Death Cafés Still Thriving in Taos
A write up of Taos Death Cafe
Death Café in Taos, New Mexico is still going strong, although I've been slacking in the update department. We had one in April which more or less marked our one year anniversary, and then one in June. Both of these – in fact ALL our Death Cafés – were well attended. As usual, we had to put out more chairs than anticipated. We really should know better by now!
One interesting item that came up at our June Death Café was a request from one of the attendees for “homework.” We've found that many people are attending because they feel the need to get their end-of-life wishes in legal order, but lack motivation and know-how. (In this regard we're blessed to have Peter Callan as one of our organizers, because he's written a great book that helps get people started with this stuff. It's called Prepare to Die, and Other Stuff No One Ever Told You, and he's been donating sales from it to Taos Death Café's operating funds.)
I told the lady that this would not be in line with our guidelines, yet I can't help but wonder if other groups have encountered similar requests, and if so, how they've dealt with that. One thought I've had is to create an online group of people who want to participate that way, and keep it separate from the Death Café meetings themselves.
Anyway, I can't complain - problems such as these are a wonderful thing to have, and a great confirmation that our Death Cafés are having the impact we've hoped they would!