“There are those, too, who are ethnically predisposed in favor of funerals, who recognize among the black drapes and dirges an emotionally potent and spiritually stimulating intersection of the living and the dead. In death and its rituals, they see the leveled playing field so elusive in life. Whether we bury our dead in Wilbert Vaults, leave them in trees to be eaten by birds, burn them or beam them into space; whether choir or cantor, piper or jazz band, casket or coffin or winding sheet, ours is the species that keeps track of our dead and knows that we are always outnumbered by them.”
― The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade
― The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade
“It was there, in the parlors of the funeral home---my daily stations with the local lately dead---that the darkness would often give way to light. A fellow citizen outstretched in his casket, surrounded by floral tributes, waiting for the homages and obsequies, would speak to me in the silent code of the dead: "So, you think you're having a bad day?" The gloom would lift inexplicably. Here was one to whom the worst had happened, often in a variety of ways, and yet no word of complaint was heard from out the corpse. Nor did the world end, nor the sky fall, nor his or her people become blighted entirely. Life, it turns out, goes on with or without us. There is at least as much to be thankful for as wary of.”
― Bodies in Motion and at Rest: On Metaphor and Mortality
― Bodies in Motion and at Rest: On Metaphor and Mortality
“Sometimes I stand among the stones and wonder. Sometimes I laugh, sometimes I weep. Sometimes nothing at all much happens. Life goes on. The dead are everywhere.”
― The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade
― The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade
“The sad truths I've been taught by the families of the dead are these: seeing is believing; knowing is better than not knowing; to name the hurt returns a kind of comfort; the grief ignored will never go away. For those whose sons and daughters, husbands, wives, mothers, fathers and friends went off alive and never did return, the worst that can happen has already happened. The light and air of what is known, however difficult, is better than the dark. The facts of death, like the facts of life, are required learning.”
― Bodies in Motion and at Rest: On Metaphor and Mortality
― Bodies in Motion and at Rest: On Metaphor and Mortality
“We do not want to destroy unnecessarily what men spent so much time and care and skill in making... for these examples of craftsmanship tell us so much about our ancestors... If these things are lost or broken or destroyed, we lose a valuable part of our knowledge about our forefathers. No age lives entirely alone; every civilization is formed not merely by its own achievements but by what it has inherited from the past. If these things are destroyed, we have lost a part of our past, and we shall be the poorer for it.”
―
―
Lo’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Lo’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Art, Biography, Chick-lit, Classics, Contemporary, Fantasy, Fiction, Gay and Lesbian, Historical fiction, History, Humor and Comedy, Memoir, Music, Mystery, Non-fiction, Paranormal, Philosophy, Poetry, Psychology, Romance, Science, Science fiction, Self help, Spirituality, Sports, Travel, and Young-adult
Polls voted on by Lo
Lists liked by Lo
























