For my last contribution for Fortnight Journal, I was challenged to demonstrate my ideal funeral through a series of photographs. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as an ideal funeral — to…
March 5, 2012 | Blog
Yearly Archives: 2012
Guest Essay: Sympathy for the Tumor
Andy Prendergast, scientist and good friend of the Order, wrote us a provocative essay on cancer and where it fits into our evolutionary development. If you like hard science made accessible and…
March 2, 2012 | Blog
Sympathy for the tumor, or: how I learned to stop worrying and love cancer
Andy Prendergast is a developmental biologist studying fate choice in neural crest. He lives in Seattle and just published this paper in Development. *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Every malefactor, by attacking social rights, becomes…
March 2, 2012 | Essays by Contributors
Mission Update: Relationship with Death
Updated Mission section for the Order, On the Fear of Death There is absolutely nothing wrong with being interested in mortality and death. Don’t let anyone ever tell you you are “sick”…
March 2, 2012 | Blog
Which Mortality Remindin’ Shirt is for You?
If you’re looking to spread mortality awareness through your apparel, look no further. Your first option is from a Buddhist website, hoping you’ll look toward your impermanence as a living creature. What…
February 27, 2012 | Blog
Of Modern Mourning & Hair Leaves
As you may know, The Order is very big on the use of hair as a relic and tool of mourning. (See: Ask a Mortician Ep 5 & Hair Essay) Jenine Shereos, unbeknownst…
February 23, 2012 | Blog
[My Long Term Relationship With Death]
Lukas McLaughlin is an embalming student at the British Institute of Embalmers and the Irish College of Funeral Directing and Embalming. He contacted me first on Twitter (where you can find him…
February 22, 2012 | Essays // Essays by Contributors
Dead Bodies Look Like Dead Bodies
Hey guys, Ampersand Gallery, in Portland, is having an exhibition of morgue photography from the 1930s. Oh. Whoops. The exhibition was in 2010. My bad. I’m putting these up anyway because they…
February 21, 2012 | Blog
The Order & the Old Zoo
This past Sunday, the Los Angeles members of the Order of the Good Death visited the abandoned caves and cages and grottoes of the old Griffith Park Zoo. As a side note:…
February 16, 2012 | Blog
In Dead Earnest
IN DEAD EARNEST If I should die before I wake All my bone and sinew take Put them in the compost pile To decompose a little while Sun, rain and worms…
February 15, 2012 | Blog
Green (not Soylent) Death Art
I’m just going to say it — Art surrounding natural burial can be tacky. “End of Life Shamans” who come to your house and burn incense and decorate your cardboard casket with…
February 10, 2012 | Blog
Fortnight Journal: Death & We Three
CLICK HERE for a new piece written for Fortnight Journal.
February 6, 2012 | Blog