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NPR’s Scott Simon on Tweeting at a Death Bed
The National Public Radio host tweeted his mother’s witticisms from her death bedNPR’s Scott Simon has an admirable bevy of followers on Twitter, with over 1 million people reading and re-tweeting the Weekend Edition Saturday host’s thoughts. So when Simon’s 84 year-old mother checked into a Chicago hospital last week, he began to tweet his experience of helping her pass away on her death bed – and…
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“Sam Stone”
A memorial song vividly depicts life after war and the pain of loss to addictionJohn Prine has dedicated most of his life to creating and sharing emotional and narrative-driven music. He is acclaimed as a songwriter and his versatility in subject matter ranges from immensely funny, to heart-wrenchingly sad. NPR has described him as having “a drawled manner of phrasing that cuts any possible pretense in his impeccably metered wordplay,”…
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“The Gay Science”
Happiness and misfortune are brother and sisterOften misunderstood, or misinterpreted by many, Friedrich Nietzsche, the controversial philosopher whose work is as fascinating to ponder today as it was obscure in the late 1800s when he wrote about death and God, or rather, the death-of-God prolifically, was a great contributor to the human understanding of life, death, God and our relationship to…
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“Die” (1962) by Minimalist Tony Smith
The sculpture’s enigmatic relationship with death and dyingThe minimalist sculpture “Die” by American sculptor, Tony Smith (1912 – 1980), has ostensibly little to do with the subject of death and dying. Apart from the fact that the title elicits some kind of relationship with death, the relevance of the sculpture’s form to its subject matter seems enigmatic. Tony Smith was one of…
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What is Art Therapy? (Interview)
The relationship between art therapy and end-of-life care at the AgeSong InstituteConstance Hunt is an art therapist working at the AgeSong Institute, located in San Francisco, CA. AgeSong is an eldercare facility committed to shifting the typical perspective on aging by bringing greater acceptance and respect to end-of-life care. In her role as Enrichment Coordinator, Constance provides a wide range of art therapy based activities that…
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“Welcome to Heaven!”
Ever wonder what swearing in Heaven would be like? Check out this Daniel Tosh stand-upCheck out more SevenPonds “Laughter is Medicine” posts on Woody Allen, Andy Warhol and John Cleese
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“The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven”
Famed Native American author mixes dark humor and sadness in his treatments of loss and deathA while back, I reviewed the 1998 film Smoke Signals on the SevenPonds blog. This inspired me to read the collection of short stories on which the film was based. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is a magical work of literature that confronts topics of loss and death with dark humor. The…
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The Buddhist Philosophy of Becoming Again
The cyclical nature of life after death in Buddhist traditionThe Buddhist philosophy of “becoming again” holds that when we die, our souls begin life in a new form. Whatever the new vessel for our spirit will be — human or otherwise – all depends on our former life’s actions, or karma. This belief in the cyclical nature of life after death is a long-standing…
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The Site “See Your Folks” Reminds Us to Spend Time with Parents
Are your parents aging? A new expectancy calculator reveals the number of times you have left to see see mom and dad.Are your parents aging? The new expectancy calculator site “See Your Folks” may make you reflect on how much time you spend with aging parents — because the expectancy calculator determines the opportunities you have left to spend time with them. Invented by Luke Tipping, Daniel George, Robert Holmkvist and Omar Karim, “See Your Folks”…
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