It's too late for my grandma - but not for my parents. :snap:

I've told my family, that if they insist on an open casket, they better have me in an Oingo Boingo t-shirt and clown make up.

While I can say that learning about my parents helps explain them and explain me, I can say that almost every time I learned something about my parents, I was kind of sorry that I had.

If you enjoy the concept of family secrets, I recommend the BBC miniseries from some years ago, "Almost Strangers." It's a wonderful take on the concept, and I found it much more pleasant to learn about those family secrets than my own.

I would like to be able to build my own casket

I'm not so interested in family secrets as silly family stories and special memories.

Thanks for sharing your stories - it's just the kind of thing I love to hear about. KatieSue - I'm digging the old family pics you've been posting on Facebook & GD - I'd love to hear your family's immigrant tale - I've got a real love of stories of traveling to new worlds and expectations. Strangler Lewis, I also dig the family secrets, the dark things sometimes parents try to keep from their kids but in the end make them more real, vulnerable, and telling.

My sense of mortality came when they deliberately cut my chest open and stopped my heart.

...Luckily I got another go. I'm now taking steps to see that it wasn't all for nothing. Why did it take 20 months for me to realise this? That's crazy, isn't it? Still I guess there's many reasons why people take a long time to realise they need to stop killing themselves.

This is almost like a therapy session, so allow me a little further indulgence. I'm wondering if there's something along the lines of an Overeaters Anonymous group that doesn't have the God thing attached to it. It wouldn't work for me otherwise, cos I would feel hypocritical.

Mortality. You can't live with it, you can't live without it.

My .02, Possibly Worth Less Than That
 

1.The silk oriental rug, the silver, the good china, anything that might bring big money on "Antiques Roadshow" - use it, wear it out. Otherwise, it's just grave goods.

2. Leave the world more beautiful than you found it.

3. Remember 3894's Shoe Fund in your will.

I've spent the last several months scanning in old photos of my own, specifically 1985 to 2001 (when I went digital). It's been a very strange, mostly enjoyable, but somewhat melancholy process. Too many dead people and pets. My friend Jim, scarcely 3 months older than me, kicked the bucket not too long ago - and it's been weird seeing how dozens of photos of him have affected me now that he's dead vs. how they affected me when he was still alive during most of the tenure of this multi-year project.


Death is a drag. :(

Well put.