Strange to Say by Deborah Warren

Author:Deborah Warren
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Paul Dry Books
Published: 2021-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

15

The Last Word

Death

A child barely gives a passing thought to death: he’ll be infinity years old when it happens. An adult, however, occasionally experiences a memento mori—which literally says “Remember to die” (exactly the kind of thing that might slip your mind, so add it to your to-do list, and don’t spell it “momento”).

This little chapter is light on etymology, heavy on irreverence. Chapter, by the way, like chef above, goes back to Latin caput, capitis, “head.” Other derivatives include cap; the music-score directive da capo, “from the top”; capital punishment (beheading); and the orthographically pesky capital/Capitol.

Sad to say, a political or cultural rock star will often die an inglorious death. Attila the Hun died of a nosebleed in 453. Tamerlane, the Mongol conqueror, who vied with Attila for copyright on the title “Scourge of God,” succumbed to a head cold. One story claims Elvis perished from drug-induced constipation, not that I ought to contribute to that rumor. Sennacherib the Assyrian was squashed beneath a massive statue of a bull.

We’ll discuss animals in the next two chapters, but what about a pet’s demise?

Millions of us face another type of brush with death. The rainbow is the symbol of two international organizations. It’s widely celebrated as the emblem of the LGBTQ movement. But you may not know of the Rainbow Bridge Support Community for mourners of pets: “Whether furry, feathered or scaled, all are welcome here.”

A Rainbow Residency Memorial Membership buys a virtual cemetery plot where you can leave new toys and flowers as well as add more memories and photos, change the music, and more. “At the Candle Ceremony—9 p.m. weekly EST, other times internationally—we honor our furchildren and feathered friends.” The grief support community donates to animal shelters partial proceeds of their sales of products like the Forever Spot Pet Shroud and personalized Mourninglights Candles.

But: to repudiate my snarky tone, I too have mourned for pets, and the grief is real.

Turning to a Christian view of animal death, Pope Francis, namesake of St. Francis of Assisi, patron of animals, believes in an animal afterlife. Coincidentally (speaking of popes and the Rainbow Bridge), the source of pontiff is pontifex, “bridge-builder.” The Gospel says not a single sparrow shall fall on the ground unless God wills it. (Incidentally, Gospel came from German gut-spiel, which became English “good story.” Although Spiel = German for “game,” the Yiddish spiel—long recitation—may derive from High German spellon, “to tell.” Spiel is cousin to spell, “fable.”) Speaking of papacy and birds, a turkey’s pope’s nose is its rump, more formally, its pygostyle. Steatopygia means fat buttocks, if you’ve been looking for the scientific name.

A potter’s field is a paupers’ burial place: clay soil, though excellent for pottery, was no good for crops, so it was put to use for graves. The phrase is a gift of Judas Iscariot, the hit man paid thirty pieces of silver for betraying Christ. He remorsefully gave back the blood money, which was used to buy a potter’s field for Jesus’s burial.

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