R. Lodge and B. Swinyard

What is a life well lived? How do you cope with those moments when your whole life seems to come crashing down around you? Can there be such a thing as a good death? Or is all of this out of your control or understanding? These are the fundamental questions of humanity and they face us all, at one time or another. Here, Consultant Cancer Surgeon, humanist and poet, Richard Lodge, shares a lifetime of experience and dedicated practice focussed on helping patients and their families deal with exactly these questions, often in “life and death” situations. Drawing on all of his accumulated knowledge and compassion for those in need he has distilled those essences of humanity that distinguish us and give our lives meaning. His search for such a simplified exposition of the role of love, endurance, empathy and dignity was made even more poignant when he himself was diagnosed with the terminal illness, Motor Neurone Disease (MND or ALS). In part this is his journey to find redemption from despair and a meaning in suffering, too. Life, however, is not one-dimensional. It is rich in its variety and forms and we all recognise the impact that images or pictures have on our emotions and perceptions. It is here that Professional Photographer, International judge, lecturer and tutor, Brian Swinyard, has excelled. Devoted all his life to the documentation of life through the medium of photography. An 'Aspirational' Photographer with special interest in Creative photography he explores the ways that photography can abstract and formalize reality, and produces images that have emotional content whilst questioning the traditional concepts of 'What Is' and 'What Reality Means'. This too being thrown into sharp focus by his diagnosis and subsequent treatments for Sarcoma, a rare form of cancer that is all too often life limiting. Working together and recognising that the fusion of word and image can transcend and amplify each other, the two friends have worked to produce this tribute to the human spirit. Within it, they offer their combined thoughts and those of much more ancient philosophies on life, love and circumstance and how to approach them with dignity, forbearance, tolerance and delight. For to be human is a miracle and we should rejoice in that alone.