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Thursday's Essay Preview

The first paragraph of Thursday's essay, "When I die, " reads as follows:

I don’t think about death.  It has really never been on my mind.  However, I have had deaths thrust upon me in a variety of ways.  I had to identify my father’s body when he died with his boots on teaching a seminar at the University of Michigan while I was a student there.  My mother died in a nursing home in California.  My mother-in-law died in a Hospice facility in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  One of our close friends died of lung cancer at 45 years old, and he never smoked.  The main benefactor of the church I attend died, and I went to his funeral.  And, with a father-in-law who is 98 years old, death is likely to be thrust upon me once again.
   

Thursday's Essay Excerpt - from the last paragraph of the essay

My life is what it is, and that’s it.  I was thinking as I wrote this essay, what would I want written on my gravestone?  Then I thought, no, there will be no tombstone.  Remember: cheap!  On the post-it-note attached to the urn that holds my ashes — and there doesn’t even need to be an urn, for heaven’s sake! — it can say in small print: “He left this a better place.”  Without an urn, put the note on the lower left (not on the right!) of the bathroom mirror, or write it with your finger in the thin layer of dust on the mantle!



And Then Some News