Modern culture often glosses over aspects of life that are too intense to cope with on a regular basis. It is our goal to bring death back into everyday life, creating a meaningful connection to the truth of mortality and the benefits of understanding death.
There’s nothing comfortable about considering that the people we love most in the world are eventually going to die. The alternative, though—ignoring that it will, indeed, happen one day—can leave us in a much less workable spot.
What does it mean to offer words of candour, reassurance and love when we’re communicating with those who are facing the end of their lives?
When Joan, a close friend to New Orleans designer Candy Chang died, the artist and urban planner was moved to invent and create the “Before I Die” wall on the side of an abandoned house in her neighborhood, using chalkboards and chalk.
WNYC Radio’s program Radiolab recently presented an episode all about mortality—it’s thought-provoking and embedded with fascinating questions, starting with “Do we have to die?” and ending with “How do we deal with dying?”
What Comes Next and How to Like It is a memoir by Abigail Thomas that’s not particularly about death or dying. But it is, without a doubt, about the inscrutable and unpredictable things that life delivers up to us, including plenty of change and not an insignificant amount of loss—something Thomas knows a thing or two about.
Tracy Picha, When You Die’s associate producer in 2015 and ’16, has had a few changes in her life since learning, considering, wondering about mortality. Far from a macabre pursuit, it’s rekindled friendships and fine-tuned notions of what a good life means.
“We are scared of death and I think that is in large part because we hide it away, out of sight and avoid it until we have to,” says Nancy Borowick of her photo essays for The New York Times that document both her father’s and her mother’s journeys through cancer treatment and ultimately their … Read more
Death frequently comes without warning. But when tragedy strikes, there is a certain suddenness and violence that can have overwhelming effects on us, our families, and our society.
“Closure doesn’t even exist. It’s a made-up concept that we use to talk about loss and grief, but seeking it can do more harm than good.”
The Harley School in Rochester, N.Y., wanted students to excel in their academics — but also in life. That’s why the private school offered a class called “hospice.”
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