Mortal Lessons

Mortal Lessons

A documentary by David Liban

We are all going to die, yet we spend most of our life avoiding this fact, as if to mention death will bring it upon us sooner. Then when death strikes, we are devastated, in part because we are unprepared. And yet, some of life’s most valuable lessons are best learned in the face of death. This is the story of two extraordinary women facing their mortality head on as they battle lung cancer.

If we are able to see a death loss as more than grief, misery and suffering, and recognize the opportunity that death provides us, we may better value the limited time we have left. Many of us live our lives just going through the motions and wasting precious time. When we experience the death of a loved one, or we receive a terminal diagnosis, we realize that life is indeed precious. If we could have this awareness without the tragedy of death, how much richer might our lives be?

Death is a topic people avoid speaking of as if to say that if we discuss death it will somehow make it happen sooner. We are a superstitious society and this avoidance may be hurting us more than helping us. What the film also tries to convey is that there are beautiful elements of dying as well. Death is necessary and essential to living, which brings into question the notion of living a good life. If we know that we are going to die, how do we go about making the best of the time we do have. This is the challenge of this film.

On the surface, the film is about death and dying, yet it really is about living life.

	Mortal Lessons A documentary by David Liban	Available on DVD at Icarus Films
	We are all going to die, yet we spend most of our life avoiding this fact, as if to mention death will bring it upon us sooner. Then when death strikes, we are devastated, in part because we are unprepared. And yet, some of life’s most valuable lessons are best learned in the face of death. This is the story of two extraordinary women facing their mortality head on as they battle lung cancer.
		If we are able to see a death loss as more than grief, misery and suffering, and recognize the opportunity that death provides us, we may better value the limited time we have left. Many of us live our lives just going through the motions and wasting precious time. When we experience the death of a loved one, or we receive a terminal diagnosis, we realize that life is indeed precious. If we could have this awareness without the tragedy of death, how much richer might our lives be?
	Death is a topic people avoid speaking of as if to say that if we discuss death it will somehow make it happen sooner. We are a superstitious society and this avoidance may be hurting us more than helping us. What the film also tries to convey is that there are beautiful elements of dying as well. Death is necessary and essential to living, which brings into question the notion of living a good life. If we know that we are going to die, how do we go about making the best of the time we do have. This is the challenge of this film. On the surface, the film is about death and dying, yet it really is about living life.