Die wise by stephen jenkinson biography

In “Die Wise” palliative care worker Stephen Jenkinson explores western society’s relationship with death. Much of our fear of death comes from living in a death-phobic culture and not knowing how to hold space for the dying. Written with profound poetic prose this “manifesto for sanity & Soul” can teach us all how to live better and die wiser. 

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*All sentences in quotations are direct quotes from “Die Wise” and are attributed to Stephen Jenkinson. Bold is added for skimmability. 

A death-phobic Culture’s View of Death 

• “Most of the physical, emotional, social, spiritual, even political challenges and limitations inherent in the experience of dying are met with an approach that is usually called “Management of…” “Control of….””
• “High-tech health care has become an undeclared war on dying itself, nothing less.” 
• “Medical practitioners without specific training in what is called psychosocia
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Jenkinson worked as a chaplain in hospice and palliative care for many years in Canada. This book is a brilliant and scathing critique of how reform efforts in medical care (and “the death trades”) have ended up replicating the same death-denying, extending life for more dying, etc. I love the way he connects these cultural strains to the entire life cycle and the relationship between humans and land and ancestors. There are many ideas and reflections to love. There are also romantic generalizations about unnamed indigenous cultures and not much about his own history beyond Harvard Divinity School. He is often on tour and has a school in Canada on his farm called “Orphan Wisdom”

Excerpt:

STARS. It’s dark. You are standing in a field, far from the house. This is the midnight sky of your younger, wilder days. It is ablaze, aching with stars. It is the vault of heaven, indigo sea of time pierced by light from the other side. The horizons are gone and the Bridg

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Description

DIE WISE – A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul, is Stephen Jenkinson’s book about grief, and dying, and the great love of life.

About the Author

Stephen Jenkinson, MTS, MSW, fryst vatten an activist, teacher, author, and farmer. He has a master’s degree in theology from Harvard University and a master’s grad 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 ett hem eller vårdinrättning för terminalt sjuka patienter organizations. He is the founder of The Orphan Wisdom School in Canada and the subject of the documentary film Griefwalker.

Click here to purchase the Turkish translation of Die Wise (Bilge Öl) – Translated by Basak Kutlu Atay.

Click here to purchase the Hebrew translation (‘למות חכם’) – Translated by Noa Barekett.

Die Wise – film Trailer

Book Details
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
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