The other day I was catching up on my daily dose of reading, and I stumbled on an interesting article from TedTalk. In a USA town, there’s a gentleman who writes the obituary of everyone who dies in the community. Some of them are elaborate with full, vibrant, and emotional connections to the deceased and others not so much. These renditions of the dead are the life accomplishments and biographies of those individuals.
Sometimes, he decided what to cut out of the submissions to make the word limit for the local paper. Not wanting to offend anyone for their contribution, he’s adopted a unique way of writing. He tries to include much of everyone’s contributions while meeting the newspaper’s guidelines, and most importantly, the admiration and respect of the town’s people.
One day, someone in the town died, and he received nothing. He asked, but nothing. He conducted some research but found nothing substantive to write. He did write something, using his unique ways, but it was concise and to the point.
I attend a monthly meeting with like-minded professionals and retired experts in any field you can imagine. I like to call the meetings my “therapy sessions.“ I shared this with them, and we all thought it was exciting and vital enough as an assignment for our next gathering. We will all try to write an obituary for ourselves and get feedback from the group. Sounds morbid? Maybe you should try it or ask others to write on your behalf.
Watch out for updates.
Peace!