Welcome Vacany Blog Judges- Feel Free to Look Over My School Work.

I’ll start this essay by saying anywhere besides where I’m currently living is an upgrade. Finding an ideal apartment for me consisted of looking at an apartment. That probably won’t be a good idea when I actually have to find an apartment but in my New York shack I’m usually tucked into bed by loud garbage trucks and even louder music. It’s almost like a competition. When the garbage truck comes through at 4am, the silence there was before instantly turns into a blend of Lil Wayne and the melodic sounds of horns. Those noises are accompanied by the blissful voices of the garbage men rapping along with Lil Wayne. While the garbage truck compacts the garbage with Beethoven-like genius and timing. Needless to say I don’t get much sleep.

The apartment I found is a gated off community, something that I wish I had. It gets quite repetitive when you have to come home and people are sitting on the stoop, so you have to back up get a running start and leap over them. Asking them to move usually results in an argument and prolongs the amount of time it takes to get into the house.

The rent also had me completely astonished. Being from New York City a one bedroom, one bathroom cockroach infested place still cost about 800 dollars. It’s almost like the roaches are accounted for in the expenses. I’m sure you know about NYC rent though. The rent for this place in Atlanta, Georgia (another big city) has 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms for as low as $950.00 and as much as $2,150.00. Where I live the rent is 1,300.00 I know because I have to get into Michael Jordan's pose and leap down my stoop to the rent office and pay a woman $600 extra dollars then what she deserves.

All of this already had me, but it was kind of like a bad infomercial “Wait there’s more!” not only is it aesthetically appealing it accepts pets, has a swimming pool and Laundromats, a fitness center, garages and most importantly a dishwasher. That means no more lemon smelling hands after scrubbing at a stain on a plate only to figure out it won’t come off. It also means I don’t have to get on the New York public transportation. Which on any given day you can get robbed, groped, have a conversation with a drunken person and over pay for the below average service. There’s no way any other apartment is better than this one. It would be like comparing the Yankees to the Mets. Apartments are lovable because of all of their flaws. Mine having more than others. However the apartment in Georgia has a certain level of professionalism. It’s reliable, and at the end of the day you know you’re at top quality, your proud to say its your house. Unlike with a Mets quality house where you say "Yeah, I live here" under your breath, a bag over your face, a big red "Sucker" written over your forehead.

Thanks for spending your time to read this if you got to this point. Even if I don’t receive the scholarship hopefully this was more enjoyable than others. Here’s a picture of my current dwelling. Thanks again.

Georgia apartment: http://www.vacancy.com/georgia/atlanta-apartments/1050-lenox-park-apartments/amenities/

Chris's House:

Property Listing: http://www.vacancy.com/georgia/atlanta-apartments/1050-lenox-park-apartments/amenities/

HW 59

It seems that girls actually do care much more about what they wear to prom then females do. Like Bianca I logged into Facebook and I saw one senior’s status talking about how one of his friends was going to wear the same thing that he was wearing. Girls on the other hand had many more status’s, people talking about how they didn’t have their dresses two days before prom and after the night of prom there were status’s of people talking about how much fun they were going to have. Constant status’s and comments on walls referencing how good someone looked and how they didn’t want to ruin their dress. From the men on the other hand there are wall post of people talking about the after prom and how they had fun got drunk and went home at six in the morning from their party. I think that the status’s also show a lot more of what my cousin was talking about compared to the things that we have been learning. Prom is some form of a party, and it is not some sort of rite of passage, with all of the things that I heard about the prom it was more about having fun and making a good experience from everything.

Nothing about the couples walking into the room and the princess of the prom having everyone look at her. I feel like that is more of what people are supposed to say but on the other hand it is more of the seniors last chance to have a good time. Seniors were also talking about missing each other and how that would really be one of the last times that they were all together. It was supposed to be a celebration and I think the media has turned it into something that seems like it is this epic moment in the participant’s life where they get a life changing experience.

HW 58

Person who hasn’t been to Prom (Kammie) : I know prom is supposed to be special. It’s supposed to be a night where you get to have fun with everyone in your class for one of the last times. It’s going to be the night where a lot of people get drunk and have sex but I think the goal is to have fun. In the case of people dressing up as best as they can, I think that is because it is one of the last times that the people in your school will see you. It is going to be one of the last times you might be able to be with a boyfriend or girlfriend and I think that is the reason that people have sex and get drunk. It’s kind of like all fun that can possibly be had on that night and of course if you have a boyfriend you’re going to want to be with them. The part that I really think is supposed to be the fun part is the dancing. It is like one last night and it’s supposed to be something to remember. People do whatever they want to celebrate with those who helped them through high school life.

Person who has been to Prom (Alyssa M): Prom was the best. I wish I had done more than I did at prom. Like I dressed up and tried to look my best but that doesn’t even really matter except for the first 15 minutes because everyone takes off the heels that they walked in with. Everyone’s hair gets messed up pretty bad so the hair salon visit for 2 hours was worthless but the night was priceless. The best part for me was the after prom because at prom there are a few chaperones who actually don’t do anything. Then at the after prom there is still dancing and a lot of that stuff but it’s more like hanging out with the people you spent so much time with during school. This is where there’s a lot of the sex stuff and most of the drinking stuff, my after prom was in a hotel. Apart from all of the obvious stuff I just enjoyed telling jokes and being with these people. The night wasn’t any kind of rite of passage it was more like one of the best nights of my life.

Older person who went to Prom (Mom): My prom wasn’t the best because it is not the same as it is now. People now have an idea that prom is a big party but when I went to prom it was more like, a banquet. It eventually turned into some type of party because there was dancing but a lot of my prom there was teachers talking about the students and certain students talking. Everyone looked nice, everyone had a date, and everyone went. I would rather have the type of prom people have now though so it is more fun for us. There was a prom committee but they didn’t make it as fun as I wanted. There was prom in the school and I know now prom can be in a big space that alone is better than our prom. I would rather have a part in a huge space then in my school, the place that I hated and rarely wanted to be.

What I understand from the three different generations of prom goers and non goers is prom is supposed to be a fun moment. The two younger generations mentioned how it was going to be the last time that they were with the people in the school. I always thought dressing up was the most important part of prom because like I said in another post teenage girls look at prom dresses the same way that brides look at wedding dresses. I always thought that girls took it more serious than guys do and with the lack of getting interviews from males this could still be true, however with what Alyssa told me I feel that the main part of prom is the party. No one wants to go to a prom where they never have any fun, something like what my mom did. With looking at all the components of prom I feel like we left out the most important part which is the after party. We looked into the idea of sex and the drinking aspect of prom which I guess is considered partying. However the actual dancing and being able to be with friends made over the past 4 years for the last time is something that I think is more significant. Although Alyssa said it isn’t a rite of passage I disagree with that and maybe she didn’t notice that part of it but I think she makes a good point when she says prom isn’t what it appears to be its just fun.

Initial Thoughts on Prom

Christopher R

The most interesting thing about prom is the idea that females can’t go with other females and males can’t go with other males. From a personal experience I overheard a conversation between two people one of them a lesbian talking about prom. They were talking about how it would be the first time that she had worn a dress since she was graduating in the 8th grade and she was going with a male but she said it was just as friends. Prom seems like a romantic thing that is supposed to be some sort of date with someone in school during your last days in high school. I would think if a person was romantically attracted to a person of the same sex then they should be able to go with that person. This conversation was also between two people who go to school of the future. School of the Future has more openly homosexual people than any other community I know. I would think at any place our school would be a place where students are allowed to have a homosexual date but the tradition of a man being with a woman has affected the idea of romance which I think puts a label on who is allowed to be considered a couple at prom.

Another thing that I find interesting about prom is the way people are supposed to dress. I don’t think there is anything wrong with it but knowing that prom is supposed to be a major step in life and that it symbolizes romance, is there any reason that it’s supposed to be a dress and suit. I also find it that girl’s try harder to be the best dressed then males do. A girl could be looking at prom dresses in the 9th grade or even earlier. This is the type of thing that I would expect from a person that is preparing for their wedding. The appearance of someone at their prom is equally as important as their appearance in their wedding? They seem rather similar, a very beautiful usually expensive dress and the male in a very nice suit dressed up to impress. What a person wears to prom seems to be the only thing more important than who you are taking as a date.

o Why is it so important to be dressed in elaborate clothing during prom?

o Are there any schools known for their openness to same sex couples during prom?

o Is prom the most important event in high school?

o Should a person be allowed to attend prom if they are failing their classes?

o In what ways are prom and weddings similar?

o Does the person you take to prom represent the type of person you would want to marry?

