I feel like a husband and father is built for aiding major life transitions like this.
Of course, I’m old-fashioned like that – expecting men to protect and guide their families…
Good-grief, I think half the reason men were put on this earth was to protect women and children.
To the extent they are not doing that, men are failing.
And forget what I think should be done with men that prey on women and children…
Nobody, however, is built for being the object of transitions like this.
Nobody wants to get sick and say goodbye.
One chapter of my life seemed to have ended; perhaps the whole book was closing. Instead of being the pastoral figure aiding a life transition, I found myself the sheep, lost and confused. Severe illness wasn’t life-altering, it was life-shattering. It felt less like an epiphany—a piercing burst of light, illuminating What Really Matters—and more like someone had just firebombed the path forward. Now I would have to work around it.
-Paul Kalanithi, When Breath Becomes Air (Amazon)
