e-books from Gannett House
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| William Channing Gannett 1840-1923 author of "The House Beautiful" |
51 Reflections at 51, available July, 2013
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I wrote and
refined this collection of reflections throughout my midlife passage, from my
mid-30s through my early-50s, completing the project when I was 51 (1998).
A fundamental realization
of full midlife is a sense of mortality that puts one’s life into existential
perspective. For all of us, the midlife passage highlights a host of issues. It
is in midlife that more sober reflection puts Self into a universal context and
provides personal perspective.
I hope you will
find these 51 great quotes and my reflections on them inspiring—well-considered
counsel by a kindred spirit.
"Teaching the World to Die: Unitarian Universalist Attitudes Regarding Death"
KINDLE edition available July, 2012
From their beginning, Unitarians have reformed American deathways.
They significantly influenced, intellectually and practically, how the greater culture deals with the overarching reality of the human condition: mortality and death. The means of reform included antebellum innovations of the rural and garden cemeteries, late nineteenth century advocacy of cremation, a mid-twentieth century memorial society movement, and a long evolution of human-centered funeral and memorial services.
Unitarian innovations and reforms cited in this essay
- served to domesticate death in the name of the universal human condition;
- challenged traditions and the supernaturalisms that supported those traditions;
- resisted the commercialization of death by a funeral industry;
- and lifted up the dignity and worth of the deceased through artful and meaningful “celebrations of life.”
EdwardSearl, a Unitarian Universalist minister, is the author of the UU classic, In Memoriam: Modern Funeral and Memorial Services.