Cemetery Visit Extra Credit

For this extra credit I went with Kevin and Jasper to both of the cemeteries near the trinity church. The thing that I found immediately most shocking was that it was a tourist spot. People are allowed to go in there as they please and although I am not sure about other cemeteries in other parts of the world I don’t think they should be a public place. For people who believe being buried in the ground is a final resting place and for the people who believe saying “rest in peace” has an actual effect on the dead making cemeteries public is some sort of invasion to this. I would imagine there would be a public cemetery and a private cemetery but for those who want to go to the cemetery and grieve, they should be allowed to do this without people like Jasper, Kevin and I going in. I only found the idea of being able to go to this cemetery okay because people who died here apparently died in the 18th century. All of the people who were close to this person at one point should most likely be dead and the tombstones were in very bad condition, so if this place was really a final resting place it should be kept better. At the same time if the people were alive I could imagine they definitely wouldn’t want me there. I was laughing at all of the tombstones which weren’t in the best condition. We walked on the grass at points, very immoral but the idea that they have been gone for so long, their bodies have rotted to the point where it would be unrecognizable. Dead over a certain amount of time lose their value.

So we walked to the cemetery and besides us there were only about 2 other groups of people there. The cemetery is right off a church along with the trinity church cemetery. The tombstones either had something written in another language or just had the name of the person who died and the amount of time they lived. The spacing of the tombstones was confusing. Some tombstones were two feet away from another tombstone. Others had a lot of room, this made me think whether or not now there is a certain amount of space most caskets take up meaning all tombstones would have the be a certain distance away. I also questioned the height of people in the 18th century when seeing that there was a tombstone being completely surrounded by others. Many of them were to the point where the name couldn’t be read anymore and the actual stone was cracked, with the other fraction lying right next to it. There was also a lot of casket like shapes made out of stone that had a top on them. Whether or not this was actually where the body was, I am not sure but these were also very close to falling over and breaking. It all made me think when a cemetery should be cleared of tombstones. People do not go here to grieve anymore they go to see what a part of New York history looks like. The tombstone couldn’t just be cracked in half. It was made of stone and near three to four inches thick. Unless someone came and broke it there was no way it could be in that condition.

Most of what I experienced in both of the cemeteries was not how I would actually experience in a cemetery that is more modern. I was the tombstone for Alexander Hamilton which had the largest most decorative headings and it was more than just a tombstone it was kind of a statue. At the same time even one of the past presidents was buried in this cemetery and the idea that the cemetery was for grieving was thrown out the window this was more for show. I think for me to have an actual experience at a cemetery. An experience where I think more critically about the bodies that are buried under my feet and the people that knew them I would have to go to a more updated cemetery. There would have to be more people who remembered this person who visited and made it a point not to forget. With a cemetery that is run down there isn’t any emotion there is just land.

Comments HW 56

TO RUBEN
http://rubenisthebest.blogspot.com/2011/05/hw-55-culminating-project-care-of-dead.html?showComment=1305691665979#c7015014601262645699

Ruben, I feel like your blog post covers the question that I had over the entire unit but in a different way then what I thought the answer would be. You made your blog about the planning of a funeral and I feel like you got a lot of evidence that helped to show the cost portion of funerals. I think there is a lot of information that you have here that you could have used in your elevator speech which could have made it better because you start to talk about funerals at the beginning then you transition to cremation and I feel like there could have been more talked about this in your speech. I think one thing you can work on is format.

Chris.

TO KEVIN
http://normalisweirdkevinw.blogspot.com/

YEAHH!!! EMBALMING. I think embalming was hyped up by Andy to be very gruesome and some sort of of miserable thing. Although it seems very violent how can you say this when the person is dead. Also it isn't always like the person doesn't know their dead body is going to be involved. It is not grave robbing and stripping the body for organs. Anyway back to this, I think you decided to right a very factual paper that gives clear alternatives and doesn't just complain about a problem. Its a paper but maybe in person you can tell me why you decided to write about this. I think this was actually pretty interesting and the best part in my opinion was the alternatives.

TO LUCAS
http://normalisweirdlucas.blogspot.com/

YEAH!!! This project didn't work out how you wanted it too as I can see through my favorite line of the post, "Denied. Ah such is fate. Despite calling ahead on Thursday around noon, and ensuring that my group could come in to view this (PUBLIC) funeral, we were stalled and filibustered into twiddling our thumbs in woeful silence in the waiting area of Mr. Benta's fine funerary facility." I think this gets a lot of emotion out without telling exactly how you felt in words. The words that you choose to use in the post creates a really fine image in my head of what you were thinking and it also gives a good image of the surroundings. I feel like this is more of a video then an actual video. I like this post.
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Comments From Protege:
Chrissss nice post maaaan. I like how we both have narratives of our experience but they are different. I thought it was interesting to see how you thought about the funeral home and how people were acting etc etc. I also like how you included dialogue because even if I wasn't there, I feel like it makes it very descriptive and easy to picture. Even though the project didn't go as planned and we didn't have a video, you did a good job writing about it..

Comments From Mentor:
Hi Chris, I guess I will first start out by talking about what I think could have been better about this post. What makes this post a bit weaker than it could be is the way you get the ideas of what you were thinking across. I feel like it is hard to distinguish what is actually happening and what you are thinking because it goes back and forth so much. But I do like the way you create the idea. The conversations that you include makes the story fun to read and I think a lot of the post is interesting but their are some things you can obviously improve on.

From Casey:Chris, I'm sorry that your project did not go very well. It was good of you to admit that it could have been more successful, and I enjoyed your detailed narrative of the various interactions at the funeral home. However, you could have analyzed the experiences you did have a bit more. For example, what do the magazine options in the home reveal about their expecations of who they will be serving? How did the behavior of the employees there compare to your expectations and what did the dialoge reveal about their goals in their daily work? The fact that the funeral director would not let you in to view the wake because it was an invasion of privacy was interesting to me; it was a unique idea that I had not before considered, yet it reveals that he was most concerned with the grieving family under his care.

From: Sophia: I liked that even though your original idea for the project didn't work out, you still got something out of the experience. Your descriptions of the funeral home were interesting, and although you didn't get to go to the wake, it still seems like you got something out of the experience.

My favorite line was: "We waited here for about fifteen minutes in that time everything was pure and clean. There was a sound of a water fall."

Care of The Dead Project

This might be another failed project attempt. Although we don't have any redeeming video we did have a complete experience and looking back on everything now I feel as if there were a lot of this that could be recorded and reported. Instead of uploading a video that might be very bad and get me a 7 on this project or lower I might as well write about everything leading up the the actual funeral and hope for a 8 or higher. Probably just an 8 because part of the assignment is to have a video or audio, but there were a few missed opportunities.

The project started with the idea to go visit a funeral because even though it was something that we all had done before it was probably the easiest thing to do. It seemed that way at least because I knew a Funeral Home that was close to my house and I know the president of the Funeral Home. At the same time I wasn't sure how far that would have gotten us considering that the president is not always their due to his Alzheimer's. This however did seem like the best idea because it was a place that I knew better than any other Funeral Home and all of the other ideas seemed less fun. We called Benta's Funeral Home at 12:20 pm during school on a Thursday. One of the members in our group, Lucas talked to a receptionist that transferred him to someone else who said it would be alright if we were to come to a wake on Saturday from 3-4pm and observed the way things were done. The project actually seemed to be going really easily compared to the Birth Unit project which was similar to this but involved no prior planning. It was done at the last minute compared to this which had been well thought out.

A piece of audio that probably should have been recorded at the moment but wasn't was the phone call between the person who picked up at Benta's Funeral Home and Lucas. It went something like this:

Lucas: "Hi my name is Christopher R, I was calling to talk to a staff member at the Funeral Home about me and a few friends coming in to view a wake for our school project. We had been learning about the care of the dead at our school and we had a project assigned on visiting a funeral or a wake and just sit in the back for a little while and view things."
Receptionist: "Well okay, Ill transfer you to someone to see what I can do, hold on one second"
THEN LUCAS HOLDS FOR MORE THAN A SECOND
Receptionist: "Hi, Alright there is going to be a public viewing on Saturday. Would you like to get a pencil to write this information down. Saturday from Three pm to Four pm, you and your friends can come between those times"

Now the thing that always messes up things for teenagers in this day and age is lateness. I live very close to the Funeral Home and for me getting to the funeral home would only take about 5 minutes walking. The other members of the group however lived many different places throughout the city and the plan to get to the funeral home 15 minutes early didn't work. In fact getting to the funeral home on time didn't work. Getting their 15 minutes late didn't work for that matter. The earliest person was Jasper and then Lucas 10 minutes later. 15 minutes before 4pm Kevin arrived. Before Lucas arrived though I spoke to the lady who was the current receptionist. That conversation should have been recorded as well and went something like this.

CHRIS: Hi my name is Chris and I was told through phone call on Thursday that me and a few of my friends would be allowed to come to the funeral home and see how care of the dead was done. I called ahead of time and they said Saturday between 3 and 4 would be a good time to come.

RECEPTIONIST: Hi, well. What school do you go to?

CHRIS: School of the Future.

RECEPTIONIST: And what are you trying to do?

