Art – Literature – Music – Movies
… the legend of Parsifal and the Fisher King … We refer to an episode in the legend of Parsifal and the Fisher King, concerning the mysterious malady that paralyzed the old King who held the secret of the Graal. It was not he alone who suffered; everything around him was falling into ruins, crumbling […]
death is only the result … of our indifference to immortality … Read More »
The Swan This laboring through what is still undone, as though, legs bound, we hobbled along the way, is like the awkward walking of the swan. And dying – to let go, no longer feel the solid ground we stand on every day – is like his anxious letting himself fall into the water, which
the swan … Rainer Maria Rilke … Read More »
A Parting Wendell Berry From many hard workdays in the fields, many passages through the woods, many mornings on the river, lifting hooked lines out of the dark, from many nightfalls, many dawns, on the ridgetops and the creek road, as upright as a tree, as freely standing, Arthur Rowanberry comes in his old age
a parting … Wendell Berry … Read More »
… Michael J. Astrue who, it turns out, is an award winning poet writing under the pseudonym of A.M. Juster. A Cancer Prayer Dear Lord, Please flood her nerves with sedatives and keep her strong enough to crack a smile so disbelieving friends and relatives can temporarily sustain denial. Please smite that intern in oncology
a sonnet … from the head of the Social Security Administration … Read More »
The ‘work’ of dying involves the restoration of our relationships – our relationship to ourselves … to others … to God. Luigi Giussani tells us why this is so difficult today …
on moral certainty & relationships … Read More »
… not necessarily more and more drugs. Micco et. al. offer a reflection on the fundamental goals of hospice palliative care, reminding us that ” … when a suffering-less death becomes the medical summum bonum, morphine and other drugs become our sacraments.” Rather ” … [t]he original intent of the hospice movement was to provide
supportive presence of hospice … Read More »
A great introduction to Grieg’s grief … click the “Classical Music” category to see more.
… an article in the Irish Times includes a practical discussion of sedation in the seriously ill and dying. The article refers to these draft guidelines.
Tolstoy, a good death and the Irish Times … Read More »
Perry Knize tells the story of Chopin’s B Minor Waltz in her book Grand Obsession. She plays it here (in the background as the website opens). In the opening theme, Chopin has learned his closest friend has died …
Chopin’s B minor Waltz … death of a childhood friend … Read More »
… The Heart of the Matter … is the theme for this year’s MedConference sponsored by Crossroads Cultural Center to be held July 16-18, 2010 in Jersey City, NJ. Please join us as we ” … explore a medical practice that takes into consideration the complexity of the needs of the patient.” For more information
Medical Care and the Person … Read More »
