Chasing Daylight:How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life by Gene O'Kelly
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Book Reviews of Chasing Daylight:How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life
Book Review: Eugene O'Kelly's heartfelt farewell
Summary: 5 Stars
What if a doctor looked you in the eyes today and told you flat-out that you had about 100 days to live, and there was zero chance anything could change that shocking reality? What would you do? How would you spend your last days? In May 2005, Eugene O'Kelly, then the CEO of KPMG, received the bitter news that he wouldn't live out the year due to brain cancer. An accountant by training and a type-A personality by nature, O'Kelly set in motion a strategy for making the most of his last days. Part of that plan included writing a book on how to bring closure to life and prepare for the great transition to come. One conclusion: Sometimes you have to work hard at the "business of dying." O'Kelly's stoic, rational courage in the face of the unknown has produced this gift for all those he left behind. We recommend it highly for its priceless lessons about how to live. Book Review: Rage Against The Dying Of The Light
Summary: 4 Stars
Every action, according to Newton's 3rd law, has its reaction. Beginning and ending; hello and goodbye; birth and death; meeting and parting. This book is about the BIG parting: A man from his life, wife, and family. Mr. O'Kelly faced imminent death with determination and curiosity. In the process, he wrote a book that is both touching and instructive; a book to be read and reread.
This is a very personal exploration of one person's transition from this life. I found it especially relevant to me because I lost my wife to cancer in 2000. Her period from diagnosis to death was only a month, and much wound up left unsaid and undone as we both dealt in our own ways with that nasty turn of events. Mr. O'Kelly's passage from this life shows us that courage is not the absence of fear; it is going ahead in spite of it.
Mr. O'Kelly talks about being blessed in several ways, by this twist of life that caused his death. One way is that, unlike many people, he had time to prepare for his death and to say goodbye to the people that had meaning in his life. Another rare "blessing" is that his particular type of brain tumor carried with it no pain and had a gradual lessening of the senses which meant that he was able to carry on physically and mentally during the 3+ months he had left. That concept would be actually terrifying to some people; Mr. O'Kelly chose to make the most of it and to "control" his death much as he had striven to control his life.
I would recommend this for those of you who have had to deal with the death of someone close. In addition, you might also read "Life After Love" by Bob Deits and "The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion."
Book Review: I Wanted to See a CEO Fail at Death, But This Man Won in that Category Too.
Summary: 4 Stars
I purchased this book because I wanted to believe that a CEO of a company like KPMG wouldn't be able to deal with the very tender side of life that comes with the promise of death.
But I was proved wrong. Very wrong. Not only could this man head a multi-national corporation, but his ability to plan and execute his personal and business "to-do" lists, even at a time when procrastination wasn't an option, was amazing. His story is inspiring and at the same time makes me feel like a very-average Joe American Couch Potato.
I'm dying to know what type of mediation he practiced near the end, as this seemed to help him tremendously with the mental and physical passage from life to death. That transition can be very turbulent for those who haven't prepared as he did through meditation.
I honestly don't know how a reviewer could call this a "Christian Book," it is actually just a very human, very real book that is a great reminder that death is always close so enjoy your life like you stole it, before death steals it back from you.
This man was an expert at time management and his love of work seems to be balanced with his love for his family.
Book Review: Don't think about it, BUY IT! 5 stars are not enough!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have the highest praise for Eugene O'Kelly's book, and highly recommend it for everyone to read. It is one of the very few books that, upon reading it, I have gone out to purchase extra copies, to give to special friends. It is a book that I feel you will come back to, (I certainly will) time and time again for inspiration and guidance, as to how to best live as quality a life as possible. It has certainly moved me greatly and at the same time, hopefully greatly improved me.
To begin with, I could so empathise with Eugene's truly awful predicament, being around the same age as him myself and also a father, but what truly amazed me was the response he chose to make to this predicament. It was this response (as recorded in the book), which marked him out for me as a very special higher order type of human being - one who should be listened to very attentively.
Not only did he use his newly discovered insights in his own life for whatever remaining time he had left, but he very magnanimously decided to devote a sizeable amount of his so precious dwindling time to helping the great mass of non-significant others, of whom I happen to be a member. How many of us would be so thoughtful?
The book is full of advice for living (and not living only `in the face of death') which I can best classify as higher-order or noble, and the world would be a far better place if more people learned to see life the way Eugene did towards the end. I have already decided to make this book a part of my future life, with the hope that its amazing thoughts will affect the way I live my life in the future.
Eugene is, and will always be a hero and role model for me, somebody whom I would loved to have known in life. And I truly mourn the fact that such a higher order being has passed on with so much still to offer the world. But I honestly believe he crowded more quality being in that two months than most people do in a lifetime. And in sharing his wisdom with us, he has achieved a kind of immortality which all of the great contributors to mankind have achieved. I for one am very grateful to Eugene for helping me to awaken to what truly matters in life, while I still have time.
Book Review: Too obvious
Summary: 2 Stars
This book proposes to provide some great insight into death, thereby giving some understanding about how to live. While written by a man of obvious talents under the worst of circumstances, one finds litte of interest. Mr. O'Kelly's advice can be boiled down to the obtuse admonition "live purposefully." Indeed, the entire book is cliched. Enjoy each moment. Make every day the best. Tell everyone that you love them.
Joan Didion's "The Year of Magical Thinking" is a much better read on the losing, leaving and letting go which hallmarks both our life and our death.