CHRIS: Well I was told it would be okay if we were to just sit in the back for a few minutes and observe how a funeral was and the way people react and respond to different things during the funeral. I was just wondering if this was still true and whether we would still be allowed to do this.

RECEPTIONIST: Well I'm not sure about that because usually the answer would be no for a question like that but because you said someone did tell you this I will call the Funeral Director and we can see what he thinks about it.

So we went into a waiting room that had one woman sitting their reading a magazine. The magazine was only choices between Oprah and Essence. We waited here for about fifteen minutes in that time Kevin showed up and everything was pure and clean. Their was a sound of a water fall. Kids walking in and out of the doors, dressed up with their parents who were also dressed up. There were a few people who were dressed up in formal African dresses and everyone was in black except for one kid who seemed like he was around 3 years old who was dressed up in white. The place was very nice, the music was perfect and their was just peace. Nothing making to much noise everyone speaking in a low voice. One minute before the actual service started came the the Funeral Director.

FD: Hey, what was the problem?

CHRIS: Well we called a few days ago and we talked to someone who said it would be alright if we were to come into the funeral home and attend a wake, for our school project. They told us it would be okay if we were to come between 3-4.

FD: Well I don't think that would be possible now because this is close to the time when the service is suppose to start and that would kind of be an invasion of privacy if we let you go in there with no relation to anyone in the family. Any other day however the wake or viewing is open to anyone who wants to come in for a little while and pay some respects to the dead but the time now is close to the actual service so I'm not sure if you should actually come in. If you come back another day you can do your project with someone else.

The funeral director was more delayed then Kevin was in this whole process because we were all there close to 3:30 and it took the funeral director about 20 minutes to come down stairs with the service starting in one minute. He was actually really nice though, when he came in he patted me on the head. I'm not sure how I felt about that. He explained it to us really well and shook our hands as we left. The project like the one before it took some kind of turn for the worse but at the same time it was probably more successful.

Here is the crappy 2 minute video filmed by jasper
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knI-nnK-Asg

Extra Credit- COTD 5

Episode 1: Pilot
MLA: "Pilot." Six Feet Under. HBO: 03 FEB 2001. Television. 15 May 2011.

In the very first episode of the series, the founder of the funeral home director dies. He is the father of the main characters, leaves his wife widowed and his family confused on how to treat the body of their father in a way different from all other bodies that have been in the funeral home.

This episode sets up one of the most interesting shows that I have seen in months. The characters are so different and diverse that it is hard to imagine they come from the same family. You have a drug addicted daughter, a son who is not willing to open up to anyone in his family. Another son who would rather be in Seattle and a mother who should be in therapy. Dysfunctional family owning a funeral home makes Good times.

Episode 2: The Will
MLA: "The Will." Six Feet Under. HBO: 03 FEB 2001. Television. 15 May 2011.

The funeral home director has left the will for his family. Over half a million dollars to his wife, half of the company to both of his sons. Money to his daughter. The plot focuses on life after the death of the father and the decision whether or not to sell the business.

I had never seen how a reading of a will was done. Not in cartoons, not in movies or television shows. It seems pretty easy and regular. The person reads what the deceased wanted and everyone goes their own way (according to this show). The interesting part of this episode comes from the conflict between the brothers who have completely different personalities trying to make joint decisions.

Episode 3: The Foot
MLA: "The Foot." Six Feet Under. HBO: 03 FEB 2001. Television. 15 May 2011.

It becomes a lot more obvious that the business will be put out of business if they don't sell. However the funeral home named, 'Fischer and Sons" makes it hard for the "sons" to give away their fathers work. They find out a competitor sets up a plan to put them out of business.

A man gets chopped into 50 pieces by a dough mixer. Every episode starts out with a death that the show centralizes on. That is probably the more interesting of the three. The first being the death of Fischer and the second being the death of a con artist. They decide not to sell their business and have to face a competitor that cremates the body for dirt cheap.

I think this show is one of the more interesting shows that have I have seen in a long time. The show is about death and the care of the dead but the characters make the show so interesting. The best part of the show is they incorporate a lot of things from actual care of the dead that we have learned about in school and use it to make the show interesting. One of the major conflicts of the show is created by one of the sons being afraid of dead bodies after seeing his dad embalm a person. It shows the fluid being drained out of the body and the person being cut open. The show confirms a lot of the ideas that I had about the care of the dead industry. It shows it as being something that people are supposed to fear, as seen in episode one when the son speaks about a silcian family how literally pounded on the casket and let out loud yelps of pain opposed to the American idea of grief which is to sit quietly in all black. It also talks about the business side of the care of the dead business.

The son named Nathaniel, or Nate makes a deal with a widower in the second episode who can not pay for the casket she ordered. He offers to let her rent the casket and then give the casket to someone else for half price making it so that the profit becomes very minimal as the widower rented the $9,000 casket for next to nothing. What he doesn't know is only one person can have the casket because during a cremation the casket has to be burned as well. The intentions of this was to give the woman a proper funeral with the casket she wanted without having to embarrass her. It was done out kind intentions however selling the casket half off would bring only 300 dollars in profit. There was also a decision between selling the business to a bigger funeral home or keeping it in the name of their dad. Selling it would mean they would get a lot of money and keeping it could mean they get put out of business. I feel like putting another funeral place out of business is immoral because they are supposed to be their to help people grieve and make it ideal resting place for a loved one. Not a competition between who can make a better deal and therefore a more successful business.

Independent Research HW 53--Part B

Christopher R
The religion that I grew up with was Christianity. It is something that I still believe although know mostly only the basics because I rarely practice the religion. This is not because I have any doubt in the religion but because it is something that I tend not to talk about in order to not affect other’s views or start any arguments. What I grew up thinking about death from this religion is when your physical body is dead then the soul that God gave you goes up to heaven to be with God. There are guidelines on how to get to heaven however; people who have committed sin and gone on the word against God would go to Hell with the devil. I was taught that Heaven is the place where the spirit of God stays and looks over everything that he has created. It has been a place that is illustrated as a white, place with angels that is somewhere in the clouds. People see Heaven as a place where your physical body gets eternal life you the person gets peace and wings. Personally I believe Heaven is a place where God is, not as in he is your neighbor and you can go visit him anytime for a cup of tea but in heaven you are able to have a physical relationship with him. To me Heaven is whatever you want it to be, there are people and places who you could want to visit and if they are in Heaven they can be with you. Heaven is not a white cloudy place; instead it is what the person wants it to be while they are in Heaven.

According to a majority of what I read in the link on the blog for bible passages from Matthew it takes a good life to get into Heaven. “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Bible Gateway 5) These passages talk a lot about the Father who is God rewarding people. The reward is eternal life in Heaven and a lot of what these passages talk about is what has to be done in order to make sure God rewards people. The beginning of the article, where these passages were retrieved talks about righteousness. It mentions what a blessed person should do to get into Heaven. All of these things have to do with not using violence, cursing family and towards the end it talks about adultery. Those are some of the sins for the Christian religion. The words of God are supposed to be followed and the way a person lives there life should be according to what God feels his creations should do and failing to do this would result in no reward.

I spoke to the reverend that was at my local church and asked him what Heaven was and how it would be possible to get to Heaven. I also asked him about what Heaven would look like because the image that people have about Heaven vary. His response was very long but the most interesting part of what he said is what Heaven will look like. Reverend Thomas said this about how Heaven would look “I can’t really tell you what Heaven would look like. I am still here with you on this earth. Heaven is for people who deserve to go up to Heaven. I consider myself someone who has lived a life according to God and expect to go to Heaven when He calls me. Asking me what Heaven would look like is something like asking a vision impaired person what color they like the most. They could have a really well thought out idea and they could have great visions of what it would be. However the only way they can know for sure is when they experience it and get to the point where they get to be part of everything Heaven has to offer. This person couldn’t tell you 100 percent for sure what Heaven will look like just like a blind person couldn’t tell you what color they like the best” (Reverend Thomas). Getting to Heaven according to Reverend Thomas was easy as long as you follow the words of the bible. Not committing any sins and when sins were committed praying to God for forgiveness. He made it a point to say that God loves everyone he created and if they spoke to him enough and asked him for his forgiveness after committing sin then God would wipe their slate clean. Living according to what the bible said was the best way to get into Heaven, it is the written word of what God wanted of humans and following a lot of these teachings would establish a good connection with God. This connection would make it easier for you to stay away from sin and if sin was committed then it would that person who already had the connection established would be able to connect with God on a higher level.

What I took from this assignment is the care of the dead in my religion is based mostly on the afterlife. When reading different lines from Matthew there is nothing about the burial of the body or how the body should be treated. From what I understand the body is not as important as the soul is. Things can happen to the soul that may make it hard for it to get to Heaven but the actual body is not focused on. While talking to Reverend Thomas I did ask him what he wanted to happen to his body when he died and it was a very typical response. “I want to have a funeral because that is what happened to the dead in my family. Mostly though because I want my body to be blessed by another person of God.” I thought the end of that reasoning was a bit contradicting considering he said he was pretty sure because he followed the teaching sin the bible he would go to Heaven. At the same time I was able to think about this in another mind set because I believe the same as he does. The reason I feel priest, and religious people speak at funerals is to bless the soul as it goes to Heaven. To me it isn’t needed because the soul can go to Heaven without the blessing however I feel like blessing the soul is a respectful way to say goodbye to it as it goes to Heaven.

