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Post by haleyjensen on Dec 6, 2013 7:23:18 GMT
This isn't my post about music (I'll address that later) but it is about something we have talked quite a bit about during the past few classes. In one of our recent discussions about tragedy, someone made the observation that our culture is obsessed with death (I believe it was Hannah). For me, this point became very clear today in an article I read in the Lake Oswego Review. The article is titled "Death Café aims to ease concerns about death" (see link below).
There was one sentence about in the article that particularly caught my eye, and it says of the café, "All of the questions you wanted to ask about death but were afraid to ask will finally be answered." The article states this in such a matter of fact fashion that it's a bit difficult for me to swallow. Don't get me wrong; I think that it is very important to grapple with the idea of death and feel the need to have answers. With all due respect, I just find it peculiar that a coffee shop claims to have all the answers to such a mysterious and permanent thing. Death is viewed so differently throughout different cultures and religions, that there is no way I could see the different viewpoints being summarized to give succinct, confident answers about death and what it entails.
However, I am not writing this to protest the coffee shop or the idea it is founded off. I love coffee, and I believe it's important to have safe and comfortable places for people to talk about things they may tend to shy away from. Though a death centered coffee shop sounds a bit morbid, the picture in the article is interestingly juxtaposing; the people look cheerful. Many of them also look elderly, so naturally, I understand why they would want to discuss a topic that is probably becoming very relevant in the later days of their lives. Just as I visit coffee shops to catch up with friends and see what's going on in their lives, some people might want to do the same thing, with death being the subject of what's going on in their lives.
portlandtribune.com/lor/48-news/203442-death-café-aims-to-ease-concerns-about-death
So, questions:
1) There is more than one Death Café; the article made it sound like it's not a new or unheard of concept. Has anybody ever been to one? Care to share your experience? 2) What are your thoughts about this? It would be interesting to hear some feedback from moral critics. 3) Would you visit this café? Do you think there is a certain age you would be most likely to visit Death Café?
Lastly, because death can be unpredictable: I love you guys. Go hug somebody, and have a safe and awesome weekend. |
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Post by Lacey Doby on Dec 7, 2013 19:55:13 GMT
I saw that article too, and at first it did sound really morbid, but then I started thinking about Dia De Los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, and how differently other cultures view death. Here in America we are conditioned to be afraid of death or think of it as a negative thing, but in Mexico, death is celebrated with candy and lights and costumes and basically a nationwide party.
Personally, I like the idea of a safe place to discuss feelings of death, but, since this is America and we all have this cultural idea that death is a negative thing, I feel like a place to meet and just talk about it might just initiate depressing discussion. Or maybe it would be like an emotional roller coaster, but with coffee.
I wish we could view death as a reason to eat candy and wear silly costumes with friends, but it almost seems socially unacceptable to be positive after a person has been lost. Maybe this café seems morbid because it is demonstrating that people can be positive when discussing death, which goes against our idea of social norm. I like the idea of the Death Café, but I think I would probably not visit it because I would want to avoid what seems to be the inevitable direction of the conversation towards fear and sadness.
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Post by natalieskowlund on Dec 8, 2013 1:38:21 GMT
Wow, that's a really interesting idea! If I weren't booked on Sunday, I would actually check it out. The thing is, while the title "Death Café" makes it sound quite ominous, we as humans really need an outlet for our musings about death. And not only that, we need the opportunity to stop automatically associating death with "doom and gloom" and rather look at it holistically. Death doesn't have to be a morose, sorrowful subject (though often it inevitably is), and convening with others who are open to discussing it is the first step in the right direction. I recently listened to an NPR podcast entitled, "Contemplating Mortality." When Dr. Ira Byock was speaking, he noted, "I think the confrontation with death lays bare the spiritual core of the human condition. I mean, death acts like a hot wind to really strip away any pretense a person has, any sense of self, and really exposes our personal essence, our elemental core. What I call a spiritual is our innate response to the at once awe-inspiring and terrifying fact of human life, our experience of life in this universe. You know, in many ways, we're just all hurtling through deep space on this tiny rock called Earth." In confronting death, we also confront the fundamental questions of existence: what does it mean to be alive, who are we, and why are we here? We cannot address those questions without also recognizing the fact that we will not always be alive, not always be someone, and not always be here. We don't know where we're going, but if we want to ponder that, we've got to acknowledge our ultimate mortality. It's not necessarily a bad thing, just a concept that needs addressing. So I suppose we can scoff at Death Café, laugh at it, or...realize that maybe it's not such a radical opportunity. Life doesn't exist without death, so why distance ourselves from it? Thanks for posting this, Haley! It really got me thinking, and that was a really interesting article  |
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