Post 8--The Funeral Industry (1)

Post 8—The Funeral Industry (1)—An Unfinished Business 
  
The second post in this series dealt with remembering and honouring the dead. There is so much more to be said about related subjects, but all kinds of subjects are crowding me in more and more as I read the news media. I should probably quit reading and just finish off the subjects currently crowding me in. I’m afraid that won’t happen any time soon, since I am a news junky. But it means I have been jumping from one topic to another, occasionally promising to come back to it. 

It’s often said that two things in life are inescapable, taxes and death. It’s not true, of course, for there are any number of smart asses and loopholes that, with the help of accountants, somehow manage to get around taxes. But with death, there are no loopholes or accountants. 
Being a senior, I am, in addition to taxes, naturally interested in everything connected to end-of-life issues, including funerals and cemeteries. So, here I am, continuing on a subject related to Post 2, which dealt with remembering and honouring the dead. 

I am also intensely interested in everything related to oppression, cheating, fraud, gauging, taking advantage of the distressed. You’ll find these concerns pop up throughout this blog. It fits into my main thesis that everyone in this world is my neighbour whom I need to respect and defend. The actual and most powerful term is “love,” which is the key mutual obligation we all have towards each other.

So, then, what’s with the funeral industry? For one thing, it’s something we all face at one time or another, either for yourself or for a loved one. You avoid it only at your own peril or that of your loved ones. Making pre-arrangements and stating your intentions for the disposal of your own remains clearly in your will or other official document is doing a huge favour to those who will be responsible for your disposal. If all choices and decisions have to be made after you die, you leave your survivors with difficult decisions at a time they are most likely emotionally distressed. Funeral homes often take advantage of distressed emotions by talking their clients into expensive decisions that are totally unnecessary. 

Probably the best article I have ever read on this subject is the front page article of the Vancouver Courier of October 31, 2008, written by Michael McCarthy and titled, “Dead Reckoning” (www.vancourier.com). It deals with the local Vancouver BC situation, but I’m sure it is typical of almost any location in North America. Besides, it tells a lot of gory stuff about the large corporations in the business, the largest of which is said to be Texas-based Service Corp International. So, a local article but with tentacles all over the continent.  

All this introductory stuff and I haven’t said a thing yet, really. So, since you have a few days before the next installment, look up this article before you read the next post. Obviously I cannot leave it at this. But, I promise, one more on this subject and we move on to more lively topics--pun intended. 

Post 7--Knowing of My Heart: A Prayer-Poem

Post 7--  Knowing of my Heart—A Prayer-Poem  

By Trevor Hooper Kilian  

Today, a prayer-poem by a friend of mine. Please enjoy and mull over it.  A few comments after the reading.

Awaken the senses of my heart,

so that my heart will speak louder than my head.

Awaken my heart to Your Eyes,

so I will see You more clearly, in all that I do.

Awaken my heart to Your Voice,

so that I listen, understand and be still.

Awaken my heart to Your Word,

so I may speak with great clarity, confidence and compassion.

Awaken my heart to Your Touch,

so that I feel Your Presence around me and know I am never alone.

Awaken my heart every day,

Knowing I rise with Your Grace to serve and love others.

Help me surrender my heart to You always,

Trusting that Your Will, not mine, is The Way.

Trevor Kilian is my chiropractor in downtown Vancouver.  He has this prayer-poem on the wall in his waiting room. I so appreciate the prayer-poem for its content not only, but also that he has it on public display. So, we’re back to prayer. Vancouver is a deeply secular city, where it is not politically correct to bring religion or spirituality into your business.Trevor is taking some risk in hanging this on his office wall. You cannot predict how some secular resident will react to it.

The central theme in this poem is the centrality of the heart in our lives, a thesis that also will underlie these blogs.  Marxists place economics in the centre of things; humanists and other secularists give that place to reason; but in Christianity it is the heart that directs the affairs of all of us.  The meaning of this thesis will become clear as we proceed. You will see that it is a powerful thesis that has been defended in Canadian courts and, at times, accepted, at least as to its implications. 

So, read this poem over a few times and mull it over.  “Awaken my heart, knowing I rise…to serve and love others.”  Serving and loving--again, a theme of this blogspot with its title of “My World—My Neighbour.”  It would make a great new year’s resolution, don’t you think? 

Post 6--2014 AD -- The Year of Our Lord

Post 6   2014 AD—The Year of Our Lord   

During the last few months of 2013 I was head over heels into writing projects, all of which had claim to some urgency. Well, I finished most of the work on them and I am now waiting for various odds and ends on each one of them, some of which will be done by Fran, my wife, while others require the input of “outsiders,” So, from here on those projects will be slow going, but in the meantime, I can pick up my blogging again with every intention and hope of being more regular. In fact, that’s one of my new year’s resolutions that I will take seriously.  

I have not been an ardent new year’s resolutionist over the years, but this year I decided to make some and to see if I can stick to them. One is actually a prayer, the Serenity Prayer which goes like this:

          God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to      
          change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. 

How can a prayer be a resolution? There are many different kinds of prayers. Some you just pray them; others, like this one, if they are to be answered by God, must be incorporated in your life style. If you just pray it but do nothing towards its fulfillment, it will not be answered. So, in this case, both the prayer and resolution are the same: I pray that I will develop it into my basic attitude. 

You may be objecting that this is a pretty lame resolution, but for a guy like me, it’s an entire turn around in my life. I have always had the macho attitude that if we humans created a condition, we can change it. I have had brazen courage like few others to try to change things and have sometimes berated people who thought it couldn’t be done. But over the last decade or so I have slowly come to realize that not all things can be changed, at least, not the way you’d like to see them changed. That has introduced a kind of freedom in my spirit; I no longer have the urge that no matter what the condition, I can and therefore must try to change it. 

On the other hand, may this not lead to a false kind of passivism or quietism on my part so I just fold my hands. But, I guess, at age 76 one is allowed to occasionally just fold your hands and pray!

Happy New Year!