Lynn was raised as a Lutheran and went to that church more than 40 years. Our girls were raised there, too. Over time, she began attending Quaker meeting but retains an interest in traditional Protestant religion. A friend told me that Nadia Bolz-Weber was very worth reading so when a different friend mentioned the Bolz-Weber book "Accidental Saints", I read it aloud to Lynn. Bolz-Weber has an unusual background for a pastor, at least what has been the case over the last 50 years or so.
Questions of religion intertwine with every aspect of our lives and are never irrelevant. Accidental Saints seemed good and helpful so we got into "Why Religion?" by the Princeton professor of religion, Elaine Pagels. The book is more personal than Pagels' scholarship involving the Dead Sea scrolls and current Christian matters, explaining the very challenging life events that struck Pagels as well as her life as a scholar and religious thinker.
Discussing the use of the app "Libby" to borrow e-books from the library got me interested in trying to do that. I had heard of "When Breath Becomes Air" by Paul Kalanithi. Since it was immediately available, I downloaded it.
Now I am into both books, Why Religion? and When Breath Becomes Air. Both related to what are often called personal tragedies and called that for good reasons. The religion professor has deep blows to her life and the neurosurgeon died young.
There are many lovely, moving and tear-inspiring passages in Breath that I could quote. At my age, death of friends is fairly common. It makes me notice how the drive to life produces hostages. "Hand over your wallet or I will end your life". "Slow down or you might die". "Hold on so you don't fall."
It all fits together understandably but generally people don't like to think much about their beginning or their ending. My mommy and daddy did WHAT to get me going? I came from WHERE? When people [not ME, but "people"] come to their end [of living in their live format], what happens to them? Listening to Bill Bryson's "Short History of Nearly Everything", I heard what has become my favorite word for me and others after death: we "dissipate" - we scatter. That's how, when you take that next breath, you might be inhaling an atom or two of my mom.
The usual questions: what does the deceased feel? What does the deceased think? - they may circle around us, haunt us, inspire us, but in a sense they no longer compute. They don't apply. Sure, our memories, writings, records, videos, snapshots, drawings and conversations with others are all human tools that connect us to forms of the deceased and experiences with them and about them. We aren't too bad at continuing to interact with parts of the deceased, but there is still a big difference between full life and its complete absence.
