizations. He is the founder of The Orphan Wisdom School in Canada and the subject of the documentary film Griefwalker.
We speak to Stephen Jenkinson in an extended interview on People First Radio.
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video, twitter
audio | interview with Stephen Jenkinson about his book "Die Wise" @NAtlanticBooks @CHLYRadio http://t.co/vIyTri7vrw pic.twitter.com/lzKdeDFFFt
— People First Radio (@peoplefirstrad) April 30, 2015
