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10 Ways You Can Help a Loved One With Alzheimer’s Survive Hospitalization
Provide comfort and hope in a time of fear and confusion.This is a post by Marguerite Manteau-Rao, who blogs about mindfulness practice at Mind Deep. Marguerite’s 90-year-old mother lives with Alzheimer’s. She wrote this post in response to a belittling and aggravating experience when her mother was hospitalized after a stroke. Reading of the way her mother was treated by doctors at the hospital —…
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Richard Carter’s Post-Mortem Cast “Troy Simon Burdine II”
The History of Death MasksTroy Simon Burdine II was a casualty of the AIDS epidemic, so rife in the Bay Area during the nineties. Moribund after years of fighting the virus, he petitioned his friend Richard Carter to cast his full body after death. Creating a replica of Troy’s figure and encasing his ashes within the piece, Carter produced…
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“Amour”
A couple’s love is tested in anticipation of death in Michael Haneke’s latest film.Austrian director Michael Haneke’s Oscar winning film is not easy, nor pleasurable to watch. Because one can’t just watch Amour—they have to experience it, and become invested in its characters to a degree that is rare in the movies today. The film requires a true exercise of strength from its viewer, because it does not…
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Bizarre Death Ritual: 19th Century Buddhist Self-Mummification
This short-lived death ritual was believed to be a road to enlightenment.In late 1800s Japan, several Buddhist monks called Sokushinbutsu attempted the rare ritual of self-mummification. Driven by the Buddhist quest for enlightenment and the belief that this requires non-attachment from the physical body, these monks prepared to take their own lives while preserving their remains for history. The practice was finally outlawed in Japan in the…
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How to Write Your Own Obituary by Brad Melzter
The author talks about living your life to leave the legacy you desire.Author Brad Meltzer was so concerned about what would be in his obituary that he hired someone to write it while he could still read it. In this TEDx talk, he talks about the importance and impact to what’s in your obituary — and how you can live your life to make it read the…
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“I’ll Be Missing You”
The hit single that also speaks of love and lossFor everyone who loved the big hits of the nineties, this might be a great send off song. “I’ll Be Missing You,” while a Grammy-winning single and classic R&B song, also touches on a few timeless themes including love, loss and memory. As many probably know already, Puff Daddy (now just Diddy) released the single in…
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“What Now?”
Taking graduation advice and applying it to our everyday livesAs spring approaches, and with it, graduations across the country, I like to find the time to reflect on Ann Patchett’s 2008 graduation speech and short book, What Now? A friend gave it to me a while back in preparation for my own graduation (probably for fear the speaker would fail to enlighten us), and…
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Le Suicidé by Manet
How the depiction of a suicide reflects loss and the unknownAmong Manet’s many famous paintings, Le Suicidé has received much less attention, most likely due to the fact that critics and scholars have a difficult time placing it among his other works. At its most basic level, the painting portrays a man who has just committed suicide by shooting himself. Not much else is visible…
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