Oct 08 2024 14 mins
To flourish we need not only to live well, but also to die well. And, conversely, the best way to insure a good death is to live as well as we can. This is the second episode in a series of conversations with Chris Palmer who has recently published a book called Achieving a Good Death.
Chris explains that he became interested in end of life issues because he was quite afraid of dying and felt that the best way to allay those fears was to better understand the topic. I wondered whether Chris was afraid of the dying process - becoming sick, experiencing pain and debility, etc. Or, was he afraid of death itself?
We discussed the importance of the legacy and how our loved ones will think of us and remember us after we have died. Chris stresses the value of living our life in a way that minimizes our regrets when we die. He also explains his provocative idea that we die two deaths.
We introduce the idea that end-of-life issues can be viewed from three basic perspectives: before, during and after. In the next episode we stat in the middle and tackle issues concerning the “during” perspective. What are our options when we are in the process of dying?
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