Afterlife is what makes many people believe in Christianity. The idea that following these guidelines that God wants people to live by and making it so that even when we mess up we can be forgiven gives people a lot of morals. There are some people who base everything they do off of the teachings of God so when they die they can go to Heaven and others because they agree with the morals. Either way it seems to have more of an effect on the questions about the afterlife. The way the body should be treated isn’t something I looked into because it isn’t something that I was taught about. All funerals I have gone to have had something to do with this religion and passing on to another, better place. The actual way that the body should be treated is not discussed as much. I had a prediction from some of the words that Reverend Thomas said lead me to think funerals might be popular because of Jesus. Jesus Christ is read to have been “buried”, “stored”, “placed” in a tomb. Then resurrected days later. The casket to me would represent the tomb and being buried away in the same way that Jesus was might also have connotations with a higher chance of being resurrected.

Independent Research HW 53

Chris R

Dance, Laugh, Drink. Save the Date: It’s a Ghanaian Funeral.
Précis: Death doesn’t have to be sad like Americans make it. Death in Ghanaian culture is literally a party. Going to a Ghanaian cultured funeral is the same thing as going to a party, there are people dancing, loud music, drinks and fun. It is very expensive to attend these parties. Spending near 100 dollars for entrance and spending money on things offered in the party in support of the family. Pictures of the lost loved one are hung up around the party as celebration.

In Her Childhood Dream, a Funeral Home Was the Destination
Précis: Funeral homes were not a place for women in the 1970’s. The ratio of men to women in education programs about funerals used to be close to 1:6. Recently women have become found a lot more in funeral homes. It highly doubted women could work in funeral homes because women were not commonly found with death. Years later the ratio of men to women in education programs about funerals is close 1:1.2 with women having the edge.

Osama bin Laden did not deserve an Islamic burial
Precis: Osama bin Laden was killed on May 1st 2011 and according to the President he was given proper Islamic treatment. This means his body was washed and he was wrapped. To make sure that his followers did not see him as a martyr the body was dropped in the ocean. Instead of giving him a proper treatment he should be judged by Allah in the same way that everyone is.


I wanted to look at these three different articles because they have nothing to do with each other and it shows the differences in different cultures. I find myself barely knowing about my own culture. The idea of cremation is like speaking another language, and when looking at the film ‘A Film Undertaking’ in class the idea of a home funeral never even crossed my mind. I was always taught that there was only one way to treat a body and this was with a funeral followed by burial. Every funeral I have ever attended was a funeral followed by burial. The thing that I found interesting is in the Islamic culture and American culture death is seen as a sad day. The bodies in both cultures are “wrapped” and “washed” as in cleaned. The body is then mourned like in American culture but the Ghanaian culture it is completely different. It is not just a celebration it is like a party with drinks, food, music and dancing. People even compete to have the best funeral. I feel like this is good but at the same time just having a picture of the person is not giving them enough memory. People are actually dancing in celebration but I don’t think while doing this people would be thinking about their loved one. This could just be me because I am accustomed to people always crying and listening to prayer. The Ghanaian culture however sounds like a better alternative to what we have in the United States. To them they are paying proper respects to the person who died and they also get to celebrate the life of the person in a fun way. The second article was also something that I never thought about. Being around the dead doesn’t seem like a masculine job so I don’t see why women wouldn’t be commonly found in funeral homes. This article wasn’t as interesting to me as the other articles. It was more about this one person who wanted to work in the funeral home to make the dead bodies look good in the casket. It revealed something I didn’t know though which helps my understanding of the care of the dead.

Q: Growing up with your grandfather owning a very ionic and successful funeral home in Harlem how are you views on care of the dead different from other Americans?
A: I wasn’t always around my grandfather. I wasn’t always around the funeral home but at the same time not everyone goes to a funeral home more than a handful of times a year. I definetly was there more than that and to me death and funerals stopped being a sad moment and became something that I was used to. I know there has to be a good amount of people in the country who are afraid of death, and after looking at all of the families who come through the doors for different reasons I realized it is going to happen. I also think that is something that I have experienced more than other people in this country, people always think they will die of disease because it is very common but there are so many different ways to die it becomes interesting how no matter what death will find you. In terms of views I do think funerals are the best way to go because to me it seems like the most memorial way to treat the body. You can have people you know there all in one room at one time just to play their last respects for your body. What criticism could there be.


Q: Do you know what you want to do for your death?
A: Not trying to sound cheesy or corny at all I want to have my funeral at my grandfather’s home. It’s not because he is my grandfather it is because he made this, ran it from the beginning and got it to where it is now. The thing that I like the most is that I feel at home here. I feel like everyone who has worked here that I have come to know are very interested and devoted to work. I said that I think funerals are the best way to take care of the dead body and if my body was here it would be like dying at home. As I said before I wasn’t here all of the time but my grandfather did pay my way through college and this place is a haven to me. It is the closest thing to heaven on earth. I would like to have my physical body here to when I die while my body is in spiritual heaven.


Q: How does your relationship with the funeral home affect how you feel about dead bodies?
A: Oops, I guess I kind of answered this question already before I was supposed to but, I think that with all of the bodies we have had it just makes death more real. People are afraid of death because they don’t know anything about it. It is the same reason people are afraid to try new things. The results could be very good (not death) but people are still usually afraid to try out of the ordinary things. I have been on the opposite of this. We don’t only get people that die from cancer we get people that have committed suicide, we have gotten people that have been shot and beaten. There is not only one way to die and being at the funeral home showed me this. I am no longer surprised by death.


Q: How do you feel about alternate ways of caring or the dead?
A: it is up to the person. I told you how I feel and there is nothing that will make me change my mind that I know of. Like I said I know a little more about regular people do and I have made a very educated guess of what I will want for the rest of my life. For people that want other things that is up to them. I won’t argue with tem because it is what they want. Anyone could want anything.


Q: What would you change about the way death is done if you could change anything?
A: I would make it so that people knew everything about death. If you are only taught what you are growing up knowing, which I guess is what you could say about me you only know one thing. I looked into different things on my own and decided I wanted a funeral. Not everyone does that. Everyone should be educated.

This was someone who I have met multiple times. He is in charge of Benta’s Funeral Home in Harlem and I also know Mr. Benta who was the founder of the funeral home. I have attended a few funerals there and on different days when you walk pass the funeral home there will be a group of people with all black on talking. It doesn’t always seem like a sad time and most of the time when I walk by people are smiling and laughing. One of the funerals that I have attended there was the funeral of a suicide victim who committed suicide in the 8th grade. There were a lot of middle school students. I feel like the colors and layout of the room made it so that the room had no dark connotations. It seemed like things were white and gold and there was a monitor with pictures of the girl. Everything seemed to be like it was trying to connote heaven or a happier afterlife. There were a few crosses in different places and there was a small waterfall which is what I noticed the most. All of these things remind me of peace and the perfect place to go for utter peace is heaven. The interview was not in the funeral home it was outside of it. I think the highlights of this interview were his first response because it was the one where his voice was the most passionate. This might have been from sincere passion or it could have sounded differently because throughout the interview maybe I got more boring. Either way it seemed like he liked talking about himself more than his grandfather. His grandfather has become increasing ill with Alzheimer’s and I think bringing his father up might have reminded him of this. He however had a lot of ideas about his own death though.

Going into this interview I didn’t really expect anything out of the ordinary. I wish that I would have watched the movie that we watched in class before I interviewed him because that would have made for some interesting conversation. He agrees with me for the most part though. I want to have a funeral because I feel like it is fitting for people to remember me if they want to remember me all at once and get it out the way. It was the way I was raised and funerals, though not very happy can be very nice and bring people to peace with the idea that the person is dead. He also said people should have the choice to what they want to do. The response makes me think about the home funerals from the movie “A Family Undertaking’. People in 5 out of 50 states are not allowed to have home funerals and care for their own dead one of those being New York. Probably making this a fitting place to have a Funeral Home that seems very welcoming and in a nice part of the neighborhood. When the government puts restrictions such as this it brings up questions.


• Why are people allowed to take care of their own dead in 45 states but not the other 5 states?
• How do funeral directors feel about the cost of the funeral? Does the price show they are not about the satisfaction of the people but size of the wallet?
• What do funeral directors thing about home funerals?
• How did cemeteries get a bad connotation (ex: ghost, fear)?
• What made funerals become more successful than other forms of care of the dead?
• How can I use Benta’s Funeral Home as a way to further understand care of the dead?

