Wednesday, June 23, 2010

obit blogs

Even though this is my fourth entry that has touched on the topic of death, I swear I'm not obsessed with it. At least not in a Harold and Maude "I go to funerals" kind of way.



I will admit to being somewhat fascinated by death as well as pretty scared of it too. But one thing that I actually enjoy and find a kind of comfort in is obituaries. I love the idea that everyone's life is a story and after you die it can all be summed up into a few paragraphs to be shared with everyone. With celebrities, it's always interesting to see what aspects of their lives are focused on. Even if said celebrity (I'm not mentioning names, but I'm sure you can guess) lived a life of secrecy and accusation of things we will never know if they were guilty of or not, their obituary will only remember what was good about them. In fact, we can end up feeling really good about a celebrity on a personal level after reading their obituary.

I noticed a while back that the Los Angeles Times has an obituary blog in the blogs section of their website. Brilliant! This makes even more sense than their paper obits. It seems like a more permanent and meaningful tribute to the deceased. Sometimes the blog will be about the anniversary of someone's death or sometimes it will just be a simple link to a story that has something to do with obituaries in general. today I found such a link...Stint On the Obit Beat Reveals Dangers of Incuriosity.

A happy story about obituary writing with a positive message at the end. We should all remember to be curious and to go out and live our lives.

"A lot of people enjoy being dead. But they're not dead, really. They're just... backing away from life. Reach out. Take a chance. Get hurt, even! Play as well as you can. Go team! Go! Give me an L! Give me an I! Give me a V! Give me an E! L. I. V. E. LIVE! ...Otherwise, you got nothing to talk about in the locker room."

-Maude (Ruth Gordon) in Harold and Maude

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