General
Beautiful things
Has anybody heard of BJ Miller? He's an amputee and hospice doctor. I watched his documentary on Netflix and then listened to a podcast he was on back in December right after I got an arterial surgery (And had to lay still and not move for 6 hours, which may have been worse than the actual surgery itself)
He wrote a book about his experience and finding beauty in his brush with death. I love his perspective from both the patient and caregiver side. He says "Let death be what takes us, not lack of imagination" and he talks a lot about living well because of death, not in spite of it, which I feel like is something we can all relate to. Hearing his podcast when I did shifted something in me. In this podcast he was talking about anaesthetic being the opposite of aesthetic, and numbing us out instead of using the senses (which is the original definition of aesthetic) and how this leads to that lack of imagination that kills us and stands in the way of true healing.
If you haven't checked him out, I would highly recommend. His documentary on Netflix is called End Game and you can find his Ted talk or other resources just by googling his name. I wrote a little bit about that on Instagram today (https://www.instagram.com/p/CQq_Is5nC_E/) and I'd love to know what you think. In this life of medical interventions, hospital stays and so much "ugliness" how do you create your own beautiful, meaningful life?
I do a lot of photography, poetry and interior design. I love taking the ugliness of my reality as it stands and turning it into something beautiful.
1 - 1 of 1 Replies
Thank you for sharing! I’m going to check his documentary on Netflix. I’m always looking for things to watch or read while I’m sitting at dialysis.