Crafting Meaningful Funeral Rituals by Jeltje Gordon-Lennox

Author:Jeltje Gordon-Lennox
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781784507466
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Published: 2019-10-04T16:00:00+00:00

Checklist for a funeral ceremony

There is something remarkably reassuring about lists. Lists appear simple, often deceptively so. A child can use a list to pick up things for his parents from the corner store. Students, business people, factories and bus companies use agendas, schedules or some form of a timetable to keep track of commitments and deadlines. A person with a failing memory can follow a list to remind herself of her daily routine.

Checklists are required for success, affirms surgeon Atul Gawande (2011, p.79). He distinguishes between three kinds of problems: the simple, the complicated and the complex.

Whether one is building a basic bookcase, a complicated rocket to go to the moon or a complex skyscraper, Gawande insists that the really important things in life should not be left to memory, or to chance.

Under conditions of complexity such as landing an aircraft, operating on a heart or ritualizing a life event, checklists are not optional for success. The Checklist for a funeral ceremony undergirds the three-phase creative process of ritualmaking proposed in this book. It helps keep mourners on track. This checklist got one family to fix their attention on writing the homage and put aside – at least until after the funeral – the hurt caused by their father’s favouritism.

While a checklist is no substitute for common sense and skill, and it does not list everything one should do, it does guide the designated craftspeople as they identify what is at the heart of the funeral ceremony. It obliges everyone to pause and reflect. The true beauty of the checklist lies in how it makes it possible for people to communicate and assume responsibility – and credit – for the end results.

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