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

  1. suffering
  2. literally
  3. space
  4. great
  5. death
  6. healing
  7. natural
  8. beings
  9. 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

  1. adjust
  2. beings
  3. bring
  4. called
  5. care
  6. caregiver
  7. change
  8. compassion
  9. cosmic
  10. dead
  11. deal
  12. death
  13. distinction
  14. dying
  15. essential
  16. eventually
  17. fact
  18. finally
  19. fixed
  20. forces
  21. good
  22. great
  23. grow
  24. healing
  25. helpful
  26. human
  27. key
  28. larger
  29. learned
  30. life
  31. limbs
  32. literally
  33. loss
  34. natural
  35. necessarily
  36. part
  37. people
  38. proportionality
  39. realize
  40. realizing
  41. receiver
  42. reject
  43. scariest
  44. space
  45. suffering
  46. tease
  47. unites
  48. yesterday