I interviewed my friend Isaiah, who is 16, my cousin Agathe who is 23, and my father whose 52 all having various perspectives on prom. Isaiah has never been to prom, but seems like he wants too. Agathe never went to prom because it is not offered in France and lastly my Father who went, and never really looked back.
Isaiah surprised me with his superficial simplistic views of prom. He believes he will loose his virginity and have a super cliché time slow dancing, b**** in bottles and a date he really cares about. He says that one should have fun at prom and it's a night worth remembering, or else what’s the point? He says he would have to go ALL decked out, he says he "gotta' stunt" he already seems to have a plan for his outfit, every brand name ready; A Hugo Boss suit, Calvin Klein high bar, Belchinni shoes, and some other brand cufflinks. He is going to get a limo and the whole sha-bang.
Agathe my older cousin laughed when I asked her about prom, she said those scenes in the High school movies? Like in Carrie? I said well yeah, it’s a big deal here in America. She was hysterical at the idea and said it does not exist in France, and she is glad that she does not have to go!
My father had a real funny and quite American experience. He was 18 and a “straight edge” coming out of rehab a few years back. The FIRST THING HE SAID WAS “I drove us there in my 68 VW Bug”. He went with his girlfriend whom was pregnant!!! (With my half-bro) His girl wanted to go so he went, he said he felt really awkward because he does not like suits and ties and was Bored out of his mind. It was not his scene they played disco (not his music) and there was just a bunch of people being showy.
Prom seems to be over hyped by the people who have never gone and out played by the people who have. It is an event to dress up beyond normal attire, show off “looking your best” and pretending to not be d****, having fun with your graduating class. It is interesting because nothing ever comes up about being proud one is graduating and the celebration it deserves. A cliché sequenced evening that one goes to because it's reknown status.
June 01, 2011
May 30, 2011
SOF AFTER PROM 2011
I did not attend Prom, but I did attend after-prom and heard enough about prom that I think I got the picture. First off there is a lot of intoxication involved in this process and not so much celebrating (after-prom). I feel that studying this subject in class was somewhat helpful because it shed-light on to what we were doing. THERE WAS A HUGE WHITE LIMO AND most ladies were still dressed up, or in the second outfit of the night, but the guys had mostly changed into sneaks and jeans. Me & Amhara showed-up as outsiders. We took the train, walked a WHOLE lot, were juniors, and where not dressed up. WE DANCED, and that was fun.
There was typical hooking up in between dates, and idiotic jealousy, and gossiping that I will not get into detail about because it was idiotic. In the end it felt like an over-hyped over-costly party. Prom is materialistic and all that crap but it seemed like no fantasy in my eyes. The speakers did not work and at first we could hardly hear the music, there was coca-cola and strobe lights.
I think besides the over analytical portrayal of the details of prom it is a celebration that is worthwhile. We are expected to work hard to get a special piece of paper so we should be rewarded with "care free fun". The evening seemed to go perfectly scripted as described by our classroom discussions, and there was no straying details.
I would like to attend my prom next year because I heard it is great fun to dance with all your classmates and teachers, I do not wish to indulge in a limo or a $500 outfit or even a $120 invitation ticket. I just want it to be a relaxed AFFORDABLE event where I can have fun with my peers in the opposite manner that is normally expected in a school.
I feel the night for me in a way was a rite of passage because I stayed up all night long and went straight to "work" the next day without sleep. It felt cool, but I WAS OD' TIRED AND OD' SORE THE NEXT DAY. It is funny how before there were lights and cities no one was nocturnal. We lived in light of the sun. When I go upstate, sure we stay up into the night but something about the city can change the time you value.
There was typical hooking up in between dates, and idiotic jealousy, and gossiping that I will not get into detail about because it was idiotic. In the end it felt like an over-hyped over-costly party. Prom is materialistic and all that crap but it seemed like no fantasy in my eyes. The speakers did not work and at first we could hardly hear the music, there was coca-cola and strobe lights.
I think besides the over analytical portrayal of the details of prom it is a celebration that is worthwhile. We are expected to work hard to get a special piece of paper so we should be rewarded with "care free fun". The evening seemed to go perfectly scripted as described by our classroom discussions, and there was no straying details.
