Nothing is set in stone, except of course your epitaph. In a recent essay for Aeon, Tom Pitock mused on the difficulty of writing his own father’s epitaph, and why we etch words on tombstones to remember people we loved. But not every culture uses epitaphs, as Pitock learned in Greenland: It took real effort to find the cemetery […]
death
Posted inNonfiction
Gravity
‘My daughter doesn’t have a father, or, she has two fathers, since I don’t know which man her father is. One of her fathers says it’s like Schrödinger’s cat in there.’
Posted inNonfiction, Story
Gravity
‘My daughter doesn’t have a father, or, she has two fathers, since I don’t know which man her father is. One of her fathers says it’s like Schrödinger’s cat in there.’
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
The Rise of Embalming
Ironically, it was this desire to be close to the dead that ultimately helped usher bodies out of the home. Embalming—which advanced as a science around the same time as the Civil War—allowed for the corpses of men who had died on far-off battlefields to return home for some semblance of the Good Death. “Families […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
A Hospital Chaplain Reflects on Poetry and Dying
A few weeks later, my friend sends me a copy of Dunn’s poem “A Coldness.” The speaker says about his sick brother, “From then on he was delusional, / the cancer making him / stupid, insistently so, and lost. / I wanted him to die. / And I wished his wife / would say A […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
So You Want to Be Cryonically Frozen—What Happens Next?
Alcor agreed to accept Matheryn as a patient, and enrolled her as a member. The initial plan was to fly Einz to the United States while she was still alive, so Alcor’s team could perform the procedure domestically. That procedure is complex and highly invasive; the BBC calls it “intense.” It involves moving the patient onto an ice bed, […]
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction
The King’s Last Game
Elvis Presley and I had at least one thing in common: A love of racquetball.
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Story
The King’s Last Game
Elvis Presley and I had at least one thing in common: A love of racquetball.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
How ‘Body Worlds’ Inspired People to Leave Their Bodies to Science
Von Hagens has no shortage of donors. His exhibitions have used 1,100 bodies – but he claims to have another 12,100 living donors signed up. One is Emma Knott, a PR consultant in London. “I was so inspired after I saw the exhibition], which is why I made that decision,” she says. But does she have reservations? “Not really, I mean let’s face it I’m going to be dead.” For her, the attraction lies in encouraging people to get excited about science and anatomy.
Posted inNonfiction, Profiles & Interviews, Quotes
Lucinda Williams on Grief and Her Father’s Inspirational Words
The American poet Miller Williams — father of alt-country singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams — passed away on January 1st, 2015. In this interview with Paste Magazine, Lucinda Williams reflects on her father’s influence in her life and on her work. Not only did he encourage her to pursue music, his words inspired many of her songs.