Before departing for Toronto to celebrate our 44th Wedding Anniversary, I went through the e-library. Everything on my list that I wanted to read was not available except for this book. Being Mortal by Atul Gawande is the book that I read on our vacation before my Jan's diagnosis of non-Hodgkins Large B cell Lymphoma.
The Fragility of Life
Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 18 seconds
Life is as fragile as a lake coated with a thin ice sheet. We can vanish beneath the ice in a nanosecond.
I had learned the delicate nature of life before meeting Jan, having survived a fire and an attack by a German Shepard.
Jan’s diagnosis and eventual death from Lymphoma was a harsh reminder of the tenuous nature of our lives.
As Atul Gwande wrote in Being Mortal, far too many believe that we are immune to the “inescapable realities of aging and death.”
With each moment of truth about the fragility of our lives, I could have chosen to live only for myself.
But as Desmond Tutu wrote in The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World.
We are fragile creatures, and it is from this weakness, not despite it, that we discover the possibility of true joy.
When I met Jan, I found true joy, and now that she is gone, I choose a life with meaning and purpose.
One day, I hope to join Jan and have my name written into the Book of Well-Lived Lives.
The Jan Lilien Education Fund sponsors ongoing sustainability and environmental awareness programs. Gifts made this month; I will match dollar-for-dollar. All donations are tax-deductible.
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Being Mortal
Rabbi Dr. Renee Edelman on Sukkot
Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 18 secondsAs Rabbi Dr. Renee Edelman explained,
“Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are about life and death and how we prepare for both. On Sukkot, we notice how fragile our existence is; right after the end of Sukkot, we dance with our Torot.”
