full transcript
From the Ted Talk by BJ Miller: What really matters at the end of life
Unscramble the Blue Letters
So let's begin at the end. For most people, the scariest thing about detah isn't being dead, it's dying, suffering. It's a key distinction. To get underneath this, it can be very helpful to tease out suffering which is necessary as it is, from suffering we can change. The former is a nrauatl, essential part of life, part of the deal, and to this we are called to make sacpe, adjust, grow. It can be really good to realize forces lgerar than ourselves. They bring proportionality, like a cosmic right-sizing. After my limbs were gone, that loss, for example, became fact, fixed — necessarily part of my life, and I learned that I could no more reject this fact than reject myself. It took me a while, but I learned it eventually. Now, another gerat thing about necessary suffering is that it is the very thing that unites caregiver and care receiver — human bniges. This, we are finally realizing, is where hlianeg happens. Yes, compassion — lilrlteay, as we learned yesterday — suifferng together.
Open Cloze
So let's begin at the end. For most people, the scariest thing about _____ isn't being dead, it's dying, suffering. It's a key distinction. To get underneath this, it can be very helpful to tease out suffering which is necessary as it is, from suffering we can change. The former is a _______, essential part of life, part of the deal, and to this we are called to make _____, adjust, grow. It can be really good to realize forces ______ than ourselves. They bring proportionality, like a cosmic right-sizing. After my limbs were gone, that loss, for example, became fact, fixed — necessarily part of my life, and I learned that I could no more reject this fact than reject myself. It took me a while, but I learned it eventually. Now, another _____ thing about necessary suffering is that it is the very thing that unites caregiver and care receiver — human ______. This, we are finally realizing, is where _______ happens. Yes, compassion — _________, as we learned yesterday — _________ together.
Solution
- suffering
- literally
- space
- great
- death
- healing
- natural
- beings
- larger
Original Text
So let's begin at the end. For most people, the scariest thing about death isn't being dead, it's dying, suffering. It's a key distinction. To get underneath this, it can be very helpful to tease out suffering which is necessary as it is, from suffering we can change. The former is a natural, essential part of life, part of the deal, and to this we are called to make space, adjust, grow. It can be really good to realize forces larger than ourselves. They bring proportionality, like a cosmic right-sizing. After my limbs were gone, that loss, for example, became fact, fixed — necessarily part of my life, and I learned that I could no more reject this fact than reject myself. It took me a while, but I learned it eventually. Now, another great thing about necessary suffering is that it is the very thing that unites caregiver and care receiver — human beings. This, we are finally realizing, is where healing happens. Yes, compassion — literally, as we learned yesterday — suffering together.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
collocation |
frequency |
palliative care |
3 |
unnecessary suffering |
2 |
zen hospice |
2 |
Important Words
- adjust
- beings
- bring
- called
- care
- caregiver
- change
- compassion
- cosmic
- dead
- deal
- death
- distinction
- dying
- essential
- eventually
- fact
- finally
- fixed
- forces
- good
- great
- grow
- healing
- helpful
- human
- key
- larger
- learned
- life
- limbs
- literally
- loss
- natural
- necessarily
- part
- people
- proportionality
- realize
- realizing
- receiver
- reject
- scariest
- space
- suffering
- tease
- unites
- yesterday