Afterwards

[desperance]

Lord, but I do dislike religious funerals. I've known them worse than this - at least the priest presiding had known Fiona, and talked to her seriously over a number of years - but even so, the gist of it all is necessarily about God (in whom we do not believe) rather than about the beloved departed (in whom we do emphatically believe, whom we want to be celebrating, etc etc). As witness his witness about her state of grace, which frankly I simply did not recognise...

But hey, never mind. We all do what we have to do, to get through these things. And there were old friends there, many many friends, packing out the church and the town hall after; she had the send-off she deserved, or the best we could do towards it. And afterwards there were pubs - three, I think, in succession - and then home to someone else's house for dinner and more drinking, and so finally home to my own, and these are the days that we simply live through, because it's necessary.

Comments

[fjm.livejournal.com]

Quakers don't have funerals. We have celebrations of a life. Anyone at the meeting can get up and say anything that mattered to them.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

...which is pretty much what I want myself - a sort of autoceremonial, where the ritual is once-and-once-only, constructed in situ - in other words, you-all make it up as you go along, y'hear? It's always been the way I dealt with the world, and I see no reason to change the habits of a lifetime.

I've always liked Quakers.

[cornishmoth.livejournal.com]

Chaz mate, you're losing too many good friends lately...

Accept some long-distance positive vibes and a cyberhug. ((HUG))

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I know it, Moth - when they told me the world was getting smaller, I didn't realise they meant this kind of reduction.

Thank you for the hugging. Hugs good.

[durham-rambler.livejournal.com]

Chaz,
I think you seriously need to downgrade your LJ account to a free one to avoid the adverts in the right hand column. You know I'm right with you about God (non-existence of) yet mention of the deity and words like priest have triggered Google to place ads like 'Are You Called To Be A Catholic monk, nun, or priest? Free online test.' Plus Jehovah's witnesses, 'Wear the Joy of Jesus' and 'We'll pay you $300 right now for a quick Jesus survey.'

R

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Eww - sorry, this is consequence of a deep misunderstanding. I thought it was only me that got to see the adverts.

On the other hand, I confess to being kind of amused by this kind of marketing. They give themselves away with every word; anyone fool enough to follow through, well, they deserve each other, and I'm sure they'll be very happy together.