I would like to attend my prom next year because I heard it is great fun to dance with all your classmates and teachers, I do not wish to indulge in a limo or a $500 outfit or even a $120 invitation ticket. I just want it to be a relaxed AFFORDABLE event where I can have fun with my peers in the opposite manner that is normally expected in a school.
I feel the night for me in a way was a rite of passage because I stayed up all night long and went straight to "work" the next day without sleep. It felt cool, but I WAS OD' TIRED AND OD' SORE THE NEXT DAY. It is funny how before there were lights and cities no one was nocturnal. We lived in light of the sun. When I go upstate, sure we stay up into the night but something about the city can change the time you value.
May 23, 2011
iniTIL THOUGHTS !
I went to prom in middle school. I remember being excited and feeling as though I was doing the "big girl thang". I remember my parents thinking it was ridiculous, even that I was having a cap and gown graduation. "It's just middle school. . . "I didn't understand how they could not value and be excited by my big day like I was. I bought my dress from some cheapy place with my mom and her friend on Fordham road in the Bronx. I got my hair done, and took a cab to school. It was in our gym and the windows were blacked out. Everyone was grinding and I had never been to a dance before. It was the first time I got drunk, and the school used the red carpet from the hallway as a "Hollywood" red carpet, it was so ridiculous but I was really into it. I felt nervous about going but I felt as though I had to, and it was expected of me. I felt ostracized and odd at the prom. The French call these middle school teen years " age de la dende" or "age of the turkey" when one is awkward and sort of weird. When one is beginning to turn into a women/man but are not completely there yet, thus making one an odd duck.
Sophia Schwab described prom as "scripted" I think it is so true. What come to mind is the polyester dresses that people get online with fake rhinestones and 3rd world country seams barley holding together. I find it is just as scripted as any other ritual whether it be Christmas or a baby shower.
I see prom as the exclusive party of the year. Where everyone that not normally hangs out all go to the same party because they are paying for it. Some reason feeling the need to deck out and spend $200 for one normal party when on a normal weekend night they would probably not pay more than $10 to get into a party. It's weird how standards seem to change for one event.
Sophia Schwab described prom as "scripted" I think it is so true. What come to mind is the polyester dresses that people get online with fake rhinestones and 3rd world country seams barley holding together. I find it is just as scripted as any other ritual whether it be Christmas or a baby shower.
I see prom as the exclusive party of the year. Where everyone that not normally hangs out all go to the same party because they are paying for it. Some reason feeling the need to deck out and spend $200 for one normal party when on a normal weekend night they would probably not pay more than $10 to get into a party. It's weird how standards seem to change for one event.
May 18, 2011
"Harold & Maude" A GREAT MOVIE !
I enjoyed "Harold & Maude" very much, and I think Hal Ashby is a great director, I loved his little touches like focusing in on the casket where it says "permalife" and making Harold look like he was eating out the statue/woman, and showing Maude’s concentration camp id, but never discussing it. Also keeping you on the edge, not always knowing exactly when someone has died or not, like Harold's date the actress or when Harold drove the car over the cliff.
Harold seems to use death in his family as a way to receive attention, he seems isolated within his own family even though he has all money could buy him. He is the black sheep in his family and uses acting out suicides as his way to communicate this. I think that Harold is depressed and wants to die; he states that when he was dead he was happy. Yet with Maude he learns that you cannot avoid life with death because there is nothing afterwards you simply die. So Harold learns to live and find ways of playing the emotions of his heart and finding connections with his life and that of others.
Maude loves life and death for her is seen as the inevitable cycle. She has accepted that things are here today and gone tomorrow so try and live life to the fullest and do what makes you happy. Her belief that things disintegrate and then form other life reinforces the way she lives because she states, " the earth is my body, and my head is in the stars". She has a deep physical connection with life but also lets the depth of her thoughts wander. Maude kills herself because though she understands things just flow she does like to have control, having seen many deaths in her life (assuming not so pleasant) she wants to die when she feels great.
Harold's mother does not seem to find great significance in death and does not take it seriously. She is too consumed by her outfits, hair, and social gatherings to look for the spiritual meaning and what it means to want to die. Or she is so afraid of death and its prospects that she tries to fill her life with meaningless activities to ignore it. She is overwhelmed by death and does not know how to relate to her son instead she tries to make of him what he does not want, when he is not ready for them.
