Where the tree falls, the forest rises
From The Rising, by Wendell Berry There is a grave, too, in each survivor. By it, the dead one lives. He enters us, a broken blade, sharp, clear as a lens or mirror. Like a wound, grief receives him. Like graves, we heal over, and yet keep as part of ourselves the severe gift. By […]
Planning for a happy death
posted by our religious correspondent Richard Rawlinson A recently widowed middle-aged woman came in tears to Benedictine monk Fr Christopher Jamison, and thanked him for explaining in a talk based on his book, Finding Happiness: Monastic Steps for a Fulfilling Life, what she had felt since her husband died. Fr Christopher had shared his thoughts on achieving a happy death, […]
Sob stories
Posted by Charles The misery memoir – awful childhood, frightful beatings, Oliver Twist never had it so good, that sort of stuff, ooh – has, it seems run its course. The torment vultures have flown the well-picked corpse and are now feasting on bereavement. I’ve been aware of growth of this new genre and largely ignored […]
Sceptr’d loony bin?
Some invective from this week’s Spectator. It is by Florence King. Being English-American can be depressing. For years I thought about giving up my American citizenship and becoming a Brit to get my blood and my nationality lined up without the interference of a hyphen, but then something made me change my mind with a […]
Grief memoirs
There’s been some interesting discussion of grief over at the New York Times. Ruth Davis Konigsberg, the person who demolished the 5 stages of grief model (derived from Kubler Ross), has this to say: In the past decade, social scientists with unprecedented access to large groups of widows and widowers have learned that, as individual […]
The Dead – Billy Collins
The Dead The dead are always looking down on us, they say, while we are putting on our shoes or making a sandwich, they are looking down through the glass-bottom boats of heaven as they row themselves slowly through eternity. They watch the tops of our heads moving below on earth, and buy discount cialis […]
DADBA
There’s a nicely written piece over at Obit magazine, a review of a new book, The Truth About Grief: The Myth of Its Five Stages and the New Science of Loss (Simon & Schuster), by Ruth Davis Konigsberg. It’s probably worth reading. It’s a demolition job on certain schools of bereavement counselling — those informed […]
The aloneness of the bereaved
I was struck by this post by a blogger in Canada concerning the aloneness of the bereaved. In this case, it’s Helmut Schmidt, former Chancellor of Germany, at the funeral of his wife of 64 years, Loki. She died on 21 October aged 91. The funeral was on 1 November.
Thirty funerals in thirty days
Over in Albuquerque, Gail Rubin has set herself the task of attending and writing up thirty funerals in thirty days. She got under way on Saturday. It’s going to make for a very interesting social document. At this stage, of course, many of those whose funerals she will describe are as yet still alive…
Better read than dead
When Eulogy magazine came out in June there was excitement and chatter and speculation. Would it catch on? How long would it last? The lowest estimate I was aware of was a curmudgeonly six issues, volunteered by a funeral director in the west country. In the event, it seems to have underperformed more grievously. There […]
