Month: May 2014

I wish I could remember where I either heard or read Jürgen Moltmann describe the relationship her perceived between our fear death and our city planning. Unfortunately I can’t remember the source so as to cite it. I will briefly describe what I remember and then add the fascinating info I learned from the wonderful podcast “Backstory” (which you should listen to if you are a history buff).

150 years ago if you were close to a non-accidental death you would probably be at home and die at surrounded by loved ones. Once you died your body would be taken care of, washed and prepared for burial, by those same loved ones. You would would be left in your, or a family member’s, parlor for a wake, and then be buried in the center of the community next to the church, where your loved ones who pass by you regularly. You would be dead and yet still a part of the community.

Now if you are close to a non-accidental death you are most likely in a hospital surrounded by professionals. Actually, if you are really close to death you will most likely be pushed away from the regular hospital population to a special hospice area, almost like we are afraid your death will spread to others who are supposed to get better. When you die your body will then be handed over to other professionals who will clean and prepare your body for burial by pumping you full of chemicals. These chemicals will allow your spread out family members to make it to the funeral home for a your funeral, which will most likely be held in a funeral parlor. You will then be buried on the outskirts of the city in a cemetery that will require your loved ones to make special trips in order to see your grace.

When I read/heard this I was amazed by the point that was being made – a connection between a fear of death and our city planning. Then this week I listened to the “Backstory” podcast “Grave Matters.” This podcast episode is a history of death and mourning in America. One of the segments deals with the amazing amount of influence that the massive death toll of the Civil War has had on American culture. Much of modern ritual around death and burial is shaped by the Civil War and the understanding of the “good death” at that time. The basic understanding of a “good death” was to:

• to be ready for death
• to died at home
• to die surrounded by loved ones
• to die at peace

The Civil War made much of those four goals impossible for many. Death happened suddenly, away from home, surrounded by enemies and strangers, in fear. Thanks to better development in chemical embalming the funeral industry tried to jump into the breach. Embalming meant that a chemically preserved body could be shipped back to the family. Professionals then encouraged people to no longer hold the wake in the family parlor. Instead, they created funeral parlors for people to use for their wakes. American culture reacted by disassociating the word “parlor” from the home. If parlors were now a part of the funeral homes, then to avoid the idea of death we would change the name of that room in our homes. So we picked a new name that would be the most opposite possible of the parlor room that we used to use for wakes. We picked “living room,” which ironically is still where the least amount of living in most homes takes place.

Anyhow the whole thing fascinated me.

I have heard the Frog in Boiling Water story many times but today I heard a podcast that mentioned the science behind it. The story/metaphor goes like this.

If you put a frog in boiling water it will jump out immediately because it feels the pain and senses the danger. Where as if you put a frog in ambient temperature water and slowly raise the temp to boiling it will sit there until it dies.

It is a good metaphor for a lot of things that go on in life. Of course, just because it is a good metaphor doesn’t mean that it is true and that was what the podcast talked about. You can read the whole thing on the wikipedia page concerning the story. My favorite parts are three things concerning the story:

• One researcher (trying to find a physical location for the soul) determined that a frog with its brain removed would stay in the slowly heated water to its boiling point, while an intact frog would jump out. Makes me laugh just typing it out. Might as well of tacked the frog to the bottom of the pan and then said a tacked down frog doesn’t jump out of the slowly heated water.

• One researcher pointed out the story most be false because frogs never stay still for experiments, or much of life. Therefore, it would`t matter what the temperature of the water was the frog would jump out of the container if it could because that is simply what frogs do.

• Finally one researcher pointed out that if you put a frog in boiling water it won’t be able to jump out because it will be dead.

It is still an excellent metaphor for many things that happen in life. We will put up with a lot, even much that is bad for us, if it only happens incrementally.

• I bought my phone used off of Ebay for use on Ting and it came with a few musical selections already on it that weren’t mine. The only reason I noticed this is because every now and then when scanning my music I would see something and think to myself “how did I get that.” I don’t usually notice it too much because I am usually listening to specific music rather than a random shuffle of everything on my phone. Today I noticed some music that was too much for me to ignore. An album from one of the Twilight movies has apparently been lurking on my phone for the 8 months I have had it. That was too much and I tracked down all the errant music and deleted it. I am a little ashamed of some of the music that the previous owner left on my phone (two full albums from the Voice) and I now feel like I need to take a shower.
• While great for running music Rage Against the Machine isn’t very conducive for sermon preparation. On the other hand, Music for Airports by Brian Eno is awesome for sermon prep. Robert Johnson & Etta James aren’t bad for sermon prep either.
• I pretty much only have three sources of music selection now:

1. My past – Either the constant rotation of (The Clash, The Police, U2, & Bob Marley) or the rediscovery of (recently this has meant Kansas & the Dead Kennedys) music that I listened to in my younger years.
2. My kids – Adam and Noah end up introducing me to groups that they listen to that I think are actually good. I try not to admit this to them because I don’t want them to get big heads.
3. NPR bumper music – It is amazing the number of bands that I have grown to like simply because their music acts as bumper music during certain NPR podcasts that I listen to.
• Rich Mullins’ A Liturgy, A Legacy, & a Ragamuffin Band is one of my favorite albums ever. I have recently gone through a kick of listening to it again and it still isn’t old. All the better with the rainy weather we have had all week long.