tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8018240012302842748.post5489424802553805303..comments2013-01-02T05:36:04.648-08:00Comments on Atlas, Embraced: Four Angry Relatives and a FuneralJoel M-Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09162183253555135534noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8018240012302842748.post-26442808433211446042012-07-16T12:22:52.175-07:002012-07-16T12:22:52.175-07:00At most of the funerals I've been to I have he...At most of the funerals I've been to I have heard the loud, scoffing voice of the dead person behind me, aghast and dismissive of the service that is supposedly about them.<br /><br />But we're Cath-22ed by it. If we have these whitewash affairs we are smarting knowing that they're bullshit. If we told the truth it would make us feel horrifically uncomfortable because we've been so powerfully trained to behave in the polite way. <br /><br />I've also been at the funeral of a great, brave, generous, inventive man where the Humanist celebrant only spoke to the guy's mum. Nobody else. He didn't really get on with his mum and only saw his parents when his life had deflated and he needed somewhere to park his van while he got himself together. As such his funeral ridiculed his levels of hygiene, twice mentioned his alcoholism, yet gave him no credit as a benevolent man who worked as a festival medic, who built great treehouses and fought in the tree protests of the 90s, all the while over-riding a debilitating medical condition that should have seen him cossetted away. An atheist whose funeral was led by a Humanist, the music for reflection was fucking Lord of The Dance. I'm still angry about it years later.<br /><br />There isn't an option that makes us comfortable. Except perhaps only going to funerals of people who really were good, organised by the poeple who really understood them.merrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10959849087751101034noreply@blogger.com