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    Die Wise

    A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul

    Author Stephen Jenkinson
    Foreword by Dr. Martin Shaw
    Look inside
    Paperback
    $22.95 US
    North Atlantic Books
    5.99"W x 8.92"H x 1.06"D   | 17 oz | 28 per carton
    On sale Mar 17, 2015 | 416 Pages | 9781583949733
    Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies

    A fierce, lyrical manifesto that dares readers to face death without sentimentality—and reveals dying well as one of the deepest acts of living, loving, and human responsibility.

    Die 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.

    Dying 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.

    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
    • AWARD | 2016
      Nautilus Award
    “Stephen Jenkinson’s elegant and sorrow-freighted book brings prophetic insight rather than pastoral affirmations. A true story-man, Jenkinson paints image after image on the cave wall of his parchment. Die Wise is a formidable body of work, road-tested in ways most of us hope never to know about. Stay with it, hold the sorrow as the gift it is, savor in small, immense chunks. Every word is an invitation to trade fantasy for imagination. There isn’t a book like it.”
    —Dr. Martin Shaw, author of Snowy Tower: Parzival and the Wet, Black Branch of Language
    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.
    Stephen Jenkinson View titles by Stephen Jenkinson

    About

    A fierce, lyrical manifesto that dares readers to face death without sentimentality—and reveals dying well as one of the deepest acts of living, loving, and human responsibility.

    Die 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.

    Dying 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.

    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

    Awards

    • AWARD | 2016
      Nautilus Award

    Praise

    “Stephen Jenkinson’s elegant and sorrow-freighted book brings prophetic insight rather than pastoral affirmations. A true story-man, Jenkinson paints image after image on the cave wall of his parchment. Die Wise is a formidable body of work, road-tested in ways most of us hope never to know about. Stay with it, hold the sorrow as the gift it is, savor in small, immense chunks. Every word is an invitation to trade fantasy for imagination. There isn’t a book like it.”
    —Dr. Martin Shaw, author of Snowy Tower: Parzival and the Wet, Black Branch of Language

    Author

    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.
    Stephen Jenkinson View titles by Stephen Jenkinson

    Other Books by this Author

    • Come of Age
      Come of Age
      The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble
      Stephen Jenkinson
      9781623172091
      $23.95 US
      Paperback
      North Atlantic Books
      Jul 03, 2018
    • Come of Age
      Come of Age
      The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble
      Stephen Jenkinson
      9781623172091
      $23.95 US
      Paperback
      North Atlantic Books
      Jul 03, 2018

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