HW 52

Christopher R

PRECIS: During the last third of my book I wrote about some alternative ways for dead bodies to be treated. These ideas were probably the most unspoken of ways that bodies can be handled when people die. The end covers having your body used as compost, having your head decapitated and the functions after decapitations and being cooked into a dumpling. I end the book by talking about what I will do with my own body after I become the cavader that I write about.

QUOTES: “On May 21, Guthrie succeeded in grafting one dog’s head onto the side of another’s neck, creating the world’s first manmade two headed dog” (Roach 207)
“The donor’s head eagerly drank water or milk, and tugged as if it was trying to separate itself from the recipient’s body” (Roach 208)
“Diego River in his memoir ‘the eating of human flesh will be sanction. For then man will have thrown off all of his superstitions and irrational taboos” (Roach 236)
“I am told, cultures in Central America that actually ranched humans—kept enemy soldiers captive for a while to fatten them up—it was not practical to do so, because you had to give up more food to feed them than you’d gain in the end by eating them” (Roach 245)
“She returns to the clod. “Compost should not be ugly,” she is saying. “It should be lovley, it should be romantic” (Roach 263)
“For similary dumb narcissistic reasons, I also once wanted to spend my eternity at Harvard Once cemetery “ (Roach 294)

PARAGRAPH: I think the revelation of this book comes at the end when the author is talking about what she wants done with her body when she dies. She writes a 300 page book that offers completely different and ways that are rarely thought of and decided that what would be done with her body is whatever her husband wants. It seems like in the other books especially Omnivore’s Dilemma the author actually did more about the topic they were writing about. Michael Pollan decides to try to be a hunter gather at the end of his book using a lot of the topics and arguments that he brought up to try something else. The thesis seemed to be death doesn’t have to be boring and when the author talks about different things such as cannibalism, cremation, decay, donating the body to science are all things that are more interesting ways to use the body. Even a funeral can be more interesting than making a book which talks about alternatives and deciding to leave this to your husband. Before reading this book I did interviews with peers and thought that saying you want your spouse or family to choose is probably the wrong idea, assuming you don’t know what happens to your body when you die and your body doesn’t affect any sort of afterlife then I guess it would be okay. However no one ever actually knows so I would think a person’s last request would be what to do with their body. This should be respected in my opinon. Although Mary Roach can’t die and try to see differences in the is done with the body I think a well thought out plan and conclusion would have been a good ending to a 300 page book that offers many alternatives.

HW 51 - Second Third of COTD Book

PRECIS

The next part of my book focuses on the ways that cavaders are helping people to study. There are different researchers that use cavaders to figure out things about the human body that can be applied to the living. All parts of the body can be used for science, I recall a part where I search for penis's not looking to find any results, and instead found thousands of responses. I encountered a doctored who used bodies for crucification experiments. People who are able to tell what happened on plane crashes through the body recovered. Speaking to the idea that death doesn't have to be boring, in death you might be able to be a result in science.

QUOTES

"There were the urologist from Seattle investigating the distribution pattern of dorsal nerves along the penile shaft. There were the French anatomist injecting red liquid latex into penile arteries to study. (123)"

"Little is known about our Dr. Barbet, except that he became very devoted, possibly a little too devoted, to proving the authenticity of the Shroud. One day soon, he would find himself up in his lab pounding nails into the hands and feet of an elfin. (154)"

"This time he put one arm, nailed it 1/3 inch of the way in. Then put 100 pounds of weight attached to it (half of the body weight of someone about 6 feet (156)"

"The heart was the only organ left inside a mummified corpse. (168)"

"The trick to designing body armor is to make it thick and unyielding enough to stop bullets without making it so heavy and hot and uncomfortable that officers won't wear it. (144)"

PARAGRAPH

I think the part that was the most funny out of this third of the book was the part about penis' (pause). Not because it was about penis' but because this is one of the parts of the body that I wouldn't imagine there be any use for. A lot of the things that have to do with penis' in life are related to sex and many focuses of sex are ways to stop STD's. When reading this portion of the book and the author looks up cavader and penis' I would imagine that there would be limited responses, just because I would imagine there be limited uses for them. However the author comes up with this line, "There were the urologist from Seattle investigating the distribution pattern of dorsal nerves along the penile shaft. There were the French anatomist injecting red liquid latex into penile arteries to study". There were a few lines after this and these test also came with different numbers of house many penis' were needed. The funny part about this was I never thought about all the uses that a dead body could have but now this book teaches that not only is there uses for these bodies but even a part of the body that I would find the least useful on a dead person.

Homework 49 - Comments on Break Homework

To JASPER

Hey Jasper,

I think that you have a good blog post. The different interviews do bring different points up, and it is clear that there are different ideas on the way "correct" care of the dead is to be done. I like that you talked about you're ideas though when analyzing this. I think something that some people could have miss understood (like myself) about this blog is only analyzing what people said. This is good but there needs to be what the blogger thinks about the topic incorporated as well. This is your blog of course. So I think that and the comparison between your view, the first person's view and the third persons view. The second person slacked

To AMHARA

I liked this blog post because you decided to use your grandparents instead of friends, cousins, parents or something like that. I feel like this is one of the more unique blog posts because it has the point of view of a grandparent who has obviously been alive longer then a parent, a cousin, or a friend. The only thing that that I would suggest for you to have done would have been list the questions. I kind of wanted to know what you asked them because you said "Perhaps the deaths that he held closest to him were the deaths of his parents. His father was a marine in WW2 and was given a veteran burial plot because of it". I just wanted to know where this came up in the conversation it is something that I wanted to know more about because "insight" is overused in this course. Interest is what I think everyone should go for, and i enjoyed reading this however I thought with a few minor things it could have been very interesting.

To SOPHIA

I think the most interesting part of your blog (because I think the idea of insight is to overused, why be insightful when we can be interesting). I have to agree with a lot of what your aunt "M" said in popular media it is seen as "death is scary and cold, full of ghouls, ghosts, and dread" and it is also something that has been taken and turned into something we don't learn or talk about. And I like the rest of your blog but as i type this I find out "Osama Bin Laden is dead" which I don't believe because I don't believe what these people say. However I find it interesting that everyone on Facebook even myself feel like this is something to update. The idea that your aunt talked about is very interesting and I feel like it is something that we should cover in class.

From JASPER (protege)

I liked your blog post because even though you didn't know much about the care of the dead you still found some topics to go into which I found to be very interesting.. I liked how you talked about how being around someone dead at a funeral brings up death which is often pushed off to the very back of everyones mind. This made me think: would it even be possible to live without having death pushed off to the back of your mind? I also like how you talk about the affect of death on other people because I think that's a very important thing when thinking about care of the dead. When you die you're gone, it's the people around you that are going to be affected and have to keep living.

FROM AMHARA

I like your honest approach to what you do and don't know. Somethings you can think about to go past your initial thoughts are what goes behind organizing a funeral and why are they organized the way they are? Considering every way a body is handled after it is dead as "care for the dead" is a good mindset to have because there are intentions for everything we choose to do and the body is involved in every situation. I think it was very important when you stated:"thinking about someone who has died makes you wonder about your own death." because it seems to be the general reaction of everyone. I wonder why that is usually the initial reaction after someone has died rather than thinking about the person as a whole.


FROM SOPHIA
I agree with Amhara - I liked that you were honest about not having much experience with the topic. I also liked that you still had ideas about it; this part was especially perceptive:

"Personally I have a fear of death because I always wonder how it would affect my mother if I died. It’s hard to face the fact that the people we have set up relationships with already in this world can go away instantly. In this sense it seems like the dead are treated terribly, once dead we burn and bury them never to be seen again. Not able to push them back in memory but able to push them physically off the earth."

You got at the idea that the way we care for the dead is actually sort of cruel; we shove them away and try not to think about them. This is something I hadn't previously considered

FROM ISABEL (upper person)

Hi Chris, I think this is a very good post but I don't think this is your best post! One of the other posts that I like was the interview post. I think that the best part of this post was that you do a good job at getting all of your ideas out their and make it so that you speak in a way that you want to learn. The only thing that I wanted for you to do in this post was talk about where some of these questions came from. This probably could have given you a higher grade. Good luck Chris.

HOMEWORK 50

PRECIS:
The earlier part of my book starts out with my personal experiences with the cavader, the experience with my mothers body and the way that I initially feel about them. Death shouldn’t be limited to cremation and funerals. As the book progresses it talks about other topics, and things that happen to dead bodies. Such as the decay of the body, using the body for dissection and donating different parts of the body. The beginning part of the book starts to cover different ways of handling bodies, the idea of surgery, the decay and crimes like body snatching.

QUOTES:
"In a lovely silver of poetic justice, Burke's corpse was, in keeping with the law of the day, dissected"

"If the trend continues, medicine may find itself with something unimaginable two centuries ago: a surplus of cadavers."

"Let me tell you about my first cadaver. I was thirty-six, and it was eighty-one."

"All were strangers to me. I would not want to watch an experiment, no matter how interesting or important, that involved the remains of someone I knew and loved."

