General Election blues … and greens
Posted by Richard Rawlinson With Funeralworld including many small businesses, will their owners and employees be voting in the 7 May General Election for the party they feel supports the UK’s 4.9 million small businesses the most? But what can a government actually do other than make supportive noises encouraging enterprise, and championing the role of […]
Singing them on their way
Posted by Tim Clark It’s our belief that the sound of unaccompanied natural voice singing, in three- or four-part harmony, can create a space for strong emotion; can console and comfort, can embody and say things we can’t say in prose or poetry alone. We sing in English and Welsh, with a scattering of Spanish, Gaelic, […]
Celebrant turned zoo keeper
Posted by Wendy Coulton I think my neighbours must have been impressed when they saw me clear out space in my garage this month. But the truth is I had no choice. You see, next week it will be the new home for the eye-catching and thought provoking centre piece for a free public event I […]
What the hell?
“Belief in life after death is as common in Britain as it was 30 years ago in spite of a sharp decline in church attendance” according to researchers at the University of Leicester. The story is in today’s Times. The stats in the Leicester report don’t tell us anything we didn’t already know, probably; not if […]
The good meeting place
Posted by our religious correspondent Richard Rawlinson Where would we be without our Rover’s Return or Central Perk? The Corrie pub and Friends café are what sociologist Ray Oldenburg calls a ‘third place’ in his book, The Great Good Place. They’re neither home nor work, but accessible, accommodating and inclusive neutral ground where we can go […]
Empathy and sympathy – what’s the difference?
Posted by John Porter Sometimes the boundaries of the definitions of these two words, empathy and sympathy, become fuzzy. They become fuzzy for good reasons. This is from Confessions of a Funeral Director, which is often mentioned in GFG posts, entitled 10 Marks of a good funeral director: 8. Empathy and sympathy. Imagine being at the […]
