Among other things, I am a librarian and technologist exploring the convergence of old and new public information spaces and I’ve been interested in culture-based information seeking behavior for a long time. This blog is an attempt to share another passion, the social aspects of culture and technology surrounding death and dying and their relation to the spiritual side of memory, place and storytelling. My librarian nature will probably peek through from time to time too since I believe libraries and cemeteries have similar foundations and benefit our culture in similar ways.
There are people who professionally study this topic, and it is called thanatology. I am not an expert in this field but wanted a place to collect ideas and thoughts from the people and sites that move in and out of this discipline. I’ve decided this blog will be a year-long experiment just because I like a sense of closure at the end of any project. In the end I hope I’ll be able to share something with you that we both might find useful someday.
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June 27, 2007 at 1:47 am
Sylvia Paull
Tori,
Thanks for your comment on my peloton post. When someone falls, the rest of the peloton swings around the fallen person and reshapes the peloton….if they are in a race. While you’re in a peloton, you always allow enough room on your right or left side so you can escape gracefully should the person in front of you fall. This is called the exit strategy, and every rider constantly reviews the strategy as a car driver is taught to look in her back mirror every few seconds for potential trouble.
It’s similar in life, no?
November 4, 2007 at 7:55 pm
dailyfact
Well i’m surely glad that i’ve found this blog, nice work!
January 27, 2008 at 10:15 am
John Cartan
Dear Tori,
Congratulations on completing your year-long experiment. You’ve maintained a consistent level of quality that is rare in blogging. This blog is a class act. Well done!
So have you achieved a sense of closure? Or is this blog like life itself: as you near the end do you say to yourself “What the heck! Maybe just a little more!”
Either way I remain
Your friend to the end,
John
January 27, 2008 at 6:47 pm
tori
Hey there John, supportive and kind as always. Thank you for the nice and encouraging words. Currently my sense is similar to the not-dead old man in Monty Python and the Holy Grail and the Dead Collector scene, “I’m not dead yet! I’m getting better…I don’t want to go on the cart…” who then gets wacked after he starts singing about being happy. It feels like I could go on (and on) but there comes a time to just shut up already. Don’t you think?
Anyway, rather than closing the blog forever and padlocking it I might let it dangle on life support and poke it once in a while just to check its pulse. And in the meanwhile I’m considering opening up another journal, a new one, which will be equally entertaining (heh). I’ll be sure to let you know where to find it so you can leave another supportive note there too!
Your “epic friend” as well…