Thanatology Thursday: BUBBLES!!

Way back in September, I wrote a post about vanitas art. At the end, I promised a post on one particular theme in vanitas art, which is a favorite: bubbles. I mean, who doesn’t love bubbles. But, what do these soapy, opalescent orbs have to do with death? Quite simply, there is probably no object […]

Wise Words Wednesday: Poe

This quote from Poe goes right along with our thoughts from yesterday. What is death? What is life? What does it mean to be alive?

Wise Words Wednesday

This quote made me think of an interview I saw this week with documentary film maker, Ken Burns, about the death of his mother when he was a child and the connection of that grief to his work. “The half-life of grief is endless. But it has also been hugely productive. … I didn’t want […]

Visitation

My mother died in June of 2019. It took us months to decide on a gravestone, and the the pandemic slowed everything down. It was finally installed after Thanksgiving, but then it was winter. Yesterday we finally had a beautiful day to visit in person. Her sisters and mother (who turns 91 today. Happy birthday, […]

Media Monday: What does mass media tell us about death?

This winter I’ve been studying thanatology (study of death and dying and how we deal with it socially, psychologically and through arts and humanities) with a text I bought myself for Christmas. One of the first issues brought up in the text is how society, namely media and the arts makes us think about and […]