"Death. It doesn't have to be boring."

PARAGRAPH:
The most interesting part of the opening part of the book is the very beginning during the introduction. Usually I don’t read the introduction of anything because they never really told me much and I would rather be reading about the actual story behind the book. I got tricked into reading it thinking it was the start of the book. The idea that the author comes up with during the very first few pages is death is done differently, and could be done in a better way if there weren’t only funerals and cremations. I guess this is the thesis of the book, considering that the author goes on to talk about the decay of a body and dissection of dead bodies. Both things that I have never read about and the dissection of dead bodies being something I have never heard about. This book seems a lot more interesting compared to the other books read during this course because there are less stories packed with statistics and constant citations. However it gives the reader more of an connection with the actual story.

HOMEWORK 45 - Interview w/ Family Members

Christopher R

Interview with my mother:
What are some of your initial thoughts about the care of the dead?
I don’t know anything about the care of the dead. I know that at funerals there are people who take care of the body. They keep it so that it is preserved and during the funeral the person still looks like they did when they were alive. The funerals that I have been too had the person who died dressed up very nice. They were presented the way I think everyone wants to be presented when they are dead. Very well dressed and it just looks like the person is there sleeping. If the person looked like they were dead it would probably be a lot harder for people to want to view the body. This could bring back negative memories instead of positive memories, and the funeral is supposed to be a place where everyone comes to celebrate and say goodbye to the person who died. I have been to a lot of funerals of people who are very close to me, and even though I tend to cry and feel very upset I realize that they go to another place that’s better than here on earth. It is still very hard for people to get used to not having these people around though.

What is the difference between a funeral and a memorial, and how/why do the two get confused?
I don’t think there is a difference between a funeral and a memorial. A funeral is where people go to view the body and say goodbye, and people speak on their behalf. For someone who thinks they are attending a memorial, I don’t think things would be much different. In a memorial I feel like someone would speak on the person’s behalf and everyone would be there to celebrate the life of the person. I think these two can get confused by someone who has never been to a funeral in their life. Someone who has never been to a funeral could feel like there is a difference because they don’t have firsthand experience. However someone like me who goes to a funeral almost two times a year, I think they can be very depressing but at the same time they can be very good. The family of the deceased gets to be around all of people who cared a lot about their family member.

Have you ever been to a funeral where the body was cremated after?
I have been to one. It was the exact same thing. I have only been to about 8 actual burials and probably more than 20 funerals/ wakes. It’s not like I was at the cremation. I don’t really know what that whole thing is about. I was raised always thinking that people are buried, then when my father died I wanted to be buried next to him in that cemetery along with everyone else in my family.

Can you tell me about some personal experiences you’ve had at funerals?

I have been to a lot of funerals so I guess I can tell you about the one that affected me the most. Your godmother, my best friend Barbara passed away. It affected me a lot because she was my best friend. When I moved to New York she was one of the first people that I met. Then she use to live down the street from us and she moved upstate. So I wasn’t able to go to her house and see her whenever I wanted. The day she died was very unexpected. She was missing for a little while and then I think one of her sons found her in the basement. No one knew why she was going to the basement and why she died on her way down to the basement. She didn’t have many medical problems, so it was concluded that she had fallen down the stairs. It’s like she just died out of nowhere there wasn’t anything I could say to her before she died. There was no warning. With my friend Denise who had off and on cancer, I was able to be with her before she died. With Barbara, she just passed away. She was dressed up very nice and her sons both spoke on her behalf.

Any other thoughts?
I don’t think people should be afraid of dying, but I think they should be presented however they want, no one can tell them how they should be presented.

Interview with Cousin
What are some of your initial thoughts about the care of the dead?
Care of the dead. Is that like funerals, and the way that the dead people are treated? I haven’t been to many funerals except my father’s funeral. I was a little kid when he died, so I haven’t seen how things are done at funerals in a long time. At his funeral though everyone was in all black. He was dressed up really well, my mother was speaking, I was speaking. Everyone was crying. That doesn’t have a lot to do with the care of the dead though. People treated him with a lot of respect; there was no one who had anything negative to say about him. Even some people who didn’t like him were there and saying nice things trying to comfort me. They were trying to comfort my mother. I guess that is care of the dead.

What is the difference between a funeral and a memorial, and how/why do the two get confused?
A funeral is a memorial. People at the funeral are remembered. They are celebrated. People come to say good things in the memory of this person. That is the same thing as a funeral. I guess a funeral is only with a dead person and a memorial can be for someone who is alive. Michael Jordan has a memorial outside of the Bulls arena. That’s almost the same thing as what happens in a funeral. Except at a funeral the person is dead and there is no statue there is just a coffin/ casket.

Have you ever been to a funeral where the body was cremated after?
I have been to one funeral. My father was not cremated. What is the point of burning him?
Can you tell me about some personal experiences you’ve had at funerals?
There isn’t much to talk about. I barely remember this. It was the exact same thing that your mother talked about. Funerals don’t really change. Just your connection to the person.

Analysis: The most interesting part about this interview and the interview from the last homework is the care of the dead is something many people don’t know about. I don’t know what it is and I am still confused what exactly we are going to learn about in this unit. But my mother knows a lot about funerals because it seems like she goes to one at least every few months. Her brother, aunt, many of her best friends have died, usually all near the same time. The females in our family usually outlive the men. However she didn’t talk about the care of the dead either she talked more about illness and dying. She has a lot of stories about people that have died, and I don’t think she went off on a different topic on purpose, I think for the most part what she did was talk about what she thought care of the dead was. However I think that care of the dead is what happens to the body and not the ceremony that the person who is dead is having. The most thought provoking thing (because the word insightful is overused in this course) that she said was “She didn’t have many medical problems, so it was concluded that she had fallen down the stairs. It’s like she just died out of nowhere there wasn’t anything I could say to her before she died. There was no warning. With my friend Denise who had off and on cancer, I was able to be with her before she died. With Barbara, she just passed away.” This made me think about what my cousin said in his interview. My mom was able to be with her friend Denise because there was evidence that she could be very close to death. However Barbara who is another one of her best friends died without any type of warning. This leading me to think that my cousin was correct when he said funerals are all the same, the only thing that changes are your connection to the person.

This was probably the closest thing to care of the dead in the entire interview. I think the idea that all funerals are the same, but your connection is what makes it special or not special is very true. This makes me wonder why some people who do not have strong connections go to others funerals. If someone died and you are not very close to them then this celebration/ memorial is not going to affect you as much as someone who does have a strong connection with a person. I also noticed that the cremation topic was also something that we (as a family) barely know anything about. I was raised, going to a good amount of funerals, and them all being burials. The idea of burning the body of a person you love, when you can keep a memorial of them seems stupid. At the same time I understand why people do cremate their loved ones because at the same time it is still that persons last decision.

Homework 47

Christopher R

First Question: What are your initial thoughts on care of the dead?

WILLIAM: I mean i think its necessary. I think the great thing about a funeral is that you remember all the great things they did everyone they knew, comes back and reminds us all how they were affected by that person cremation is good too I mean to put it simply "the only thing that counts when you die is what they thought of you" so honoring the memory is important.

SASCHA:I personally want to be cremated because I don't see a point in being buried but I think if someone wants to be buried then they have the right to be.

AMANDA: I think the families/loved ones/ or people involved should dispose of the bodies in what ever way works for them. For example I froze my gold fish when i was 9 after it died. Now im not saying they should be allowed to be laying out in the street. There should be guide lines so that the public space is safe and comfortable for others.

Second Question: Have you ever attended a funeral/ritual dedicated to someone who has died? If so, what was it like?

WILLIAM: Well, At first it was really sad and I was upset because it really means coming to terms with the fact that they are dead and not coming back but then you realize that life goes on you have to continue on and usually everyone starts talking and the after "party" is good because everyone really needs to have a good time with family and friend. thats about it
i mean like you can't be depressed for ever you need to move on and continue to do you
and try and make that person proud of you.

SASCHA: I have, it was very touching to see such a large amount of people come together in honor of one person. It was very moving to see that one person could touch so many peoples lives. It was also interesting to see that most people weren't sad but instead celebrating the person.

AMANDA: Yes i have, it was boring...I was sad about their death either before or after the funeral but never during.I think this is because in our culture funerals are supposed to represent acceptance of the death and I felt if i was sad at the funeral then it wouldnt be acceptable.

Third Question:What is the difference between a funeral and a memorial, and how/why do the two get confused?

WILLIAM: Funeral is literally when we put the body underground. Memorial is more just rememebering them everyone says how the deceased person helped them they are similar
but without the body .

SASCHA: A funeral is when someone is being buried I believe, and a memorial is just when the person who has passed is being honored. I believe they get confused because a funeral usually goes along with a memorial so people mix them up.

AMANDA: I'm not sure i think its basically the same think except maybe differences in how the rituals are preformed. The two get confused cause they overall symbolize the same thing.


