1. You will be amazed at what you can accomplish from bed. 2. You will never, ever buy into the idea that prayers do not help. And the prayers of those who have suddenly lost people (children, spouses, parents) will somehow mean more. 3. Suddenly all Christmas books have grandmas in them. 4. You will realize […]
July 4th, Sufjan, and the Wake-up Call of Death
We’re All Gonna Die with Sufjan Stevens and Tim Keller
If Jesus Paid It All, What’s With All the Ashes?
On Unnatural Death and Suffering the Last Flickers of Sin
Sitting Shiva for Kobe: On the Complicated Nature of Grief, and Humans
If there’s anything the movie This Is Where I Leave You taught me — besides that Tina Fey should not do accents — it’s about shiva, the Jewish tradition in response to the death of an immediate family member. I’d heard of shiva before but for the first time saw it dramatized in the film, […]
The Body and the Coffin
This one comes to us from Kurt Armstrong. A few years ago I built a coffin for my father-in-law Walter. I made it with oak plywood, the oak a nice veneer, the plywood strong and stable so it wouldn’t warp or twist or cup. I built it, stained it, and varnished it, and I kept […]