Harold seems to use death in his family as a way to receive attention, he seems isolated within his own family even though he has all money could buy him. He is the black sheep in his family and uses acting out suicides as his way to communicate this. I think that Harold is depressed and wants to die; he states that when he was dead he was happy. Yet with Maude he learns that you cannot avoid life with death because there is nothing afterwards you simply die. So Harold learns to live and find ways of playing the emotions of his heart and finding connections with his life and that of others.
Maude loves life and death for her is seen as the inevitable cycle. She has accepted that things are here today and gone tomorrow so try and live life to the fullest and do what makes you happy. Her belief that things disintegrate and then form other life reinforces the way she lives because she states, " the earth is my body, and my head is in the stars". She has a deep physical connection with life but also lets the depth of her thoughts wander. Maude kills herself because though she understands things just flow she does like to have control, having seen many deaths in her life (assuming not so pleasant) she wants to die when she feels great.
Harold's mother does not seem to find great significance in death and does not take it seriously. She is too consumed by her outfits, hair, and social gatherings to look for the spiritual meaning and what it means to want to die. Or she is so afraid of death and its prospects that she tries to fill her life with meaningless activities to ignore it. She is overwhelmed by death and does not know how to relate to her son instead she tries to make of him what he does not want, when he is not ready for them.
cemetery
I had crazy butterflies from the thoughts of ghost and them communicating with us, but nothing of that sort happened. I was fascinated by the fallen tombstones that were beginning to sink into the ground & cover up with grass. First their body rotted then their casket rotted and now their tombstone is disintegrating. Most of the tombstones were not legible and all dated from at least the 1800's. I sat down at one point and tried to meditate but I felt as though I needed to stay alert and keep my guard up. Even thought it was clear that my fear came from stories I still felt spooked out. Its all the 
symbolizing people from the past wanting to be remembered and the dark silence, it eliminates one of our senses and made me feel held back. Though a flashlight made it worse in my opinion because then I only had a limited range in view and became more focused on one part versus another. The people who paid for the huge outlandish chess pieces got what they wanted because we were definitely more attracted by those. Stupendefied by there grandeur. At one-point cars lights were seen ahead so we ducked behind tombstones, it was weird that what scared me the most in this place was the prospects of other human life. I was also so on edge because I knew Evan was going to try and scare us, and boy did he !!!
I had this desire to walk on the fallen tombstones and swing around the huge chess pieces, but the eerie darkness of the night retained me, for if it would have been day I am sure I would have done it. The fear of disrespecting the decease's beliefs, during the "haunting hour".
The next cemetery was the memorial location for one man; we had to take a path deep into the woods till we arrived to a clearing with the rolling roaring hills of Roxbury ahead of us. Unlike the overwhelming number of gravestones at the previous cemetery there was only one so I no longer felt bewildered but calm. It was not a typical gravestone there were four small stonewalls making a square and inside was luscious greenery. In this location I could not help thinking that we were probably the most disturbance in a while and that it was always this calm here, for eternity. This time I clung closely to Evan so that he could not once again cloak into the darkness and give me another pleasing thrill.
The cemetery visits made me feel the need for silence, I wanted nothing more but to absorb what was around me and dissolve into the experience. At the second cemetery I felt as though I penetrated into everything around me but at once felt as though I stuck out wildly. As we walked on the stone paths I could see the people who had came before us, I could see the people building this long stone path, I could see them building the walls. The first cemetery had a stonewall separating it from the road that was now ready to collapse. It made the cemetery feel so isolated, and as though it had been a labor of importance. It reminds me of the poem The Mending Wall by Robert Frost (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173530) I Am fascinated by the gorgeous moss that thrives upon all the stones and tombstones, to me in my fantasy they are the thriving life of those that were. I enjoyed my trips to the cemetery and was glad they were upstate.
(WATCH AMHARA'S VIEDO ITS HILARIOUS)
symbolizing people from the past wanting to be remembered and the dark silence, it eliminates one of our senses and made me feel held back. Though a flashlight made it worse in my opinion because then I only had a limited range in view and became more focused on one part versus another. The people who paid for the huge outlandish chess pieces got what they wanted because we were definitely more attracted by those. Stupendefied by there grandeur. At one-point cars lights were seen ahead so we ducked behind tombstones, it was weird that what scared me the most in this place was the prospects of other human life. I was also so on edge because I knew Evan was going to try and scare us, and boy did he !!!