Fourth Question: How would you want your body to be handled once you die? And if you have not made the decision yet, who would you like to decide and why?

WILLIAM: Well it depends on how i go, if i get shot then i want to be buried in the ground
but if i live a full life. I would consider cremation because its all like going back to the earth and what not plus i'm going to already be dead but if i hadn't decided. I would like it to be my wife's decision if i have a wife.

SASCHA: I wish to be cremated because I feel that land for a cemetery could be used in so many different ways. There are huge cemeteries all over the city that will never be used for anything except for the place to put people who have passed when it could be used for housing, schools, hospitals, and much more.

AMANDA: I haven't thought about what I want to be done with my body but I have thought about my funeral. I guess i'd want to be an organ donner and if i am I don't know what would happen to my body after that...if my family gets it back then it'd be cool to be burned and thrown in the ocean (haha). Or maybe i would just want my husband/boyfriend or children to decide what they think would be the easiest way to get rid of me. I would want my husband/boyfriend or children to decide amusing i die after my parents because I presume they would have the hardest time getting over my death so they should take care of it which ever way would help them ease their pain assuming im missed on the other hand maybe leaving it up to them would cause too much drama. I want make sure that when i die my funeral is in some hot beachy place where none of my family has been so they could just relax for a week and enjoy the sun and pina coladas.

Fifth Question: Is their any reason that you think their are more burials than cremations?

WILLIAM: I think that burials have been around longer and the idea of burning someone doesn't exactly sit well with some people for example Jewish people. While also many people feel as if they bury someone near them then they can go visit them and "talk" to them and "talk" to thier grave it makes the dead person closer to home which can be important because death is very hard to deal with.

SASCHA: I think that burials are more seen in the media obviously. It might have something to do with religion. Like if people believe in a certain god they might feel that a burial is more appropriate. There are billions of people that are Christian and America was based off of Christianity so I think this is why so many people believe in funerals. Cremation doesn't have as much back up.

AMANDA: I didnt know that statistic, I guess burials are a way of getting rid of the evidence of the persons existence with out completely letting go or having a constant reminder. ex: the body/symoblsim of the body is somewhere in a grave yard and not in a yurn above your fire place. If the ashes are scattered then they are gone forever so its almost as if cremation is all or nothing while burial is a happy medium. Also fire might remind people of hell and they may feel guilty for causing their dead loved one "pain" expessialy if the family/ friends are in denile about the death.

Sixth Question: Do you think their are any specific reasons that people don't talk about the dead, after the funeral/ memorial?

WILLIAM: I think that its hard to bring back all those memories and that when you move on
you don't want to think about that person because then your going to miss them again it brings hardship.

SASCHA: I think it is because it is easier not to. Why talk about someone who you won't be able to see. I don't know if this is exactly true though because when someone dies it is common to talk about the things that they did in their life but talking about their death is something that doesn't happen.

AMANDA: Like I said earlier I think funerals are supposed show that those attending are accepting of the persons death, and talking about the dead guy after they die or showing that they STILL miss them is a sign of weakness. People are going to think less of them. It could also be that the person isnt in their day to day active life any more and there isnt much to say about them in terms of "I went to the park with grandma yesterday and she bought me ice cream". I think also maybe people feel that those around them wouldnt care to hear about a memory someone had with a relitive that had passed away....and maybe ignorance is a large part of acceptance.

Seventh Question: Do you feel like there is anything you want to say on this topic?

WILLIAM: Death can be hard, but it's part of life so we have to deal with it thats all
hope I helped.

SASCHA: Let me know how this goes.


I think the most interesting part of these interviews was the answers from Sascha and Amanda because they gave the answers that I didn’t really think about. Sascha made me the most interested when she talked about how cremation seems like a smarter idea because it makes it so your body doesn’t sit in a funeral taking up space that could be used. I always wondered about how many less homeless people there could be if we took some of this land and made a homeless shelter, or if we took this land and made it into a hospital. It seems like with the 6,000 that someone spends on the funeral parlor, the hoarse, and the spot to be buried in this money could have easily gone to something else. Especially because not a lot of people feel comfortable talking about the person that died openly, why spend this money on a person when you could have an equally good memorial and spend the money on something else. This makes me think that a funeral has something to do with a bigger mass of people supporting it because; the numbers of cremations in the United States is near 34%. I want to know why so many people decided to be buried and why it has been set up so that more people think that having a burial makes more sense. All the funerals that I have been to have been funerals where the deceased person was buried after. This space to me can be used very well and I don’t know why the cremated person cannot be buried. This takes up less space and in a way I think it has the same meaning. The body goes back into the earth as William said.

The other thing that I found interesting from doing these interviews is, people think that the person they are committed to will have to make the decision of what happens. There is an argument that the person who is dead should make the decision of what they do with their own body but then again this will last in the memories of the people they are committed to and children as well. This makes me think of a few questions related to the care of the dead.
• What roles does the family of the deceased play in the care of the deceased person?
• Is there any religious reason that people respect the wishes of the dead although they won’t know what happens to their bodies?
• What are the differences in the memorial where the deceased person has a family that has been cremated? How is this versus those who are buried?
• What are the cost differences between cremation and burials?
• If there is superstition against building on top of burial sites, how much of America’s land is cemetery, can this land be built on?

HW 46 - Initial Thoughts on the Care of the Dead (BEST HW OVER BREAK)

Christopher R

I realized that I don’t know too much about care of the dead because the only time that I was ever around someone who was dead is at a funeral. I see funerals as more of the celebration of a loved one more than the care of the dead. I honestly don’t even know what would be classified as the care of the dead. I think the burial of someone who is dead, and the way they are presented, such as clothing and who speaks at the funeral is care of the dead. I also feel like cremation is care of the dead, because it is what happens to the body after the person is dead. After knowing that less than one percent of my life I have been around someone who is dead, I don’t feel like I can strongly say anything about the care of the dead because it is something that I doubt many people know a lot about. Out of the 10 or so funerals that I have attended I haven’t been to one where the person was cremated afterwards, and I have only been to one of the burials of a person.

I think the most insightful thing I can put into this post seeing as I know literally nothing about care of the dead is the way I act towards someone who dies. For many different reasons I would rather not be around someone who has died. This is because it is something that we all have to go through but many people tend to put the idea of it in the back of their minds. When hearing about someone who died on television, the focus is not about the person who died but it is usually about the person who killed. Being near someone who actually is dead or thinking about someone who has died makes you wonder about your own death. Since people like to put off the idea that they are going to die it is more comfortable to be able to think about something else then about when you die. The idea of not being able to interact with anyone who you know in the present is scary. The fact that many people are unsure what happens in the afterlife is also scary. Personally I have a fear of death because I always wonder how it would affect my mother if I died. It’s hard to face the fact that the people we have set up relationships with already in this world can go away instantly. In this sense it seems like the dead are treated terribly, once dead we burn and bury them never to be seen again. Not able to push them back in memory but able to push them physically off the earth. I would say most people feel as if being around dead people changes the mood in a negative way, although they remain with us in memory it’s preferred to have them buried away.


• Is the dominant social practice of the United States based off the dominant social practices of a religion?
• Who are the experts on care of the dead, why do they believe this form of care of the dead is ideal?
• What are alternatives to the dominant social practice of care of the dead?
• How has the care of the dead changed over time?
• What is some useful, basic information of the care of the dead?
• In what ways are the alternatives better than the dominant social practices?

Comments HW 44

TO JASPER

Your post was about interviewing women about different aspects on birth. I think that your post could have talked more about the experiences before we got the interviews because you do reflect on things but you don't establish anything about how you felt before. Something that I think your post had of value was the video of the interview because the interpretation of what someone said and the way they actually sad things makes a big difference. Your project was valuable to me because we did the same project and I like that we tried to learn about something not taught in class


FROM JASPER (Lower Person)

Chris: Christ great post sounds like you're group project was the best in the whole class... You're project was supposed to be about procedures conducted in hospitals during births. But after you and this Jasper guy were rejected you found people outside to interview about their views on birth and you also interviewed a very knowledgable pediatrician. I like how you still went into what you originally wanted to do the project on and gave some statistics. I also like how you talked to regular people outside but then got knowledgeable source also that you could ask some questions to. This project matters to me because it's the same thing I did and I think it's important to know what the society thinks not just the people you know! P.S. you make us seem very stupid in your post. And me more than you..


TO AMHARA

The main idea of your post seemed to be finding out what a woman with kids thought about birth. But at the same time you introduced it as a decision of whether or not your mother should have another kid. The only thing that is confusing about this is you say your mom knows a lot of information so I find it confusing how you would go about informing her more. Maybe i'm just lost. Also I'm confused about parts 2-4. But anyway I think all these projects are useful pieces of information but at the same time I like that you mother was more informed about birth then "common people". For whatever reason I thought people who gave birth wouldn't know as much as I did but 9 months of thinking gives more information then a month of what we did. I think this project matters because the video was actually very entertaining. Most birth stories are, they are rarely talked about and usually great stories.

