Death Café events are nationwide and part of a larger movement that originated in Switzerland via sociologist Bernard Crettaz, who believed that talking about death promoted authentic living.
“Grief is a topic that makes most people want to run for the hills, but we’re not doing ourselves any favors by responding in that way.”
-- Rebecca Soffer
In a letter to the editor, Stephen Glick writes: "The End of Life Options Act has 64 co-sponsors, including Berkshire County's Sen. Adam Hinds and Reps. John Barrett, Paul Mark and Smitty Pignatelli."
It seems absurd that we will have to use our collective might to lobby the legislature and the governor to give us the right to die. I have seen polls on the issue where support for an individual’s right to die with dignity is overwhelming.
The world is full of darkness to be found at every turn; to acknowledge its presence -- to hold space for it -- is not the same as letting it engulf us and extinguish our light.
To catalogue and sort what solely remains of a lost loved one seems to be an impossible task, a teetering balance between ascetic and hoarder, not knowing if, within the contents of our rented dumpsters, lie our loved one's prized possessions.
By keeping our distance from death, cloaking it, hiding our eyes from it, we actually lose touch with a sacred phase of life. Because, as we all know, death is a part of life—for all of us.” -- filmmaker Cathy Zheutlin
The co-founders of Modern Loss have taken the plunge and transitioned from an online community to a printed book, one that is wise and funny and seeks to change the dialogue around the messy experience of grief.
I try to evoke my friends in a way that makes them come alive, always understanding by choice and by ultimate lack of knowledge -- that I have merely scratched the surface.
Hershey can't get over how gifted he is as a would-be New Yorker cartoonist -- even though he is a poodle, and a dead one at that, plus he's a character in a cartoon.