I had this desire to walk on the fallen tombstones and swing around the huge chess pieces, but the eerie darkness of the night retained me, for if it would have been day I am sure I would have done it. The fear of disrespecting the decease's beliefs, during the "haunting hour".
The next cemetery was the memorial location for one man; we had to take a path deep into the woods till we arrived to a clearing with the rolling roaring hills of Roxbury ahead of us. Unlike the overwhelming number of gravestones at the previous cemetery there was only one so I no longer felt bewildered but calm. It was not a typical gravestone there were four small stonewalls making a square and inside was luscious greenery. In this location I could not help thinking that we were probably the most disturbance in a while and that it was always this calm here, for eternity. This time I clung closely to Evan so that he could not once again cloak into the darkness and give me another pleasing thrill.
The cemetery visits made me feel the need for silence, I wanted nothing more but to absorb what was around me and dissolve into the experience. At the second cemetery I felt as though I penetrated into everything around me but at once felt as though I stuck out wildly. As we walked on the stone paths I could see the people who had came before us, I could see the people building this long stone path, I could see them building the walls. The first cemetery had a stonewall separating it from the road that was now ready to collapse. It made the cemetery feel so isolated, and as though it had been a labor of importance. It reminds me of the poem The Mending Wall by Robert Frost (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173530) I Am fascinated by the gorgeous moss that thrives upon all the stones and tombstones, to me in my fantasy they are the thriving life of those that were. I enjoyed my trips to the cemetery and was glad they were upstate.
(WATCH AMHARA'S VIEDO ITS HILARIOUS)
May 17, 2011
Comment to my talented classmates (& myself) !!
TO BIANCA: LINK TO POST
In your project you tried to convey that funeral homes not only sell materialistic items but a sense of reassurance to the customer. Whether you are for or against is not really stated just how the customers use the outlandish items they buy to comfort them selves with the idea of losing a loved one.
I really loved your artwork as it is beautiful, powerful, and the colors look really amazing, I like the texture, and how you connected the words with string (especially the string you used it added a nice touch contrasted well with the blue) I loved how un personal the vendor seems because we dont see his head ! I also think that your writing was very concise and powerful !
OVER ALL AMAZING JOB BIANCA !
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
TO MARTYNA:LINK TO POST
First of I like the little personal touches to your blog like the checks, and what do YOU think ? hahaha.. very cute..
Martyna,
I think in your prokect you tried to summarize the 7 stages of greif and how they usually happen for most people and how it effects their daily life and the importance of such feelings. You then represented this with a visual.
I thought that your visual was very powerful and the colors you choose and how you faded them made me really feel a surge of emotions that for me were warm positive STRONG overwhelming feelings. I really value how connected I felt to your artwork. I also really value that you have concluded that death ironically, is important for us living to live through.
My only advice that I could give you is that your stages of greif seem kind of narrow and try and place evryone in a certain order and I think that emotions like this are hard to make a specific "lay out for" When you said you put them in your own order, i think this would have been more powerful (if you have greived a death) to discuss your own stages.
I did think this was nice though because we did not really discuss emotional connections that much and this is definatley an automatic ritual.
GREAT JOB MARTYNA, I loved your art work and the flow of ideas you represented your thoughts well. BE PROUD !
_________________________________________________________________________________
TO SOPHIA: LINK TO POST
HOLA LINDA,
En su "blog post" usted habla de lo que pasa con el cuerpo cuando muere y es dejado a descompóngarse, y los etapas differentes hasta que son uno con la tierra.
Me da felizidad que mi "blog post" le dio la inspiracion de escribir este ensayo. Yo creo que dio mucha informacion buena rapidamenete y muy claramente. Creo que era muy interesante.
Pero me pregunata como usted personalmente piensas sobre este subjeto y lo que usted quiere hacer con su cuerpo. Me gusto much so texto.
perdon que mi espanol es tan "rusty" !
BUEN TRABAJO LINDA CON EL PELO RIZADO !
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
FROM MY MENTOR :
I'm curious what Ms. Flesh will truly feel upon viewing a corpse. I imagine that the quest to overcome something denied is more palpable as Ms. Flesh is very directed and passionate against an obstacle. I would like to hear more about what she expects of the experience. It is possible to attend a funeral with a body on view just by seeking the information about the time and place of the service and "viewing". Perhaps the experience of group grieving would be valuable to Ms. Flesh. Often times memorial services are listed publicly and I think as long as she is sincere and respectful she could attend a memorial service.
