Waiting for the Last Bus: Reflections on Life and Death

by Richard Holloway

Hardcover, 2018

Call number

5

Publication

Canongate Books (2018), Edition: Main, 176 pages

Description

"Where do we go when we die? Or is there nowhere to go? Is death something we can do or is it just something that happens to us? Now in his ninth decade, former Bishop of Edinburgh Richard Holloway has spent a lifetime at the bedsides of the dying, guiding countless men and women towards peaceful deaths. In Waiting for the Last Bus, he presents a positive, meditative and profound exploration of the many important lessons we can learn from death: facing up to the limitations of our bodies as they falter, reflecting on our failings, and forgiving ourselves and others. But in a modern world increasingly wary of acknowledging mortality, this is also a stirring plea to reacquaint ourselves with death. Facing and welcoming death gives us the chance to think about not only the meaning of our own life, but of life itself; and can mean the difference between ordinary sorrow and unbearable regret at the end."--… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Helenliz
This was either great or awful timing, we're currently dealing with his mother as she approaches her end.
Richard Holloway, former Bishop of Edinburgh, has seen a lot of both life and death in his years as a parish priest and as a man who is now in his 9th decade. He reflects on how we live and
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what happens to us, and those left behind, when we die. He admits to not having the answers; while he is in the Christian tradition, he is human enough to admit to doubts and to allow for a continuum of belief, no polarised debate here, it is nuanced and measured. He freely admits that he is nor scared of death, but also accepts that in other people that may play a role - he uses the analogy of dealing the hand of cards we have been dealt by fate through life. It is a broad ranging set of thoughts as well. The chapters on dying explores the near death experience, that on grief looks at spiritualism and attempts to contact the dead. The attitude to the medical profession and the end of life chimes with my own - life should be for living, not just an avoidance of death. Putting off death is only of use if life itself has value - the language of battling death and illness dominates but is possibly not helpful.
I was intrigued to hear that some of my views are not so very different from his, even thought we come at life from quite different angles. All in all, I think this was the right book at the right time, some of this will do me good and I will try and take some of it to heart.
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Language

Original language

English

Physical description

176 p.; 5.67 inches

ISBN

1786890216 / 9781786890214

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