Death is About the Living

"The dead don't care." Thomas often remarks. As a funeral director, he always encounters the grieving individuals who are constantly worried about what the particular dead person in question would have wanted, such as funeral arrangements, casket type, pallbearers, order of service, cremation, etc. But Thomas thinks that in our haste to think about what our deaths mean to us, as the ones who die, we forget about what our deaths mean to us, as the ones who mourn the dying.

For Thomas, whether the dead person is worm food or whether her soul is in heaven or hell, she doesn't care about her body anymore. She isn't there. The body, while part of who she was, is no longer who she is. Thomas's role as funeral director makes clear to him the importance of death for the life of the living and he...