The Groundswell Project is the host organisation for Dying2Know Day, encouraging an essential conversation to have with our family and friends in preparation for the twilight years of our lives.
Dying2Know Day on August 8th is by no means the only day of the year to kick start such conversations. There are a host of resources that can be found on the Dying2Know pages of the Groundswell Project website: Dying to know day The GroundSwell Project – The BIG List
Going beyond this there is no shortage of other places where we can find conversation starters. Here are three stories that can be used to get some talking going with our family and friends.
1. Dying for Beginners features the story of award-winning Australian writer Cory Taylor who spent the last years of her life fascinated with her own mortality, writing a memoir that she hoped would trigger more open and honest conversations about death. In her last weeks, she shared some of her insights in a bedside interview with ABC Local Radio Conversations host Richard Fidler. Listen to the program here.
2. High number of terminal patients unnecessarily treated, by ABC News journalist James Bullen reports that a senior research fellow at the University of New South Wales – Dr Magnolia Cardona-Morrell – has found some chemotherapy, radiotherapy and CPR procedures, even when a person had a not-for-resuscitation order, ended up being non-beneficial medical treatments that prevented patients from having a comfortable death. High number of patients unnecessarily treated
3. If we are worried that old age will inevitably mean losing our libido, our health, and possibly our marbles too, well, Cicero has some good news for us. In “How to Grow Old,” the great Roman orator and statesman eloquently describes how we can make the second half of life the best part of all – and why we might discover that reading and gardening are actually far more pleasurable than sex ever was. How to Grow Old: Ancient Wisdom for the Second Half of Life (Marcus Tullius Cicero), by Philip Freeman, is a very inspiring story that hits the mark as much today as it did all those centuries ago. Cicero gives us ten (10) lessons to ponder and then pass on to our children. Don’t let the fact that Cicero was one of the great philosophers get in the way of picking up some tips as wisdom for our second half of life.
The 8 points between number 1: A good old age begins in youth, and number 10: Death is not to be feared, make for great conversation starters. Philip Freeman speaks with Joe Gelonesi on ABC Radio National – it can be downloaded as a podcast. Cicero on growing old
Another place to go for ideas is the Posts portal on the Die-alogue Café website: https://diealoguecafe.com/the-stories-page/
We can all contribute to the conversation in one way or another. Dying2Know Day aims to bring to life and into the mainstream, the issues that many families put off without understanding the consequences of being unprepared for the realities we must all face up to.
The good thing about D2K Day is that it provides a safety space within which to share our deepest fears and our most exhilarating experiences.
Reviewed March 2024
Die-alogue Cafe 