Welcome to the City of Roses and how death is one of the great life lessons. Book review of Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

For any individual involved in the medical field, have experienced/ going through a near-death in your family/ relationships, or are a curious being wanting to know more on the aspects of how death can be perceived from reading Being Mortal by Atul Gawande (CEO of Haven Healthcare and Surgeon). I related immensely to this book from working in a hospice during my time in Florida. Also, I am grateful to have had meetings in Portland with Dan Grossman (a mentor I’ve been able to have meetings with several times this year), who is on the board of Compassion & Choices (non-profit) as Treasurer. The mission of this organization relates strongly to what is described in Being Mortal. Thank you, Dr. Atul Gawande, for writing this book and giving me value. 



My favorite quote from Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

“When you are young and healthy, you believe you will live forever. You do not worry about losing any of your capabilities. People tell you “the world is your oyster,” “the sky is the limit,” and so on. And you are willing to delay gratification—to invest years, for example, in gaining skills and resources for a brighter future. You seek to plug into bigger streams of knowledge and information. You widen your networks of friends and connections, instead of hanging out with your mother. When horizons are measured in decades, which might as well be infinity to human beings, you most desire all that stuff at the top of Maslow’s pyramid—achievement, creativity, and other attributes of “self-actualization.” But as your horizons contract—when you see the future ahead of you as finite and uncertain—your focus shifts to the here and now, to everyday pleasures and the people closest to you.” - Atul Gawande