Monday, July 02, 2012

Novel ideas - death, crisis and transformation: or not.

"(the funeral director) told me that most people who come to arrange services don't believe in anything. He said that if he's leanred anything from doing his job, it's that if you don't have a spiritual practice in place when times are good, you can't expect to sudddenly develop one during a moment of crisis. He said we're told by TV and movies and Readers Digest that a crisis will trigger massive personal change - and that those big changes will make the pain worthwhile. But from what he could see, big change almost never happens. People simply feel lost. They have no idea what to say or do or feel or think. they become messes and tend to remain messes. Having a few default hymns and prayers at least makes the lack of crisis-born insight bearable.

The man was a true shepherd of souls." (Douglas Coupland 'The Gum Thief')

still thinking this one through...

No comments:

Post a Comment