Death, Mourning & the Afterlife

Archive for January, 2006

Writing and Presenting a Eulogy

Ed Snyder | January 29, 2006 | 0 Comments

So you’ve been asked to present a eulogy or you feel you just want to. It’s quite a responsibility, to say just the right thing in just the right way. If you were close to the deceased, it’s that much more difficult, given the emotional ties. The purpose of this article is to familiarize you [...]

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Preparing for Loss

Ed Snyder | January 16, 2006 | 0 Comments

I have a small family. Growing up, I did not have a lot of experience with death and dying. My grandmother died when I was maybe 5. I think I must have been 16 years old when I saw my first viewing. As a rule, my family never made a big deal out of the [...]

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The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult

Ed Snyder | January 16, 2006 | 0 Comments

After attending the exhibition, “The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult,” at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in November 2005, I realized I could never satisfy my curiosity for this work in a packed gallery. This was an entire subculture I knew nothing about! Luckily, the book was available.

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The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult – A Review of the Show

Ed Snyder | January 16, 2006 | 0 Comments

From September 27, 2005-December 31, 2005, the show “The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult,” was on display at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. While it would appear at first blush to be nothing more than a historical novelty, it is much more.

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Ed’s Cemetery Traveler Blog

The Cemeteries of Germantown February 6, 2012
Days after our mid-January tramp through Philadelphia’s Germantown cemeteries, I’m worshiping the Neti (pot) god, hoping the water doesn’t contain any parasitic brain-eating amoebas (see link at end). The frigid winter weather made my cold worse, in addition to freezing my fingertips off. But it was worth it. Two fellow cemetery travelers and I checked out […]
The Graves of Old Tampa Bay January 25, 2012
It’s so cold here in Philadelphia in mid-January that the veiled threat of snow makes me want to go to Florida for a while. So here we go. I was in Tampa a couple years ago, and spent some time in its quaint downtown Oaklawn Cemetery. If you think Florida has been northernized by all the tourists and retirees, a quick look at some of the gravestones will rem […]
What to Do with those Broken Old Tombstones? January 14, 2012
I heard something rather shocking the other day from the owner of a farmhouse near an old graveyard in rural Leeds, Maryland. It had to do with old broken tombstones. But just to keep you on edge for a bit, here’s the lead-in to the story. Rural graveyards can be quite small and are difficult to locate. Even with a map, you’ll drive right past them. As I at […]