Who wants to be history?
Thomas Friese, an old friend of this blog who has often made us sit up and think hard about memorialisation (commemoration if your prefer the perfectly good old school word) breezed into my inbox yesterday and again today with some characteristically thought provoking ideas. His ideas derived from a tomb in Mount Olivet, Nashville and […]
“Dying is easy…
…it’s living that scares me to death.” Annie Lennox If your mind is active and you have a minute to do nothing better with, you might like to accept the Gail Rubin challenge, pop over to her blog and supply your on variant on the many “Living is easy…” quotes. If Gail is not on […]
Putting something back
What’s in a coffin? Okay, a dead person. What I meant, as you perfectly well know, is what is important in the eyes of the people who choose them? There’s a huge range, now – it has multiplied over the last ten years – catering for a very wide range of needs and tastes. Does […]
@GoodFunerals
Here’s a roundup of recent tweets. I was dressed down the other day for publishing too many all at once. It’s a good point. In future I shall post fewer oftener. Falling murder rate hits gangsta funeral home – http://bit.ly/izyK2S I see greenfuse have a new website. Something of a standard setter, I’d say – http://bit.ly/kY4HBd Grief […]
Getting it
People look at the funeral industry and conclude that it can’t go on like this. You’ve probably done it. I have. Come on, we’ve left Victorian values behind (even the Tories), we have moved on from Victorian healthcare, no one reads Walter Scott any more, so how come the undertakers got left behind in that […]
No place for sissies
Not many people cite or quote holy texts any more, but a deep human appetite for words of transcendent, mystical wisdom lives on. Twitter is full of people regurgitating inspirational quotes by secular saints (loadsa Gandhi, of course). Once in a while a Facebook friend is afflicted, and of course I block them at once. But […]
Down to Earth: Recruiting Volunteer Mentors
Any Londoners interested in this excellent initiative? Down to Earth, Quaker Social Action’s exciting new funeral support project, is now recruiting volunteers to be trained as mentors for the east London area. Mentors will gently support bereaved people on a low income as they deal with the funeral planning process. They will enable and empower […]
What do you say?
I was at Bristol Temple Meads and a five-hour train journey lay ahead. A party of young people boarded and a girl headed straight for my dog collar. “Can I talk to you, Reverend?” It had all the hallmarks of a “chat up the vicar” joke and I was tired. But no. Three hours earlier […]
‘Untimely’ Death
‘Untimely’ Death Death knocked on my door – it was a policeman come looking for the home of a child found unharmed amid the wreckage of a highway crash. I heard him say ‘grandparents’ and my mind saw Grandma long since ready for her death and Granddad who would never cope alone. That one word […]
Glum?
If you’re feeling a bit glum today, or even if you aren’t, have a look at this new blog.
