Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Interesting Concept...

I just read a book that has me scratching my head and wondering about things, so I thought I'd take a moment to share....

Yesterday I finished Kris Radish's book, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral. It's a book about a middle- aged woman named Annie who has died and planned this fantastic traveling funeral for her best friends-- no traditional ceremony/memorial service for this woman! She sends them to the places that mean the most to her and where she left, or in some cases found, a little bit of herself. At each spot she asks her best friends to spread her ashes, in order to help them let her go. In the process of the funeral, the women find each other and are reminded how important it is to make the most of life at every turn. The women walk away as tight friends who realize it's important to remember those who have gone before, but it's also important to keep on living, loving, and forgiving. Generally speaking, it's standard "chick lit" (In other words, it's not Walt Whitman, Keating, or Hemingway), and it has it's really hoaky moments. At the same time, it still has me contemplating... musing, if you will.

I know thinking about life and death might seem morbid, but this is the kind of book that makes me think about life and death in a non-morbid way. It even sort of feels like a challenge to live life instead of letting life live me. I'll be honest, I'm sort of a sucker for books with this theme, mainly because I've been dead set since high school on living my life to the fullest and sometimes need a reminder or two to keep it that way. It also helps me to reflect on the things (both outlandish and not) that I have done so far, and it makes me wonder where I'd send my best friends if I were to send them on my traveling funeral... Morbid? Maybe. Intriguing? For sure.

So let me ask you, dear friends, where would you send your friends if you were to have them go on your traveling funeral????

3 comments:

Sherrie said...

There are plenty of ways of thinking about death that aren't morbid. Don't worry. You're fine. :)

I don't have an answer to your question yet, but I will be thinking about it. A nice challenge.

Don said...

"The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure." Ec. 7:4

There's a lot to be learned at a funeral (Harold and Maude -- in my day.)

The places I'd send my friends are the places in my heart... available now, on-line, on my blog!

If they don't care enough to find it there, will they really take time for a road-trip?

Mrs. N said...

Don-
Good points. I might argue that there can sometimes be pleasure in mourning right there along with the pain. The book emphasized that a lot the letting go and the healing power of the positive remembering.

Saphron-
I'm not sure I have an answer to my own question yet! I just know it got me thinking about the whole life and death thing... Heck, I'm not even sure I want to be cremated, but I did like the concept of having lots of different resting places... I guess as a wandering spirit it just sort of stuck out to me.

Thanks for the contemplation! :)