Being Mortal

Being Mortal is a new PATCHATT campaign. It arose from an observation that many people seem to be reluctant to talk about death, dying and grieving. This is an issue as if we feel something cannot be spoken of, it can become seen as 'abnormal' or a 'guilty secret', making it far more difficult to cope with. In PATCHATT we wanted to support one another and others to talk more naturally about this universal aspect of life. We therefore created a series of talks and workshops which help people to understand more about death, dying and grieving and to prepare for it when it happens to them.

These events encourage us to learn more about death, dying and grieving. They encourage us to take as much control as possible of these natural processes through reflection and planning. They also encourage us to explore what matters to us at this stage of our life.

Death, dying and grieving will come to us all. We can perhaps make them a positive part of our life story however, rather than something to be dreaded. Atul Gawande, in his book, Being Mortal: Illness, Medicine and What Matters in the End (2014) focuses on this human need to be in control of the story of our lives. It is in taking an active role in this storying at moments of distress and difficulty that some meaning can be made. Gawande says:

“In the end, people don't view their life as merely the average of all its moments—which, after all, is mostly nothing much plus some sleep. For human beings, life is meaningful because it is a story. A story has a sense of a whole, and its arc is determined by the significant moments, the ones where something happens. Measurements of people's minute-by-minute levels of pleasure and pain miss this fundamental aspect of human existence. A seemingly happy life maybe empty. A seemingly difficult life may be devoted to a great cause. We have purposes larger than ourselves.”

Our events focus on this meaning-making. We hope to meet you at one of them.

References

Gawande, A. (2014) Being Mortal: Illness, Medicine and What Matters in the End . London: Profile Books.