I realized that it's been a while since I read a law-related book outside of texts, scholarly articles etc, so I picked up David Dow's "Things I've Learned From Dying" on the recommendation of some of my colleagues. This is not a book to be taken lightly as it reflects on death from a number of perspectives - the death of Dow's father-in-law from cancer, deaths of inmates he has represented on death row, as well as the death of a beloved family pet. The themes are heavy. Nevertheless in Dow's capable authorial hands the book is difficult to put down.
It's interesting that the sub-title of the book is "a book about life" because it explores the themes in our lives that matter the most - our relationships with those closest to us, how we (and they) deal with stress and impossible challenges, and how we can be our best (and sometimes our worst) selves in managing the most difficult events we face. While most of us do not deal on a daily basis with the kinds of issues Dow deals with in his clinical practice, we do deal with the work/life balance, we struggle to keep everything in some semblance of perspective, and to protect and support those we love through the inevitability of sickness and death.
Whatever your perspective on the more political themes in this book, it's not ultimately a book about politics. It's a book about people, in which Dow shares raw and honest, and at times very personal, reflections from his own life. I would highly recommend this book to lawyers and non-lawyers alike. It's a challenging memoir, but I found it very accessible and valuable, filled with insights that I'm sure will stay with me for a long time.
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