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The Labyrinthine Path through Grief
Japanese installation artist Motoi Yamamoto was born in Onomichi, Hiroshima, and worked in a dockyard before studying at Kanazawa College of Art. He now lives in Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan. After his sister’s death to brain cancer over a decade ago, Yamamoto adopted salt as his primary medium. Following the symbolism in Japanese culture, salt is…
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An Interview with Dr. Hannah Rumble
Dr. Hannah Rumble is a Research Officer in the Department of Social and Policy Sciences at the University of Bath (in Bath, UK) and a Teaching Fellow on the Foundation degree for Funeral Services in the Centre for Death and Society. As a STEM social science Ambassador she speaks in schools about funeral rites, natural burial, spirituality and funerals,…
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A Voice That Will Remain in Our Hearts Forever
Legendary blues and R&B singer Etta James passed away this morning at a Riverside, CA hospital due to complications from leukemia. After a long and celebrated career, in which she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, won awards and acclaim for numerous hit singles, and gained throngs of imitators and followers, James’…
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The St. James Infirmary Blues by Louis Armstrong
A classic blues song that reflects on death, mourning, and the rituals surrounding loss.In the old folk songs from the early 20th and late 19th Centuries, passed down through families and generations into the very soul of our culture, death is a common theme. This should not be surprising. These were harder times than they are now. Death was a fact of life that people faced on a…
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A Look at Japanese Funeral Practices
Japan has the highest cremation rate in the world, over 99%, with some local governments even banning burials. Until after World War II, cremation was reserved for the rich, but once the cleanliness and efficiency of the practice were recognized, cremation rates soared.
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National Hospice Care Company Accused of Fraud
National hospice care company AseraCare, which has 65 hospice providers in 19 states, is facing a lawsuit alleging that it misspent millions of taxpayer dollars intended for patient care. A whistleblower suggests that AseraCare improperly pushed patients through nursing homes and hospice care in order to ensure higher profits for themselves. The lawsuit was filed…
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Today I Asked Myself: What is Grief?
Today I asked myself the question, “What is grief?” At SevenPonds we immediately think of loss and grief as symbiotic, but in lieu of recent events, I realized “grief” in its many meanings and forms is something we deal with throughout life. As children it is the grief our parents, teachers and unkind friends sometimes…
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“If I Should Die”
Thomas Gray encourages positive thinking after a lossThomas Gray wrote quite a bit on death, known for his “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” and “Sonnet on the Death of Richard West,” the latter of which is particularly despondent in its view of the subject, as it deals with the passing of one of Gray’s closest friends. But in “If I Should…
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