HW 49 - Comments on Best of Your Break HW

Comments I made:

John: 
I thought that you discussed some really interesting and strong points in this assignment. If I were to take a guess, I’d say that religion/spirituality has an extreme effect on care of the dead. I thought it peculiar (in a good way) that you focused more on the emotions associated with belief systems and death, but that it did stray away from this unit (it ties a lot into illness and dying but not so much care of the dead).
My favorite line from this post was probably, “This black void the non religious pool”. I personally found it a beautiful line to read. But, your strongest paragraph was your conclusion. I think that connecting what you learned from your peers to your personal beliefs was a really good way to end the post.
There were just a few grammar/spelling mistakes which made some parts strange to read, but overall, really good analysis.

Lucas:

I liked that your intro paragraph told the reader what to expect to learn from the post. I thought that all of the ideas flowed really well.
I did think that you could have pulled some more powerful insights from your interviews but adding some analysis and your own personal preference.
One part I think you could have elaborated more on was "it seems more natural to honor and remember the deceased as they lived". I personally thought that this was an interesting way to see death, and that you could have analyzed it deeper.
Overall your post was really good though.


Comments on my Blog:  
Lucas:

While I'm sure that the interviews were interesting at the time, I don't really feel like either you or I learned very much from them. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes the best texts are ones that don't tell you something new, but organize concepts you were already familiar with in ways that you were not able to before. I enjoy reading books that are set up like this because they help me flesh out my own thoughts.


Your paragraph on emotion was a good start in asking pertinent questions, the topic of emotion related to death is definitely worth writing about in a later paper/project. I think we are all subconsciously afraid of death, as you said. I think this is because biologically we are driven to avoid death throughout our lives; by eating, drinking, reproducing and so on. What good would your body be if it didn't strive to stave off death at every opportunity? If only my super was as vigilant with water leaks as the human body is with disease -__- 

Dad:
You mention that the general consensus seemed to be that people wanted to be cremated, even your friend who had a spot waiting for her in a family plot, preferring the “back to nature-y and freeing option”. I feel the same way, opting for cremation. That “freeing option” is coming to terms with the finality of life as we know it. They are one with nature, as opposed to the hope some people have via cryogenics, that there’s always that outside chance that somehow life can be prolonged or regenerated.

H didn’t want people to cry. You wondered whether there was some sort of subconscious fear of death. I don’t think it’s fear. I think and agree as you point out it is the idea that you will never interact with that person ever again.  

John:
Your final paragraph was very strong; I liked your inquiry on crying, something that seems obvious because we encounter it all the time yet I’ve never put much thought into why. A question that probably can’t be answered by us, but it still is important to ask those questions. Questions we may never find the answers to but appreciate that we don’t have an answer, rather than make up our own dumb answer or excuse and pretend we know something we definitely do not.
Your interviewees didn’t seem to help much besides developing that one strong inquiry you had. This might be for a number of reasons, one being those you interviewed like many don’t know too much on how they view death, another might be just that you have dull interviewees, but what do I know.
Another strong post,
john