Guest Post by Edward Curtin
“Method, Method, what do you want from me? You know that I have eaten of the fruit of the unconscious.”
Jules Laforgue, Moralités légendaires
The other day my wife attended an event at a well-appointed home in town where men in dark suits stood around to provide a sense of security that no harm would come to the visitors, even though the angel of death had visited this house on previous occasions, for it was a funeral home, well-steeped in boxing people up for the journey to the underworld.
So to call it a “home” is really a misnomer; that might sound cozy, but it is really a way station for the dead. A layover.
Mistakenly thinking that she was attending a traditional wake and the dead person’s corpse would be there in a coffin, I suggested that she check out the casket and, if she liked its wood and the softness of its velvet liner, to inquire whether they had any sales going on, especially if they had a buy-one-get-one-free sale like the local supermarket often has for English muffins and other goodies.