I was with Ms. Flesh upon the death of our dear friend. Personally for me it was not about not having closure. Closure is highly over rated. It is about loss. I personally have a lifetime of loss due to death and have pondered this human existance of ours since I was child. I have not come to any conclusions except that our whole life cycle is incomprehensible to me because the loss is sometimes unbearable. For me closure, or the end of a linear story doesn't make sense to me. Every loss I have experienced is equally as painful today as it was 43 years ago and beyond. I think young people like life to fit into a safe clear idea... but I doubt that in this case that will be possible.
My saving grace is in beauty. For me experiencing art, music or reading authors that resonate with me like Dostoevsky, Solzenitzen, Tolstoy and Lao Tzu help to balance my soul.
___________________________________________________________________________________
FROM CASEY:
Eloise,
I think this is a great idea! How brave of you to look at something that is a source of fear and has a negative connotation for most people and to literally and figuratively look it straight in the face. I appreciate your tenacity in the pursuit of this endeavor, and I wish there was some way for me to help you. It seems odd that a dead body could be so taboo and difficult to see in our society...especially for educational purposes. C'est la vie!
____________________________________________________________________________________________
FROM MY PROTEGE:
I cried a little but I couldn’t avoid this sense of being calm and serene.
eloise, i have felt this too.
when gary died, i did not feel sad right away. I justfelt calm. but i also felt somethig else. i felt respect. respect not to what he had lost but what he had made throughout his life.
i felt the same whan one of my bestfriend's fathers died. i felt sad for his children, and the time that he might have had with them that he lost: I did not feel sorry for his death. what is death but fo renewal? is it not just to give back to the world which you have taken from all of your life?
stoping people from seeing what we become is not an evil thing. death is a part of life.like a fire that sweeps through a redwood forest, it clears out debries, strenghens bark and helps some new children grow. death itself is not sad; it is how do you leave. do you leave peacefully or in much pain. do you die quietly or with big fuss. it is not the if that matters, but thew when and how.
_____________________________________________________________
In your project you tried to convey that funeral homes not only sell materialistic items but a sense of reassurance to the customer. Whether you are for or against is not really stated just how the customers use the outlandish items they buy to comfort them selves with the idea of losing a loved one.
I really loved your artwork as it is beautiful, powerful, and the colors look really amazing, I like the texture, and how you connected the words with string (especially the string you used it added a nice touch contrasted well with the blue) I loved how un personal the vendor seems because we dont see his head ! I also think that your writing was very concise and powerful !
OVER ALL AMAZING JOB BIANCA !
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
TO MARTYNA:LINK TO POST
First of I like the little personal touches to your blog like the checks, and what do YOU think ? hahaha.. very cute..
Martyna,
I think in your prokect you tried to summarize the 7 stages of greif and how they usually happen for most people and how it effects their daily life and the importance of such feelings. You then represented this with a visual.
I thought that your visual was very powerful and the colors you choose and how you faded them made me really feel a surge of emotions that for me were warm positive STRONG overwhelming feelings. I really value how connected I felt to your artwork. I also really value that you have concluded that death ironically, is important for us living to live through.
My only advice that I could give you is that your stages of greif seem kind of narrow and try and place evryone in a certain order and I think that emotions like this are hard to make a specific "lay out for" When you said you put them in your own order, i think this would have been more powerful (if you have greived a death) to discuss your own stages.
I did think this was nice though because we did not really discuss emotional connections that much and this is definatley an automatic ritual.
GREAT JOB MARTYNA, I loved your art work and the flow of ideas you represented your thoughts well. BE PROUD !
_________________________________________________________________________________
TO SOPHIA: LINK TO POST
HOLA LINDA,
En su "blog post" usted habla de lo que pasa con el cuerpo cuando muere y es dejado a descompóngarse, y los etapas differentes hasta que son uno con la tierra.
Me da felizidad que mi "blog post" le dio la inspiracion de escribir este ensayo. Yo creo que dio mucha informacion buena rapidamenete y muy claramente. Creo que era muy interesante.
Pero me pregunata como usted personalmente piensas sobre este subjeto y lo que usted quiere hacer con su cuerpo. Me gusto much so texto.
perdon que mi espanol es tan "rusty" !
