The title is accurate. It is a little guide. It runs under a hundred pages. The margins are wide and the print is large. The book's target audience is, indeed, those who are facing their last days. Those who are battling a terminal illness. As was Hendrix.
It sounds really depressing, doesn't it? The thing is, it isn't. There are big questions to face at the end of one's life, but are the answers so difficult? You don't need to by dying to appreciate much of the Little Guide. The messages are simple. Are they too simple when we're well? Don't we all have a tendency to make too many things in life so difficult? Hendrix issues a straightforward reminder of what's really important as well as useful guide to dealing with those final days, no matter how many of them remain.
Hendrix was a convert to Catholicism, and his faith was the guiding principle in his life and provided the answer to his questions. However, this isn't a book for Catholic audiences only. The essential question in A Little Guide for Your Last Days is, "Why am I still here, and what am I supposed to do with the time I still have left?" His answer? "You may as well take advantage of the opportunity to do what you really, truly want to do at the very core of your being," and assures that, "before the end, I trust, you will know and be glad."
Reading a book that is so upfront and insistent about facing one's mortality can be difficult, or uncomfortable at the very least. Hendrix evinces optimism but also acceptance that in no way equals surrender. His advice is practical (go on retreat, don't leave burdensome debts for your family) and wise. One piece of advice, in particular, has stuck with me:
"don't go round to acquaintances, friends, relatives, or perfect strangers looking for sympathy, understanding, concern, or anything else. Simply do not do it. They will not give it to you to the degree to which you are seeking. Even if they do, you will end up resenting their attempts....Again, you will end up feeling worse than you did before you went looking for what they really and truly do not have to give you.Take from people what they can give and let the rest go. What a difference that can make, no matter how long your life.
Hendrix says, "Life is terminal. You want to make the most of it, even and especially now." To be reminded of our mortality now and then is not a bad thing, and Hendrix shares beautifully the lessons he learned.
Jeffry Hendrix died on June 28, 2011.
