Rituals may sometimes look silly, but they always serve…

Rituals may sometimes look silly, but they always serve a serious end. Here are some conspicuous examples: Birth of a new member Coming of age The marrying in of a new member Creation of a new elder The death of a member

— from The Landing (Death) · Complete Family Wealth by James E Hughes Jr., Susan E. Massenzio, and Keith Whitaker

In the book

That is why our last words to one another carry such indelible weight, and why I am choosing mine to you with care. Our rituals around the landing can look almost theatrical from the outside, but they do a serious and necessary work — they honor the one who has gone, they carry the grievers through, and they weave a finished life into the ongoing story of the family. I have seen people meet the end with astonishing grace: one man, dying, stood in a room full of the people who loved him and watched himself reflected in their eyes; another asked every mourner at his funeral to wear a Hawaiian shirt and a pair of Groucho glasses, so that grief and laughter would arrive in the same breath. — The Landing (Death)

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