Saturday, May 30, 2009

One small step at a time

Yes, I did that presentation last month to the NICs, and I think it went well. I'll write up the particulars in a separate post, along with my plan to get this project actually rolling.

Until then, here's an article by Max Alexander that I came across in the March issue of Smithsonian magzine, "The Surprising Satisfactions of a Home Funeral." In it, Alexander compares the after-death care of his father in law with that of his own father. The two men died within just a few weeks of each other.
One was buried, one was cremated. One was embalmed, one wasn't. One had a typical American funeral-home cotillion; one was laid out at home in a homemade coffin. I could tell you that sorting out the details of these two dead fathers taught me a lot about life, which is true. But what I really want to share is that dead bodies are perfectly OK to be around, for a while.