In 1993, Illinois English professor Philip E. Simmons (1958–2002) was diagnosed with the degenerative and ultimately fatal Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS) at age 35.

“The muscles waste away but the mind remains intact. It’s been said that people with this illness have a front-row seat at their own demise,” Simmons reflected.

“Life, after all, is a terminal condition... each individual soul is, as the poet William Butler Yeats says, ‘fastened to a dying animal.’”

Searching for peace and understanding, Simmons—wheelchair-bound—wrote Learning to Fall (2002), a powerful celebration of the blessings of an imperfect life.

“In falling we somehow gain what means most,” he explained. “In falling we are given back our lives as we lose them.”

Living richly in the face of loss, Simmons explored the meaning of life in the poetry of Wallace Stevens, the story of Jesus, and the teachings of Zen, Sufi, and Buddhist masters.

He celebrated life’s mystery with curiosity and often with humor. “Hunting for truth about ourselves, we often resemble Elmer Fudd hunting that ‘wascally wabbit,’” he quipped.

By transforming his death into a final gift for his readers, Simmons offered this essential truth: letting go and living in the present are the keys to embracing life. “If eternity includes all time, then we are living in eternity now... We enter the eternal life beneath the surface of this passing one.”