Obituaries are the only redemptive news anymore
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Trailblazing author Toni Morrison was the first African American woman to win the Nobel prize for literature, died Aug. 5. Her legacy goes beyond awards. (Video: Adriana Usero/Photo: Illustration: Sarah Hashemi/The Washington Post)
"Toni Morrison is dead. So are D.A. Pennebaker and Aretha Franklin, and Philip Roth, Stephen Hawking, Ursula K. Le Guin, Milos Forman and too many others to name, even when limited to artists and writers who have perished in the past few years alone. By some accounts, two people die every second, thousands every hour, tens of millions every year. But at this moment in American life, the death of our best people has become a collective lifeline and refuge from our anxieties. It sometimes seems that the obituary is the only news that makes us feel whole.
Morrison was our essential conscience, a writer of narrative brilliance and moral clarity. The magnitude of her loss, at this moment in our descent into barbarism, is incalculable. But to spend time today with her work, with memories of her life and the testimony of those who knew her, is infinitely more rewarding than reading about all the other terrible things that have happened in the past few days. The deaths of artists and other creators make us reflective, and we live at a moment when looking back is much easier than looking forward." From The Washington Post, 8/7/2019.
Yes, I do read obituaries. No, I don't remember when I started, but others in my age cohort tell me that they also read them. After my previous blog about the lack of candor in obituaries and eulogies a friend forwarded an obituary that included the line "she was never a great student" 😃 It does say something about our time if we must turn to obituaries for inspiration. However, in any circumstance Toni Morrison's obituary would be inspiring.
Did you ever think about writing your obituary? Perhaps that is only a question a person of advanced age would ask. Imagine writing your obituary...what in your life was most significant that you'd want to emphasize? He/she took time to smell the flowers? She/he attended 3000 committee meetings? He/she visited XX countries? He/she saved his/her pennies to give his/her dollars away?
Fill in the blanks for your obit.
Takk for alt
Al
Yes, I do read obituaries. No, I don't remember when I started, but others in my age cohort tell me that they also read them. After my previous blog about the lack of candor in obituaries and eulogies a friend forwarded an obituary that included the line "she was never a great student" 😃 It does say something about our time if we must turn to obituaries for inspiration. However, in any circumstance Toni Morrison's obituary would be inspiring.
Did you ever think about writing your obituary? Perhaps that is only a question a person of advanced age would ask. Imagine writing your obituary...what in your life was most significant that you'd want to emphasize? He/she took time to smell the flowers? She/he attended 3000 committee meetings? He/she visited XX countries? He/she saved his/her pennies to give his/her dollars away?
Fill in the blanks for your obit.
Takk for alt
Al
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