Memory tables
We’ve talked recently here about shrines and memorials and remembrancing. Here’s a very nice idea from Shirley, over at the Modern Mourner, in a blog post titled Why can’t memorials be more like weddings? It’s a memory table. You put choice things, invested with meaning, on it — arranged beautifully, of course. What would you […]
In shivering memory
This day, one hundred years ago, Captain Scott and his team of plucky amateurs arrived at the South Pole – and saw that “the worst had happened”. Yes, the dashed pros, the cads, had beaten them to it by over a month. Amundsen got there on 14 December. The memory lingers, and with it a […]
Being dead gets you thinking
Hellraiser Charlie Sheen, no stranger to drug, alcohol and domestic abuse, claims to have turned his life around under the influence of having played lead corpse in two fictional funerals in 2011. He says, “It was a little bizarre to watch your own funeral and it certainly gets you thinking.” Could become a useful therapeutic […]
Quote of the day
“Last week, I attended the funeral of one of my uncles. His irresponsible lifestyle, which included eating meat, smoking, drinking alcohol and ignoring sell by dates, resulted in his life being cut short at the age of 94.” Source
To ritualise or not to ritualise…
By Richard Rawlinson Ed’s note: Richard wrote this for us at a time when the market in blog posts about ritual was approaching saturation. There’s good stuff here, so we’re posting it now, timeless seasonal greeting and all. …that remains the question. In order to express a meaning you need to establish what the meaning […]
Chumps hit a bump
Fury in abundance is currently being vented by the good people of Portsmouth against the bungling dolts of The Co-operative Funeralcare. The citizenry is furious that Effcare intend to upgrade their branch in the residential district of Copnor by converting offices into a ‘chapel of rest’ where dead people can be visited by their relatives. Residents have […]
Quote of the day
“Now deep in my bed I lie and the world turns on the other side” John Hirst
Blues dispersal initiative
We’ve just read in the Guardian that today is reckoned to be the most depressing of the year. Gosh. If you are sitting in a puddle of seasonal misery and wretchedness, this may cheer you up: I recently changed primary care physician. After a comprehensive history and physical exam and a bunch of lab tests, […]
Talking to the dead
News from Malacca, Malaysia: The small Gujerati community here fears the final rites practice which involves talking to the dead is dying because the young are not interested. For one man, who has provided his services to bereaved families over the past 10 years, his only hope is his son. “I must pass it down […]
Heathen on earth
Posted by Charles We’ve talked a lot about ritual on this blog recently and, dang it, we’re going to do it again. In an article in the Guardian, philosopher Julian Baggini announces: I’ve recently started praying … This is, I think, a pretty worthwhile practice and it is not something you can only do if you […]
