CWDC - 26 January 2020
A write up of January 2020 meeting of Colliers Wood Death Cafe
By Cecilia H
10 of us met for the first meeting of the Colliers Wood Death Café to take place in 2020. We enjoyed 3 varieties of cake, with the Victoria Sponge once again proving to be a hit!
The darkness of January was an opening theme, with people reflecting on their relationship to this time of year, and to winter.
Themes to emerge from our discussion:
The ideas purported by the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement which calls for people to abstain from reproduction to cause the gradual voluntary extinction of humankind in order to prevent environmental degradation.
The relationship between faith, anguish and pain. The phenomenon on ‘total pain’ recognised by Cicely Saunders, the founder of the modern hospice movement, which sees total pain as being physical, psychological, social, and spiritual.
We returned again to thinking some more about the role of ritual and the role of ancestors within certain cultural traditions.
Children and death – how does a 9 year old view death? How did our own 9 year olds understand death? How were our impressions and understandings informed?
Mammals and the experience of grief following a bereavement, or loss of different sorts.
The People’s Pyramid, MuMufication, and the Toxteth Day of the Dead (23rd November).
The Matrix (1999), cosmology, relativity, and existence in time! Our observations that slowly, but surely, there seems to be some progress in terms of the deconstruction of the taboo – more is appearing in the press and media about death and dying.
With gratitude to all who took part, and to NCJS - our cake baker extraordinaire!