DIY Funerals

Max Alexander lost his father and father-in-law within days of one another. One had a traditional funeral. For the other, they chose a less-orthodox, DIY funeral which he talks about in an article in Smithsonian Magazine. In light of our recent discussions, I thought you might find it interesting.

“I suppose people whose loved ones are missing in action or lost at sea might envy the rest of us, for whom death typically leaves a corpse, or in the polite language of funeral directors, ‘the remains,’” Alexander writes. “Yet for all our desire to possess this tangible evidence of a life once lived, we’ve become oddly squeamish about our dead… According to advocates, home after-death care is… more meaningful for the living.”

For the full text of the article (v. interesting) go here: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Presence-of-Mind-Which-Way-Out.html

I found the article through GOOD, a great magazine about all sorts of stuff. Blog post can be found here: http://www.good.is/?p=16538