Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul

by Stephen Jenkinson

Tolstoy wrote that Ivan Ilyich suffered most from “the Lie,” and his book shows so well that one of the places that you die—that you know that you are dying—is in the eyes of another person who is willing to know that with you and not blink, who is willing to struggle with you in understanding this unprecedented thing by talking toward it. Remember the dream you have probably had where you are the only one who seems to see the impending mayhem, and try as you might you cannot get the others in your dream to turn around and see the thing? Remember the raw panic of being the only one who knows something is coming, while everyone else carries on as usual? Now imagine lying in what you have grown sure is your deathbed, with everyone around you speaking and acting as if you are ill, or as if not much has changed when it has. Imagine the power of that to rattle you beyond measure and to make you wonder if you know what you know, and to make you question your sanity. Imagine the power of it to make you disappear. Solemn lying, whatever its motivation, has to answer for itself.