Wrestling with the Angel: Literary Writings and Reflections on Death, Dying and Bereavement

by Kent L. Koppelman, Dale Lund

Wrestling with the Angel addresses the human struggle to cope with death, dying, grief, and bereavement. The book includes essays, a one-act play, a short story, and poetry, including shape poems, rhyming, structured verse, and free verse. In the one-act play, an angel of death comes for a man who has lived an unexamined life and wants to explain why he is not prepared to leave. The short story offers a humorous look at a man who resists aging by continuing to view himself as the young man he once was. The diverse genres allow for different ways of exploring these issues, but all are intended to engage the reader's emotions as well as intellect. The writings incorporate reflections and quotations addressing common human issues related to our mortality and explore reactions to the loss of a loved one--whether expected, such as the death of an aging parent or someone with a terminal illness, or unexpected, such as accidental death. The final chapters examine how aging causes us to assess our lives and why preparing ourselves for death can enhance the quality of our life. This is a book with many more questions than answers, but the reader is invited to share in the process of finding answers. It is a book that requires the reader to be comfortable with ambiguity, because the reality it describes is often ambiguous--a reality that presents us with many choices but few certainties. Intended Scholars, hospice workers, funeral home directors, hospital chaplains, ministers, and others who work with bereavement issues; classes in death education and classes for mental health professionals in death and grief; general readers who have suffered the loss of a loved one.

158 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2010

About the author

Kent L. Koppelman, Ph.D. Education 1979, La Crosse, Wisconsin.

A champion of diversity and the author of “Understanding Human Differences,” Kent Koppelman is known for writing a lasting textbook that is read by college students in multicultural education classes throughout the U.S. He also wrote “Values in the Key of Life: Making Harmony in the Human Community,” another human relations resource. He helped found a number of organizations, including the Wisconsin State Human Relations Association, that promote educational programs that help students recognize and value human diversity.

Koppelman has been recognized as a superb educator and a model mentor with awards like the Outstanding Educator of the Year from Phi Delta Kappa and Wisconsin Teacher Educator of the Year. He recently retired as a professor of education at the University of WisconsinLa Crosse, where he led the educational policy and practice department as chair from 1990 until 2000 and the education studies department from 2003 until 2006.

Readers also know him as the author of “The Fall of a Sparrow,” an eloquent story about the search for meaning, grieving, and healing that followed the death of his son, Jason, in a car accident.