Gift or garbage?
What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? […]
How to watch your brother die
How To Watch Your Brother Die For Carl Morse When the call comes, be calm. Say to your wife, “My brother is dying. I have to fly to California.” try not to be shocked that he already looks like a cadaver. Say to the young man sitting by your brother’s side, “I’m his brother.” Try […]
Light, like the sun
Here’s an interesting photograph taken by Maeve Berry of a body burning in a cremator (for US readers, a retort). It is one of a series which tracks the process from start to finish. What do you think? Hellish? Or clean, purifying and beautiful? See the rest of the series here.
Dead right
“I regard this body of mine as being mine in life and it is for me to say in what way it should be disposed of after my death. I regard that as an absolute … For example, I would have the gravest reservations about any organs from my body after my death being used […]
Bloggus interruptus
Everyone’s got a book in them. Best place for it. Throw away the key, I say, you’ll embalm the illusion that way. Illusion? Almost certainly. You think you’ve got something precious and important to impart? You think there’s a lot of tosh coming off the presses, surely someone’ll print mine? Try getting it published. First […]
Transitus, gloria mundi
The Transitus festival held just over a week ago was a success. Lots of people came to find out about death on a sunny day when they could have been off picnicking. Considering the financial risk the organisers seem to have exposed themselves to, success must feel especially sweet. Because Transitus explores ideas and experiences […]
Best in show 3
I wonder what people who visit graves think their loved one looks like now—or whether they think about it at all. I was talking last week to Ken West, the man who gave us natural burial, and he opined that they think of them as uncorrupted. People shut their eyes to decomposition, whether violent and […]
It happens
Beautifully written account of the death of an unloved one. Read it here.
Best in show 2
No Corps of any Person or Persons shall be buried in any Shirt, Shift; Sheet or Shroud, or any thing whatsoever made or mingled with Flax, Hemp, Silk, Hair, Gold or Silver, or in any Stuff or Thing, other than what is made of Sheeps Wool only. Thus spoke the Burial in Woollen Act of […]
An angel whispers “Come in, mate.”
For me, the music died the day Led Zeppelin released their first album. Pop got intellectual, up itself, the mope and dope bunch sagely mulling finer points of riffs and runs. It set friends against each other. Simon bought a bass guitar, I bought a ukulele and got heavily into music hall. It was love, […]
