HW 49 - Comments on Best of Your Break HW

Comments Given:

Sophia S. :
In response to your interview with your aunt "M", I thought it was very smart of you to connect us separating ourselves from the dead or the dying "because that would involve facing the fact that it's going to happen". This relates to a similar point the author of my book, Tom Jokinen, made about humans making the topic of death and the dead a taboo in general because it is an aspect of nature we can't control. I believe that your aunt had a good point about dying at home being a better environment for the one who is dying. One thing you can explore is how dying at home effects everyone else in the family. Another thing you could explore that you mentioned in this post is how formal funerals are more suppressed and why or why not this may be true.

Chris R. :
I like your honest approach to what you do and don't know. Somethings you can think about to go past your initial thoughts are what goes behind organizing a funeral and why are they organized the way they are? Considering every way a body is handled after it is dead as "care for the dead" is a good mindset to have because there are intentions for everything we choose to do and the body is involved in every situation. I think it was very important when you stated:"thinking about someone who has died makes you wonder about your own death." because it seems to be the general reaction of everyone. I wonder why that is usually the initial reaction after someone has died rather than thinking about the person as a whole.

Comments Recieved:

Sophia S.: 

I really liked your last paragraph, because you said what you learned from talking with your grandmother ("Having built up emotions and guilt with no resolution can definitely cause emotional distress, and not being able to ever know how the deceased feels adds to the grief of the mysterious aspect of death")and stated how it affected you ("It is only human to feel unbalanced when you are handling unresolved hardships, but this reminds me how important it is to always express how I truely feel to people and always look for closure in different circumstances"). I also thought that this was a really good insight: "If your connection to whomever is deceased is weak (or has been weakened) it is very easy to begin to focus on yourself and how you feel about the situation, which isn't necessarily selfish." You acknowledged the fact that people don't always think about the deceased person - they will focus on themselves, and the situation they are in, and how they have to act. 

 

Chris R.:

I liked this blog post because you decided to use your grandparents instead of friends, cousins, parents or something like that. I feel like this is one of the more unique blog posts because it has the point of view of a grandparent who has obviously been alive longer then a parent, a cousin, or a friend. The only thing that that I would suggest for you to have done would have been list the questions. I kind of wanted to know what you asked them because you said "Perhaps the deaths that he held closest to him were the deaths of his parents. His father was a marine in WW2 and was given a veteran burial plot because of it". I just wanted to know where this came up in the conversation it is something that I wanted to know more about because "insight" is overused in this course. Interest is what I think everyone should go for, and i enjoyed reading this however I thought with a few minor things it could have been very interesting. 

 

Marcus B. (mentor):

i think this is the most personal and in depth of all your posts. you reminded me that people tend to avoid the subject of death which can have some negative repercussions.  you will be much more prepared when the inevitable happens, if you come to terms and deal with the subject of death. you will also probably have a better relationship with your loved one knowing that your time with them wont last forever. as you said "having built up emotions and guilt with no resolution can definitely cause emotional distress". thinking about death will most likely allow you to connect with your loved one and try to resolve whatever issues you may have before they die. it also allows you to prepare for respectful final ceremony for your loved one. it cant be easy to arrange a funeral for someone if you aren't quite sure of how they would like to be remembered.