That solves the issue in the article, but not the issue in – for example – my personal example. No embalming fluid, sure…but you still can’t bury the body on your own land. Has to be cremation for that.
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I especially like the custom of unveiling the monument a year (or 11 months?) later. Family and friends get together to memorialize the dead, but there’s been time for grieving, so it can be a happy occasion of remembering.
We were able to personally design the stone for my MIL’s unveiling, because we had the time. All the important immediate things to do (funeral, emptying the apartment, will, etc.) were all done.
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My father is being cremated. The Neptune Society takes care of a lot of things for families, but they are not fast in returning the cremains. We are not worried about it. For myself, I believe that once the soul (spirit, person, consciousness, whatever we want to call it) has left the body, that body does not necessarily matter, but the wishes of the family become really important on this point. My father is not in a freezer waiting for cremation. My father now one of our blessed dead, an ancestor no longer tied to the physical plane. His body did what it needed to do, and now it is just matter.
He won’t have a service or a grave. His ashes will be scattered to the desert winds. So, there won’t be a place to visit him. But that means I can visit him anywhere. Mostly, I want to show him my bonsai trees and plants, so that’s where I talk to him most. His father is in a little mausoleum with the family name on it, but he is as much here in my office with me, as he is in that tiled crypt, to me. Every time I learn what a specific weed or native plant is called, and if it’s eaten or used for anything, he’s with me. We’re a long line of gardeners and people who will put any little growing thing in a container and see what it does.
Each person is different, and each episode of grief is different, of course. I went through the typical funeral stuff with my grandfather, and nothing about it helped my grief in any way. It was just a bizarre experience I had to go through to get to the other side, where I could actually mourn, in private in a way that he and I would have understood between us. It was him, me, and a bunch of leaf cutter ants doing their gardening thing, and that brought me some peace.
With my father, our family skipped every trapping of tradition that didn’t work for us. We ate food, listened to music, and talked and cried, and that was better for us than a regular funeral. When we scatter his ashes, we’ll probably have more food, more music and more laughing and crying, just with the addition of a hike up the butte. And, we will smoke a big joint in his honor. I’m glad he lasted long enough to enjoy his medicine legally, in his state.
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That was beautiful, thank you.
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Why, how dare they “evangelize” to people who have chosen to follow them to hear what they have to say. How dare they speak in public instead of staying behind the guilded doors of their ivory towers.
If you were on Twitter, you would know that you can block people or keywords if you don’t want to see such content. If you’re not, then you’re going out of your way to bitch about something that doesn’t affect you in the least, except for your own need to complain about it.
After all, horrors. People are communicating in a way I don’t approve of. Those novels, that rock and roll music, nothing but the creations of Satan himself.
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exactly. if an expert on medieval cities feels the urge to comment on trump’s walls and the medieviality of such, good for her.
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linked to in a recent aldaily post:
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First, I don’t… I’m not on twitter or FB or even instagram… so please explain why you expect me to answer for my entire fucking profession when it’s not something I actually do.
Second, why is it okay for literally everyone other profession to do so, but not historians? Why is it not okay for historians to actual contribute to the public discussion when it comes to what we actually do? Why is that an illegitimate use of our time with regards to public engagement? Should figures like Bruce Schneier shut up about cyber security, too, because people with actual expertise should shut up about what they are experts at?
I think that correcting misconceptions about the past is something that a HISTORIAN is absolutely suited to do, especially when it’s their field of study. Much better than people who think they understand all aspects of history because they read a million pop history books about the Nazis and know understand how thousands of years of history is to be understood. But hey, you do you and go take your history lessons from who ever you think best.
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of course not. And when I link to something, I may or may not endorse what the author is trying to say. In this instance, I wasn’t. I happen to like pedantry.
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I have a conservative friend who fancies himself a historian. He got a BS in history. He then worked in government, having nothing to do with history. But with the internet he can cherry-pick data with the best of them. I had to start ignoring his emails when they got even more white-privileged than usual.
ETA: My point, which I forgot to add, was that thank goodness there are people like you setting the record straight.
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I have to keep spreading the gospel of Amy X Neuburg, one of my favorite singers/musicians/composers. Here’s how she does it.
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Your accompanying comment was not so crystal clear on your intent here.
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I sort of have the impression that getting a degree in history was de rigueur for would be conservative politicians in the UK.
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Considering how little respect people with advanced degrees in the humanities get, I’m not sure how much good it does. But thanks! As I said, I’m not on twitter or other social media platforms, but I suspect that people who correct historical inaccuracies, even people with advanced degrees, are seen as being little more than partisan hacks… and articles like the one in question from other academics (especially those who have “made it” by having one of the few tenure track jobs available in these fields) just illustrates that the criticism and lack of respect for what we do) isn’t solely coming from the outside. It’s depressing, the whole thing, the constant attacks from the right wing and the lack of action on the part of our colleagues with secure positions in the academy.
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Thankfully this guy isn’t a politician. But he votes, and emails a lot of his biased viewpoints around to a bunch of people. I used to be one of them because in between there were things we had in common. After all the voting sites were closed down south he said, “if people can’t be bothered to travel to the nearest voting booth, perhaps they shouldn’t be allowed to vote.” He had the same reaction to the college students who, upset at Dumpster’s election, had a “cry-in.” He said, “They’ve got to realize things aren’t always going to go their way. If they can’t understand that, perhaps they shouldn’t be allowed to vote.”
That was it. I’d had enough.
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What do you mean by “evangelize”, anyhow? Spread the word far and wide to educate others? Or the Christian defintion (maybe not official, but the one I see them follow): Force people to listen to you and tell them they have to be saved from something, like inaccurate information, instead of God (hmmm…evangelical teachers of secularism…am I on to something here?) At any rate, I thought Twitter was for everyone to use for whatever reason, even those who obviously have no idea how to use it - like the POTUS?
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In science land, this is called “engaging with the public”.
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Oh. I rarely see common Christian terms used in relation to science, sorry. Still don’t see the problem, though, with historians using Twitter, if they’d like to. I suppose that’s just li’l ol’ myopic bent.
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I love that there’s a reclusive species of “Type D” orcas that are (who are?) harassing the Chilean fishing fleet and stealing their catch. Although the poaching-no-recovery retaliation is probably going to be in the queue for “next horrible genocide”…
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Animation warning (the hands in the clock move fast, and there’s a second animation later on.
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