The Dead Pet Paradox
People appear to be WAY more affected by the deaths of their animals than the deaths of their humans.
When you quit your creative career of 12+ years to start over as a funeral worker, people look at you funny.
“You’re gonna waste creativity on dead people?”
“But…you struggled touching your eye when you first started wearing contact lenses.”
“Is this just because you like Caitlin Doughty?”
Valid points. But amazingly, I’m not an anomaly. The students in my Apprentice Class were a mixed bag of professionals looking for deeper purpose, or at least different purpose – a family physician, Delta flight attendant, construction worker, gang mediator, homicide investigator, and me, a cagey creative director. It was our own morbid version of The Breakfast Club.
The point of my pilgrimage is not to exploit death (reverence is everything in the funeral industry), but rather to pull the curtain back on what can be learned from death before it arrives at our doorsteps.
Join me in learning how to truly live!
xoxo
Graveyard Girl
People appear to be WAY more affected by the deaths of their animals than the deaths of their humans.
My brain unpacks the enormity of my days when I’m doing something monotonous like running errands.
Things that gross me out: Loogies. Condiment nozzle crust. Donating plasma.
Most of my first impressions come from behind the zip of a body bag.
Personal effects of the dead have a special way of breaking your heart.
I think about this heart-breaker of a line from The Book Thief every time someone dies.