An Eternal Last Goodbye

Via Jad Abumrad, host of RadioLab, I came across a 18-minute loop of music commissioned by a very enlightend hospital morgue near Paris.  The composer’s assignment was: “Please write us a song that will allow family members to face the death of a loved one.”  The morgue wanted music for the bereaved that did not pump up emotional grief, but instead elevated the eternal aspect of all things.  Help slow the living down, to take the long view.

The resulting musical piece (Salles de Departs by David Lang) is lovely, with an ethereal but not too alien spirit. And the architecture of the place is cool.  It feels like the morgue has been there 10,000 years, has always been there, and will always be there.

Both the music and the design provokes you to think outside of time, which I what I hope our 10,000-year Clock does. 

Second thought: Seems like folks have gone nuts in outdoing each other in creative weddings? Wait till you see their funerals. Boring off-the-shelf traditional funerals are becoming as passe as traditional cookie-cutter birthday parties, graduations and weddings. These life-passage events are now opportunities for showing off your individuality. What bigger life passage is there than death? Coming up for the boomer generation and beyond: funerals with style.