Death is not failure. Death is normal.

Sooner or later independence will become impossible.

Medicine has transformed life into a long, slow fade.

The trouble is we expect more from life than survival.

When life’s fragility is primed, goals and motives shift completely.

True freedom is being the authors of our lives.

Help people have the fullest possible lives right now.

Face mortality together and preserve the fibers of meaningful life.

Courage is strength in the face of fear and hope.

Enable well-being—the reasons we wish to be alive.

Atul Gawande. Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters Most in the End New York: Metropolitan Books, 2014.

Reader’s poem by Samuel Rahberg.

After I finish a good read and before I tuck it away on the shelf, I like to spend some time synthesizing what was most important to me. I use the author’s own words, varied only slightly, and follow the themes that speak most strongly to me at this time. The reader’s poem above remains a summary and serves only as my own interpretation, so I take responsibility for any deviation from the author’s original intent. Even so, may it be a helpful reflection for others and an encouragement to read a fine book in its entirety.