Stephen Jenkinson is a tough and tender guide through hard terrain. He is the author of the award-winning book “Die Wise – A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul”. The book is based on his many years of service in the trenches of palliative care.
In the first two classes of this course Jenkinsen takes a redemptive and demanding look at grief, love of life and dying. In the third session he approaches the making of elders and our need for willing stewards of the planet.
Jenkinson does not offer a program of steps or generic advice to conquer fear and death. He does not sell eldership initiation diplomas. He values following the natural ways of life over helping people feel better about themselves. He shows us how stepping out of our compulsion for comfort, into the realities of grief and limitation, can lead us to a real participation in life and love.
Jenkinson’s voice in our modern wilderness calls us to witness, feel and attend to something lost and yet still present. We must discern that for ourselves. Listen to some of Stephen’s refrains and see if you are called to learn to die wisely:
“Grief is the natural order of things.”
“Growth for its own sake is oncological, sociopathic.”