TO RUBEN

Ruben,

It seems like what your overall goal was learning about hospital births. I know this because that was what I tried to do as well. You asked a few questions to a nurse at a hospital which was something that I wanted to do. One aspect that I valued about your posted is you were actually able to come up with some information from a person who worked at a hospital. I tried very hard towards the end of the project to go into a hospital, however it didn't work. This would have been valuable to my project. This matters to me because it is some information that I wanted however if I was you I would have made a push to learn more about how birth is done because anyone from anywhere can give an opinion on anything. A few spelling errors too, usually I don't notice spelling errors but you have some rather obvious ones.

TO HARRY

Harry,

I think you choose a good topic because it was something that we never talked about in class. It is not completely related to birth however some people give their children up for adoption before they are born. These are good questions, I never thought about being adopted but I think it would raise a lot of questions. The aspect that I valued the most about this project was the background research because it shows that you had a real desire to learn a bit more about adoption. Also the interview with Flywalker's dad makes the post more interesting, its always more entertaining to know what people think instead of how you interpret what they think. I think this project matters because it is one of the more creative. I have commented on 3 peoples blogs and they all related to mine in a way. This is something different.

Farve.


TO LUCAS

Lucas,

Your project is looking shakes because it doesn't have any sound. But I did watch this video before so I do know somethings about it. I think your project was similar to mine because you also wanted to see how hospital birth was done in contrast to what we learned. You got farther then me and Jasper. The thing that was the most interesting though was the private rooms because being able to be by yourself with your family and the baby cost extra. I think the ending was good too, there were people with different levels of knowledge. One person did not know what a "Cesarean" Section was and one person had a family of all C-Sections. I think you could have written something about what you thought before and after making this film to make the project better.

Chris.

From Ruben

Chris,
The main focus for your project, was to find out more information about babies being born based of your research, and interviews. I really valued the way you didn't stop trying to find someone to talk to about birth, even if it was a random person. This project matters to me, because it encourages me to ask whoever I want, in a polite manner, about what I was studying or focusing on.

From Sophia


Chris,

You explained how what you learned in class led you to want to interview a nurse or doctor, and then you told the story of you quest to find someone to interview. You also documented this journey, along with the responses from the doctor you interviewed.

I particularly valued the fact that you interviewed various people after you couldn't find a doctor, and that you were willing to get kicked out of Babies R Us for the sake of this project.

Your project matters to me because you wanted to hear other people's opinions about pregnancy and birth, and why they had these opinions.

One thing I thought you could have done would be to analyze one of the interviews, or how what the doctor told you did or didn't match up with what you knew previously.

From Isabel (Higher Person)

Chris! Your post seemed to focus on two different ideas. You talk about wanting to know an alternative to the things that you learned in class. The videos show that you went to interview people though and then you have an interview. It seems to be a few different ideas that you try to learn about. One thing that I did like about this post was there were three different ways that you try to show people what you are learning. You have some research then you use interviews from people and an interview from a doctor. I think this project matters because it is good information that can be used for something bigger. I think in this project you set up for something that could have been larger. Good start keep going!

Response to Sophia,

Sophia,

Thanks for reading my blog, I wanted to focus on hospital births, and I was hoping that someone would read this. The best part of the experience was being kicked out of Babies R Us because I don't really understand why its not okay to record. It wasn't because we were recording people, we just were not allowed to record. I wish I would have been able to get more people though this was all a last second thought. I also agree with your criticism because it kind of just leaves it to the reader to interpret things. My project would have been better if I were to go into more detail about this. I hope you enjoyed it still.

Chris.

Response to Ruben

Ruben,

Thanks for reading my blog RUBEN. I did try to get some information about hospital births just like you did and we got about the same amount of information. You should ask some people if you ever have anything to say, the worse they can say is no. Its also easier if you go with friends but people tend to like to talk about themselves because they always know the right answer and they just enjoy letting others know.

Response to Beatrice

Beatrice, I just saw your comment on the youtube video, that comes from Kevin giving us the video the day after the project was done...Kevin...

Thanks for reading my blog though, I'm sorry if I disappointed you when I made you believe we got chased by the cops. However that pitch worked. It got you to view my blog and comment on it. I wanted to be able to do more with the project, but I think that this met a few of my standards not all of them. I also watched your video. It is a really good video, I saw you recording a few people but this is very good. I agree with your suggestion though, I wanted to do a lot more, and I think I would have if I had gotten an actual interview. However thats no excuse. I'll remember that for next year and next project.

Response to Jasper

In the post I did not make anyone seem stupid I promise. I just make it seem like that in the comment because we did the same project as a joke. Duh Winning! Anyway, I appreciated the comment and have very little to say in response because we did the same thing. You and I should work together again for other projects but actually be able to do the idea we want to do.

Homework 42 - Investigating Project

Christopher R

The main idea I wanted to focus on in this project was, being able to learn a lot more about hospital births. I noticed that while we were learning about midwives and home births, as an alternate to the dominate social practice which is hospital birth. I still did not know anything about hospital births. I learned that in hospitals Pitocin can be given to induce birth if the mother is not progressing on her own. This Pitocin causes the contractions to become more frequent and also causes harder contractions, which puts the mother into pain. The pain is cured by the epidural which makes the woman not feel as much of what is going on, and this can lead to different problems. More Pitocin can be used if the pregnancy slows down. In certain situations the child can go into distress because the contractions are so hard due to the Pitocin. Then a C-Section (short for Cesarean section) can take place to try to save the life of the baby, almost in a superman-like heroic way. This all seems very bad. A lot of what I was learning seemed to be that the alternative is a more natural and therefore better way. It was also a cheaper way. Then again I thought to myself how could I be able to make a good decision on my own if I didn’t know much about the hospital birth. For this project what I wanted to do was learn a little bit more about the hospital birth because there are different aspects to everything. It is possible that the scenario described is very frequently occurring. With the hospital being the dominate practice of people in the United States there has to be a reason that people are still giving birth in hospitals. I wanted to investigate why and how birth was done. Episiotomy is also something that is frightening about the birthing process. A cut is made from the bottom of the vagina to the top of the anus.


I wanted to execute was going to Harlem Hospital and talking to doctors and nurses based off of the information that I retrieved. This website that I found had information broken down from C-Sections to Natural births. It also had a lot of information about cost, and in how many cases medicine was used. While looking at this information I did remember when the midwife who visited class said some of these websites lie. The information has to be near accurate however because it is supposed to be credible information for the public and the government. During the research I found out that in the year 2009 there were 1,719 births delivered. Out of the 1,719 births 13 percent of these births were induced by medicine which is less than the state wide 16 percent. 5 percent was attended by a midwife which is less than the 10 percent statewide. Then 67 percent of these births were vaginal births (also more than the state). Episiotomy had a small amount of the percentage in the vaginal births and epidural was used in almost half of these births. C-Section was 33 percent of the births, and 14 percent of the people who had a cesarean section in 2009 had a cesarean section before. 30 percent of the people who had a C-section were given epidurals which are less than the 40 percent who gave vaginal births. This evidence goes against the idea that epidurals help contribute to the amount of people who have C-sections. However more than 50 C-Section had spinal anesthesia compared to the 2 people who had a vaginal birth and had spinal anesthesia.

I went to Harlem Hospital with Jasper Deitzer, and we went on a Sunday night without calling ahead of time. Knowing that babies were kidnapped from there a few decades ago I figured it highly doubtful that we would be allowed to go up and this was confirmed by the not attentive desk manager. She told us that the only way we would be allowed to go up is if we called one of the head managers in the birthing center. She supplied us with a number and when that number was called that also led to another number, which lead to another number and after a while it became less likely that anyone would actually let us go up. That day we walked to the Bronx and found another hospital at about 730 pm on the same night. After walking across a bridge late on a night where we had school the next day the hope was they would let us up. According to the security guard if we were to call earlier in the day then we would have been able to get a staff member to tell us about the hospital and labor unit.


Two days after with no work done the idea was to try to get some interviews from anyone because going to a hospital was a lot harder than anyone would have expected. It takes a few days of preparation and many hospitals just don’t have it so that people can come and ask questions. The first few interviews were from Babies R’ Us:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGqNiRWj_4k


The next interview was with potential parents:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKeEqRq9KX8

CHASED BY THE COPS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMJndw620lk

To top off some of the research I know a pediatrician who obviously is not an OB/ GYN but she is a very knowledgeable and well recognized pediatrician in New York City. I know her through her two children and I figured that she would know a lot more than a “common” person even if she didn’t go to school to be an obstetrician. At the beginning of the unit I asked her about her births and I also asked her about her point of view on C-Sections. She was very supportive of the idea of C-Sections and saw them as useful so I looked at this as an opportunity to get more “pro-hospital birth” information and it would also be from a doctor. Here’s my interview with Lori Rosello M.D.

My Email to her

Her Response