But I left ready to see another alternative. Because you didn't say, 'Don't kill yourself,' I didn't have to argue with that. I could just put it aside, I didn't have to put tension and fear and self-judgment around it. I could let my heart continue to open to other alternatives, because you didn't close it there. And that's how she worked it out.
Different people have to work it out different ways.
But I think to take away from a person the right to alleviate suffering in their body is fascistic. Most of your work, at least in the public mind, has been identified with people who are either dying or bereaved or dealing with a dying relative or have a terminal illness, in other words, with the process of dying itself. Your new book seems to be a departure. It seems you're reaching for a wider audience of people who may not be facing death immediately. In 25 years of working with the dying, I've seen remarkable things happen in the last year of their lives.