Patience & Fortitude

Senseless, Tragic, and Stupid

Senseless, Tragic, and Stupid

Talented, award-winning actor and all-round nice guy Phillip Seymour Hoffman died at some point on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2014 from (it is assumed) a drug overdose. He had a documented issue with addiction and so this goes down as another fabulous actor lost to drugs. I am...
I get to expert things?

I get to expert things?

I was talking to my colleague Jennifer Miracle about blogging and specifically about my upcoming debut as a columnist for Atheist Republic, where I will be writing about grief and mourning issues. I was talking about how I don’t feel much like an expert on the...

Accepting Fear

I don’t follow too many celebrities on social media, since most of the time it’s clear their posts are being ghost-written or, worse, nothing is being written at all. I like George Takei and Clark Gregg and, especially, Jada Pinkett Smith. Her facebook...

Living as the afterlife

As a non-deist and skeptic, I view “after life” as the yawning, endless time that is experienced by those of us surviving the loss of a loved one: We are living after the life of someone else has ended. It’s an important role for us. We are all the...

Secular traditions are powerful

I was linked to a great article via What’s Your Grief? blog: The Day the Man Came to Burning Man (link to LA Weekly). It’s a tear jerker, if inspiring as well. I was surprised because I have more than few friends who go to Burning Man every year and no one...

The Freedom to Funeral

I was talking to my friend David recently about funerals. He is an observant Jew who had attended an Evangelical Christian funeral, and was appalled by the fact that the music was recorded. I have to assume it was a pretty terrible choice of hymns or a cheap sound...