Jeff Spiess
Dr. Jeff Spiess is the author of Dying with Ease: A Compassionate Guide for Making Wiser End-of-Life Decisions. He has spent his medical career with people facing serious illness and death, first as an oncologist, then as a hospice physician. He has lectured extensively and has been recognized as a leader in the field of end-of-life care. He has observed, through extensive clinical experience and innumerable conversations with the dying and those caring for and about them, the burden of unnecessary or avoidable suffering and distress engendered by the American tendency to avoid facing death as an inevitable personal reality. His medical practice and writing are informed by his interest in philosophy and theology, and he finds additional insights in depictions of dying in literature, including sacred texts, music, and popular culture. His writing provides information and inspiration, challenging readers to honestly encounter their own mortality to both die better and live more fully.
Twitter: @JeffSpiess
Are there particular films that have influenced your writing?
The film I have come back to over and over is Gone With The Wind, especially the climactic scene of Melanie Hamilton Wilkes’ death. Her pristine bedroom, the immaculate linens covering her feather mattress, her facial expression including improbably rosy cheeks all create an angelic atmosphere from which she dispenses her final words to friends, family, and even her archrival Scarlett. When Americans describe what they imagine a good dying would look like, this is it; in my speaking and writing this scene is useful as a contrast to the suffering and distress that occurs so often as we reach the end of our lives.
Is there a genre of music that influences your writing/thinking? Do you listen to music while you write?
I almost always have music playing while I am writing, usually something classical. I find meaning in music with narrative; initially I explored Broadway musicals, but now the music that speaks to me is opera. My writing centers on end of life issues, and in the opera canon death is ubiquitous; operatic characters die heroically, erotically, tragically, despicably, even supernaturally, but always humanly.
Not all books are for all readers… when you start a book and you just don’t like it, how long do you read until you bail?
I tend to give books the benefit of the doubt, for at least 50 pages or so, though, if the topic is one I am interested in or if someone whose opinion I trust has recommended it, I’ll plug along further. The most disappointing, though, is a novel that I am more than halfway through and realize that I just don’t care about any of these characters; I lament the waste but usually decide to cut my losses and not throw good reading time after bad.
Is there a work of art that you love? Why? Have you ever visited it in person?
On our first trip to Italy, my wife and I visited St. Peter’s Basilica just as it was opening, before the tour buses and name-tagged groups invaded. We stood alone in front of Michelangelo’s Pietà, and both found ourselves weeping. What struck me was the intense human emotion of a mother holding her dead son, undoubtedly grieving, as all bereaved mothers do, that she had not been able to protect him. The message of the sculptor seemed one of humanity and question, rather than theology and doctrine. It was only after experiencing my own grief of the moment that I could appreciate the technical skill and composition of this masterpiece.
Vacation druthers… City or Rural destination? Why?
Vacation for my wife and I is both relaxation and exploration, and usually involves foreign destinations; the limitations of living through this pandemic are stifling, though we are hardly alone in that feeling. We usually house ourselves in cities for the available cuisine, artistic opportunities, and cultural sites, but always try to venture afield. The prize for us is authentic interpersonal and cross-cultural interaction, so we seek out coffee houses, boutiques, and family-owned restaurants, especially those on the roads less traveled.
