… 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 »
… the importance of relationships … “What is the difference between a child who makes a mistake and an adult who makes a mistake? That the child does not sever that bond; he can’t even look at his mistake without seeing it immediately embraced by his mother. On the contrary, what happens to us? We
the key difference between a child and an adult … Read More »
We recently discussed Kelly, Varghese and Pelusi’s article “Countertransference and ethics: A perspective on clinical dilemmas in end-of-life decisions” … an excellent introduction to the many inter-personal, emotional and spiritual realities that inevitably inform any decision, in particular decisions near the end of life. A couple of quotes from the article …
… please visit the newly added core hospice and palliative medicine information page … content resources … links.
core hpm information … 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 »
… George J. Annas interviewed on his new book Worst Case Bioethics. His discussion in the next to the last question parallels C.S. Lewis’ in The Abolition of Man.
bad case makes bad law … 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 »
