Conversation Project: Talking about Dying
Death is a universal event that transcends many of the differences between us. While we focus most on the quality of our lives and well-being, we rarely talk about the quality of our dying and deaths. Now in its sixth year, Oregon Humanities’ Talking about Dying program offers an opportunity to reflect on the stories and cultural influences that shape our thinking about this theme and to share perspectives and ideas with fellow community members. During the program, participants explore such questions as, How might our family, traditions, rituals, religion, and beliefs shape how we think about death? What would a “good death” look like for us? What do we want—and not want—at the end of our life? What are the essential considerations?
Five Cemeteries
Bija Gutoff writes about seeking serenity among old headstones after the sudden death of her father.
Flowers for Block 14
Holly Hisamoto on reckoning with race, erasure, grief, and belonging at Portland's Lone Fir Cemetery.
From the Director: What It Means to Be Seen
Adam Davis on writing obituaries for family in the midst of a pandemic.
Preserving Food, Cheating Death
A compulsive canner considers what it is about this pandemic year that has so many people feeling the urge to preserve.
The View from Council Crest
Ruby McConnell writes about revisiting the landscape of her sister's fatal overdose.
Posts
Readers write about Push.
What I Do
Between writing, housekeeping, and mothering, my life is full. But I still feel pressure to make my mark, to show I was here. An essay by Jamie Passaro.
Waiting
Renee Soasey writes about reckoning with her father's life and approaching death.
Posts
Readers write about Owe
Conversation Project: Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Conversation Project: Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Conversation Project: Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Conversation Project: Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Conversation Project: Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Conversation Project: Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Conversation Project: Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Conversation Project: Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Conversation Project: Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
From the Director: Guns, Tools, and Talk
Adam Davis on the difficulty of talking about guns
The Third Bullet
Jason Arias on reckoning with abbreviated phrases and abbreviated lives as an EMT.
Conversation Project: Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Conversation Project: Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Conversation Project: Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Conversation Project: Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Conversation Project: Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Conversation Project: Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Conversation Project: Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Conversation Project: Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Conversation Project: Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Conversation Project: Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Conversation Project: Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Conversation Project: Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Conversation Project: Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Conversation Project: Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Conversation Project: Talking about Dying (POSTPONED)
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Conversation Project: Talking About Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Posts
Readers write about Claim
Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Posts
Readers write about Carry
Unbuttoned into the Blow
Conversation Project leader, poet, and essayist Wendy Willis defends human fragility.
The Golden Hour
The collective strength of strangers after a horrifying accident. An essay by Jason Arias
Housekeeping
In the face of loss, cleaning hotel rooms and a lifelong friend offer solace. An essay by Meryl Williams
Rootedness
An essay by Brian Doyle
Posts
Readers write about Move
The Long Boat
Talking about Dying facilitator Jenny Sasser reads Stanley Kunitz's poem "The Long Boat" in this animated video produced by Dan Sadowsky for Oregon Humanities.
Finding Land
Charting a course out of depression. An essay by Jennifer Rabin
David and Goliath
Remembering a friend from a hospice house. An excerpt from What the Dying Have Taught Me about Living: The Awful Amazing Grace of God by Fred Grewe, an Oregon Humanities Talking about Dying community discussion leader.
This Is Not Just a Cloud
Embracing grief in the wilderness. An essay by Michael Heald
The Rim of the Wound
Writer Wendy Willis's open letter to the students of Columbia University Multicultural Affairs Advisory Board, with a special note to her daughters.
Posts
Readers write about Safe
Life's Winter
The opportunities seem endless, but the season is not. An excerpt from Building a Better Nest: Living Lightly at Home and in the World by Evelyn Searle Hess.
Beyond Repair
Editor Kathleen Holt on the aftermath of a traumatizing fire
Kansas in Technicolor
After a mastectomy, finding beauty in loss. An essay by Gretchen Icenogle
Starting Over
The bumpy repair of a family after a sudden loss. An essay by Melissa Madenski
Damaged
When disaster strikes, sanity is a matter of degree. An essay by Evelyn Sharenov
Gone Astray
A humanitarian aid worker in Sri Lanka finds herself caught up in a race to harvest the tusks of a dead elephant.
Posts
Readers Write about Quandary
A Crooked Still Life
An illness, a recovery, and a couple's uncertain future. An essay by Margaret Malone
Paradise
Tragedy on a hot summer day. An essay by Monica Drake
Monstrousness of Empathy
When a private tragedy becomes public property. An essay by Nancy Rommelmann
Résumé of Failures
The stories of struggle, insecurity, and loss behind a successful writer's accomplishments. By Kim Stafford