The uniqueness of how we deal with death

The recent controversy surrounding Bill Keller’s column about Lisa Adams, and subject of illness and dying in general, brings into bold relief just how personal the subject is. Dealing with death is little like marriage and fingerprints. No two are ever alike.

We celebrate and mark weddings and deaths. But what what are we marking, what we celebrating, really. These are moments in time, the background and history, joy and sorrow of which, may have gone on for years before, or may come years after.

Clearly to understand death, we must first understand the fullness life. In some ways its counter intuitive. It runs counter to our uniquely American notion of being in the moment.

Few understand all of as well as David Dow. David is a death penalty appeals lawyer in the State of Texas.  As such, he has dealt with death on a regular basis. He has also dealt with his own personal experiences  which he shares with me in talking about his memoir, Things I've Learned from Dying: A Book About Life. 

My conversation with David Dow:

Autobiography of an Execution

While executions in the U.S. are considered public policy, they are carried out in private; often far, far away from public scrutiny.  In Texas, the execution capital of America, they happen with barely a mention.  Yet, at least outside of Texas, the tide may be turning against state sponsored murder.  David R. Dow, the litigation director of the Texas Defender Service and a Professor at the University of Houston Law Center, in his new book The Autobiography of an Execution gives us an up close and personal look inside the death penalty.

My conversation with David Dow:

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