Funerals

It’s been a two-funeral couple of days. I had my week planned, but by Monday at noon my plan was thrown out the window. I’ve done nothing this week but prepare for and conduct funerals, and to try to be with the families. Today I finished and took the afternoon off. It felt good to unwind. It felt a little like playing hooky. I don’t think I could have worked if I had tried. It was time for a little Napoleon Dynamite. Funerals take it out of me. I find it impossible to do justice to a life in a short service. I am not especially merciful, but at funerals I feel the pain of the families and the weight of the responsibility. How do you measure the value of a life? I hate funeral production lines (the rent-a-minister deals). I hate doing funerals for strangers. I want to do funerals for people I know. If I don’t know them, I sure try to get a sense of who they are by the time of the service. I did know Delores and Helen, and I think I’m going to miss them.