From Helpful Media: 'It's a Matter of Life and Death: Growing...
By: Robert Diamond Nov. 08, 2018
Noted author of the "Fifty Classics" series,Tom Butler-Bowdon says this on the cover of "It’s a Matter of Life and Death: Growing Up in a Funeral Home and What I Learned Since" by Lawrence J. Danks: "Larry's book combines positive psychology, motivation and memoir to provide a powerful reminder to really live while we are alive, regretting nothing. His lively reminiscences of growing up in a funeral home are not morbid, but lie in the tradition of a Zen Buddhist meditation on death: facing the great uncertainty and inevitability of death, we are reminded of the opportunity to love, and most of all, to be grateful for everything."
"It's a Matter of Life and Death" is intended to help anyone who is
- seeking happiness
- curious about life in a funeral home
- facing a serious illness or knows someone else who is grieving and working their way back toward recovery
- a health care provider, counselor, or practitioner in the funeral industry trying to help others cope with illness or loss
Samples from over eighty topics include:
Part I: Seeking Happiness -~ Finding Happiness: It's about finding true gratification,not hedonism or smiley faces.
- Death Teaches Us to Value Life Even More
- Take the Long View: Plan to Live to Be One Hundred
- It's Never Too Late To Make a Difference in Your Life and in Those of Others
- Get Better Sleep: It Can Make a Big Difference
- Advice from Courageous Survivors and Physicians For Those Facing a Terminal Illness
- Your Thinking Probably Needs Some Improvement
- Mid-Life Crisis is Not a Crisis
Part II - Growing Up in a Funeral Home
- My Father, the Coroner
- My Sister, the Embalmer
- My Parent's Faith
- The Importance of Humility
- The Medical Examiner's Office and Autopsies
- The Critical Importance of Having a Will
- Do Funeral Directors Charge Too Much?
- Life in the Funeral Home
- The Condition of the Body
- Cosmetic and Presentation Skills
Part III - The Takeaway from Seven Decades
- Drug Abuse
- Giving the Ego a Rest
- Hospice Care - It Should Often Start Sooner
- Finding What to Say at Viewings and Funerals
- Eulogies Can Be Excellent Teachers
- After Things Are Over, It Can Get Awfully Lonely
- Advice from a Grief Counselor on Handling Grief and Loss and Moving Ahead
- Thinking We Understand Death
- People Who Die Before Their Time
- Honoring Those Who Died, but Honoring Yourself Too
- Life after the Death of a Partner
Danks says, “No one clamors to read about death and funerals,but people have a curiosity about what happens in funeral homes – even though they don’t necessarily want to live in one. A frequent question I got as a boy was, ‘How can you live there?’ It was easy. My sister and I never knew anything different than living over one. It was a blessing though. It taught us about life and about what truly matters – finding happiness and peace.”
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