Walker family history
A feature of family undertakers’ websites is the inordinate amount of space given to dynastic history replete with sepia photos of bowlegged ancestors swathed in fog walking fierce-eyed so far as you can see in front of a Humber Bumble (or whatever). Good breeding isn’t something we necessarily defer to any more, neither, in a […]
Way To Go
From the Daily Mail, an emollient newspaper for those who like to keep their blood pressure low: The BBC came under fire today for a new sitcom which makes light of assisted suicide. A new series starring Blake Harrison, of the Inbetweeners, tells the story of three young men who build a suicide machine and […]
Tea, cakes, death and a movie
The Natural Death Centre Charity proudly presents: The NDC Death Café Film Event 2.30pm – 5pm Sunday 24 February 2013 London NW2 6AA (near Willesden Green underground station) Suggested donation : £5 As part of this Death Café, young documentary filmmaker Olivia Humphreys will show her 20 minute film ‘Noctuaries’. Josefine Speyer, psychotherapist and […]
Death lit
The Natural Death Centre now has its own online e-magazine. Aimed at consumers, it has features which will also interest funeral directors and celebrants. There’s a straight-talking feature about natural burial, an analysis of the rise of direct cremation, some radical talk about open-air cremation, a caveat emptor article for funeral shoppers by Jon Underwood, the […]
I never met a raven I didn’t like
Dr. Berndt Heinrich, 72, emeritus biology professor at the University of Vermont, spends much of his time in a cabin in the woods with no electricity or running water, studying animals. His latest book, “Life Everlasting: The Animal Way of Death”, is about how animals die and how they recycle each other: It’s not so much about […]
An Experiential Enquiry into Death & Dying
Experiential retreat run by The Sammasati Project: An Experiential Enquiry into Death & Dying — 6-10 March 2013 An intense and tender process, this workshop provides an opportunity to gather the experience, knowledge, and skills needed to prepare for our own dying. Not only will this impact how we face our own death but how […]
What goes around…
Here’s most of an article in the Spectator, 5 January, by Peter Jones. It quotes a letter by Seneca the Younger (AD 1-65) describing the pagan idea of religious feeling. Given the disposition of most Britons towards matters of faith, you’ll possibly reckon this amazingly contemporary. After discussing the divine spirit ‘which guards us and […]
No Tears In Glory
This old eye, is filled with sorrow Heartaches and pain, and tears that flow But when we reach there, city called Glory We won’t have to cry no more CHORUS There’ll be no tears, no tears in Glory Over there, no tears will flow There’ll be no tears, no tears Glory We wont have to […]
Dead cert
From the Sunday Times, 13 January: Punters in Taiwan are betting on when the terminally sick will die. According to the China Press newspaper, more than 10 syndicates have been set up in senior citizens’ clubs in the city of Taichung to bet on the longevity of cancer patients. The paper claims that gamblers even […]
Someone
Someone someone is dressing up for death today, a change of skirt or tie eating a final feast of buttered sliced pan, tea scarcely having noticed the erection that was his last shaving his face to marble for the icy laying out spraying with deodorant her coarse armpit grass someone today is leaving home on […]
