Sunday, September 8, 2019

From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death (Caitlin Doughty)

As a mortician and the founder of the Order of the Good Death, Caitlin Doughty has made a name for herself in the funeral industry. Some funeral directors even consider her a troublemaker because she contradicts their message. No, you do not need the $20,000 steel casket and vault to bury your loved one, and the more involved that families are in the death process itself, the more they will heal.

The latter is part of the focus of Doughty's book From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death. She argues that only in some parts of the world (mostly the USA) do people fear the dead. In other cultures, the traditions of taking care of the dead are much different. All of the traditions she talks about have something in common though: They allow people to personally take care of their dead instead of leaving it solely in the hands of funeral directors.

I've always been interested in this whole topic and learn so much from Caitlin Doughty, especially from her You Tube videos. Her blunt but warm manner in her videos and her fascinating style of writing in her books takes the "scary" out of the death industry.

MY RATING - 4