Meet Bart Windrum | Innovative End-of-life Thinker/Author

We had the good fortune of connecting with Bart Windrum and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Bart, what principle do you value most?
Experiential truth. My area of focus, the end of life in our particular civilization with its myriad peculiar constructs, is a time of great shock, harm, and pain for—when you think about it—millions and millions of people. Most of it is unnecessary. I don’t mean aspects that are intrinsic to dying (because we’re living thinking beings), but rather the aspects that are unnecessarily harmful…I have come to call this “suite” of forces extrinsic—not essential, extraneous.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
In January 2004, two days into what became my mother’s 2 1-2 week terminal hospitalization, and 15 months before my father followed suit (on a different medical trajectory but in a hospitalization that shared all the troubled characteristics as the first), I made a vow to get to the bottom of all what was shockingly, harmfully wrong in my small, cohesive, advance planned family’s experiences—and to bring what I uncovered to the world. Multiple strings of inquiry unspooled from these demises and my subsequent immersion in EOL medical matters in terms of everyday experience, institutional policy, and civically empowering legislation. In 2008 I published my first book, Notes from the Waiting Room: Managing a Loved One’s End-of-Life Hospitalization. By 2013 in my TEDx FoCo talk I introduced a new way to understand our EOL experiences given the world we live in (our 21st century dying milieu): Windrum’s Matrix of Dying Terms, aka Our Dying Territory—and a performance piece, the Never Say Die Rap. In 2018 I completed the lexicon I’d been developing with the publication of The Promised Landing: A Gateway to Peaceful Dying.

None of this was easy. All of it was (and is) fascinating! I had indeed, and in fact, gotten to the bottom of a range of aspects that hang up most all of us who say we want to die in peace yet get caught up in dying situations that are far from peaceful. Understanding all this is very different stuff than what has emerged over the last 20 years’ time as conventional medical guidance (make advance directives) and social activity (death cafes and retreats). I just doggedly kept at it until I sensed and then realized that my query was complete. Along the way I put myself “out there” as best as I was able as a generally reclusive self-employed individual. I made what opportunities I could and took what opportunities arose.

I have thoroughly untangled why most of us get deeply snagged when our personal tribes enter into a loved one’s dying territory given the constructs of our modern world. I clarify a set of obstacles to peaceful dying and suggest ways to mitigate them (doing so is neither quick nor easy). I have, for the first time, identified and named 17 distinctly different dying situations that replace the vague either-or of dying in the ICU (intensive care unit) versus at home, and codified them in Windrum’s Matrix. In contrast, advance planning documents and personal acceptance (“death literacy”) account for a fraction of this work.

My story? It is decidedly not “some guy gets massively piqued due to crummy experiences and spends years working through it.” The work I’ve listed above is the story. It’s a story that people who “read” it can very practically use to better their and their loved ones’ lives, and deaths.

As of this writing I’m 71. In good health, but aging. If you’d like this stuff presented to your people, get me while I last…

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I live in Boulder Colorado on a ridge at the edge of town. My “cone of vision” ranges from the lower elevations of near east county to Marshall Mesa and the foothills. The full Flatirons formation serves as a backdrop to the west. Activity one: a hike on the Shanahan trail system. I would’ve taken you to Caffe Sole and Murphy’s but both places, just down the hill, have closed after decades and have yet to be replaced. For coffee and pastries I’ll say Neptune (close) and Boxcar (unique). For food: Chez Thuy, May Wah, Kalita’s, and The Taj. For digs, the Dushanbe Teahouse. For a show, Chautauqua. For sightseeing: Peak to Peak Highway and Trail Ridge Road.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Several accomplished, smart people have provided incisive input that has enriched my end-of-life lexicon: knowledge kaleidoscope Jennifer Ballentine, epatient Dave deBronkart, hospice educator Kim Mooney, and writer Katy Butler.

Website: www.AxiomAction.com

Facebook: /BartWindrum

Other: Bart@AxiomAction.com