‽istis wonders at those who manage the dying (weekending November 19th
2022)
Back in July 2021, ‽istis wondered and
reclaimed dying[i] as a loved-one prepared to
‘cross the bar’. This week, attending another funeral, ‽istis wonders at those
who manage the dying – including for the 11,795 people whose death was
registered in England and Wales in the week ending Nov 4th (latest
available)[ii]:
‽ the slow decline in mind and body or catastrophic emergency health crisis as the inevitable approaches sooner or later (but never if…) and with all that may mean: patience, lack of squeamishness, coping with bodily fluids – cleaning, mopping, washing - great skill and care, diagnosing, prescribing, operating technical medical equipment and managing complex procedures, feeding, encouraging drinking, mitigating pain if possible[iii], repeating things over and over again, end of life 'doula-ing', comforting, weeping-with, holding hands…
‽ the last rites – sacred or secular, formularied or improvised perhaps
from sentiment deep within and generations bestowed…
‽ the dignified handling of the body – investigation if that is
needed, preparation, storage, transport in common likelihood from bed to gurney
to coffin to graveyard or crematorium, to soil, to box…
‽ the funeral or memorial (direct, essential or tailored[iv] – family, friends, acquaintances, the
respect-payers – and everyone behind the scenes: funeral directors,
pall-bearers, drivers, celebrants (all perhaps in touch with the sacred,
whether religious or otherwise), gravediggers, crematoria manages and
technicians, florists, musicians, poets, liturgists, readers, eulogisers
(flowing eloquently or managing the catch in the throat and the need for breath
or to manage the tears), singers, silent witnesses, the caterers…
‽ registrars, solicitors, the administrators of charities and banks and data-management...
‽ kind friends and family, sometimes strangers, perhaps therapists…
‽ and on and on across the many and
varied roles and ways we, mostly, somehow manage and cope before, during and
after…
And what is left in mind for ‽istis, or for you, at the end of
this pondering at the managing of death…‽ Once again perhaps
there is a sense of an essential complex connectedness of people; possibly a
reminder of our common final physical fate; maybe a fresh appreciation and wonder
in the thick and sometimes thinness[v] of
what might be seen as the fragility and miraculousness of life…‽
©
‽istis
NB: further reflections and comments linked to this week’s theme and
past blog entries to be found on Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t
necessarily indicate approval, sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’:
@Pistis_wonders. ‘Follows’ and respectful comment and dialogue welcome...
[i] https://pistisrec.blogspot.com/2021/07/pistis-reclaims-dying-weekending-july.html
Blog from July 24th 2021
[ii] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/weeklyprovisionalfiguresondeathsregisteredinenglandandwales
[iii] And
not forgetting all the services and people that lie behind these activities
e.g: pharmaceutical companies, researchers and scientists, manufacturers of PPE
– all those then involved in managing and supplying resource materials,
finished goods, deliveries, administrating etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc…
[iv] References
include: https://www.coop.co.uk/funeralcare/funeral-services/direct-cremations; https://www.cremation.org.uk/statistic;
https://www.communitycelebrant.co.uk/growth-of-direct-cremations/
[v]
References include: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/travel/thin-places-where-we-are-jolted-out-of-old-ways-of-seeing-the-world.html;
Thin Places, Holy Spaces:
Where Do You Encounter God? - A Sacred Journey; https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/mar/22/this-column-change-your-life-heaven-earth;
