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Diamonds are Forever
Turn the cremated remains of a loved one into a diamond and unique “in memoriam” object“Every diamond from each person is slightly different. It’s always unique,” explains the Ronaldo Willy, the founder of Swiss company Algordanza. Thanks to Willy, family members can now carry more than a memory of a loved one with them – they can carry Grandma herself. In memoriam never looked so dazzling. And with over 900…
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Coping With Death: Pierre Bergé and a Life in Objects
Bergé’s partner, Yves Saint Laurent, died from a terminal illness in 2008 — but Bergé says it wasn’t just a disease that made his life cancerousFriday, June 6th 2008 – the streets of Paris were brimming with citizens, all gathered to pay their respects at the funeral of couturier Yves Saint Laurent (YSL). Along with Chanel, YSL is known as one of the great bookends of French design, praised by the most bourgeoisie of critics and the prêt a porter…
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What is Contemplative Care? (Interview)
Jennifer Block teaches us how to cope with grief through Mindfulness Meditation and other Zen practicesToday SevenPonds speaks with Jennifer Block, an interfaith minister and Buddhist Chaplain who has dedicated her life to providing spiritual guidance for people in crisis. She is returning to teach the 2014 Contemplative Caregiver Course at the San Francisco Zen Center, which will be starting up on January 31st. Kimberly: What is Contemplative Care? How does it…
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“The Man with Night Sweats”
Thom Gunn memorializes his loved ones who died of AIDS in this poetry collectionThom Gunn’s The Man with Night Sweats (1992) memorializes a San Francisco poet’s tragic losses due to AIDS. An “Anglo-American poet” known for his brainy yet visceral formal verse, the late British expatriate often wrote in meter and rhyme about his countercultural daily life in California, filling his poems with surfers, motorcyclists, LSD, popular icons, literature,…
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Illuminating Death through Art
Capuchin burial traditions teach us how to face death without fearWhen one thinks of strange funerary traditions, the unique practices of the Capuchin monks may come to mind. This small sect of Catholic Franciscan monks was established in 1525 in the Umbria province in Italy, and while their general reformation ideology may not appear all that different to an outsider’s eyes, in recent times their…
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Looking Back: Celebrity Deaths of 2013
From Roger Ebert to Nelson Mandela, 2013 saw a wide range of celebrity deaths2013 brought us no shortage of social, technological and medical triumphs: we welcomed a Pope with modern plans, functionally cured a baby of HIV and watched California commit itself to environmental health via cap-and-trade. But 2013 also saw its fair share of loss, which included a wealth of celebrity deaths. From musicians, authors and actors to…
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“Love Is Here to Stay”
Ira Gershwin memorializes the legacy of his brother in the final song composed by George GershwinAmong the Gershwin brothers’ hundreds of hit songs from the great jazz age, “Love Is Here to Stay” is perhaps the most poignant. George and Ira received a commission to write the song for the 1938 film The Goldwyn Follies. It was George‘s last composition. He died prematurely in July of 1937 at the age of…
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“Dirge Without Music”
Edna St. Vincent Millay expresses her struggle to accept mortality in her poem “Dirge Without Music”Edna St. Vincent Millay is no stranger to us at SevenPonds. While death remains a constant theme in many of her poems, her relationship with death oscillates between acceptance and repulsion—making her treatment of the subject utterly relatable. A woman of two minds about her own mortality, she was, like so many of us, incredibly…
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Tikker: For Those Wondering, “When Will I Die?”
How Swedish inventor Fredrik Colting’s “death watch” affects our psycheWhen will you die? The question is usually sparked by a powerful film or dream – and even then it doesn’t resonate for long. Sometimes it takes the passing of a loved one, or a brush with Death at an intersection to make us really act and reflect on the question with consequence. Indeed, constantly…
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