The Baptism and the Butterfly

Teaching classes that engage end-of-life subject matter can present any number of pedagogical challenges, not least of all because the themes in play can be so vast and so vital that they are nearly unimaginable and undiscussable. When addressing these issues in the courses “Life at the End of Life” and “The Humanities of Care” at Rice University, the author presents vivid case studies drawn directly from clinical experiences as a literary Artist In Residence in the Department of Palliative Care and Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. Interweaving patient-centered narratives with analytical classroom discussions can help students to find language to address a diverse range of practical concerns, concrete experiences, subtle insights, and ineffable themes. With the increasing emphases on medical technologies, the demographics of an aging population, and shifts in policies toward end-of-life planning at the national level, the need to cultivate such a humanistic perspective in medicine—and in the broader cultural sphere—remains both timely and pressing. Just as end-of-life narratives exemplify some of the ways in which the reach of the humanities can extend into difficult areas of modern life, so too can the stories promote students’ abilities to re-envision the relations between the familiar and the extraordinary domains as they find language to express the links between lived experience and metaphysical presence.