Religion & Beliefs
May You Be Inscribed In the Book of Life
By Jacob Harris / October 1, 2009
When I was little, Yom Kippur scared the hell out of me. Who shall live? Who shall die? The book of life, communal guilt for wrongdoings, etc. etc. – HEAVY SHIT. During my maybe-I’ll-be-a-poet phase in high school, I noticed that my father read the NY Times Obituaries daily, and circa 1998 he began the occasional snail mail package of truly remarkable obits that I maybe (definitely) missed via my own subscription. He treated them like mini-biographies, always noting what he had learned on a Post-it. A few years ago, one of the packages and Yom Kippur coincided and ever since then I’ve taken note of the remarkable few or unremarkable many that pass away during the closing of the book season. Not to downplay the "summer of death" losses as I admittedly beefed up my Michael Jackson collection by roughly 60 songs over the last 3 months, but I haven’t fully conceptualized where celebrities’ names fall in the book of life. I imagine Farrah Fawcett’s is towards the front of the book and that her name is in a blondish-red, seriffed typeface. Ted Kennedy’s is a striking New York Times headline. Ed McMahon’s is off to the side on a huge foam core check. David Carradine’s is punctuated with a grasshopper. Yes-yes, this is crazy talk – unless you’ve read a Machzor lately. So with a nod to Dad and utter confusion toward the universe here are the circa Yom Kippur remarkable few and unremarkable many no matter what you believe. Feel free to add in the comments. William Safire - Pulitzer Prize winner and speechwriter for Nixon. Lucy Vodden - Inspired the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”. Edward Gelsthorpe - Ever used roll-on deodorant or had a cocktail with cranberry juice? This guy made that happen. Wilma Cozart Fine - A pioneer among female music producers. Don Fisher - Thanks for the Mom jeans and the pocketed t-shirt – the founder of GAP. Elizaveta Mukasei - A female Russian spy who lived in LA during World War II, and wrote textbooks for the K.G.B. spy school. 157 dead in Guinea
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Lucy Vodden - Inspired the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”.
When this became public it really struck a chord in me (oh the cheese.. do you get that, a chord. *flaming melting drippping kosher cheese – gobs of it!).
I was a "I wanna be a deep thinker, rocker hipster teen" who was always looking for that ‘experience’Â and the deeper meaning of the Doors lyrics and Eddi Vedder’s screaching stoned soliloquies. When Lucy died, it turned me back to that time (I am now a "wanna be a deep thinker, rocker hipster thirty something"). And I realized I am older than the idols of my adolescence. Morrison died before he hit my age and so did others I looked up to. It kinda put a perspective on it all, and the magnanimity of their words somewhat diminished. I was like… You mean it really didn’t stand for LSD? I felt like I had been robbed of the adventurous rebelllion of my youth. And I had worked really hard for that rebbellion. Oh well. I wonder what will happen when Uncle Moishy passe on.Â
*Addendum- I think people that read obits are dong something worthwhile. It can give you a look at life at get you thinking about what you want to do with yours. Either that or they are hoplessly in need of friends.Â
There’s a really funny (darkly funny) episode of the Mary Tyler Moore Show about writing obituaries for people in advance. One night, Mary’s stuck late at the office working on some obits and Rhoda convinces her to finish them quickly and do a sloppy job so they can go out. The next day, one of the people actually dies, and Ted reads one of the sloppy obits (which contains lines like "His hobbies included breathing") on the air.
Of course! That said, my Dad has already made it known that I’m supposed to play a certain half of an album at the funeral and tell everyone to cheer up and go home, so if that isn’t a NY Times hook – I don’t know what is. Seriously though, his accomplishments, like all people (yes – I actually believe this), are too many to capture on a page…now or later.
As an aside, did you know that most publications write the obituaries of famous and notable people far in advance of their death? I’ve heard from friends at the likes of Time and the NY Post that they often try to interview people for their own obits.
I regularly read the Obits too. I’ve never thought of saving them, and sending them to someone, unless I was sharing an announcement about someone I knew. Do you feel some pressure on you to come up with a fantastic obituary when your dad passes?Â
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