BUEN TRABAJO LINDA CON EL PELO RIZADO !
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
FROM MY MENTOR :
I'm curious what Ms. Flesh will truly feel upon viewing a corpse. I imagine that the quest to overcome something denied is more palpable as Ms. Flesh is very directed and passionate against an obstacle. I would like to hear more about what she expects of the experience. It is possible to attend a funeral with a body on view just by seeking the information about the time and place of the service and "viewing". Perhaps the experience of group grieving would be valuable to Ms. Flesh. Often times memorial services are listed publicly and I think as long as she is sincere and respectful she could attend a memorial service.
I was with Ms. Flesh upon the death of our dear friend. Personally for me it was not about not having closure. Closure is highly over rated. It is about loss. I personally have a lifetime of loss due to death and have pondered this human existance of ours since I was child. I have not come to any conclusions except that our whole life cycle is incomprehensible to me because the loss is sometimes unbearable. For me closure, or the end of a linear story doesn't make sense to me. Every loss I have experienced is equally as painful today as it was 43 years ago and beyond. I think young people like life to fit into a safe clear idea... but I doubt that in this case that will be possible.
My saving grace is in beauty. For me experiencing art, music or reading authors that resonate with me like Dostoevsky, Solzenitzen, Tolstoy and Lao Tzu help to balance my soul.
___________________________________________________________________________________
FROM CASEY:
Eloise,
I think this is a great idea! How brave of you to look at something that is a source of fear and has a negative connotation for most people and to literally and figuratively look it straight in the face. I appreciate your tenacity in the pursuit of this endeavor, and I wish there was some way for me to help you. It seems odd that a dead body could be so taboo and difficult to see in our society...especially for educational purposes. C'est la vie!
____________________________________________________________________________________________
FROM MY PROTEGE:
I cried a little but I couldn’t avoid this sense of being calm and serene.
eloise, i have felt this too.
when gary died, i did not feel sad right away. I justfelt calm. but i also felt somethig else. i felt respect. respect not to what he had lost but what he had made throughout his life.
i felt the same whan one of my bestfriend's fathers died. i felt sad for his children, and the time that he might have had with them that he lost: I did not feel sorry for his death. what is death but fo renewal? is it not just to give back to the world which you have taken from all of your life?
stoping people from seeing what we become is not an evil thing. death is a part of life.like a fire that sweeps through a redwood forest, it clears out debries, strenghens bark and helps some new children grow. death itself is not sad; it is how do you leave. do you leave peacefully or in much pain. do you die quietly or with big fuss. it is not the if that matters, but thew when and how.
_____________________________________________________________
May 16, 2011
CORPSE YELLOW PAGES
I want to see a corpse. I read about it and feel like I know about it, but I do not. It is just figments of my imagination. I feel if I where to see a dead body I would be able to further my comfort with death and it would change my outlook on life. I would try and meditate with the body, at least focus on the bubbles coming to my head, the instincts I was feeling, and possible emotional connections. I’ve seen a dead body, that of my uncle’s 15 minutes after he died. He was yellow, scrawny, he’s cheeks were almost non-existent, cold, but he was SO CALM. I cried a little but I couldn’t avoid this sense of being calm and serene. So so calm, I felt odd for feeling that way, the loved ones around were so distressed. Amhara’s grandmother believes that people whom feel the most grief when someone has passed it is because they were unable to tell him or her something, or never got closure. I cried my eyes out the day before because I realized he was really dying and he gave me one last moment of his presence. He gasped up opened his eyes looked at me and said I love you, laid back down curtly. He was receiving calls all day my aunt would hold her phone to his ear as people were saying their goodbyes and he would smile from time to time. When I saw him dead there were two plastic (light bulb) red candles flickering at the windowsill, I placed a flower on him, kissed him, and did not look back.
