Be With

"Accuracy without kindness is too unfeeling to be true. And kindness without accuracy is too unreal to be felt." In Be With, Mike Barnes writes letters to an anonymous long-term caregiver, drawing on his own years of caring for his mother through the ravages of Alzheimer's, from moderate through late stage. Written for harried caregivers who might have time to read two lines, or twenty, or perhaps the whole thing as a loved one naps, Be With balances candor about the devastations of dementia with insights into its paradoxical and at-times uncanny enhancements of life, the surprising re-discoveries of what was once thought lost. Through it all, Barnes emphasizes fellowship and presence. The profound importance of being with. From the award-winning author of The Adjustment League, comes a series of simple letters to whoever needs to read them. Be With is a meditation on the vital -- and often overlooked -- world of caregivers and those they watch over.