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Why I Talk About Death

By Kate
Posted on

I had the conversation with my friend.

I have relatively little experience with death or dying, in any professional or social/personal sense. But these topics have sat in the front of my mind since I was a small child. I’ve always been fascinated with death. First with questions about death itself, and whatever happens next. And then, increasingly as I’ve gotten older, with the bizarre and devastating disconnect our culture has regarding death. For many, many years, I’ve felt a deep concern for the harm that I know this taboo is causing… to individuals, to couples, to families and friends, to children. We ALL suffer from the normative silence on the topics of death and dying that plagues our modern western culture. And so many don’t even see the problem. Last spring, I was lucky enough to discover the Death Cafe movement, after hearing a store about it on NPR and immediately seeking out others interested in hosting one in my city. I now feel I have a place to actively participate in this extremely important conversation, as well as the opportunity to hopefully work toward normalizing the topic of death, along with others who share my concern and my passion for this issue. When people hear that I’m involved with something called “Death Cafe”, eyebrows raise. I made this video to sort of explain the reasons (or at least a few of the reasons) I choose to talk about death. And as it seems relevant to The Conversation Project (a wonderful resource that I’ve only just discovered!) I thought I’d share it here. Hope you enjoy it!

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