Honestly if I could have chosen I would want to see a body decomposing, being that it is our deepest connection with the earth, when becoming completely grounded once again, (partially evaporated into the air). To see a corpse is not easy. It takes a long process of demands and litigations. First I contacted 311 asking if they knew any morgues in NYC, with no knowledge they forwarded me to a hospital with an anatomy department. After speaking to Lenox hill Hospital I was abruptly told that no such visit would be possible. Owens funeral home the one I had visited for the interview told me that they would forward my message to Mr. Owens, yet he never called back. Then Home after home I was told that it would not be possible to view corpses because once the body reached the funeral home it was confidential between the family and the home, unless permission was received from a family member of the body or if one is registered with the state. I found it to odd of a request to ask a family that I did not know so I let that one go. To become registered with the state of NY one must receive a High school diploma, a 2-year college degree, and 1 mortuary course. Then, proceeded to calling New York City’s medical examiner which transferred me to multiple extensions, finalizing that I would not be able to see corpses because there is a confidentiality due of process between the law and the family and no one outside of these relations are allowed to see the bodies. Stumped again I then was thinking about how I could cut the family issues out of the picture; when a body is donated to science the family is already aware that the body will be seen for multiple reasons all under the educational umbrella. I thought haeey, I FIT THAT PART! So I began calling around at medical schools in New York City, then being transferred to their anatomy departments. Columbia medical school told me they had never herd about this and asked for my “contact information” and said they would promptly call me back. They once again never did. I then contacted NYU’s anatomy department that politely DENIED me. Lastly I came in contact with Mount Sinai School of Medicine, which has a program for high school students interested in medical studies In the future. They kindly gave me their contact information. I am currently going through an email exchange between Ms. Olmeda and myself. We are awaiting conformation from her superiors. This is a long complicated process and the industry obviously finds anyone without a college degree not competent to be faced with death unless it arises in his or her family or on their block.
For pupils to follow who want to see a corpse:
• Madeline Olmeda, BBA works at the Center for Anatomy/Functional Morphology,
Mount Sinai School of Medicine and is the person to contact about attending an anatomy pre-course of sorts for high school students. Her email is madeline.olmeda@mssm.edu
• The American Academy McAllister Institute of Funeral Service would be a great school to contact, even though we are not college students they cater to people who want to learn about the rituals surrounding cadavers.
• Death midwifes one could contact: nora@thresholdsoflife.org(http://www.thresholdsoflife.org/)
Honestly if I could have chosen I would want to see a body decomposing, being that it is our deepest connection with the earth, when becoming completely grounded once again, (partially evaporated into the air). To see a corpse is not easy. It takes a long process of demands and litigations. First I contacted 311 asking if they knew any morgues in NYC, with no knowledge they forwarded me to a hospital with an anatomy department. After speaking to Lenox hill Hospital I was abruptly told that no such visit would be possible. Owens funeral home the one I had visited for the interview told me that they would forward my message to Mr. Owens, yet he never called back. Then Home after home I was told that it would not be possible to view corpses because once the body reached the funeral home it was confidential between the family and the home, unless permission was received from a family member of the body or if one is registered with the state. I found it to odd of a request to ask a family that I did not know so I let that one go. To become registered with the state of NY one must receive a High school diploma, a 2-year college degree, and 1 mortuary course. Then, proceeded to calling New York City’s medical examiner which transferred me to multiple extensions, finalizing that I would not be able to see corpses because there is a confidentiality due of process between the law and the family and no one outside of these relations are allowed to see the bodies. Stumped again I then was thinking about how I could cut the family issues out of the picture; when a body is donated to science the family is already aware that the body will be seen for multiple reasons all under the educational umbrella. I thought haeey, I FIT THAT PART! So I began calling around at medical schools in New York City, then being transferred to their anatomy departments. Columbia medical school told me they had never herd about this and asked for my “contact information” and said they would promptly call me back. They once again never did. I then contacted NYU’s anatomy department that politely DENIED me. Lastly I came in contact with Mount Sinai School of Medicine, which has a program for high school students interested in medical studies In the future. They kindly gave me their contact information. I am currently going through an email exchange between Ms. Olmeda and myself. We are awaiting conformation from her superiors. This is a long complicated process and the industry obviously finds anyone without a college degree not competent to be faced with death unless it arises in his or her family or on their block.
For pupils to follow who want to see a corpse:
• Madeline Olmeda, BBA works at the Center for Anatomy/Functional Morphology,
Mount Sinai School of Medicine and is the person to contact about attending an anatomy pre-course of sorts for high school students. Her email is madeline.olmeda@mssm.edu
• The American Academy McAllister Institute of Funeral Service would be a great school to contact, even though we are not college students they cater to people who want to learn about the rituals surrounding cadavers.
• Death midwifes one could contact: nora@thresholdsoflife.org(http://www.thresholdsoflife.org/)
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