A mortician takes a walk on the Wilde side - LancasterOnline: Faith And Values

My local story on undertaker Caleb Wilde's unorthodox take on the funeral trade, and his mission: to make it more transparent.



A mortician takes a walk on the Wilde side - LancasterOnline: Faith And Values

Death rituals and the war that changed America

http://lancasteronline.com/lifestyle/faith_and_values/column-death-and-the-war-that-changed-everything/article_3e5ac558-ab27-11e3-bb61-001a4bcf6878.html

Twisted

Forgive me while I have an existential moment here.

I'm a slow learner.  Perhaps it's because I spent a day bookended by nuns that I realized that something in the way I am living a good chunk of my life has gone seriously awry.

Friday morning I spent time traveling around the nation's poorest and most violent city with a sister who is making a huge impact on it because of her visionary and committed work heading a corporation that oversees five parochial schools.

Friday night, adventitiously, I stumbled across this wonderful book review on the website of the New Yorker. The topic? The lives of cloistered sisters and what impels them to leave society, including the world of social media, behind.

  I'm still reflecting on what I saw and read (to be shared in the next blog post), but it was a powerful day.

Yet at the end of it, I realized: there is just too much freaking noise in my head.  

Sounds crazy, right? Like that old Joni Mitchell song, "Twisted"?

But I don't think I'm nuts about the internal racket.  I'm a  social media addict, way too liable to be distracted by the shiny paper and the bright wrappings of another FB post, or clickbait on Twitter.

At the risk of being blunt, sometimes I don't like what I see revealed in the funhouse mirror (though by far the majority of my friends are temperate and wise in what they post).  There is just so much hating, particularly on Twitter, that it sucks the joy out of my heart.  

Social media has democratized conversation, but it's also given us a platform in which to share the debris in our cluttered minds and hearts.

Sometimes I have to take a deep breath and pull myself back from the verge of irritation or "righteous" anger.

I can't decide whether I think we are more true to ourselves online, or if a lot of the attytood we bring to the virtual water cooler is due to what we had for breakfast or drank the night before.

But I am vulnerable.

I know that I'm also a player. I wonder whose day I have ruined with my prating and prejudices, stuck in the same old grooves. 

I'm not sure what to do about the noise. It would be really hard to be a writer and not pay attention to the conversation.

For the moment, it would be good to keep in mind the simple and challenging precept: "in all things, charity." 

Even online. 

Less noise, more love. 

I have a long way to go. 

Can we have a little gateaux with that skull?

Suddenly (or not), it's cool to talk about death.

Death cafes. Death-themed tweets.  Funeral directors who blog and YouTube...conversations and questions  about mortality seem to have sprung up in lots of places you might not expect.

Some of the movement is consumer-oriented, but some of the conversations appear to be impelled by sheer curiosity, or a desire to make some decisions about life's end before it is too late to choose.

This is the first part of a series on death and faith, or unfaith.

In the course of it you will meet an undertaker who has outraged many of his fellow funeral directors. A compassionate advocate for consumer rights.  A former crematory worker who produces videos that explain what happens when people pass on. Clergy who approach death from a faith perspective, and non-religious ritualists who don't.

And academicians, of course to put it all in context and ask more questions.

Because, au fond, when we talk about death, we are still grappling with mystery, anxiety and fear.

Even when we do bring cake.

http://lancasteronline.com/lifestyle/faith_and_values/column-let-s-talk-about-death/article_29418fc6-a0f0-11e3-9a42-001a4bcf6878.html

Brian McLaren isn't going to stop thinking because you say he should

Brian McLaren never seems to stop thinking.  He's a man in search of questions, answers, and even solutions.

Lots of people can't seem to stop blaming him for not staying in one place -- the one where he began. To be fair, he's been tough on evangelical culture.  Perhaps some people feel betrayed.

Yet wherever you find yourself on the love, dislike, or be troubled by Brian spectrum -- the guy will force you to figure out where you stand.

Here's my interview with him.  He's going to be in Lancaster in a few weeks.  Consider attending!

http://lancasteronline.com/lancaster/news/brian-mclaren-to-speak-at-preaching-peace-fundraising-dinner/article_a2203044-9aad-11e3-9802-0017a43b2370.html

My review of Roland Merullo's "Vatican Waltz"

Roland Merullo's newest novel attempts something daring and fairly unusual for modern fiction: delineating the interior spiritual life of a young woman as she comes to believe she is called to do something extraordinary. Here's my review for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/20140209__Vatican_Waltz___Illuminating_novel_of_a_plain_young_woman_impelled_by_her_spirituality.html#trB01Pqqzg3ZdqmD.01

What do those old scriptures have to say about our new snark?

Why do people feel as if they can say derogatory, cruel, and often very personal things about people whose only offense has been to say  something with which they disagree?

What happens to our communities, particularly our faith communities, when we attack and bite and wound each other?

Why do so many "people of faith" jump in there up to their knees in the mud?

And I wonder...would God approve?

I do believe that God is also One of ordinary things. Do you ?

http://lancasteronline.com/lifestyle/faith_and_values/column-does-god-care-about-our-petty-little-squabbles/article_38079af6-8aba-11e3-ae7e-0017a43b2370.html