ABSTRACT
52 53There is no more important function of the human mind than to make losses that are permanent bearable, and to make losses that may be temporary bearable until the moment of being reunited with what has been lost. One cannot really be alive if one is unable to suffer loss, as being alive entails losing aspects of that aliveness and, finally, losing all of that aliveness in death. We no doubt learn to bear permanent and impermanent losses differently, but in either case we must develop the best understanding we can of the human experience of losing—what it is like to lose, what challenges losing poses, whether finding is the end of losing, and so on.
