RantWoman honors times people get together and wind up talking about good and bad death and the circle of life.
Yes, RantWoman knows that the image here is blobby and eerily lit and that it does not do justice to the manger scene that is part of the wreath. And yes, RantWoman understands that making this particular image the avatar for talking about death is, um, weird. Cope. This decoration is from the late RantDad's late Aunt Sister. RantWoman remembers this late aunt for a lot of Jello, for endless gifts of crocheting and smelly Avon products.
RantWoman occasionally tries to imagine childhood sibling dynamics between RantDad and Aunt Sister, particularly with the RantGrandparents and the family ministry of trips about the wilds of WY doing Dog and Pony shows for God, as supporting roles for Rev. RantGrandad's offical job title, Sunday School Missionary.
RantWoman also remembers some frightening medical challenges, some of them brought about by poorly treated workplace injuries, and many circumstances that contributed to her death. RantWoman also remembers this Aunt crocheting a lot of baby booties for the Crisis Pregnancy Center, maybe more than enough of an association to add the nativity scene.
And in an effort to drag the flow somehwere back in the direction of Death, RantWoman is fuzzay about a good bit of the theology of Sunday School Missionary, but RantWoman does remember Aunt Sister's views on cremation. She was SOUNDLY agin it. She was terrified when RantDad died that if he were cremated he would be unavailable for the Rapture. RantWoman figured that any God who could show up and help clean the Saturday night beer bottles out of the town halls in time for Sunday church could probably reconstitute cremated remains if bodies wer really needed for the post-Rapture experience. That said, RantWoman thinks it is probably a stupendous act of Divine Mercy that no reference to stirring people back together like a box of instant pudding ever made it out of her mouth during the preparations for RantDad's funeral.
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| Manger Scene on a wreath |
Readers get to be grateful for the moment that RantWoman is aiming for laconic and just posting resources:
Ellen Goodman,
http://theconversationproject.org/
The site above contains several resources for having conversations about end of life wishes. RantWoman thinks these resources would be a great thing before holiday gatherings. RantWoman also thinks they might be lovely preparation for the event below.
RantWoman invites readers to attend this event; if you want to attend and do not already read the Meeting bulletin, leave a comment and RantWoman will forward. RantWoman also posts it here as an artifact and will say more in the same festive holiday spirit as she talks about other themes in the vibrant yucky topics festival that is her life.
SAVE THE DATE: *Free* ADVANCE CARE PLANNING WORKSHOP sponsored by Care and Counsel: Saturday, Jan. 10, 9:00-11:30am in the Social Hall. Natasha White Marsh, Hospice Chaplain and End-of-Life Consultant, will guide you through completing a 3-part living will.
RSVP by Jan. 3. To request materials in alternate formats or other accommodations please contact Natasha or a member of Care and Counsel.
RantWoman THINKS she should thank Care and Counsel for responding partly to an idea of RantWoman's related to end of life preparations.
RantWoman is trying to think this, but she would find it easier if Care and Counsel did not keep expecting one person at a time to be RantWoman's spokes person for things RantWoman things everyone on Care and Counsel should be expected to interact directly with, oh and turning down offers to contribute further upstream. Hold that problem in the Light because it may turn into a 12 days of Christmas thread.
RantWoman thanks Friend Natasha for responding to RantWoman's general howls about accessibility. For RantWoman, what will work for alternative formats is to get a link or a copy of any proposed documents in advance. RantWoman will be interested to see what other requests for alternate formats come in and offered to help create such if needed. RantWoman supposes others with vision difficulties may do what RantWoman does a lot of the time, just trust people and sign where toldm, never mind niceties like options for accessing the signed document independently after such events, say if one wants to review the text or quote from it or...
Sign where told?
RantWoman thanks Friend Natasha for a preview of the workshop: it's about end of life documents such as living will and durable power of attorney.
And it is two hours.
And participants are expected to come out of the workshop with all the documents all filled out and signed, presumably with witnesses and names on key dotted lines.
Really.
Friend Natasha assures RantWoman this happens, but the whole concept sounds to RantWoman a little like Death Panels: hurry up and get the paperwork signed because that's all the time we want to devote to some major personal discernment.
Really?
People come to these events already with the names they mean to put on dotted lines?
Ummm?
But never mind that. RantWoman wandered into another corner of Planet RantWoman, RantWoman as collector of documents in languages she either interprets in or has extended family members who speak.
RantWoman currently does little spoken language interpreting but does have a reflex both to snag materials for Brother in Law and to check the availability of materials in general. Specifically,
RantWoman really, really, really hates being asked to sight translate routine documents when she thinks a translation should already exist. RantWoman realizes that this preference entails a whole list of prerequisites, but tough.
RantWoman has thought of blurting out "Look you work for a large medical facility that has obligations about Language access under Title VI of the civil Rights act. What is your department doing about it?" RantWoman can live with the possibility that the answer is "nothing" or "nothing yet."
RantWoman THINKS she can live with that possibility.
Except...
RantWoman did another mental census of our Meeting. There are households, in at least one language, multiple households, where either for a member of the household or someone from the extended family, person's first language is among 4 of the 8 languages the state of WA certifies interpreters in, not counting the language RantWoman generally interprets in. In at least a couple cases, RantWoman thinks people besides RantWoman MIGHT be interested in snagging materials if they also attend the workshop.
RantWoman thinks this, but RantWoman has enough to do sorting out the ferment of her own spiritual compost heap; she may or may not invest a lot of energy in checking whether some of the households she has in mind are interested in the workshop. That also means she may or may not invest energy in recommending....
Hold ALL of this in the Light, MAYBE in gentler Light than RantWoman's Inner Blowtorch alone.
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