I just finished ‘When Breath Becomes Air’ by Paul Kalanithi : Here’s What I Learned From a Dying Man

I just finished 'When Breath Becomes Air' by Stanford neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi.

Stricken with lung cancer in his mid-30s, the book is a memoir that explores his journey to death.

It's the most devastating text I've ever come across.

Here's what I learned from a dying man

"If the unexamined life was not worth living, was the unlived life worth examining?"

Terminal cancer reminded Paul of HOW he was living his life.

Death will come for us all but here’s the kicker: we don’t know when.

It is up to us to create incredibly well-lived lives so that they are WORTH examining and WORTH living.

"Because the brain mediates our experience of the world, any neurosurgical problem forces a patient and family, ideally with a doctor as a guide, to answer this question: What makes life meaningful enough to go on living?"

When someone is terminally ill, when does "meaning" end?

At a certain level, our existential basis for life is tied to our health. So without good health, who are we?

Is life even worth living without full control of our mental faculties?

"Years ago, it had occurred to me that Darwin and Nietzsche agreed on one thing: the defining characteristic of the organism is striving."

All life on Earth wants one thing: to keep on living.

Everything we do is a subconscious grasp for survival.

We want to keep going.

We want to keep fighting.

We do this because something deep and ancient within us – call it God, call it spirit, call it whatever – wants to preserve the magic of consciousness so that we can bestow our gifts upon the world.

"Science may provide the most useful way to organize empirical, reproducible data, but its power to do so is predicated on its inability to grasp the most central aspects of human life: hope, fear, love, hate, beauty, envy, honor, weakness, striving, suffering, virtue."

Science has been wildly important for the development of civilization.

But has science taught us anything about how to feel?

Has it educated us on the depth of our emotions?

Can science amplify the warmth of hugging your friend?

Can science alleviate the pain of seeing our loved ones fall ill?

Science is important, but it will never EVER tell us anything about the lived condition of human experience.

"Human knowledge is never contained in one person. It grows from the relationships we create between each other and the world, and still, it is never complete."

We need other people.

Point-blank period.

There is nothing we can do alone.

It is through our relationships that we can better understand the world, each other, and ourselves.

To isolate yourself is to harm yourself.

Everyone is essentially the same.

We all want the same things.

So why are we so obsessed with differences? Why are we so afraid of each other?

I need you. You need me.

Let’s embrace our likeness and create a better world together, for everyone.

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I highly recommend you read ‘When Breath Becomes Air.’

It’s a painful experience but, I assure you, this book will help you understand that life is the greatest gift in the universe – and that we must live it in a way that is bold and full of love.